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Slide 2 – Gideon's Story
War with Midianites 6:1-9
About 50 years have passed since the story of Deborah in Judges 5. Under the Judges Israel is a loose confederation of tribes – coming together when required, but mostly independent. In the last half century they have drifted away from God and once again are worshipping the gods of those around them.
The Midianites were the forerunners of the Bedouin. They had been attacking Israel like swarms of locusts and destroying crops and livestock. This had been going on for seven years. Israel had been largely defenceless, and now suffering extreme hunger they had cried out to God to save them. God sent a prophet to remind them of their past – all the amazing things that God had done for them. Especially reminding them of the Exodus miracle.
Slide 3 - An Angel 6:10-24
Then and Angel of the Lord comes to see Gideon while he was in hiding, threshing wheat. The Angel introduces himself with the phrase “The Lord is with you mighty Warrior”. We'll come back to that statement in a minute. Gideon looks back to the past wonders, and just assumes that God has abandoned them. The Angel does not argue, but responds “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” Gideon reminds the Angel who he is - “My clan is the weakest” and “I am the least”. This time the response is more direct “I will be with you” Now Gideon begins to realise that this is serious, and asks for a sign so that he can believe that he is talking to God.
He prepares a offering – a young goat. An offering of this nature would represent a considerable expense. There has been war for seven years, and Israel is short of food. Gideon remembers his history - he has certain expectations of the outcome. After Moses offered a sacrifice in Lev 9:24. “Fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell face down.”. So fire consuming the offering was essential now, or Gideon would not believe that it really was God.
Whether Gideon knew it or not he had made the sacrifice for the unintentional sin of a leader. It's detailed in Lev 4:22-26. Before anything can be achieved with God it is essential that the sin of the people involved is first forgiven.
Once the sacrifice is accepted Gideon thinks “I have seen the face of God – I'm a dead man”. - in Exodus 33:20 God says to Moses “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”
A sacrifice & a step forward 6:25-32
The next sacrifice will be a test for Gideon. Now he has to take some action. This is the point of no return. Ripping down the alter to Baal is going to get him noticed. Taking one of the prize bulls as an offering will also get him noticed. Gideon is fearful and still unsure of God. So he does this all at night, where it will be unseen and unchallenged until it is complete. In the morning he is as ready as he will ever be to face the music.
How would you react do you think if you had arrived at church this morning and found the building in ruins, the communion table smashed, and the building set up for another faith.
You can understand why there might be a lynching about to happen, but Joash comes to Gideon's rescue, and he escapes to fight the fight that God has planned.
He is now known amongst the people as one who is against Baal. He has made a very public statement and has set the course of his life in a particular direction for now.
Gideon starts to assemble his army. It is just in time, the enemy is gathering. All Israels enemies – the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples – have come together. He is still unsure that God will save Israel through him, so asks for more proof.
If I put out this fleece overnight let the dew only form on it, and the rest of the ground stay dry. OK – that worked.
If I put out this fleece overnight keep it dry while the rest of the ground is covered in dew. OK – that worked too.
Slide 4 - More 'proofs' from God 6:33-40
Slide 5 - The Army is too big! 7:1-9
Now the army is ready, Gideon has no doubt worked hard to convince people that God will deliver them from their enemies. He has assembled a large army.
God, as ever, has other ideas.
Many of them would rather not be there. Twenty two thousand did not have to be offered the chance to leave twice. By various processes the Army is reduced to just three hundred. Why did God do this? “In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her” God wants there to be no room for doubt that it was His actions and His actions alone that save Israel.
Karachi Prayer guide – asks us to pray for change in Karachi that is so dramatic that it can ONLY be caused by God.
Slide 6 - Midianites scared and routed 7:10-25
The Lord wakes Gideon in the night and says “get up, go and attack the Midianites” Gideon must have been hesitant, but his thoughts are not recorded. So, God tells his to sneak into the enemy camp, and listen. There he hears of a dream of defeat, and realises it is the right time to attack. The Midianites and their allies were routed and the heads of the leaders brought back to Gideon.
Aftermath 8:1-35
There is some political fallout from the battle as some of the peoples were not included in the original army. The people wanted Gideon to become their King, but he would not permit it, instead he took from each of them a golden earring, and with them he made ephod and Israel worshipped it.
So that is the story of Gideon
“The Lord is with you mighty Warrior”
There are a couple of things worth noting from Gideons conversations with God.
The first is that Gideon did not know God in the same way that you and I can know God. In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit came upon people to enable them to complete a specific task for God. Jesus, through His death and resurrection make the Holy Spirit available to all of us all the time. So we can get to know God in a way that was impossible for Gideon.
When God first approached Gideon the angel called him “mighty Warrior”. Clearly in the passage Gideon is nothing like a warrior. He's in hiding, doing the threshing in a wine press. Threshing is an outside job. You need the wind to separate the grain from the chaff. Gideon is indoors.
God sees the potential in people rather than where they are now.
I wonder how good you are at spotting potential in someone, or even yourself?
Bernard Shaw played the "What If" game shortly before he died. "Mr. Shaw," asked a reporter, "if you could live your life over and be anybody you've known, or any person from history, who would you be?"
"I would choose," replied Shaw "to be the man George Bernard Shaw could have been, but never was."
The question for us is not “What could you have been?” but “What can you become?” I wonder how many of you had a sense of what this person could become when she first stepped on the stage?
When Michelangelo was ordered to decorate the walls of the Sistine Chapel, he refused. He had never done any work of that kind, and said he could not do it. But he was told his refusal would not be accepted. When he discovered that there was no alternative without unpleasant consequences, he mixed his colours and went to work. And thus came into being the world’s finest painting.
It is not just our God given talent that determines what we can be, whether we realise we have it or not. It is being available to do Gods work and to respond to his voice that is the key to determining our true potential.
“Go in the strength you have … Am I not sending you?”
I found the statement “Go in the strength you have” intriguing. We are always told to go in God's strength, but here Gideon is told to go in the strength he has – presumably already has.
What can God be saying. “Off you go Gideon you have enough strength for the task” - no it can't mean that, at the time that would have meant certain death. Gideon was not ready to lead an army. Any way later on God is concerned to reduce the size of the army so that it cannot be said that the Israelites did it in their own strength. Perhaps God is just trying to get Gideon started. Verse 16 say “I will be with you.” If God is planning to be there there will be plenty of strength available. So Gideon will have God's strength when he needs it. I think that is what the clue in the last five words is telling us. “Am I not sending you?”
If you are sent by God, that is power enough. So Gideon goes and builds his massive army. That is the strength he has, and it is the wrong sort of strength for God, who then carefully reduces the size to an unreasonably small number.
Slide 7 – Annanias
There are two people named Ananias in the Book of Acts. One appears in chapter 5 and is soon dealt with. The other appears in Chapter nine and has one of the most important and difficult jobs to do in the whole of the book.
Imagine the situation. You are a member of a minority sect. The authorities do not like what you have to say, nor do they like the fact that so many of their followers are becoming your converts. There is one young man, a rising start amongst the high priests who is particularly determined to wipe out this new sect before it can get a proper foot hold. In the capital he has already engineered the stoning of one of the deacons and a good deal of persecution followed for everybody. Many were forced to leave their homes, and travel to other places. Anywhere they might have relatives where they can go and live their lives. So many have gone and settled elsewhere that there is now almost no-one left for the authorities to pursue.
The town you are living is has received very many of these refugees – that's because it isn't that far from the capital. Now everybody knows that the young priest is coming here to continue his mission. Some no doubt are already planning to move on, to try to keep on step ahead of the persecution.
Slide 8 – Straight Street (1)
Anannias is not one of them. He is going about his business as usual. During a time of prayer he has a vision. In the vision Jesus says
“Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying.”
Slide 9 – Straight Street (2)
Acts 9:12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”
“Surely not, That can't be right. God would never ask me just to walk to my death”, and yet that was what he was being asked to do.
Had he heard correctly, had he misunderstood somehow? I'll bet he was hoping he had. But no!
So Ananias puts in a question. He tells Jesus what he knows, that he is expecting to be arrested at best, if he goes.
Then he gets more instruction “Go! Because I have already delivered the other half of the vision to your persecutor and he is expecting you!” “I have chosen him to spread the Good News through out the world.”
Now I must just take a minute to deal with the issue of the nature of God here. In “The Message” Acts 9:15 starts with the words “Don't Argue!” There is no sense of that in the NIV, NKJV, AV or the Amplified Bible. The sense of the word “Go!” in all of these seems to be closer to Hurry. We have seen from Gideon that God is patient with people – in Gideons case we might say he has the patience of a saint! Even if that is a slightly strange way of putting it. There is certainly no evidence here that God is in anyway trying to stop the conversation and force people just to do as he says.
So back to the question facing Ananias “Would you go?” Even with the additional information I'd certainly have put up more of a fight than Ananias.
Ananias does exactly what is asked of him. He goes to Straight Street, he finds Judas' house, and he goes in. No turning back from that point onwards. He knows and understand his mission, just as Jesus promised that we all would. John 15:15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
He even manages to call Saul 'Brother' when he lays his hands on him. He completes his mission by the passing on of the Holy Spirit.
Slide 10 – His Masters Voice
From Ananias we see how conversing with God has changed between the old and the new testament times. Ananias knows God's voice when he hears it. He makes time in his day to listen. He has trained himself to hear what God is saying. What Ananias is asked to do does not take any special ability. He does not have to be ordained, or have studied theology – he just has to be available and willing. Oh yes, and have supreme courage and trust in God. We saw how Gideon was carefully prepared and taken step by step into putting his full trust in God. That was necessary because Gideon did not know God. Ananias does and he is ready to respond. Look at the detailed message he received. Here's the post code for the sat nav, you'll find the house easily, inside there's someone expecting you … his name is Saul.
Both Gideon and Ananias achieved great things with God. Neither of them had the skills they needed, and each in his own way responded to what God was asking. They listened to the messages they received and took the necessary care to ensure that they were hearing the right thing from God. Then most importantly they took the action that they were asked to take.
Listening is the first thing to do.
A former park ranger at Yellowstone National Park tells the story of a ranger leading a group of hikers to a fire lookout. The ranger was so intent on telling the hikers about the flowers and animals that he considered the messages on his two-way radio distracting, so he switched it off. Nearing the tower, the ranger was met by a nearly breathless lookout, who asked why he hadn't responded to the messages on his radio. A grizzly bear had been seen stalking the group, and the authorities were trying to warn them of the danger.
Joan of Arc was mocked with, "She says she hears God's voice; why, I don't hear His voice!" Joan replied, "Don't you wish you did?"
If you don't hear the message you will never be able to take the right action.
Ananias was give very specific instruction, and so was Gideon. I have to say that I have never received anything from God that was anything like as detailed. Indeed most of the things I hear God say are difficult to understand at first and never include the How. If you are hearing God voice it may be for a specific task, or it may be for something more long term. I first heard God saying I should become a Reader in 1982. It took me a long time to get here.
If you have something like that going on with God, then the vocations day is the place to start.
Slide 10 - Vocations Day
It will allow you to speak to someone about whatever is going on, without getting to the point where you have committed your self by smashing an alter or entering someone else's house.
Lets take a couple of minutes to be quiet and listen for the voice of God reminding us of the things he has been saying to us recently.
Silence
