Last week, in “A Lesson in Prevention: The Time Before the Kings, Part 7”, we saw that when troubles arise, the Lord may decide to deal with the root of the problem!
The people had been warned by the prophet of God. Some, like Gideon, took the warning seriously; some, as we will see in today’s story, did not. Nonetheless, God, in His great mercy, reached out and provided a deliverer: Gideon, of the tribe of Manasseh.
The Midianite oppression is so great that Gideon is hiding out in a wine press to thresh wheat, and that is where God meets him. We see, however, that Gideon isn’t the most eager deliverer: My family is unimportant, I’m the youngest in my family, etc. He even was brash enough to accuse God of not taking care of them, asking Him where the great miracles of the past have gone. And when he runs out of excuses, he then asks for a sign (Join us next week for “Testing God? The Time Before the Kings, Part 9!). In the end, however, Gideon agrees (See Judges 6:11-24).
I totally understand Gideon. I often tell people that I have a permanent God-sized steel-toed boot print on my backside from all the times God has had to apply strong pressure to get me to do what He calls me to do. I have often wondered why God keeps coming back to me. Doesn’t He know I won’t do anything without the Godly “push” of His “boot”? I take great courage from Gideon’s story. It tells me that God takes us where we are at. He knows we are “dust” (See Ps. 103:18), and He is ultimately patient with us, ever prodding, ever working to alleviate our hesitations, until we finally move forward in His will.
The first thing that God asks Gideon to do is actually a bit of a puzzle to me. Gideon is supposed to be Israel’s deliverer from the Midianite oppression; yet instead of amassing an army, God gives Gideon a strange command: “Take your father’s bull and a second bull seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal which belongs to your father, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it…” (Judges 6:25 NASB).
Gideon apparently didn’t ask questions this time. Perhaps he was even a bit relieved that this was the extent of his calling…: “Then Gideon took ten men from his servants and did as the Lord had spoken to him…” (Judges 6:27a NASB).
But that wasn’t the only thing he was asked to do: He was to “…build an altar to the Lord your God … and take a second bull and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down… ” (Judges 6:26 NASB)
It isn’t enough to get rid of the false gods in our lives. Jesus tells us what happens when a demon is cast out: “Now when the unclean spirit comes out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they come in and live there; and the last condition of that person becomes worse than the first.” Matthew 12:43-45 NASB).
We need to replace the false gods with the One True God! And this is exactly what Gideon is to do.
Wait. We don’t worship idols any more.
Or do we? Anything that takes our time away from God’s calling on our lives, anything that we depend upon rather than God, can easily become an “idol” for us. We need to ask God to reveal any false gods to us, we need to ask Him to deliver us, but then we must also follow Gideon’s example and fill our hearts with more and more of the One True God! That way, when the temptation arises to once again set up false gods in our lives, there will simply be no room for them anymore, for we are filled up with God’s Spirit!
From the perspective of an unbeliever, however; who is to say that the baals and asherahs were not the One True God?
The regional men had this question as well. They firmly believed they were worshiping the true gods! When they found out that Gideon was responsible for destroying their places of worship, they went to his father’s house and demanded that Gideon be brought out so that he could be punished!
Even though it was his own altars that had been destroyed, Joash, the father of Gideon, gives us the secret for knowing beyond a doubt Who is the One True God: “If [Baal] is a god, let him contend for himself, since someone has torn down his altar!” (Judges 6:31 NASB). Someone … That is, a person … has torn down the altar of a god. Shouldn’t the god be strong enough to attack and punish a mere human? And if he isn’t, then perhaps he’s not such a great god after all!
What are the false gods in YOUR life? They are the ones who will let you down! The ones you can’t depend upon! Let God help you identify those false gods. Repent, and then invite God’s Spirit to fill you up so that there is no longer any further room for a false god!
Gideon does eventually get around to amassing an army; but not before he puts God to the test. Join us next week for, “Testing God? The Time Before the Kings, Part 9”!
In His love,
Lyn
Lynona Gordon Chaffart
Author, Moderator, Acting Director, Answers2Prayer Ministries
(To access the entire “The Time Before the Kings” mini-series, please click here.)
