In our read through the Bible plan, today we come to Judges 6-7 and the story of Gideon. Here is a section from a sermon by John Piper: “The Gideon Venture,” when the church was considering a building project, sending out part of the congregation to plant a new church, and doing all of this without incurring debt.
…we began to meditate on God’s unusual ways of doing things in the Bible. We saw his strange ways everywhere. God loves to do things in a way that seems foolish to men, but displays his glory more clearly. ….
One of the key moments in pursuit of God’s leading in this was when we pondered Judges 7:1-22 and Gideon’s victory over the Midianites. What makes this story so stunning for us now is that in June of 1998, when we first pondered this story as a Council of Elders, there was not a hint of Grace Church Richfield on the horizon. In other words, what looks like the main application of this story today (with people leaving us to go to Grace Church Richfield, just when we might seem to need all the givers we can get), was not even in our head when the story became the rallying cry for our debt-free approach.
Let me show you what we saw in those days and then add what God seems to have been planning for us now. Get the situation into your mind: Joshua is the leader of Israel after Moses has now died and the people are without a great leader and there is no king. This is the period marked by the people doing what is right in their own eyes (Judges 17:6; 21:25). Repeatedly they sin and God gives them into the hands of their oppressors (Judges 2:11-14). But again and again God mercifully heard their cry and raised up judges to deliver them out of their troubles (Judges 2:16).
Gideon was one of those judges. The people sinned, according toJudges 6:1, and God gave them into the hands of Midian. Then the Lord came to rescue them from the very people whom he had appointed to judge them. He approaches Gideon in Judges 6:14and says, “Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian.” But Gideon says in verse 15, “O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.” But then the LORD said to him (in verse 16), “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man.” So already God is planning to save Israel in an unusual way that highlights his power, not Gideon’s ability.
So now we come to Judges 7. According to verse 3, Israel had about 32,000 troops. But according to verse 12, the Midianites and Amalekites “were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as numerous as the sand on the seashore.” In other words, the odds against Israel succeeding against the Midianites were already small. They were outnumbered.
What does God do now?
Knowing God through His Word ... Day by Day 