Mighty Hero in Hiding: Gideon's Unlikely Rise

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Welcome back, Chris, Hey, welcome back to you. Jeff. Oh, thank you. Yeah, you are welcome. Always always really good goodness. I think so. Sometimes I walk in and I'm like, I wonder if he's going to be happy of him here. Today, always happy even when you struggle to get her on time. Yeah, I was late today, late today. It was I should get a free pass on this one though, Yes. Yes you should. Yeah. Okay, So today, actually we're going to start out with something pretty fun. Okay. So Desiree has what she has listed as a fun jobs draft list. Oh that's cool. Yeah, And so it reads this way. If you hadn't pursued a career in ministry where they're enjoyable jobs, might you have considered do you rock paper scisors to figure out who gets the first pick? We'll do a draft of three each. Okay, are you ready? Rock paper scisors? Ready? Two? Three? Oh? He did rock? I did scissors all right, So I was quick and easy. So I've I've often said this, it's gonna be the easiest one for me. But I like Graham Norton's talk show. They actually in London they call it a chat show, chat show, a chat show. So so I think that I would do well with that. And I like that idea. And you like the idea of bringing in like three or four guests at a time and bring them all at once. Yeah, and then and then just get them to interact and just have a good time. So talk show host. Yeah, well then hey, we're helping you lift some of your dream right here. Yeah. Well this isn't exactly why you're not interviewing people, but yeah, yeah, all right, So a talking head, that's that's your that's your dream job. Talking head. Would you say, that's a talking head? Yeah, that's what those people do. I mean yeah, yeah, I mean yeah sure. Okay, So mine my first one, my favorite job I ever had outside of ministry. I love hospital so I love the like. I worked at Marriott on Michigan Avenue just north of the river, you know, magnificent mile, twelve hundred and eighty rooms. I loved serving. I loved that whole hospitality hotel kind of environment. Was a lot of fun. Yeah, So that was by far my favorite job. I everhead, Wow, yeah, outside of ministry, yeah, yeah. Yeah, for sure. I would say my second it's going to be pretty vague, but I would say being just being a business owner in general, running my own business, probably in sales somewhere. I think I could find myself happy in another lifetime outside of ministry if I had chosen such a thing with being the organizer of a company that is able to get a product into somebody's hands and meet a need and to so I think that if it was involved, if it involved sales, and it involved me running the company, I would that's what I would do. It actually probably be my very first choice. Sales. Yes, yes, I can see as a good salesperson. Well, you've done well in sales in the past, so yes, yeah, you're that guy. I think my fallback job, I always say, is opening up a taco truck. So so yeah, that's the I really like cooking. I like the fast pace of the pressure of short order cooking. Yeah right, so I've done jobs like that before. I also helped manage a couple of little of restaurants and things, and I like that experience. I like the pressure of it. And then because it's a food truck. It's different places every day, serving different people, and that'd be kind of fun. So yeah, and I make good tacos. Yeah, oh yes you do. There's no doubt about that. Yeah, So that'd be fun. And then I would say my third choice would be movie critic. A movie critic, Yeah, there you go. Yeah, I think that you want to write or would you want to be like another a talking head? Graham Norton arguing about movies. No, I I think, well, I've had just a teeny tiny sliver of experience with a couple of directors talking about some movies, and uh, and from both directors, I got back a really sort of positive response right where people are like, hey, that's that's a good response. And so I feel like if I can get an actual legitimate Hollywood director to tell me that that that's good insight, I think that there's something there and it's super fun for me. Right, So I think I think, So would you be writing as a critic or talking? I think all the above. I think, Yeah, I just wrote a script yesterday for a video that we're doing a church, you know, and and I was imagining the shots and you know, imagining. Yeah, yeah, I think I'm decently good at it. I think my last one. Hey, by the way, whether I'm good at it or not, I like it. I think my last one, in another life younger than I am now, Yes, would be like an adventure guide. Oh yeah, right right, whitewater rafting, hunting out in the bush, camping, that kind of thing. I love. I love that kind of stuff, So that'd be fun. Yeah. So yeah, other other than the hotel job, the other two make no money, but sound like fun to me, right right. Yeah, Well, I mean I've been in a ministry all this time. We're not getting money anyways. To be honest, I was going to say, to be honest, I wasn't even thinking about the money part. Yeah, the owning the own business and sales sounds like that's a money grab, But that's not even really what I was even thinking of, although I'm sure they'd be lucrative if I was good at it. But well, hey, that was a fun one. And we got little insights as to How'sarba's mind works and yours and what he daydreams about when he thinks about it. If I ever get fired from here. To be honest, I totally can see you the taco dark. Yeah, I totally can see it. Jeff's taco truck, right, el hefes elafes l hafes Taco supreme. L hafe means the big Boss. Yes, yeah, yes, yep, that's great. Okay, so there you go. Hey, the other day I smoked pork shoulder and made pulled pork sandwiches. Yeah, and so if the taco truck doesn't work, maybe I'll do pulled pork sandwich. Oh, there you go. Yeah yeah, or maybe I'll do both. Maybe I'll just add it on my menu. Maybe it'll be like handheld stuff. You got to do one thing, well, yeah, just do one No. That's the thing. All right, Well I'm conflicted now, that's what I'm saying. I take it back. If the taco truck doesn't work, I'm gonna do a barbecue truck. Okay, there you go. Okay, so today we are talking about again another These judges have so much character and uh such personality. Right, and so I hear people say, oh, I read the Bible and I don't understand it. It's because it get hung up on the big words, like I couldn't hardly read yesterday. Right, But if you just get into the story some of these things. Dude, was it yesterday we read about some lady who nailed the guy to the ground with a tend steak. That's pretty interesting, right. So the Bible is very interesting. And if you can then learn and go look at the story and go, how does this apply to me? Or what principle can I draw out that applies to me? Well, then it becomes very dynamic, very exciting. So the characters, especially through the Book of Judges, are so dynamic, and they do such incredible things, and God does amazing things through them. And here's another one. His name's Gideon. And again one of my favorite stories to tell. So we're gonna start off in verse eleven of the Judges, chapter six. We're gonna read a few verses. Here says, then the Angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great trea Ophra, which belonged to joe Ash of the clan of Beezer. Gideon's son of joe Ash was threshing wheat at the bottom of the wine press to hide the grain from the Midianites. The Angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, mighty Hero, the Lord is with you. Sir Gideon replied, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about, didn't they say? The Lord has brought us up out of Egypt. But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites. Then the Lord turned to him and said, go with the strength you have and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I'm sending you. But Lord Gideon replied, how can I rescue Israel. My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manassa, and I'm the least in my entire family. The Lord said to him, I will be with you, and you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man. Giddeon replied, if you are truly going to help me, show me a sign to prove that it is really the Lord speaking to me. Don't go away until I come back and bring my offering to you. He answered, I will stay here until you return. Gideon hurried home. He cooked the young goat, and with a basket of flour, he baked some bread without yeast, and then carrying the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot. He brought them out and presented them to the Angel who was under the Great Tree. The Angel of God said to him, place the meat in the unleavened bread on this rock, and the broth over it. Gideon did as he was told, and then the Angel the Lord touched the meat and bread with the tip of the staff in his hand, and fire flamed up from the rock and consumed all he had brought. The Angel the Lord disappeared. When Gideon realized that it was the Angel of the Lord, he cried out, Oh, Sovereign Lord, I'm doomed. I've seen the Angel of the Lord face to face. It's all right, the Lord replied, do not be afraid. You will not die. And Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and named it Yahweesh Shalom, which means the Lord is Peace. The altar remains in Ophrah, in the land of the clan of Abiezer to this day, Abbiezer, to this day. That night, the Lord said to Gideon, take the second bull from your father's herd, the one that is seven years old, pull down your father's altar to bail, and cut down the asher pole standing beside it. Then build an altar to the Lord, your God here on this hilltop sanctuary, laying the stones. Carefully, sacrifice the bull as a burnt offering on the altar, using as fuel the wood of the asha A pole you cut down. So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord had commanded. But he did it at night because he was afraid of the other members of his father's household and the people of the town. Early the next morning, as the people the town began to stir, someone discovered that the altar of Bail had been broken down, that the Ashai pole beside it had been cut down. In their place, a new altar had been built, and on it were the remains of the bull that had been sacrificed. The people said to each other who did this, And after asking around and making a careful search, they learned that it was Giddy and the son of joe Ash. Bring out your son. The men of the town demanded a joe Ash, he must die for destroying the altar of Balen, for cutting down the Ashai pole. But Joash shouted to the mob that confronted him, why are you defending Bail? Will you argue his case. Whoever pleads his case will be put to death by mourning. If Bail truly is a god, let him defend himself and destroy the one who broke down his altar. From then on Gideon was called Jerebale, which means let Bail defend himself, because he broke down Bale's altar. Soon afterwards, the armies a Median Amalek and the people of the East formed an alliance against Israel and across the Jordan, camping in the valley at Jezreel. Then the Lord took possession at Gideon. He blew a ramshorn as a call to arms, and the men of the Klan of Abbiezer came to him. And he also sent messengers throughout Manassa, Asher, Zebulun, and Naftalai, summoning their warriors, and all of them responded. Then Gideon said to God, if you are truly going to use me to rescue the Israel as you promise, prove it to me in this way. I'll put a wolf fleece on the threshing floor tonight. And if the fleece is wet with dew in the morning, but the ground is dry, then I'll know that you are going to help me rescue Israel as you promised. And that is just what happened. When Gideon got up early the next morning, he squeezed the fleece and wrung out a whole bowl full of water. Then Gideon said to God, please don't be angry with me, but let me make one more request. Let me use the fleece for one more test. This time, let the fleece remain dry while the ground around it is wet with dew. So that night God did as Gideon asked. The fleece was dry in the morning, but the ground was covered with dew. So let's just decide tomorrow we're going to do the rest of Gideon's story. Well, sure, we are defeating the Midianites. Well, yeah, we weren't. We were skipping onto another one. But let's let's deal with the first half. Oh, that's crazy of him setting up. And then if we didn't read Gideon, I would be out right. Well, we're reading Gideon, but you know the big battle, big battles coming. Yeah, the details of the battle, yes. So we won't reference the battle much today. But yeah, let's let's stick with this. God thing. So the first thing that stands out to my mind is, uh, you know, Uh, he said the Lord is with you, and then Gideon immediately says, how can the Lord be with me if bad things around me are still happening? Yeah, and and and so you know, and yet at the same time that that one verse, there's a sermon in there somewhere, isn't there, Because sometimes we feel as if God has abandoned us, God hasn't answered our prayer. The bad things in our lives aren't going away. We go through tragedy and uh, you know. And yet if God were to appear in the room, he would say, well, God is with you, and we would say, well, there's no way that God is with us. You know. I think sometimes in our heart we believe in our head we know that God is with us, but in our heart we feel like he's not. And so if that's what people pray for, they pray that they would feel peace, they pray that they would feel God's presence, and they'd say, I just can't feel God being there. And in his case, it was the midst of actual oppression from the Midian nights. Yeah, So anyway, it's just a great encouragement to help us realize that. You know, God promises to us as Christians, he will never leave us, He'll never forsake us. God doesn't promise an easy life, but he does promise through every single thing we go through, he's going to walk beside us and be with us every step of the way. One of the themes in the Book of Judges, which we didn't read this time, but if we'd gone back to verse one in the chapter says, the Israelites did evil in the side of the Lord, right, right, so the Lord handed them over to the Midianites. So this is a theme. They honor God. You know, they followed Deborah for forty years, they honored God, held back. Then she dies and they immediately go back to worshiping Bail and putting up a share of poles, right, and so bail represents power and fertility. The a share of pole also represented fertility. It basically, they would always shift, They would shift away from honoring God into some kind of sex cult again and say, go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Were fact symbols. Yeah, yeah, and so this is what's happened. They've gone back and so there's a really amazing. Note for verse thirteen in the Life Application Study Bible says, Gideon questioned God about the problems he and his nation faced and about God's apparent lack of help. What he didn't acknowledge was the fact that the people had brought calamity upon themselves when they decided to disobey and neglect God. How easy it is to overlook personal accountability and blame our problems on God and others. Unfortunately, this does not solve our problems. It brings us no closer to God, and it escorts us to the very edge of rebellion and backsliding. When problems come, the first place to look is within Our immediate response should be confession to God of sins that may have created our problems. Right. So, so where we have Gideon, who doesn't seem to be a guy who is actively working against God. His family was, His family had an altar to bail, had in a share a pole. This is what God said is, Hey, if I'm going to use you, go tear down that altar, go get rid of that a share a pole, and then I'll use you. Right. So, this is something that has permeated all of the culture including even Gideon's own family. And there's consequences to going against God, right, and so I think a lot of times people play the victim like somehow God's a bully instead of acknowledging, Man, my own decisions have brought me to this point. Yeah, there are many many times that's the case. I had a person not long ago come and weep and ask me why did God take my wife away from me? After we just talked about he was he had just got caught in his well in multiple affairs, like, I'm not sure God took your wife away from you. That's why I told him. I said, dude, don't let me be I'm not being a jerk, but as your friend, let me call it as I see it. God did not go I'm going to take your wife away from you. Your bad choices broke her heart and ruined your relationship. That's what happened. So you're blaming God, like somehow God could have stopped this. Should that you deserve to have God supernaturally intervene and stop this as opposed to acknowledging My sin destroyed everything that's important to me. And I said, dude, you have no hope moving forward. In a successful life until you step back and accept your own responsibility. He sat there cried, this was quite some time ago. Cried for quite a while. I went, you're right, and then thanked me. He said, I needed somebody to be honest with me and tell me because I'm willing to blame everybody else. He said, that's been the habit of my life. I blame everybody else my problems instead of accepting myself. Oh wow. So the second thing that I was observing to in the story, because there's so much in here, is that he says, Uh, isn't it interesting how he says, my clan is the smallest among all the clans, and I'm the smallest among my family. So God chose the smallest clan and then the most the least insignificant person from a from an insignificant family. So Gideon has, you know, grown up to have this view of himself as obviously somebody who's not a great war here hero, because you know, you know, you know, so we grew up reading the King James version. He and what does he say? He says, Gideon now mighty man of Valley, and and He's like, and Gideon's like, what He's like, I think you're talking to the wrong guy, right, I don't know who you're looking at. But that's not me. And we all know that at the end, Gideon becomes a mighty man of valor after the big victory. You know, people in history will. Well, we told him there's going to be a battle. We didn't tell who wins. Oh yeah, that's right, Gideon dies. That's not what happens either. But but so anyway, yeah, he becomes a mighty man of holor. So it reminds me then of you know, Jesus when he looks at Peter and he says, your name shall be Cephis or you know, rock, right Peter, and and uh, but but yet when Jesus told Peter that his name was going to be the rock or the stone, really it was a stone that you hold in your hand. His life wasn't really rock like yet. But eventually, Peter, you know, especially through the you know, Book of Acts, he becomes a solid rock, you know. And it's because God sees in us greatness before we see it in ourselves. And so here's the Angel calling, uh, you know, Gideon a great hero. What does what does this version say, mighty hero, mighty hero, and Gideon's like, I think you got the wrong guy because I'm the smallest of my clan and i the least in my family. That was his immediate response. So again, that's just another thing that we can look at too to apply to our own lives. So it's funny that he caused a mighty hero while he's hiding in a wine press. You don't normally thresh wheat right down in a wine press. You normally would thresh wheat. They would thresheat up on hilltops, right, And a wine press doesn't have to be some deep pit either. I mean, did you see the little wine press area in Nazareth when you were in Israel? I think I did. Yeah, yeah, it's first century. Very likely Jesus and Mary would have been getting you know, crushing their wine grapes there, right, but kind of neat anyways, you know, it's it's just like a depression in the ground that can capture in rock, that can capture the wine that's being pressed out, and then there's usually a runoff spot to be able to pour into bowls or something. It's not very significant, but when you're threshing wheat, you want to be up high where there's a breeze, because what you're trying to do with threshing wheat is there's there's the kernel of wheat on the inside and there's chaff on the outside. It's like a protective Uh you ever have you ever chewed on And this is kind of a weird thing to say, you ever eat popcorn and then get the outside of the seed stuck in your teeth? Yes, okay, that's kind of what the chaff of wheat is, is that outside covering of the seed. So when you beat the wheat right, so they would thrash the wheat on the thing, what it do is to begin to separate that outside part of the kernel. And it's really light, and so the grain would fall because it's heavy, and the chaff would blow away, oops would blow away if you had a reasonable breeze. So you're always up in the up in the higher places. But he's afraid of the Midianites. The midia Nites are get a bunch of roving bandits running around, and so he doesn't want to be visible, and so he's hiding and God shows up as a hey mighty man of Valor. While he's hiding from the Midianites and God, God sees in him while he doesn't see it. I almost wonder if he's hiding, because had they seen him, you know, a thrashing wheat, they would take his wheat. Exactly, yeah, exactly. So he's not out there challenging the Midianites. He's not out there going I don't give a rip what you guys think. I'm going to go ahead and live my life. Right, that's not what he's doing. He's hiding, right, he's hiding. Please, I can't see him. And his work is harder because of it, oh way harder, because of his lack of courage to be out you know, where there's a breeze instead of being down in the wine press. His work is much harder, and he's you got to know, in his mind, there's a little bit of defeatism. Sure, right, he made the choice not to do the job where he should have done it, where it would have been easier. So now the job is harder. Have you ever done a job and you know that the decision you made made the job harder, but you have some reason why it has to be harder, right, So he's you know it, and you're thinking it through. I think he knows such a loser. And that's when the Angelord shows him and goes, hey, mighty hero. Wow, Well that's that's a pretty to be honest, that's a little bit of a harsher perspective than I was thinking. I was thinking, when you're hiding, you're not being courageous, well for sure, And I think that there's a little bit of tongue in cheek here when he calls him mighty no. No, everything you're saying I agree with, but except for the fact that like maybe maybe that's exactly what you'd have done or what done it absolutely because because maybe it's a known fact that you know, there's about a ninety percent chance that if you're going to thrush weed on top of that hill, you're not gonna have weed by the end of the day, right, So it's like, you know, and and if you challenge him, you're going to die, right, there was a good chance, right, yeah, really good chance, right, could be that way, you know, it's it's it's the uh. It reminds me of that the New Testament when they were being impressed by Rome, and you know, they want to challenge them, but nobody nobody can do it, you know, they can't. They can't rise up against the forces. Yeah. Well, so there's two kinds of well, multiple people in the world, multiple kinds of people. But in my worldview, there's two kinds. There's the kind of guy who hides from potential struggle and like like a Gideon, and then there's people like you know, Patrick Henry, who says, give me a liberty, to give me death. I'm willing. I'm willing to risk it all sure to go and and and I'm going to go up against the mightiest empire in the history of the world up to that point, and we're likely to lose, but I'm willing to sacrifice my fortune in my life for freedom. Right. So, so that's not Gideon. Gideon's not Patrick Henry. I thought's hiding in the I thought. You use that opportunity to bust on me. For a minute. You're like, there's two kind of people in this world, and I thought you were going to say, like brave and then you Chris. No, no, really, no, that's mean. No, I was just joking. Yeah, So so for me, right, he's not He's not taking a Patrick Henry kind of a mindset. Right, he is hiding. Yes, And when you make that choice, when you make the choice to not confront evil in front of you, even you kind of know. I'm kind of a sissy, right right, you know, you know. And so that's why it's so funny to me that the angel shows up and says, hey, you mighty man, I'm going to turn you into great way. And then he's afraid. Right, he's afraid the whole time, keeps testing God. Well, that's what I was going to say, because we're out of time. Let's at least through a couple of sentences in there about the fleece. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. So what does he do is he is, you know, he gets a word from God and he's like, okay, that's great. I want to believe you, but do this great miracle, got the police and the dow and then God does it and he's like, oh, well that was great. That's maybe it was a coincidence. Yeah, maybe it was a coin said do it the opposite, and so he does the police and to do the opposite, and it's like and it's hilarious because that's what we want. We want we see ourselves in him so much. We want confirmation from God. He's talking to God who when he fixed this meal for the angel, he set it on fire with the fire and then disappears, and then God's voice tells him, don't worry, I'm not going to kill you. Right. The same voice right says all right, now you're going to go and deliver the people of Israel from meting. He goes, yeah, so how about you do this fleece thing for me? Same voice, dude, how much more do you need? If the dinner I just made turned into smoke and the guy I made it for it disappears. And then I hear God's voice from heaven talk to me. I'm gonna remember that voice. It's gonna make it a point. So Gideon is so funny. He's so unbelievably timid, and so it's encouraging to me that, Hey, if you find yourself kind of being consumed by timidity, just understand God wants to use you to have the courage. Hear God's voice, and tomorrow we're gonna follow up with one of the most amazing stories in the Old Testament, and We'll see you that hopefully on the Baba Gush