Early the next morning, as the people of the town began to stir, someone discovered that the altar of Baal had been broken down and that the Asherah 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 Gideon, the son of Joash.

“Bring out your son,” the men of the town demanded of Joash. “He must die for destroying the altar of Baal and for cutting down the Asherah pole.” (Judges 6:28-30))

Gideon’s first enemies were at home. You don’t tear down someone’s altar without repercussions. Idols don’t go down easily. Not because the idol itself has any power, but because of the hold the worshiper has on it. It’s like prying it out of someone’s hands. Gideon anticipated this reaction; that’s why he did the deed at night. He was afraid.

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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 Baal, and cut down the Asherah 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 Asherah pole you cut down.” (Judges 6:25-26)

Before any of us can go out and do mighty things for God in the world, we have to take care of what’s going on at home. Before we can defeat the enemy that is encamped about us, we must deal with the one that already wormed its way into our household. There’s no way God is going to give Gideon victory over the Midianites while the false god, Baal, sits smugly atop the place of worship in his father’s house, where someone might even think it was by the power of the idol that the victory was won. No way.

And yet this is such a common reality. Indeed, for many who have experienced success outside the home, the tendency is to become more and more involved “out there” and pay less and less attention to what is going on “in here,” because what’s going on in here isn’t going so well. How can I expect God to entrust His wider family to me when I’m letting my own family go at home?

Our idols are not as obvious and clearly defined as Gideon’s, yet our idols are quite prolific. Indeed, our idols can be virtually anything. Anything we return to for comfort, power, insight — things God supplies to us freely — is an idol because it has taken over the place of God. For instance, one of my idols is the Ignore button. I press it whenever anything becomes too difficult for me, and by doing that, I supplant God who is available to empower me to do the difficult thing. The Ignore button has to come down.

Think about what (who) you go to for comfort. Find that which gives you a false sense of power and makes you think you’re smarter than everyone else, and you’ve probably found an idol in your house that needs to come down. Believe me, we’ve got lots of them.

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. (Judges 6:27)

When you knock down an idol, you find out that’s all it was — an idol. Not the real thing at all. It’s powerless; that’s how you can knock it down. The only power idols have is the power we give them in our lives. Take them down and they are nothing.

Gideon got no argument from the idol. Tearing it down was a relatively easy job; he and his servants accomplished it all in one night. Cutting up the wooden Asherah pole only showed that it was made up of nothing but firewood — excellent fuel for an offering to the true God of Israel. The resistance came from the people of Gideon’s family who had given these idols of stone and wood significance in their lives. We have a psychological word for this: it’s called codependency.

When we knock down one of our idols, we will undoubtedly receive resistance from those close to us who have made adjustments to that idol in their lives as well. Just like Gideon’s family, they will have to decide what they are going to do without that idol in the house. The point is, it will create an environment that calls for a greater dependence on God, and that is where we all want to be.

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“I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.” – Judges 6:16

I like those odds. God has reduced the 120,000 Midianites, who are holding the Israelites hostage, to just one man. Gideon, the man God picked to rescue the Israelites, should be feeling pretty good about this by now, but he’s not. He’s still afraid, and I don’t blame him. All the power of God made available to us doesn’t erase our normal human emotions. Besides, how does Gideon know this is truly the Lord speaking?

So “Gideon replied, ‘If you are truly going to help me, show me a sign to prove that it is really the Lord speaking to me.’” (6:17)

This was the first of three requests Gideon made for a miraculous sign to bolster his confidence. And then, before the angel had a chance to respond to that request, Gideon added, “‘Don’t go away until I come back and bring my offering to you.’” (6:18) And the angel promised to stay. So Gideon hurried home and cooked a young goat, baked some unleavened bread, and brought the meat, the bread and the broth back to the winepress where the angel was waiting under a great tree. Gideon must have suddenly realized he was not being a proper host, and, if this was truly an angel of the Lord, he would want to bring him an offering. The key here is what happens to his offering.

“The angel of God said to him, ‘Place the meat and the unleavened bread on this rock, and pour the broth over it.’ And Gideon did as he was told. Then the angel of 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. And the angel of the Lord  disappeared.” (6:20-21)

Just like that. Poof! Gone! Meat, bread, broth and angel of the Lord — all gone in an instant. Nothing left but a little curl of smoke spiraling upward. All the time and effort Gideon put into creating a nice young goat dinner for his guest went up in smoke.

But that’s what’s supposed to happen to offerings to the Lord. They are burned up, and the fragrance goes upward — a sweet smelling sacrifice to God the Father. How can death smell sweet? Because all those burnt offerings were pointing to the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross, and the sweetness of that is the fact that sin has been atoned for; the price has been paid; relationships can be re-established; God can love us, and we can love back.

But it is also God’s final assessment of the good of humankind which is never good enough. It’s the whole human experiment, in fact, burned up — so that now He can start over, and He can start over with people emptied of self, humbled, and yielded totally to Him with nothing in their hands but what He gives them.

This is a requirement before we can be used mightily by God: there has to be the death of us — the all-consuming fire of God’s judgment on our best self. Oh we train, we study, we practice, we hang our certificates of merit and degrees and diplomas on our office walls, and we bring all this to the Lord, eager to serve Him with our best, and Poof! Gone! It’s all sucked up to heaven in a cloud of smoke leaving us with nothing, and face to face with almighty God, humbled and terrified. “‘Oh, Sovereign Lord, I’m doomed!’” [said Gideon.] “‘I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!’” (6:22)

“‘It is all right,’ the Lord replied. ‘Do not be afraid. You will not die.’” (6:23)

God gives us our lives back, but it is never quite the same. It’s just a life devoid of pride, achievement, wealth and position. Nothing matters but what is given to God and used for His purposes. No breath but what He breathes. No strength but what he gives. No trust but what He has promised. And in this place, we are ready for anything.

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Gideon is so much like us. You can almost guess what’s coming next without even reading the story. God has called Gideon a mighty hero — one He is calling to rescue His people from their dreaded enemy, the Midianites — and He has promised to be with him so he does not have to do this alone. So what does Gideon offer then?

Excuses.

“But Lord…” (We’ve heard this before. Heck, we’ve said this before.) “But Lord… how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!”

Little does Gideon know that the things he is offering as excuses are the very reasons why he was chosen! He is offering his weakness as an excuse, when God chose him for his weaknesses. God looked down from heaven, saw Gideon, and said: That’s my man. He’s the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and the least in his entire family. Perfect!  So you can see how much good Gideon’s excuses are going to do him!

God does not like His strength confused with ours. He is always letting us be reduced in some way so that His intervention in our lives is the only possible explanation for what just happened. God usually doesn’t work along with our strengths, He uses us in and through our weaknesses, so that He receives the praise, and we don’t mess it up.

“But Lord…” we still say, even after God has sent us and said He would be with us, because we are looking to ourselves for what we need to do the job.

“But Lord…” and I’ve got a lot of things to put there. For me, it’s the tape that’s always running in my head. It’s a constant loop. It plays through everything and then loops back to the beginning and starts over again: I can’t do it; it’s overwhelming; I’m not good at that; no one taught me how to do this; it’s not in my genes; I’m too old; I can’t remember things well… (Do I need to keep going? I think you get the gist.)

Now here’s the deal: It’s the same as with Gideon. My excuses are the reason I’ve been picked for the job. God wants to show Himself capable through my incapableness.

So I go, “But Lord…I can’t do this, I can’t do that…” and God says, Good. Now that we agree on that, let’s get going! Stop the tape, we have a battle to fight!

Or, in the words of God to Gideon: “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man” (Judges 6:16).

So drop all those “But Lord”s you’re carrying around, and let’s count on the power of God and go find some Midianites!

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“EXCUSE CENTRAL”

“Sir,” Gideon replied, “If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?” – Judges 6:13

It is probably the most asked question about God today, or any other day, for that matter. If God is with us, why have all these bad things happened to us? If God is with us, why do children suffer? Why do natural disasters like earthquakes and fires kill thousands of innocent people? If God is with us, why are we being terrorized by terrorists? If God is with us, why is there so much evil in the world? Not to mention the personal side: If God is with me why did I lose my job?

Gideon asks this question after the angel found him hiding in the winepress, threshing wheat for flour, while Israel’s enemies lie in wait, 120,000 strong. The angel had just called out to Gideon, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!” when Gideon replied, in a cynical tone, “Sir, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?”

“And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about?” he went on. “Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.”

Does any of this sound at all familiar? As those who believe the Lord is with us, don’t we still feel abandoned? Don’t we sometimes feel as if we’ve been handed over to the enemy? Our questions might be a little different, but the idea behind them will be the same. “If the Lord is with us, why has [add you own words here] happened to us?” Which means the answer the angel gave Gideon might apply to us, too, and that’s where it gets interesting. The angel’s answer is at best obtuse to the questions.

“Then the Lord turned to him and said, ‘Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!’”

The Lord pretty much ignored his questions, instead, he enlisted Gideon as the answer to his own questions! This is truly profound and not to be missed: God called Gideon out to be the answer to his complaints about God. God called Gideon out to be the answer to all his blaming and his excuses. God called out Gideon to be the answer to his own objections. God called out Gideon to be the the answer to his own fear.

Well that would make Gideon out to be some kind of superhero wouldn’t it? God sure knows what He is doing here. He is setting Gideon up for something he has no strength or ability to do because He is intending to be Gideon’s strength and ability. Gideon cannot be the answer to any of these things by himself. Not even close. And he knows that. That’s why the angel said, “Go in the strength you have,” which, in Gideon’s case, would have meant nothing, and he would have been the first one to know that. Remember Gideon was the least in his family, from the weakest clan, and he was hiding when the angel found him. Go in the strength you have? Well that’s easy; that’s no strength at all.

But “Go in the strength you have,” was also prophetic. Soon Gideon would realize that the strength he had was stronger than the whole Midianite army put together, because it would be the strength of the Lord.

This is the process God puts us all through, even those who are relatively strong, because we all — weak and strong — have to be reduced to nothing before He can use us, lest we confuse our strength with His.

So Gideon is about to make an amazing discovery. He is about to find out that he is not only the answer to all his questions and objections to God, but he is also going to be the miracle that he previously only heard about in stories. “And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about?” Get ready, Gideon, you are about be one of those miracles for future generations like us.

Look in the mirror, Gideon. YOU ARE THE MIRACLE. The miracle is coming alive in you.

And you, as you read this, and me, as I write it — are we any different? No, not at all. We are the miracles we’ve only heard about until now. We are all miracles ready to happen.

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Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. – Judges 6:11

Rocky Raccoon checked into his room,
Only to find Gideon’s Bible. – The Beatles

Starting today and running for two weeks, we are going to be looking into the life of Gideon, one of the heroes of the book of Judges in the Old Testament of the Bible with a bit part in a Beatles song. That part in the “Rocky Raccoon” song doesn’t have much to do with anything except to point out that an international Bible company whose goal is to place free Bibles in every room of every hotel in the world chose to name itself after Gideon in light of its passion to complete an impossible task. Gideon had an impossible task, too, to free the Israelites from their dreaded enemies, the marauding Midianites, who were camped in a valley, 120,000 strong, and terrorizing the Israelites at will. But I’m getting a little ahead of myself.

When our story begins, Gideon is not at all aware that he has been chosen to do anything but try to stay alive. Like everyone else in his country, he is hiding. Many of his people have left their homes and are living in the mountains in caves because their homes are constantly being attacked and looted. They are all hiding and they are all afraid.

The same thing happens, I think, when bad things happen to us. We have a tendency to want to hide. We don’t want anyone else to know that things are so bad. We tend to think it’s a reflection on us, so we retreat to our winepresses and start beating out wheat or some other menial task that makes us feel better because we are doing something but we’re really not doing anything to help our situation. And like Gideon, we are afraid. We don’t know what to do, but we’re afraid if we don’t do something, things will only get worse.

That’s when God shows up, and if we’re paying attention, we might even see Him. In Gideon’s case, it was the angel of the Lord that sat near him under the great tree, and in the next verse it says the angel of the Lord appeared to him. Who knows how long the angel sat there before he “appeared” to Gideon, but it does seem that the angel being there, and the angel appearing to him, were two different things.

When things seem to be going wrong for us, I wonder how long it takes before we realize that the Lord has been there all along? Sometimes not until afterwards, and we realize we could have called on Him a lot sooner. For Gideon, the appearance of the angel became clear when the angel spoke to him, and what he said would turn Gideon’s world upside down. Little did he know that in a matter of days, he would be chasing fleeing Midianites, wielding his sword in battle two towns over, that all 120,000 of them to the last man would end up dead or captured, that the heads of the two Midianite kings would be brought to him on a platter, and that he would be judge and ruler over Israel for forty years of peace.

No, all he heard was, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!”

“Who, me? Mighty hero? You have to be joking.” And Gideon will go on to be cynical, doubtful, fearful and he will need three different miraculous signs to prove to him that the Lord is truly with Him, and with a fourth sign thrown in for extra measure.

And isn’t that just like us? Wouldn’t we need the same thing?

What are you afraid of today? What are you facing that seems impossible? What enemy are you fighting? What addiction? What temptation? Do you know what the Holy Spirit is saying to you? The same thing.

He is saying, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!” That’s right — you. You are the mighty hero. God’s heroes have always been unsuspecting.

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