Gideon-The Weak Mighty Warrior

Judges

Week 11 — Gideon—The Weak Mighty Warrior

The Lord is with you, mighty warrior! (Jdg 6:12b)

  1. _____________ in weakness. (Chapter 7)

  2. The ____________________ of sin.

1 Again the people of Israel committed evil in the eyes of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian for seven years. (Jdg 6:1)
2 The hand of Midian was heavy upon Israel. Because of Midian, the people of Israel made hidden shelters for themselves, in the mountains, in caves, and other hideouts. 3 Whenever Israel planted crops, Midian and Amalek and the people of the East would go up against Israel. 4 They would set up camp against them and ruin the crops all the way to Gaza, so there was no source of livelihood left in Israel—not even a sheep, an ox, or a donkey.  5 When the Midianites would invade with their herds of cattle and their tents, they were as numerous as locusts, so it was impossible to count them and their camels. This is how they came up against the land to ruin it. (Jdg 6:2–5)
Midian was Isaac’s younger half-brother, the fourth of six sons born to Keturah, whom Abraham married as an old man … By calling Midian and his full brothers “the sons of Keturah” … the Bible carefully distinguishes them from Isaac, the son of Sarah, who was the one through whom God’s promise to Abraham would be fulfilled … (show) In fact, Abraham and the Israelites regarded these other sons as having no more inheritance rights than a concubine’s sons … Expelled from Abraham’s family, for Isaac’s sake, they became (semi) nomadic peoples of the deserts east and south of Palestine … (Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). Midian, Midianite. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 2, p. 1456). Baker Book House.)
6 So Israel was laid low because of Midian, and the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. (Jdg 6:6)
7 When the people of Israel cried out to the Lord because of Midian, 8 the Lord sent a man, a prophet, to the people of Israel. The prophet said this to them: This is what the Lord God of Israel says: It was I who brought you up from Egypt, and I brought you out from the house of slavery. 9 I rescued you from the hand of Egypt and from the hand of all your oppressors, and I drove them out before you, and I gave you their land. 10 I said to Israel, “I am the Lord your God. Do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live,” but you did not listen to my voice. (Jdg 6:7–10)
In fact, godly sorrow produces repentance, which leads to salvation, leaving no regret. On the other hand, worldly sorrow produces death. (2 Co 7:10)

Worldly sorrow (_____________) does not produce any real _____________, but repentance does. Regret is sorrow over the _________________________ of sin. It is not sorrow over the _______ itself.

Tim Keller: Therefore, as soon as the consequences go away, the behavior comes back. The heart has not become disgusted with the sin itself, so the sin remains rooted.

Worldly sorrow (_____________) ___________ regretful, while ______________________ _______________ all regret about the past.

Tim Keller: Regret is all about "us": how I am being hurt, how my life is ruined, how my heart is breaking; but repentance is all about God: how he has been grieved, how his nature as Creator and Redeemer is being trampled on, how his repeated saving actions are being trivialized and used manipulatively.
Tim Keller: Lord, so many of my problems stem from not remembering you. I forget your wisdom and so I worry. I forget your grace and so I get complacent. I forget your mercy and so I get resentful of others. Help me remember who you are every moment of the day.

  1. The _________ of the weak.

11 The Angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite 12 The Angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” (Jdg 6:11-12)
13 Gideon said to him, “Please tell me this, my lord: If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all the wonderful acts our fathers told us about when they said, ‘Is it not the Lord who brought us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us, and he has given us into the hand of Midian.” (Jdg 6:13)
You must be very resolute in carrying out all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses by not turning from it to the right or to the left, (Jos 23:6)
6 The Lord passed by in front of him [Moses] and proclaimed: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and overflowing with mercy and truth, 7 maintaining mercy for thousands, forgiving guilt and rebellion and sin. He will by no means clear the guilty. He calls their children and their children’s children to account for the guilt of the fathers, even to the third and the fourth generation.” (Ex 34:6–7)

“Lord,” is God’s personal name that stresses _________________________ to his _______ and _____________.

For God has said: I will never leave you, and I will never forsake you. (Heb 13:5b)
Tim Keller: But all of these fail to take seriously either God's power, or his word. If God says Gideon is a mighty warrior, then he is. He is to use his own abilities (v 14). But Gideon's potential (realized or not) is not alone sufficient. It needs to be combined with the knowledge that "I [am] sending you ... I will be with you" (v 14, 16). 

Points to Ponder

  1. What is one thing that stood out for you from this week’s message?
  2. Have you ever felt stuck in a repeating cycle of bad decisions? What helped you break free?
  3. What pattern do we see in verses 1-6? How severe was Israel's situation?
  4. What reasons does the prophet give for Israel's oppression?
  5. Why do you think God sent a prophet with a message of rebuke before sending a deliverer?
  6. What does it tell us about God that he responds to Israel's cry even though they've repeatedly turned away from him?
  7. When we face consequences of our choices, do we tend to cry out for relief or for true repentance? What's the difference (try not to look at your notes to answer)?
  8. How does understanding why we're struggling help us move toward real change?
  9. I said in the sermon that I believe this is a fair statement: We tend to see our troubles as evidence that God has left us. Do you agree? How do you overcome this tendency?
  10. What does this section of Scripture teach us about God's character and his patience with His people?

Read: Judges 6