Sunday Sermon: God Can Forgive and Use You

A quick disclaimer: If you think this sermon ends abruptly, it does. Part 2 is next week.

Introduction of Israel: From Joshua to Gideon

Gideon was a judge over the nation of Israel, appointed by God to bring the nation back to Him. Israel had turned from the God who delivered them from Egypt. You see, after Moses died, he appointed Joshua as leader, and he brought Israel into the Promised Land. Joshua led the people into battle, most famously against Jericho. And the generation he was a part of served the LORD. In Joshua 24, he tells the people, “Fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
Then the people answered him, “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods! It was the LORD our God himself who brought us and our fathers up out of Egypt, from the land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God.”

So, there was a period of success as Israel marched forward to drive out the nations living in the Promised Land. God was with them as they drove out the Canaanites. But they failed to drive out every nation. And so Israel was corrupted by their gods, and began to worship Baal. Baal literally means “owner, husband, or lord.” He was considered a weather god associated mainly with rain. The Canaanites were farmers, and so they worshiped Baal in order for him to provide the rain for their crops. They believed that every winter Baal would “hibernate” in the underworld, and in order to bring him back for springtime, they would make sacrifices—both animal and human—and engage in sexual orgies. Just as they were showing their fertility, they believed Baal would bring fertility to their crops. This is what a good portion of Israel got involved in, thus breaking the LORD’s command, “You shall not have any other gods before me.”

So God, in Judges 2:3 said, “Therefore I tell you that I will not drive them out before you; they will be thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you.” And in verse 15 it says, “Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the LORD was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.” So, Israel was in great distress, but it hadn’t come to its senses yet. God then raises up judges—those faithful to him who would bring the people back to Him. Yet the people did not turn back to God. Instead, they continued in their wicked ways. What did happen though, was that as long as a judge was alive, the LORD had compassion on them and saved them from their enemies. Yet when the judge died, the people threw themselves further into rebellion and idol worship. And this happens on and off for a period of a couple hundred years. Looks like a pretty grim situation doesn’t it?

Israel at the Hand of Midian

As we get closer to the time of Gideon, it says in Judges 5:31, “Then the land had peace forty years.” Forty years. That’s one generation of peace. A chance for those who worshiped Baal to die out, and for their sons and daughters to return to the LORD. In fact, peace signifies that the LORD’s hand wasn’t against Israel anymore. Somehow they had turned back to Him. Obviously it didn’t last though. The next verse tells us that, “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.” Midian was a nation south of Israel. And it was formed by the descendants of a man named Midian, who just so happens to be a son of Abraham. Genesis 25 tells us that after Abraham’s wife Sarah died, he took another wife, and she bore him many sons, one of whom was Midian. Abraham sent all these sons east and gave Isaac all of his inheritance.

Thus we have Midian, an affliction to Israel. Midian was so fierce, so oppressive, that the Bible tells us the Israelites ran and hid in caves. The Midianites killed their flocks and destroyed their crops. They were so numerous that one couldn’t count them, as a swarm of locusts. And finally, after seven whole years—SEVEN years—Israel cries out to God. You’ve got to be kidding me! That’s like a woman in labor, sitting on her couch in pain as the contractions keep getting worse and worse. And she waits and waits. She even tells her husband she’s okay. Then after seven years and a boy half her size living in her stomach, she goes to the doctor. What kind of joke is this? It’s not a joke. It’s a testimony to how deep in sin and apostasy Israel was. They had turned tail and ran from God so many times they forgot who He was. They forgot He was the only One who could save them from these nations. They loved the gods of Midian and of Canaan so much that the pain and fear became bearable.

It’s like asking the question, “Would you rather run 20 miles in 68 degree weather or 5 miles in 100 degree weather?” The correct answer to that question is "Neither!" And Israel has answered, we’ll take both. Both your gods and your pain.

After Israel cries out to God, he answers them in two ways. The first is through the prophet in Judges 6:7-10. He tells them that God had brought them out of Egypt and said He was their God; don’t worship the other gods. But they hadn’t listened to Him. The prophet says this and that appears to be all it is. This paragraph reminder of their sins was a type of “course correction.” They had to remember what God had done for them in the past, or what He planned to do for them through Gideon would be of no consequence. They had to remember they were in the wrong, they had sinned, or else they would not turn from their sin.

God Calls (Forgives, Is Patient With, Believes In) Gideon

God first sent the prophet, and then He called Gideon. Let’s begin reading in Judges 6:11-24. “The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, ‘The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.’ ‘But sir,’ Gideon replied, ‘if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said “Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?” But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian.’
The LORD turned to him and said, ‘Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?’
‘But Lord,’ Gideon asked, ‘how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least in my family.’
The LORD answered, ‘I will be with you and you will strike down all the Midianites together.’
Gideon replied, ‘If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.’
And the LORD said, ‘I will wait until you return.’
Gideon went in, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak.
The angel of God said to him, ‘Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth. And Gideon did so. With the tip of the staff that was in his hand, the angel of the LORD touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the LORD disappeared. When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the LORD, he exclaimed, ‘Ah, Sovereign LORD! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!’
But the LORD said to him, ‘Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.’
So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it The LORD is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.”

God called Gideon in a such a way that blows my mind. Gideon is scared to death of Midian, secretly threshing wheat in order to not get caught. And when the angel of the LORD, later called Yahweh, appears to him, he speaks foolishly. He says that God cannot be with Israel because there are no wonders, no miracles he’s heard so much about. He’s standing at least somewhat close to his father’s altar to Baal and he has the gall to tell God it’s his fault. “It’s your fault we’re being attacked all the time and I have to hide in this winepress. If only you would show up and do a few miracles we’d be okay.” In reality, it was the sin that so easily entangled Israel, which blinded Gideon to the truth of sin and of God, that caused the current troubles. If it was easy for Gideon to lay the blame on God, how easy is it for us to do the same? Even when we’re standing neck deep in it? We think if only God would do this, or if only he would answer my prayer…when perhaps God is calling us to repent and turn to Him. Think about that one for a bit.

Gideon assumes it’s God’s fault, and then God tells him he should go and save Israel in the strength he has. Even in his sinful state, Gideon has some strength left which God plans to use. But Gideon baffles me again. He makes a silly excuse about being part of the weakest clan and least in his family. He’s saying to God, “No way. I’m of no use, no good, just a weak scared guy. Nice joke, God.” Remember last week when we talked about saying, “I just can’t do much.?” This is Gideon here. Gideon forgets, in a breath of time, that it is God who performed the wonders for Israel. All of a sudden he thinks God won’t be able to perform wonders but will expect him to save Israel by his own strength. Crazy guy. If God performed wonders to release Israel from Egypt, He surely can do it again.

The LORD answers saying he will be with Gideon, reaffirming what he first said in verse 12. Then he says Gideon will strike down all the Midianites, reaffirming what he said in verse 14. And finally Gideon catches on. Almost. He’s really set on this signs and wonders thing, so he asks God for a sign. So he prepares an offering of a goat and unleavened bread.

God commanded Israel to sacrifice one male goat during each major feast—Passover, the Feast of Weeks, during monthly offerings, on the day of atonement—as a sin offering to make atonement for sins. And unleavened bread was made to signify the separation of sin and Egypt, since there was no yeast (sin) in the bread. Gideon’s offering, therefore, was one of atonement for the sins he had committed by worshiping Baal. And his test of God in that offering was not just to see if it was truly God calling Him and speaking with Him. It was a test to see if God would forgive him. Gideon, like us, believed that his sin was too great for God to forgive, and that because God wouldn’t forgive him, He couldn’t possibly use him. Too often Satan lies to us, saying we’re too horrible to forgive, and that we can never be used by God because of how horrible we are. It’s all lies. It’s all lies. We see that the sacrifice was consumed on the rock as God signaled to Gideon, "Your sins are forgiven."

Gideon worries about dying because he’s seen the angel of the LORD. But God reassures Him this isn’t the case. He will not die, because the LORD is Peace. The LORD and Gideon made their peace that day. Next week we’ll return to Gideon to see how God used him. But today, there are those of us who feel like God cannot forgive us. We have turned to worship other gods and want so desperately to turn back to God, yet something is holding us back. It’s our fear of being rejected by God. Fear of not measuring up to God's standards (which forgiveness tosses out the door). There are no standards to be forgiven, except a contrite and repentant heart, and a commitment to serve the LORD.