Messy Obedience: Gideon's Story (Part 3)

Morning. Good morning. It's good to worship together, isn't it?

Well, if we've not met, my name is Josh, and I'm glad you're here today. And as we are diving into our final third week of our Gideon series, I'm excited to kind of uncover some of the things that are happening in this third scene in Gideon's story that we get in the Book of Judges. In chapter six, we saw him hiding in the bottom of a winepress, threshing wheat to keep it from the Midianites, this giant army outside of the city that have come every year for the last seven years to come and take away all of the harvest that the Israelites have gathered. And he's convinced he's the least of his family, his family is the least in his tribe. Tribe.

And that he's super insignificant and that his life doesn't matter much and he's afraid and hiding there. And the angel of the Lord Jesus himself pre coming to the earth. Jesus himself comes to visit Gideon and he calls him something that he isn't yet, mighty warrior. But in order for Gideon to become this mighty warrior and make him ready for what God has in store for his life, he's going to have to do some threshing of his own. Like separating the wheat from the chaff that Gideon was doing.

God begins stripping away Gideon's fear, his excuses, his lack of faith, his security in human things, and he helps him lift his eyes from himself to God. Well then in chapter seven, God begins threshing Gideon's army, too. God brings an army of 32,000, and he dwindles it down to just 300. And the reason, the primary reason that God does this, he says, is because he knows that if he allows the Israelites to beat the Midianites with 32,000, then they will look down at their hands and conclude that they did this themselves. But if he dwindles their army down to 300 and they win, they have to give glory and credit where it's due.

It had to have been God. So Gideon and those 300 men, they show up, and with nothing but torches, jars and trumpets and shouts, God does the impossible. He actually causes the Midianites to destroy themselves, which is amazing. God sends confusion into the camp and they begin killing themselves while Gideon and his men hold their positions and wait and watch. This is where all of our happily ever after hearts want this story to end.

But it isn't over yet. And as we turn the page to chapter eight, we get to this third act of Gideon's story. And in this third act, Gideon's story reminds us that sometimes it's easier to depend on God when things seem impossible than it is to depend on God when we think that we have things under control. Sometimes success is actually a harder test than failure. Gideon's move from hiding in a pit to leading Israel in victory places him on this razor's edge.

One side humility, one side pride, he one side faith, one side arrogance. And this is the place, far more than the heat of battle, where those used by God often stumble. And like every successful person in the kingdom, Gideon is faced with this same temptation to look down at his hands and start to believe that he did this on his own. And last week we skipped the closing verses of chapter seven. So we'll pick up right there and get into chapter eight.

At this point, the Midianites are running scared. Most of them have killed themselves at this point. We'll find out later it was 120,000 who are dead. And then Gideon gives this call to the eastern tribes. He sends runners out to the east and says, block off all the river crossings.

And one of those tribes that comes to help is the tribe of Ephraim. The Ephraimites were Israelites from the tribe of Joseph. And they come to Gideon's call and. And we pick up in Judges 7:24. So all the men of Ephraim were called out, and they seized the waters of the Jordan as far as Bet Barah.

They also captured two of the Midianite leaders. The word under that word leaders is really princes. These are important guys. Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb and Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb.

Quick aside, I find it very interesting that Zeeb is killed in a winepress. And I wonder if he's hiding there just like Gideon was hiding in the bottom of a winepress in chapter six. Because now everything's been flipped. They pursued the Midianites and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, who was by the Jordan. It's a very common practice in warfare at this time to bring body parts of the enemy back home to prove that you won the battle.

I know it's gross, but it's in the Bible. Sorry.

And when he gets. When this all settles, the Ephraimites have a really interesting complaint to Gideon. They bring him the heads and they want to complain about something. Verse 1 of chapter 8. Now, the Ephraimites asked Gideon, why have you treated us like this?

Why didn't you call us when you went to fight Midian? And they challenged him vigorously. They're mad because they got called in to mop up after the party was over. Like, we wanted some of this glory too. They got a pride issue.

They're like, wait a second. You got your name on this amazing battle, and you didn't call us until it was over? But there's another thing that they're upset about, and I think it's the thing that they're even more upset about. When 120,000 soldiers die. That is a lot of plunder.

A lot of plunder. You have all their weapons, all their food, all their camels, all their wealth, and they didn't get the chance to pick off of all of the enemy and take all of their stuff. So Gideon hears this complaint, and he has an incredibly diplomatic response to them. It's kind of funny. He's, like, psychoanalyzing them and trying to do the thing that'll just get them to shut down.

And so this is what he does. He says to them, what have I done now in comparison with you, is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abiezar? This is figurative. He's like, hey, we both picked grapes. Your harvest is pretty amazing.

Mine's not that amazing. He says, God has given into your hands the princes of Midian. You got two princes, Oreb and Zeeb. What have I been able to do in comparison with you? Then their anger against him subsided when he said this.

This flattery is enough to, like, re. Inflate their ego. And they're like, what were we mad about? Oh, yeah, we're pretty awesome, you know? So the crisis is averted, and Gideon's on his way.

Verse 4. And Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed over. He and the 300 men who were with him, exhausted yet pursuing. So he said to the men of Sukkot, the men of Sukkot are also Israelites, and they've not been part of this battle yet. And Gideon says to them, please give loaves of bread to the people.

Follow me. They're exhausted, and I'm pursuing after Zeba and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian and the officials of Sukkot said, are the hands of Zeba and Zalmunna already in your hand that we should give bread to your army? So these guys are not dumb. They've been around for the last seven years, and they've watched how Midian is always on the winning side. And they say, until you've got those kings captured, we don't want to touch this with a 40 foot pole, because if you don't win, they're coming back for us.

Gideon is very unhappy with their answer. Verse 7. Then Gideon replied, just for that, like, we know something bad's coming, right? Just for that. When the Lord has given Zeba and Zalmunna into my hand, I will tear your flesh with desert thorns and briars.

He's not happy. Is this the same guy that was hiding in a winepress going, oh, I'm just not. I can't do this. I mean, I get it, he's tired, he's probably hangry, grumpy. But this is some.

These are some serious threats here. Now, commentators fall into two camps on what's happening here. The first camp says Gideon is justified in his anger. He's in a time of war. He goes to his brethren, his kinfolk, and asks for help, and they refuse to help.

Therefore, whatever punishment they get is due to them because they're not helping him. On the other camp, they say that this is the moment that Gideon crosses the line from humility and obedience and starts to take things into his own hands. Now, I agree with this second camp for a couple reasons that I'll tell you. The first clue that gives away the fact that Gideon is slipping is actually back in chapter seven. We skipped right over it, if you'll remember.

He says, hey, when I do this, you do this, and when I cry out this, you cry this out as well. And he tells them, cry out a sword for the Lord and for Gideon. You will not find another battle cry like that in the Bible. No one who is on God's side says, for God and for me. No one says that, but Gideon does.

And then the second clue that we have is right here in this verse and it's hidden under the Hebrew. And I would love to say that at the beginning of this series, I was just so smart that I had this whole thing planned because I figured it all out. And then I could show you this thread all the way through. If I'm honest, I had no idea this was hidden here. And as I started digging in, I looked up the language that's under this in the Hebrew.

Just out of curiosity and let me show you what I found. He said, I will tear your flesh with desert thorns and briars. The Hebrew word for tear your flesh. It's actually the word thresh. It's actually the word thresh, except it's a different word.

For threshold than the word in chapter six. See, in chapter six, while Gideon is threshing the wheat in the winepress, that word he uses is that's used there is havat, the everyday word for beating out grain. It's a very small batch, and they're putting just enough beating into the stalk, just enough to remove the grain. And this word is always used in the agricultural sense. But here in chapter eight, it's a different word.

It's the word douche. This isn't just beating grain out of a stalk. This is the word that is used for large scale trampling and crushing. And very often in the Old Testament, most often it is used to describe God's judgment on the enemies, on evil, God trampling down nations, God crushing his enemies, God pouring out judgment and wrath. In chapter six, God was the one threshing Gideon, and he was doing it with just enough pressure to release the valuable thing.

But now in chapter eight, Gideon has taken the language and imagery of God's judgmental threshing and turned it into his own tool for vengeance. See, the story of Gideon has been about God's refining. It's been about God's power, about God's victory. But here, Gideon, Gideon seems to hijack God's role. He stops acting like a servant and starts acting like the master.

And what God used to thresh for good, Gideon now uses to tear down in vengeance. This is a shift away from faith and towards pride. And it sets the stage for the unraveling that we'll see in the rest of chapter eight. Here, let's pick up in verse eight. From there, he, Gideon, went up to Peniel and made the same request of them, give us food.

But they answered as the men of Sukkot had. So he said to the men of Peniel, when I return in triumph, I will tear down this tower. They apparently had a strong tower there that they thought would save them. But notice the shift in language. He says to the men of Sukkot when God gives them into my hand.

But he says to the men of Peniel, where, when I return in victory, in triumph. Now Zeba and Zalmunna were in Karakor with a force of about 15,000 men. All that were left of the armies of the Eastern peoples, 120,000 swordsmen had fallen. Gideon went up by the route of the nomads east of Nobah and Jogbeha and attacked the unsuspecting army. Zeba and Zalmunna, the two kings of Midian, fled, but he pursued them and captured Them routing their entire army.

Gideon, son of Joash, then returned from the battle by the Pass of Harris. He caught a young man of Sukkot and questioned him. And the young man wrote down for him the names of the 77 officials of Sukkot, the elders of the town. Then Gideon came and said to the men of Sukkot, here are Ziba and Zalmunna. He's like, I'm back.

And I got them about whom you taunted me by saying, do you already have the hands of Zeba and Zalmunna in your possession? Why should we give bread to your exhausted men? So he took the elders of the town and taught the men of Sukkot a lesson by punishing them with desert thorns and briers. He also pulled down the tower of Peniel and killed the men of the town. Gideon punishes the elders of Sukkot and then his wrath gets stronger and he kills the the men of Peniel.

His wrath is increasing as he goes. Gideon is off the rails at this point. And another thing to notice is that in chapter six and seven we read over and over, God says, gideon, do this and Gideon does that. God says, gideon, do this and Gideon does that. We get to chapter eight.

No mention of instruction from God. No mention of obedience to God.

Gideon's war path continues. In verse 18 we find out that these two kings, Ziba and Zalmunna, at some point in the past they must have come and attacked Israel at Mount Tabor. And when they did, they killed Israelites. And we find out here that they were Gideon's brothers. His brothers.

And so we don't get the story of what happened there in the Bible, but we do get the story of this conversation afterwards, verse 18. Then he, Gideon, asked Ziba and Zalmunna, what kind of men did you kill at Tabor? Men like you. They answered each one with the bearing of a prince. He says they look like you.

Gideon replied, those were my brothers, the sons of my own mother. As surely as the Lord lives. If you had spared their lives, I would not kill you. Turning to Jether, his oldest son, he said, kill them. But Jether did not draw his sword because he was only a boy and was afraid.

Ziba and Zalmunna said, come, do it yourself. As is the man, so is his strength. So Gideon stepped forward and killed them and took the ornaments off their camels necks. That last line is in there. Most commentators say that these ornaments off the camels necks would have held insignia of pagan gods and that this is a Significant thing that he would have taken them.

This is a very different Gideon than we saw before. He's brought his son along, I don't know why. Just a boy. And he tells them to kill these kings. And this would have been Gideon's attempt to make this as demoralizing and embarrassing and as humiliating a death as he could provide.

A king should be killed in valiant battle, not by a boy with a sword. But it's also Gideon trying to give his son the glory of killing kings with his own sword. And in so doing, I can only imagine he scars him for life.

So he does it himself. And then verse 22, the Israelites said to Gideon, rule over us. You, your son and your grandson have a whole dynasty because you have saved us from the hand of Midian. Who has saved them from the hand of Midian? You, Gideon.

You have saved us from the hand of Midian. But Gideon told them, I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you. And we got to give Gideon some credit here, because he says, I don't want to be your king. God can be your king.

God should be ruling the tribes of Israel. He says he doesn't want to be king, but then we're going to watch as he acts a whole lot like a king. Verse 24. And he said, I do have one request. I don't want to be king, but I got one request that each of you give me an earring from your share of the plunder.

It was the custom of the Ishmaelites to wear gold earrings. So the Ishmaelites, that's just a broader name for the tent dwelling people. So the Midianites are the Ishmaelites in this story. And they apparently were known for wearing gold earrings. And he said, I do have one request.

They answered, we'll be glad to give them. So they spread out a garment and each of them threw a ring from his splendor onto it. The weight of the gold rings he asked for came to 1700 shekels. Not counting the ornaments, but the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, or the chains that were on their camels backs. No, I don't want to be king, but I'll take a king's share of the plunder.

1700 shekels, that's just the earrings. 1700 shekels is over 40 pounds of gold. Over 40 pounds in today's dollars. That's $2 million worth of gold. No, I don't want to Be king, but you can make me a millionaire.

I'm down with that. Not to mention all the ornaments, pendants, purple garments. We don't understand this, but at that time, that stuff would have been worth a tremendous amount of money. No, I don't want to be king, but I'll take all your stuff. And what does Gideon do with all of this gold?

Verse 27. Gideon made the gold into an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his town. All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family. An ephod is an item of clothing that a priest would wear as he represents God to the people and people to God. And this, most commentators believe, was not actually something that would be worn, but when he made this or had this made, it would have been more like a bust or a statue of this ephod.

And there's so many symbols there showing that he's trying to be the spiritual leader, but he doesn't want to be king, but he's acting like king. There's just so much going on here. And whatever Gideon's intentions were, he has now drawn them away from the place that they should have been worshiping God in Shiloh, and he's brought them to Ophrah, and they are worshiping this new idol. In chapter six, we'll remember, Gideon was tearing down his father's idols. And now in chapter eight, he has erected his own idol.

And then chapter eight closes with a summary of the next 40 years. It says, thus Midian was subdued before the Israelites and did not raise its head again. During Gideon's lifetime, the land had peace for 40 years. Jerub Baal, son of Joash, that's Gideon, went back home to live. He had 70 sons of his own, for he had many wives.

His concubine who lived at Shechem also bore him a son whom he named Abimelech. Gideon, son of Joash, died at a good old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals. They set up BAAL Berith as their God and did not remember the Lord their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side. They also failed to show any loyalty to the family of Jerub baal, that is Gideon, in spite of all the good things he had done for them.

And now we've come full circle back to worshiping the gods that got them there in the first place. And it looks like this incredible tragedy of a story. Gideon says he doesn't want to be their king, but he takes the king's tribute. Then it says that he has 70 sons because he has many wives. What kind of person takes on many wives and makes sure that he has many heirs?

A king. And then the final nail in the coffin that outs Gideon's true heart. He has a concubine read. A convenient woman to hook up with while he's in town. And what's the town?

Shechem. It's a Canaanite town. It's a pagan town. This is a pagan woman. And Gideon has a son with his Canaanite boo and names him Abimelech.

Abimelech. You know what Abimelech means? My father is king. He names him. My father is king.

I don't want to be king, but I'll name my son. My father is the king. Abimelech has his own tragic story. After his father's death, he convinced the Canaanites to make him king. And he kills 69 of his 70 brothers and is eventually killed himself in battle.

They're sieging a city, and as he's outside of the city wall, a woman throws a millstone over the wall and it hits him in the head and kills him.

There's no happily ever after in Gideon's story. But I think we don't have to walk away completely discouraged either. I think we got a lot to learn from Gideon's story. It tells us something about our human tendencies, which are no different than his human tendencies.

We can live like any of the distinctly different three Gideons that we see in chapters six, seven and eight. When life is hard, when we feel small and insignificant, we can live like Gideon in chapter six. Insecure, hiding, weak in our faith. For some of us, that's where we are right now. Life seems to be getting the better of us.

It's swallowing us up. We're in survival mode, just trying to get through another day. And it's there that God wants to meet us and call us out and call us by a name that we cannot see in ourselves. Then there are moments when we step out in faith, even if it's shaky faith. The gideon of chapter seven, he went from 32,000 soldiers to 300.

And he just trusted God. He trusted God to provide. He trusted God to fight for him. This is the Gideon at his best, leaning fully on God's strength and not his own. And maybe this is where you are today.

Boldly stepping out, boldly trusting in God to do whatever he has promised to do, holding fast in this place where your weakness and his strength intersect. That's a powerful place to be, where his glory is undeniable. And you know that. You know that. You know that you're right in the middle of his will.

But then there's chapter eight. And Gideon's success gets to his head. He goes from insecure and fearful to bold and faithful, to comfortable and prideful. And he thinks that he no longer needs God.

He starts living off of yesterday's victories instead of having dependence for today. And this is get in at his worst. And if we're honest, many of us know this place very well. When the bills are paid and our job feels secure, when we're healthy and the kids seem fine and life is steady, it is so easy to slip into cruise control. It's so easy to forget how desperate we are for God's help.

It's so easy to forget where all these blessings came from in the first place. Comfort becomes the enemy of our dependence. And the warning we get from the story of Gideon is that if we are not as watchful and faithful after the victory as we were before the battle, then we can look down at our own hands and start to believe that we've got this in control and that all of this came from our strength. But Gideon's story is also more than just a fiery crash at the end of his life. The Bible shows us a thread of hope, and it comes from a really interesting place.

It comes from the Book of Hebrews. See, a little over a thousand years after Gideon is gone, the writer of the Book of Hebrews drops his name. But he drops it in a very different light than chapter eight of the book of judges. In Hebrews, chapter 11, there's an incredible listing of, like, the greatest of the greatest of the great. In the kingdom of God, we often call it the hall of Faith.

There's names in there like Noah and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and Moses. And in verse 32, here's what we read. And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the Prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised, who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, escaped the edge of the sword, whose weakness was turned to strength, and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. See, a thousand years later, Gideon's faith.

Gideon's faith is still on display as noteworthy. And just like David, King David, who was a murderer, an adulterer and a liar, just like King Solomon, who stumbled greatly in the latter half of his life. And like you and like me, maybe this is the only thing you need to hear today. We are all more than our greatest moment or season of failure. We're all more than our greatest moment or season of failure.

Gideon isn't remembered in Hebrews for his idolatry. He's not remembered for his concubine or his pride in chapter eight. He's remembered for trusting God in chapter seven. That's what his faith is remembered for, when he went into battle with 300 against 135,000. Gideon's story is still in the Bible as a noteworthy example of great faith.

And that gives me hope. Because if that can be true of him after the way that he ended, then surely it can be true of us too. But how? Well, let's keep reading. In Hebrews, in the next verses, it gives us instructions on how to live with faith like Gideon and these others, and then go one layer deeper.

Hebrews 11, starting in verse 39. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us. This promised thing, this better thing is Jesus. It's the Messiah. They didn't have him, we have him.

God had planned something better for us, so that only together with us would they be made perfect. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance, the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. Jesus is the one who began our faith and the one who makes it perfect or whole or complete. See, Hebrews tells us that as great as the faith of these heroes was, it pales in comparison to what we now have available in Jesus.

Their stories remind us that faith endures. But Jesus is the one who perfects it, who makes it complete. And that's where it gets personal. Because Hebrews isn't just retelling history, it's handing us this challenge in the form of a question. How will your story be remembered?

How will your story be remembered? I was recently talking to another pastor who shared with me that he had not too long ago, just a couple years ago, after a tragedy in his family, he had taken the time to sit down and write his own eulogy and he said it completely changed his life. You know what a eulogy is? It's what someone says about you at the end of your life, at your funeral. It's like the most compact CliffsNotes summary of who you were as a person while you lived.

And he took the time to write his own eulogy, what he wanted to be said of him at the end of his life. And then he asked this question. What needs to change or be maintained in my life between now and my death so that this will be a reality? What needs to change or be maintained in my life between now and my death so that this will be true for me? This is a powerful exercise, and it's the challenge I want to give all of us this week to sit down and write our own eulogy.

Not what you think people would say about you today if you died, but what you want to be said of you when that day comes.

What do you want your children to say about you? What do you want your friends and neighbors to remember about you? What do you want the preacher who stands and says nice things about you to be able to say? And then ask yourself, what needs to change or be maintained between now and then for this to be true of my life? Because the truth is, every one of us, whether we see it or not, we're actually currently writing our own eulogy.

Whether we're doing it on purpose or it's just happening, we are currently writing our own eulogy, decision by decision, priority by priority, battle after battle. And Gideon's life shows us how easy it is to drift, to let fear or pride or comfort write our story on our behalf. But Hebrews reminds us of two things. One, that God has enough grace for even when we falter. There's enough grace for even when we falter.

And two, that the way that we finish well, the way that we have access to finish well in ways that Gideon did not have access to finish well, is by faith fixing our eyes on the author and perfecter of our faith, Jesus Christ. And so what will your story say when your race is finished? Will it point to your own strength? Will it show all the inconsistencies? You said all of these things, but you lived all of these things.

Will it show that you did it all on your own? Or will it point to your complete dependence on Jesus?

If you are breathing, then your story is still being written. Did you hear that? If you are breathing, your story's still being written. That means there's still hope. If you're breathing, your story is still being written, and you get to decide what story will be written.

And because of the blood of Jesus, no matter how our former chapters have been written, today can be the beginning of a new, greater chapter. Today can be the day. So I want to challenge you to take the time to write your own eulogy.

And if you're not yet following Jesus, if you've not yet surrendered your life to him today, then the first sentence on the next page of the next chapter of your life today needs to read like this. It needs to say, on August 31, 2025, I surrendered to Jesus. You can do that today. You can choose to do that right now and write that on the top of that next chapter of your life. If you want to do that, come talk to me after the service during the last song.

We'll have some folks down here at bottom of the ramp that would love to pray with you. Don't leave today without having a conversation. We can get you a pen and a piece of paper and help you write that sentence.

So take the time to write your eulogy this week.

All this is made possible because of Jesus, because he lived the perfect life. He died on a cross, the death that we should have died. And he was resurrected on the third day. And we come to church and we hear that, and we're like, yeah, Jesus died. He was resurrected.

Yay. He conquered death. Church. He conquered death. You think pride and ego and stupid and arrogance are too much for him.

He conquered death. And our sin and our mistakes and our pride are nothing in the face of that. And so let today be the day that we reset.