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00:01 Thank you, Jamie, for reading such a long passage. Uh, she's a bit different. She had a hard copy of the text and not
00:08 the the smartphone. Young people, I thought they all using smartphone. Strange to see a young person with hard
00:15 copies. Um, anyway, it's been it's good to be with you at the second service. My joy
00:22 and privilege to be standing here sharing with you from the word of God. Uh we are now in the midst of a series
00:29 on the on the book of Judges. And today we are at Judges chapters 6 and 7 uh
00:34 with the sermon titled Gideon and the amazing victory. And today we are going
00:40 to talk about the famous uh account of the Old Testament hero uh by the name of
00:46 Gideon and his tiny army of 300. Gideon and his uh 300 is such a popular
00:54 Bible story that I was able to find many pictures and paintings uh based on these
00:60 two chapters of uh Judges 6 and 7 and some are even from the middle ages. And
01:07 this opening slide for example is by a French artist uh from the 17th century.
01:14 And I have uh I have selected a good number of such paintings in order to dramatize or to illustrate the message.
01:23 Our text stretches across two full chapters uh 65 verses in all and that's
01:28 a lot of ground to cover but thankfully uh it is not as difficult as Judges
01:34 chapter one on which I preach in early September. But still it will be quite a
01:39 challenge to examine such a long narrative and to deal with so many things going on in the text. But we
01:46 don't have time to walk through every single verse. uh but I will do my best and also instead of um presenting the
01:54 lessons and applications at towards the end of the sermon as I normally do what I will do today is that we'll go through
02:01 the text and along the way uh I'll offer you a series of lessons uh for you to
02:07 take home to meditate upon. Now although we're going to u to focus
02:12 on the person of Gideon and later on on his tiny army of 300 the central figure
02:19 in our text is actually God himself. We shall see his mighty hands moving
02:25 across the events in in the text and we shall learn more about God and what he's
02:31 like so that we can respond to him accordingly. When we don't know a person well, uh we
02:38 can only relate to him or her superficially. But when we get to know or understand a
02:44 person more deeply, then we can relate to him or her more meaningfully and
02:49 effectively. And it's the same with our relationship with God. Shall we first uh
02:54 begin with a word of prayer? Our Father in heaven, we thank you that your dealings with the Israelites that
03:02 happened in ages past have been recorded and preserved for the benefit of your
03:08 people in the present age. As Paul once wrote, everything that was written in
03:14 the past was written to teach us endurance,
03:19 to encourage us, and to offer us hope. May our text today do this for us as
03:26 your spirit ministers to our hearts and minds. For we ask this in Jesus' name.
03:32 Amen. Half the time in church uh when I'm
03:37 asked my name and I say, they will hear it as Gideon.
03:45 Nice to meet you, Gideon. which may explain why the story of
03:50 Gideon is so close to my heart. But my name has nothing to do with Gideon is
03:57 not the Chinese name for Gideon. My late father did not take my name from Judges chapter 6. Instead, he took my name from
04:05 Genesis 2. My name is Iten in Chinese
04:11 uh with a T from the from the term if you know Chinese
04:16 meaning the garden of Eden. I was named after the most perfect place on earth.
04:25 But my late father couldn't speak a word of English. So he went to a friend. How do you say Eden in Chinese in English?
04:33 And uh that stupid guy spell it as a ye e d i a n. It should have been ye e t i
04:40 n. But anyway, that's how I got my name. It's a name for a most perfect place,
04:46 the Garden of Eden. I never asked my late father why he gave me that name.
04:52 Maybe he was thinking I will grow up to be the most perfect person. And how wrong he was.
04:60 Like most other boys, I was a naughty child. Once I when I was in standard one at the age of seven, I threw a stone at
05:07 a girl I didn't like. Wow. Shocking. I was seven. Okay.
05:14 Of course, I was punished by my class teacher. The principal called the principal called in my dad for a chat.
05:22 And when my dad got home from the principal's office, boy was I in trouble. Let's just say that he let the
05:29 cane do the talking for him. In those days after you were came by the
05:34 teacher and when you get home you get round two from your father. Right? Today if a student is punished by the teacher
05:41 the parents will rush to school to confront the teacher. How the world has changed. You know they say oh no you
05:49 must not cane your child you know because you will leave lots of psychological scars. Hey if that is if
05:57 that were true I must be the most disturbed person.
06:03 Anyway, my dad came home and as he was caning me, I could imagine him
06:09 murmuring, I gave you the wrong name. I gave you the wrong name.
06:15 I still remember to this day. I'm relating this to you as an introduction to today's sermon because I want to say
06:21 that in those days I was not a perfect child and today I am not the perfect
06:29 person. If you want to know how imperfect I am, go and ask my wife.
06:36 She can tell you plenty. Okay? And maybe you shouldn't ask her. Maybe otherwise you'll be shocked. I'm not perfect. You
06:44 are not perfect. But really the point here is how do we then get from imperfection to perfection
06:52 by the transformational work of the spirit. Gideon wasn't the perfect
06:57 candidate nor the natural leader to do God's work. And yet God picked him. And
07:04 just like me, Arnold is not perfect. Dr. Peter is not perfect. None of us here is
07:10 perfect. And yet God can use us. And as he uses us to do his work, he transforms
07:16 us. But more on that later than the sermon. Now let's dive into our text.
07:21 And but first let's take a bise view. We can easily divide uh divide the text
07:28 into five parts uh because the boundaries between them are clear. Firstly in the first 10 verses we shall
07:34 look at the plight of the Israelites. They were under the oppression of the Medidianites and were in a they were in
07:40 a really bad uh situation. And next from verses 11 to 32, we shall examine the
07:46 profile of Gideon. What he was like, why did God choose him to to carry out his
07:52 will? And in the third part from verses 33 to 40, there is this amazing miracle.
07:58 In fact, two miracles involving this piece of fleece that Gideon had. A
08:03 fleece is a a woolly piece of sheep skin. We shall see what that was what that was all about. And part four,
08:11 moving to chapter seven, first 15 verses, we will discuss how and why God
08:16 reduced the size of Gideon's army from 32 men to a mere 300.
08:23 And lastly, part five from verses from verse 16 to the end of chapter 7, we'll see the power of God in full display as
08:30 he crushed the Medidianites. And the sermon today will be uh based on these
08:35 five parts. Geographically, all this took place in an area known as
08:41 the known as the Jezrael Valley mentioned in chapter 6:33, which is southwest to from the Sea of
08:49 Galilee. uh the Jezrael Valley and its vicinity is where we find the four
08:54 tribes of Asher, Zebulun, Nefali and Manase from which Gideon later enlisted
09:01 his men and I have drawn arrows pointing to three other locations uh mentioning our text and we will come back to this
09:08 uh map a few times later in the sermon as the names of these places come up. So
09:14 much for the overview. Now let's look into the text and start with part one. The plight of the Israelites from
09:20 chapter 6 first 10 verses. In verses 3 and five we read that the Medianites
09:27 together with the allies from the east invaded the land of the Israelites and
09:32 they came in huge numbers mentioned here with the camels like swarms of locusts.
09:38 And as you saw in the map just now they came into uh the Jezel Valley. And this
09:44 is a picture from 1865 depicting the invasion of the Medianites
09:50 using camels as their calvary as mentioned in verse 5.
09:56 Now just who are these Medidianites from the land of Median.
10:02 When I read this, I couldn't help but notice that my name also appears in this word median.
10:11 Just now Gideon. Now, Median and somehow Eden is destined
10:16 to preach this sermon, I think. Anyway, the Medidionites uh came from
10:22 this region known as Median obviously located in the north uh western part of
10:29 the Arabian Peninsula. So, they may be a little bit more Arab. Okay. Uh and uh
10:35 and as you can see from the map, they they were located to the south of uh of the land of Canaan. But according to
10:41 verse 33 below, they attacked from the east. They came in from the east after crossing crossing the river Jordan and
10:48 joined by their allies also from the east. But unknown to many of you from
10:53 Genesis 25, Abraham had a son named Midian.
10:59 And the Medidianites were descended from him, Abraham's son. Because after the
11:04 death of uh of uh of Sarah, Abraham took a second wife by the name of Catura who
11:10 bore him six sons and one of them was Median. Now for another for another piece of
11:17 Bible knowledge in Genesis 37 when Joseph's brothers sold him as a slave to
11:23 a passing caravan, they were actually Medianite merchants on their way uh to
11:29 uh to Egypt. And so the median the Medidionites they are mentioned here
11:35 here and there in the in Genesis itself. Now coming back to our text the Israelites suffered much under the
11:41 Medidianites. They were in dire straits in a desperate situation. Verse two
11:46 describes the invaders as so oppressive. Verse six describes the Israelites as so
11:52 impoverished. In verse four, we see that the Medianites coming in to rob and steal
11:59 their crops mostly wheat and barley and also their livestock, sheep, cattle and
12:05 donkeys. So much so that the Israelites had to take refuge in the mountains as mentioned in verse two.
12:12 But the more important question is this. Why did why did the Israelites have to suffer to this extent under the hands of
12:18 the Medidianites? Why did God allow his people to be so oppressed? In fact, later in verse 13,
12:26 Gideon himself asked God this very question. But if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?
12:34 And the answer to this is right at the beginning in our text in verse one, the
12:39 Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Medidianites. And
12:45 what this means is that the Israelites, they they were disobedient to God and they turned away from God. And the
12:51 Medidianite oppression was a punishment from God. And it went on for seven
12:57 years. So why did the Israelites suffered as a punishment? And this bring us brings us
13:03 to our first lesson that God disciplines his children when they sin against him.
13:10 When the people of God disobys him, there will be consequences.
13:16 There will be consequences sooner or later in one form or another.
13:23 And a good example of this is in one Corinthians 11. Uh a well-known passage often quoted during the Lord's supper.
13:30 They were now there were members of the Corinthian church in those days who abused the Lord's supper and they came
13:36 to the Lord's table in an unworthy manner and as a result many of them felt sick and some even died. Uh the term
13:43 fallen asleep means died. God does allow hardships and troubles to
13:49 come our way when we sin or disobey him. I call it correctional suffering.
13:58 And the common word for this is discipline. And he does this in love in order that
14:04 we may return to the right path. As he says in Proverbs 3:12, "The Lord
14:10 disciplines those he loves as a father, the son he delights in." And further it
14:17 says in Hebrews 12, God disciplines us for our own good in
14:23 order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time
14:28 but painful. Later on, however, it produces righteousness.
14:34 Certainly, discipline can be painful. When my father came me, it was painful,
14:40 but it was for my own good. But perhaps I must clarify something
14:45 that while God allows us to suffer as a result of our sin or disobedience,
14:51 not all sufferings are due to sin or disobedience. I repeat that. While God allows us to
14:58 suffer as a result of our sin or disobedience, not all sufferings are due
15:03 to sin or disobedience. So when a brother is experiencing suffering, don't be quick to point your finger. Oh, you
15:10 have been bad. You know, because there are various reasons why we why sometimes the people of God face sufferings and
15:16 sin and obedience just one of them. But we we can discuss this, you know, in another time. In our text, we see that
15:23 God does use sufferings to discipline his people. Now, I have one more point
15:28 before we move on to the rest of part one. We're still in part one. Uh verse 24, verse 24.
15:36 Uh let's I want to backtrack to No, sorry. I'll backtrack to uh uh
15:41 chapter 6 verse one. At the beginning, some of you may wonder
15:47 why uh what kind of evil did the Israelites do and how were they
15:52 disobedient to God? Because it says here that the the Israelites did evil in the eyes of God.
15:58 Now I mentioned I mentioned in my sermon uh at the end of uh at the beginning of
16:04 last month when I preached on the Judges chapter one that even before uh the
16:10 Israelites entered the land of Canaan, God had already warned them uh in Exodus
16:16 23, do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. Do not let them live in
16:21 your land or they will cause you to sin against me because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you.
16:27 Now, I touched on this uh in early September. In other words, God commanded them, drive out the Canaanites
16:33 completely from the land. Don't let them stay or they will influence you and you will start worshiping their gods and end
16:41 up compromising your faith. And as we saw last month in Judges chapter one, the Israelites did not drive out their
16:47 enemies. And the Canaanites ended up living among the Israelites. And well,
16:53 the result of that was rather predictable. Slowly but surely, the people of God started to turn to the
16:59 gods of the Canaanites. How do we know this? This is based on two verses from uh Judges chapter 2. The Israelites did
17:08 evil in the eyes of the Lord. exact same phrase uh in the as we had in the in the
17:13 chapter 6 verse one. Anyway, the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the bales, the Canaanite
17:19 gods. They forsook the Lord. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them.
17:26 The result of disobeying God. They had their Canaanites living among
17:32 them and they started worshiping their gods. So coming back to our text, it is
17:39 therefore not surprising to find that later in verse 25 later uh in part two
17:46 that Gideon's father himself his name is Joash even he had an altar dedicated to
17:52 the Canaanite god Baal and also to the Canaanite goddess Ashira.
17:58 Shocking that Gideon's father himself had altar to these Canaanite gods. A
18:04 Gideon was later commanded by God to destroy that altar. But more on that later in part two.
18:10 And so here me, let me offer you a second lesson here that God is dis is greatly displeased
18:17 when his people worship other gods because he commanded us, you shall have no other gods before me. God is very
18:25 unhappy when his people worship other gods. Now granted, most of us here don't
18:32 worship uh pagan gods. Most of us here can say, "Look, I don't keep any idols
18:37 at home." Now, some of you might have had them at home last time and you have destroyed them.
18:44 But today, the Canaanite gods in the book of Judges, they have taken other
18:50 more subtle and less noticeable forms.
18:55 For example, your money could be your god
19:01 or other such material things. Your career or your business could be your
19:06 god. Food could be your god.
19:12 Even your ministry could be your god. When something or even someone is more
19:18 important to you than God with a capital G, then that thing or that someone has
19:24 become your God with a small G. Now I shall leave it at that, but I urge you to to consider this seriously to examine
19:32 your heart. If you have something more important to you than God, one day you may find God
19:39 having to act to discipline you. The test is very simple. If you can't
19:45 let go of something, then most likely it is the God in your life. Remember lesson
19:52 number one. Let's move on to the rest of part one. We find the Israelites crying out to God
19:59 for help mentioned in verses 6 and 7. God, please help us. And this is not the
20:05 first time they were doing this because earlier in Judges chapters 3 and four, three times in in in the two chapters,
20:11 they cried out to God in desperation. And each time if you read that two chapters, God answered them and
20:16 delivered them from the from their enemies. And so here in our text is the fourth time they pleaded with God to
20:22 save them. And once again, God responded. So in verse 8, God responded initially
20:28 by sending a prophet to the Israelites. Now it doesn't say here who this prophet is. Anyway, he explained uh to the
20:36 Israelites why they were oppressed from verses 8 to 10. Essentially, God was telling his people because you have not
20:42 listened to me at the end of verse 10. And the next thing God did was to meet
20:47 Gideon to prepare him to carry out the task of defeating the Israelites. And that
20:53 brings us to the end of part one. But before you move to part two, here is lesson number three.
21:00 God hears when his people cry out for help. He is always sensitive to the
21:07 pride of his people. God hears when his people cry out for help.
21:14 And this is a recurring theme throughout the Bible. Remember when the Israelites were suffering in Egypt from the end of
21:21 Exodus 2, it says the Israelites cried out and their cry for help went up to
21:26 God. God heard their groaning and was concerned for them.
21:33 When the people of God are in distress, God hears them when they cry out for
21:39 help to him. And he will respond. Perhaps not in the manner or timing that
21:47 we might prefer or imagine, but respond he will.
21:54 And so in his respond, in God's respond, in part two of our text, God came down.
21:60 God came down and had a encounter with Gideon at a place called Ofra. Now, as
22:07 mentioned in my previous sermon on Judges chapter 1. Here the term the
22:12 angel of the Lord may mean an an angel sent by God or it could mean God himself
22:20 or a physical a sort of physical manifestation of the almighty God. Now
22:25 in our text it was God himself not an angel who came to meet Gideon. Now there
22:31 are clues here and there to point to that but we will not go there. And back to our map
22:37 uh this place of where God met Gideon was right in the middle of the Jezel Valley where Gideon and his father lived
22:44 and worked. And in verse 11 God found Gideon
22:50 trashing weed in the wine press because they wanted to hide the crop from the Medidianites.
22:55 Now here the an the artist drew an angel. So it's not so correct. Okay.
23:02 But more importantly, why? Who is this? Who is this Gideon? God found him trashing wheat in the wine
23:09 press. Who is this Gideon whom God chose to do his work? What kind of a person is
23:14 he that God should find favor in him? Now in part two of our text, we shall
23:20 examine the profile of of Gideon. As God appeared to him, he called Gideon mighty
23:26 warrior in verse 12. Well, was Gideon a mighty warrior? Of course not.
23:35 But God was going to make him a mighty warrior soon. But Gideon's initial reaction was rather
23:41 subdued to begin with. He he wasn't sure who this visitor was. uh maybe a
23:48 prophet, maybe someone sent by God, but he wasn't sure. But to Gideon, he looked
23:55 like a someone important. That's why he called him my Lord. Uh with a with a small L in verses 13 and 15.
24:02 And Gideon started the conversation by lamenting about the plight of the of of the Israelites, of his people in verse
24:08 13. Why has all this happened to us? And God replied in verse 14, "Am I not
24:14 sending you to save Israel out of Median's hand?" To which Gideon's
24:19 response is most telling in verse 15, "My clan is the weakest in man and I'm
24:26 the least in my family." In other words, why me?
24:31 I'm a nobody. What save the is saved the Israelites from the Medidionite oppression? Not me.
24:39 And time again across the pages of scripture, God chose people who felt
24:46 inadequate or weak to carry out his task. He tended to use as his
24:52 instruments humble people, unassuming people, and lowly people.
24:60 David was just a shepherd boy. Mary was just a peasant girl. And at
25:08 least at least four of Jesus' disciples were simple fishermen.
25:14 Which brings us to lesson number four. God often chooses people who feel that
25:22 they are not up to the task to do his task. God often chooses people who feel they
25:29 not that they're not up to the task to do his task. If you think you are right for the job,
25:36 then you are not right for the job. Strange as it might sound,
25:42 God favors the humble, the weak, and the lowly when it comes to serving him and
25:48 doing his work. And the logic behind this isn't hard to understand because if you think you're so smart, so
25:54 knowledgeable, so capable, then you're so full of yourself that there is no space in your heart for God to take
26:02 charge. When you're so full of self asssurance, self-sufficiency,
26:08 self-drive and so on, then you are so full inside that God's that God cannot
26:14 come in uh to do his work. On the other hand, when you feel empty and weak, then
26:21 God's spirit can come in to fill you. When you feel weak, then God's strength
26:28 can be manifested. This is what the Lord uh told Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9. My
26:35 grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness.
26:41 My power is made perfect in weak people.
26:46 Now, so let all those who are in ministry in FBC take heed.
26:52 All those serving God in this church should take note that the profile of a servant of God is one of humility and
26:59 teachability which is another way of putting across this lesson number four.
27:05 Now to continue with uh part two. So God told uh Gideon in verse 16, I will be
27:12 with you and you will strike down all the Medionites. You can imagine how overwhelmed Gideon must have been to
27:19 hear this. But remember, Gideon still wasn't sure who this visitor was. And so
27:25 he asked for a sign uh in verse 17. Give me a sign so that I know who you are.
27:31 And what happened next was is rather dramatic. After asking his guests to wait, Gideon
27:37 went inside to the kitchen to prepare a meal for him. To which God replied in
27:43 verse 18, "Okay, I'll wait for you until you return." Now I find this rather mindboggling
27:51 that instead of man waiting for God here the Almighty waits for a man.
27:59 Imagine instead of you waiting to see the prime minister, the prime minister waiting for you.
28:05 Our God is a patient God. He is willing to wait for us.
28:13 Now, I'm not sure how good a cook Gideon was, but in verse 19, he prepared a meal
28:18 of uh looks like mutton bread and the pot of uh mutton soup.
28:26 Uh in the Malaysia, we call it soup kaming. I go to the mama, I know they have
28:32 delicious soup kaming. And that's what he did. The next verse, God told him to set the food on the on the rock and to
28:39 pour the soup on the meat and the bread. And the next thing in verse 22, he
28:45 touched the food with the tip of his staff and fire fled out from the rock
28:51 consuming uh them consuming the meat and the bread. And Gideon was so astonished
28:58 at this that he exclaimed in verse 23, "Allah, sovereign Lord, I've seen the
29:03 angel of the Lord face to face." Now, what can we learn from this?
29:10 Gideon asked God for a sign and God gave him one. And a question begging to be
29:16 asked is this. Can we similarly ask God for a sign so that we can know for sure
29:22 who he is and what he wants us to do? There are Christians who are uncomfortable with this. Others says,
29:29 "Sure, you can always go to God and ask for a sign. God, if it's your will that I marry this
29:35 girl, please let it snow tonight. It will never snow in Malaysia." Okay.
29:42 I wouldn't recommend that. It would be like testing God.
29:47 But here's the way to look at this. We who are on this side of the cross, we actually more blessed than the people of
29:54 God in the Old Testament. I always consider ourselves much more blessed than the Israelites of in the days of
29:60 old because today we have the full cannon of the Bible all 66 books and God
30:06 has revealed himself, his nature and his will to us through the pages of scripture.
30:13 God already revealed himself through the Bible. In addition, we were on this side of the Pentecost. God has already poured
30:19 out his spirit uh on us and his spirit is continuing uh continue is constantly
30:25 at work in us guiding us and leading us and this can be lesson number five for
30:31 us. God reveals to us today who he is his
30:36 nature and his will. God reveals to us today who he is. His nature and his
30:43 will. How? Through his word and his spirit's work.
30:48 So if you study the Bible diligently and let the Holy Spirit work in you, then
30:53 there will be less need to ask God for a sign. But more on this later in part
30:59 three. So in the rest of uh part two, just as Gideon wanted to be sure if the
31:05 visitor was God, God also wanted to be sure if Gideon was up to the task. And this is part of how God prepared Gideon
31:11 to be his instrument. So in verse 25, he instructed Gideon to go and tear down,
31:16 you know, your father's altar uh to bail and to cut down the Ashira pole beside
31:21 it. Verse 25, remember I said this now how Gideon's own Gideon's father Joash
31:27 him he himself had an altar dedicated to the Canaanite gods. But what is this Ashira pole uh uh in
31:36 verse 25? Ashira is a Canaanite goddess.
31:42 So don't name your daughters uh Ashira. Not a good name. And this Ashira pole is likely a tree or
31:50 a bunch of trees dedicated to this goddess. And that night Gideon and his men did
31:55 exactly as God commanded. And here you can see them destroying the altar to Baal and also cutting down the trees
32:03 nearby the so-called Ashira pole. Okay. And the next morning there was a there
32:10 was a commotion in town. The Canaanites and some of the Israelites who worship
32:15 these pagan gods, they became very angry when they saw the desecration and they wanted to kill Gideon.
32:23 But Joesh the father intervene by telling them, hey, if if Baal were a were really a god, he could defend
32:29 himself. Don't worry, you don't have to defend Baal, you know, and he would deal with a person who broke uh his altar.
32:35 And as a result, they relented and Gideon was saved. All this from verses 28 to 32. And this concludes part two.
32:44 God wanted to show his people that all these Canaanite gods are powerless and they are useless in the face of the
32:51 Medidionite invasion. Let's go to part three.
32:57 Part three is perhaps the most instructive part of our text from verse 33 to the end of chapter 6. the this
33:04 so-called proof the proof involving this uh miracle of the fleas and it will
33:09 teach us something about faith. Then we begin with verse 34. The spirit of the lord came upon Gideon and he blew a
33:16 trumpet. He blew a trumpet to summon the men from the tribes of Manasse, Asher,
33:22 Zebulun, and afterly uh to gather for for battle against the Medidionites and
33:27 their allies. And back to our map, they gathered at this place called the
33:32 spring of Herod, not mentioned here, but in uh chapter 7 verse one. And the
33:39 gathering of the Israelites uh they is marked by the green lines. You can see them coming in 32,000 of them uh at this
33:47 place called uh the spring of Herod. And then out of the blue, Gideon came up
33:53 with this bizarre idea involving this piece of fleas that he had
33:60 in verse 37, he told God, "Look, I have this
34:05 beautiful piece of fleas. I'm going to put it on the ground. If you're really going to do what you said you would
34:12 tomorrow morning, let it be soaked wet with dew drops, but let the surrounding
34:18 ground be dry. strange request.
34:24 And amazingly, God granted his request because the next morning he woke up
34:30 early and it was as he requested. He was able to squeeze from the fleas, the wet
34:36 fleas, a bowl full of water. But that's not all. In verse 39,
34:44 he told God again, "Please don't be angry with me. Just one
34:50 more time, God. But can you do the reverse? I think he's stretching his luck a bit.
34:58 Now, tomorrow, let the fleas be dry and the ground around it be wet. He
35:04 wants it the other way around now. And amazingly, God granted his request a
35:10 second time. Now early earlier in part two when Gideon asked God for a sign in a sense
35:18 he was like testing God. But this time it's clear that he was really testing God. Not once but twice. In fact he said
35:26 it himself in verse 39. Allow me one more test with the fleas.
35:33 What do we make of this? Because it runs counter to what we've been taught from
35:38 uh Deuteronomy 6:16. Do not put the Lord your God to the test. And also quoted by
35:44 Jesus in Matthew 4:7, "How dare Gideon put God to the test?"
35:51 And perhaps even more baffling is why did God allow himself to be tested by
35:56 Gideon? A tough question. Now, unknown to most of you, there is a
36:04 verse in Malachi that suggests that it's okay to test
36:11 God. Surprising, huh? It's okay to test God. Malachi 3:10, "Bring the whole tithe
36:19 into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says
36:26 the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing.
36:32 God was saying to his people in Malachi, come and test me. Bring all your tithes
36:39 and offerings and see if I will bless you mightily. Test me in this, he said. So, how do we reconcile uh this with the
36:47 uh with Deuteronomy 6:16? Do not put the Lord your God to the test.
36:53 The answer lies in the amount of faith we have.
36:59 God would rather that we relate to him by faith. Without faith, it's impossible to please
37:05 God. From Hebrews 11:6, if our faith is strong, we are less
37:11 inclined to put God to the test. Hence, do not put the Lord your God to the test. But if our faith is weak, we tend
37:18 to ask God for signs in order to bolster our faith. And sometimes, amazingly,
37:25 sometimes God grants us the concession of a sign to help us or to encourage us.
37:31 And the same thing can be seen when Jesus performed the signs and miracles during his earthly ministry. There was
37:37 once early in his ministry when Jesus said to the people in John 4:48, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you
37:43 will never believe. because he recognized that evidence can
37:48 be a cure for doubt and he proceeded to heal the official son.
37:55 But on the other hand, towards the end of his time on earth, Jesus also told Thomas in John 20:29, "Because you have
38:02 seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have
38:08 believed." Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Faith is when we have
38:15 not seen and yet we believe. Which brings us to lesson number six.
38:23 God would rather we have faith in him. Without faith is impossible to please God. But if our faith in him is weak, he
38:32 does grants us the concession of signs to help us. But more on this uh at the
38:39 end of the sermon. I'll come back to this. And moving on to part four, we have to hurry along. Uh the pairing of
38:46 or downsizing of uh Gideon's army from chapter 7. We move to chapter 7, the
38:52 first 15 verses. In verse one, as we saw earlier, um the Gideon's army, 32,000
38:59 men from four tribes, they they were camp at this spring of Herod. Now the enemy camp was to their north near this
39:07 hill of Mor. Now although not mentioned here but later is mentioned in the Judges chapter
39:12 8. The size of the Medidianite army was 135,000 men. It was roughly four times
39:20 the size of the Israelite army. And back to our map you can see that the
39:25 Minionite camp uh the blue circle was about maybe 10 kilometers to the north
39:31 away from the Israelite camp. So they they were actually quite near. But before the battle could begin,
39:38 shockingly, God told Gideon in verse two, "You have too many men.
39:45 Your army is way too big." Although it was only about a quarter of the the Medidionite army.
39:53 You know why? Because you people, if you win, you will boast and you will credit yourself with the victory. And so God
40:00 commanded Gideon to trim the number of men. So in verse three, those who
40:06 trembled with fear, those who were afraid, they were told to go home. You know, Malaysia, we call them the kiasi
40:11 type, you know, uh you know this word kasi means afraid to die. Okay? And so because God could use those who have
40:18 humility as we saw in in lesson number four, but not those who show timidity.
40:23 When you are humble, you'll be willing to to grow your faith, but if you're afraid, then you have no faith. And so
40:30 10,000 brave men remain. 22,000 faint-hearted ones were excused. Okay.
40:37 Now, although uh not explicitly mentioned here, God noticed that Gideon
40:43 was a little concerned about the dwindling number of men. But he was preparing Gideon by teaching him a
40:49 crucial lesson on faith in order that he would learn to trust in God and not depend on the size of the army. And so
40:57 God went further, you know, to really teach him this lesson on faith. God went further in verse four. He told Gideon,
41:04 "There are still too many men." What? 10,000 is still too many.
41:13 You already sent home 22,000. I only got 10,000 left. Still too many. And over the next few verses, God commanded
41:20 Gideon to conduct this strange drinking test to further cut down the number. And
41:27 the men were told to go down to the spring of Herod and to drink from the from the spring. And this is how it
41:33 might have looked like. 10,000 men descended on the on the spring of Herod. And this is how the drinking test
41:39 worked. Those who went down all fours, you know, and drank with their mouth with a face
41:47 to the water, they were disqualified. On the other hand, those who cut the
41:53 water with their hands and and and lapped the water with their tongues, they were chosen.
41:59 And this picture might have been clearer showing the two different ways they drank from the spring.
42:07 Strange way to do the final selection, but 300 men were chosen in this manner.
42:15 Now to this date to this date is is really a mystery why God chose Gideon's
42:20 army using this this drinking test. Some Bible scholars speculate that those who
42:26 knelt down and drank with their face to the water, they lacked the quality of being alert.
42:33 While those who drank with from their cup hands, they were more alert, you know, more careful of their surrounding
42:39 and therefore they were deemed more suitable to be soldiers. But no one really knows. Anyway, it's not very
42:46 important. Today the spring of Herod has become a tourist attraction popular
42:51 among Christians who are familiar with the story of Gideon. It is now uh not called the spring of Herod. It's called
42:57 Gideon Spring. But I doubt uh anyone of the tourists uh is keen to drink from
43:04 the spring because they all bring their own mineral water.
43:09 And this reduction of Gideon's army from 32,000 to 10,000 and then to a mere 300
43:16 offers us a crucial clue uh lesson. Lesson number seven,
43:21 that God wants us to depend on his strength when doing his work and not on our strength. God wants us to depend on
43:29 his strength, his strength alone when doing his work and not on our strength. He wants us to trust him fully. It's
43:36 often said that there is safety in numbers but in God's arithmetic that is simply not true. We must always rely on
43:43 God and not our own abilities. Again, those who are in ministry, please take note. And I'll skip the rest of uh part
43:50 four from verses 9 to 15. There is this passage where God told Gideon to sneak
43:55 into the Medidionite camp and eve drop on the on the conversation between two enemy soldiers. Uh I'll skip this
44:01 because the lesson from this this chunk of verses is similar to to our lesson number six in that God grants the
44:08 concession of a sign to help us or encourage us when we when our faith is weak. So I I'll move on to the to the
44:16 last part uh to the to part number five on the power of God from uh verse 16 to
44:24 the end of chapter 7. Now this is the this is the finale. Okay, this is the climax of the account of Gideon and his
44:29 300. So Gideon and his men were all prepped for battle already. Even though
44:35 very small in number 300 only the other side 135,000 you know 300. So but anyway
44:41 they were all prepped for battle but instead of swords or spears or or
44:47 shields in verse 16 they were instructed to carry trumpets, empty jars and
44:52 torches. what you know they must be wondering you know each of them must have must carry a torch you know a
44:59 trumpet and an empty jar because God was about to perform a miracle and what happened next is something that no one
45:04 could imagine from verses 16 to 23 and this is how the night battle it took place at night the night battle unfolded
45:11 actually it wasn't so much a battle between the two sides because it turned out that the the Gideon and his army
45:17 didn't really have to fight because they encircled the Minionite camp by surprise and simultaneously they blew uh their
45:23 trumpets, smashed the the clay jars and shouted a sword for the Lord and for Gideon.
45:29 And this picture gives you an idea of what the Israelites did on that climatic night.
45:37 The Medidionites panicked, you know, when they heard suddenly the sounds of trumpets, you know, all over and the
45:43 smashing of of the jars and the shouts of the Israelites. So what's happening?
45:49 And in the ensuing confusion and chaos, in verse 22, God caused the enemy
45:54 soldiers to turn on each other with the swords. And according to Judges chapter 8,
45:60 120,000 of them were killed. And this is another painting to show
46:06 what the sea might have looked like. Actually, Gideon and his men didn't even have to enter the enemy camp.
46:13 It was an amazing victory for the Israelites by the mighty power of God. And so the final lesson for us is clear.
46:19 Lesson number eight. Our God is an immensely powerful God. Our God is an immensely powerful God.
46:28 Even today, of course, not just in the past. And he displays his power in ways
46:33 we cannot imagine. And in the aftermath of this so-called battle, it wasn't so much of a battle. The remnants of the
46:40 Medidianite armies uh now only 15,000 men left. They fled the Jezrael Valley.
46:45 And in verse 23, the Israelites from the tribes of Napali, Ashia and Manasse were
46:50 called out to pursue them. And the route which the Medidionites took is marked
46:56 with a red line uh towards the the flat along the uh uh
47:01 the southeast direction. And the last two verses of our text, which I will not go through, uh Gideon also summoned the
47:08 men of another tribe, Ephraim, uh to give chase and to finish them off.
47:15 Okay, I come to the conclusion of the sermon. Let's take another look at lesson number
47:21 eight, the last lesson. I said I wrote our God is an immensely powerful God,
47:29 which is the main takeaway uh from our text. But the question is this, why do
47:36 we have trouble taking this in? Now intellectually in our minds we know that
47:41 God is immensely powerful but it's not often reflected in the way
47:47 we conduct our faith. It doesn't really show up in our lives.
47:52 In a way our situation is like Gideonss when he had a conversation with God in
47:57 chapter 6 in part two. There is this uh verse 13 the middle of verse 13. I didn't touch on this earlier. He was
48:04 like telling God, I'm sorry, God, where are all your miracles that we hear about
48:11 that our forefathers told us? You know, our our fathers and
48:16 grandfathers tell us, they tell us this wonderful miracles you did, you know, in the past, but where are they now? And
48:23 similarly, we also ask, okay, God, I know you are so powerful. The preacher said so. I have read all about your
48:29 miracles in the Bible, but where are they now? You see, many Christians yearn for signs
48:35 and wonders to bolster their weak faith. No wonder Jesus said, "Unless you people
48:42 see signs and wonders, you will never believe."
48:47 At any given time, let me tell you, at any given time, there will be a few of us in our congregation
48:54 who battle with cancer. And I know a few even right now. Now, let me say this. If
49:02 God cures every cancer case in this church, now he could do it if he wants
49:07 to. If God cures every cancer case in this church, then and and and if the
49:14 word gets out, we will need to move our service to a stadium.
49:19 You understand what I mean? Now I have nothing against uh all these
49:25 healing rallies because I I believe that God still heals
49:30 uh people even today. Nothing against them. Don't go and say h this Eden ran down you know the charismatics. No it's
49:38 wonderful you know rallies but we need to ask are these people there because of God or because of the
49:44 healing. Perhaps the real question is this. How
49:50 much evidence from miracles do we need in the conduct of our faith? That I
49:57 think is the ultimate question. How much faith from mira how much evidence from miracles do we need in the conduct of
50:04 our faith. Now our text from judges chapters uh 6 and 7 describes a series
50:09 of of fantastic miracles to show that God is powerful which is the main focus
50:15 of the text. And I purposely showed you maps and and paintings and photos to
50:20 convince you that these are historical events, not the stuff of legends and fables. But to some Christians, this is
50:28 not enough. They want to see miracles right before their very eyes.
50:33 Now granted, we need evidence to bolster our faith.
50:39 Ours is not a blind faith. We don't believe blindly. But at as it is sometimes said, where
50:45 reason ends, faith begins. Evidence and reason can
50:51 only carry you so far, but better still, faith carries you all the way. And so
50:57 perhaps it boils down to the question of the level of our faith. God much prefers us to relate to him by
51:04 faith as we saw in lesson number six. Although he sometimes grants us the
51:10 concession of signs when our faith is weak because faith is the main currency
51:17 in God's economy. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
51:26 But if you but if somehow if somehow you need to see a miracle to go on, some of
51:33 you do need to see a miracle to go on. Let me share with you the greatest of
51:38 God's miracles happening all the time. The greatest miracle is that the almighty God, the
51:47 thrice holy God, the most high God, despite all our imperfections,
51:55 our weaknesses, our sins, he reaches out, touches us and saves us.
52:03 And that's why I started earlier by talking about our imperfections. Because despite our unworthiness, our gracious
52:10 God came down to us and died for our sins so that we can have a personal
52:15 relationship with him. That is the greatest miracle.
52:21 You don't really need the miracles in in Judges 6 and 7.
52:26 I've asked God before, "What is it in me that you see that makes me worthy to be
52:32 your child?" Nothing whatsoever. I'm a nobody. Yet God turned his face
52:40 towards me. That's the gospel message. The gospel is a living miracle. And all
52:47 of you seated here, if you're a child of God, you are a walking miracle. And that alone should prompt you to burst out in
52:55 the in praise and worship. But more than that, may you have a greater and greater
53:00 measure of faith in a powerful God. And may your dependence on him be multiplied
53:07 many folds. Shall we close in prayer? Our father in heaven,
53:13 we thank you for the lessons embedded in these two chapters of Judges that have
53:18 taught us so much about you and your nature. You are the great and awesome God. Grant that our finite minds can
53:26 have a growing understanding of who you really are so that our faith in you can
53:32 increase so that our journey on earth can be made easier. For we ask this in
53:38 Jesus name. Amen.
