February 11, 2007
Gideon: Discovering Why You Were Born
Judges 6:1-14
I have to confess that I love watching American Idol. And
this is the best part of the season, when all the wannabees come out for the
auditions. I lose interest when it is narrowed down to the last 50 who actually
have some talent. It is amazing to me that when Simon says, “Why are you here
today?” their reply is always, “Because I am the next American Idol.” They
don’t say, “Because I want to be the next American Idol.” It is always,
“Because I AM the next American Idol.” It is amusing to see how bad some of
these people really are. They interviewed one young man who was about to
audition and told something about his life. He had a band back home. When they
interviewed his father, the father said that his son could, “sing like a bird.”
But when the young man when into the audition room and opened his mouth, he
sounded more like a gorilla — growling, twisting and stomping like he was being
tortured. The judges were not impressed. Simon buried his head in his hands,
Paula just looked at the floor and Randy laughed.
It’s all hugely entertaining, not to mention amusing. The
blaring message of the program for me is: Just because you think you can sing
does not mean you can sing; just because you think you have talent does not mean
you have talent. Some of those who audition believe that they were born to be a
singer, when they’re actually a screecher. One girl even came to the auditions
knowing that she could not sing, because she thought it was not fair that people
who could not sing could not win a singing contest. There are a lot of people
in the world who make themselves miserable because they are trying to be
something that they are not. They have never found the purpose for which they
were born. Some of these people come saying that it has always been their dream
to be a famous singer, but their dream is a fantasy. Their real dream is to
become rich and famous.
The message of the Bible is that God has made each of us for a
purpose, and until we find, and live out, that purpose, we are missing out on
something very important. We can rebel and go another way, but we will miss the
blessing of finding the reason for which we were born. The Bible says, “Many
are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails”
(Proverbs 19:21). All of us were born with the purpose of belonging to God and
living for him. He is our Creator, Savior and friend, and to miss out on
knowing him would be the greatest mistake of our lives. It does not take any
talent to live out your purpose at this point.
There is an interesting passage in the gospel of Luke that says,
“All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus’ words,
acknowledged that God’s way was right. . . . But the Pharisees and experts in
the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves” (Luke 7:29-30). They fancied
themselves to be the people of God, but they were wrong. They thought they were
more religious than Jesus, and therefore they did not need him. Thinking we
don’t need Jesus is a problem many people have.
Beyond that there is a more specific purpose for each of us.
Some of you were born to be musicians. God has gifted you with an ability to
sing or play an instrument, and many of you are using that gift to serve the
Lord. Some of you were born to be teachers, bankers, salespersons, or parents.
You may feel called to be a politician or preacher. Your gift may be cooking,
entertaining, helping people in need or ministering to people in some way. The
Bible says, “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the
common good. . . . All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he
gives them to each one, just as he determines” (1 Corinthians 12:7-11). Your
purpose may be a life long vocation, or it may be a single act carried out in
only one point in time, but all your life has been headed for that moment.
Gideon is a man in the Old Testament who was called by God for a
special purpose at a special time. But there were several things that kept
Gideon from understanding what God’s purpose was for him and how he fit into
God’s plan. And these are the same things that keep us from discovering the
reason for which we were born. Gideon’s first challenge was the challenge we
all face: We have to overcome discouragement. The people of Israel were
horribly oppressed. They were starving because the Midianites kept destroying
their cattle and crops. There was great suffering and discouragement in the
land. Hope was gone. Gideon was hiding in an old wine press that had been
dug. He was threshing a few stalks of wheat that he had somehow managed to keep
hidden from the Midianites. He was depressed. But the angel of the Lord
appeared to him and said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior’” (Judges
6:12). I’ll bet he was tempted to laugh out loud. Mighty warrior? He was a
scared young man hiding out in a wine press. But then, God always sees us in a
different light than we see ourselves. We see our inadequacies and failures,
and use them as an excuse. He sees our potential and what could be.
Gideon’s discouragement comes pouring out. He says to the Lord’s
messenger, “But sir, 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” (Judges 6:13). The angel does not argue with
him, but says, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s
hand. Am I not sending you?” God promises to be with him, as he does with
us. But Gideon is filled with thoughts about his own inadequacy. He says, “But
Lord, how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the
least in my family.” The Lord simply answered, “I will be with you” (Judges
6:14-16). The answer to your discouragement, as it was with Gideon, is the
knowledge that God is with you and makes up for your inadequacies. You don’t
have to do it in your own power, or by your own ability. You go in the strength
of the Lord.
But Gideon is not sure about this, even though the angel of the
Lord is standing right in front of him. (So much for the idea that if God would
just show himself, everyone would believe.) We, like Gideon, not only have to
overcome discouragement, the second point is that: We have to overcome doubt.
Gideon says to the Angel of the Lord who is standing right in front of him:
“Give me a sign that it is really you talking to me.” So Gideon prepared an
offering to the Lord, and as a sign, the Angel of the Lord touched the offering
with his staff, and fire flamed from the rock and consumed the offering. Then
the Angel of the Lord disappeared from his sight. Wow. A visit from God and a
special sign. That should have been good enough for anybody. But it still was
not good enough for Gideon.
The Midianites encamped against Israel, and Gideon summed the men
from all the towns of Israel to come and protect the land from the invading
army. Then the Bible says, “Gideon said to God, ‘If you will save Israel by my
hand as you have promised — look, I will place a wool fleece on the
threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry,
then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.’ And that
is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and
wrung out the dew — a bowlful of water” (Judges 6:36-38). This is the passage
where we get our phrase of “putting out a fleece before the Lord.” What more
could you ask. Gideon asked for a specific sign and God gave it to him. But
then he thought, “Oh, I made a mistake. That could have a perfectly natural
explanation. The fleece would naturally hold water longer than the ground
around it.” So then he said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just
one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the
fleece dry and the ground covered with dew.” Then the Bible says, “That night
God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew”
(Judges 6:39-40). Gideon finally decides to trust God and do what the Lord has
been telling him to do.
I find it interesting that many people take this as an example of
what we should do when faced with a dilemma — put out a fleece — as though it is
a biblical principle. Putting out a fleece was actually a lack of faith on
Gideon’s part. He had already been given clear direction by the Lord, and he
had received a miraculous sign. But all that is not enough, and now he wants
more proof. But there is never enough proof where there is no faith.
Evidently, having faith is important to God, for the Bible says, “And without
faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must
believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him”
(Hebrews 11:6).
The third point is that if we are going to realize the purpose
for which you have been born: We have to overcome obstacles. There will
always be obstacles. And some of these will be God testing your faith so it can
grow. That was the case with Gideon. As he faces the army of the Midianites,
which stretches as far as he can see, he realizes that he is overwhelmingly
outnumbered. But God tells him that it is not that he has too few men to
win the battle, he has too many. And you remember how this wonderful
story goes. God directs Gideon to tell his men that if any are afraid that they
may return home. With that, 22,000 men leave, and only 10,000 men remain to
fight the hoards of Midianite warriors riding on their camels. But then the
Scripture says, “But the Lord said to Gideon, ‘There are still too many men.
Take them down to the water, and I will sift them for you there. If I say,
“This one shall go with you,” he shall go; but if I say, “This one shall not go
with you,” he shall not go’” (Judges 7:4). Then, as the men went down to the
water to drink, three hundred of them kept going through the water as they
scooped up the water in their hands and drank. All the rest fell to their knees
and gulped the water down. And the Lord said, “With three hundred men I will
save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go.”
This is a new obstacle for Gideon. He had a little hope when his
men numbered over thirty thousand, but now he is down to three hundred. And as
he looked at the enemy, here is what he saw: “The Midianites, the Amalekites and
all the other eastern peoples had settled in the valley, thick as locusts.
Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore” (Judges
7:12). But God was about to introduce unconventional warfare to Gideon. The
Lord directed him to have his little band of men go to the edge of the enemy’s
camp at night. He gave each man a ram’s horn trumpet and a clay jar. The men
were to take a torch and place it inside the jar. At Gideon’s signal they were
to break the jar to reveal the fire, blow their trumpets and shout, “A sword for
the Lord and for Gideon!” And then God caused a panic in the enemy camp, and
those who came to fight against Israel began to fight each other. Those who did
not die in the battle fled back to the country from where they had come. They
never threatened Israel again during the lifetime of Gideon.
It is a great story of overcoming depression, discouragement,
doubt and huge obstacles. But, unfortunately, it is not the end of the story.
The fourth thing that is necessary for finding the purpose for which you have
been born is: We must remain faithful. Gideon has discovered God’s
purpose for him, and God has wonderfully used him. He was used by God to
deliver Israel from her enemies. But the reason that Israel was being oppressed
in the first place was because she was worshiping foreign gods. In the
beginning of the story, the prophet spoke the word of the Lord to Israel saying,
“I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the
Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me” (Judges
6:10).
Gideon let down his guard when it seemed the imminent danger was
over. The people of Israel came to Gideon and asked him to rule over them. But
Gideon told them, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The
Lord will rule over you” (Judges 8:23). Sounds great, but now Gideon wants to
please the people. He had taken away the pagan gods, the Baals and Ashtoreths,
but now there is a spiritual vacuum. He tells them that the Lord will rule over
them, but he asks them to create an ephod so they can consult God. The high
priest used to wear an ephod, a sort of breastplate, for this purpose, but there
is currently no high priest. The Bible says, “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” (Judges
8:27). Gideon permitted this religious article to become an idol. It led the
people into idolatry and spiritual unfaithfulness, and implied in the passage is
that sexual immorality became a part of the ritual surrounding this ephod. So,
in the end, the very reason that God brought judgment on Israel is going on once
again. Even Gideon and his family are caught up in it. Gideon began well. He
accomplished some important things that God had called him to do — things he was
born for. But he failed to remain faithful. His wealth multiplied. He had
many wives. His heart was proud, and he turned away from the Lord. We never
hear of any other visitations from the Lord.
If you are going to discover the purpose for which you were born,
you are going to have to overcome discouragement, doubt and obstacles. But most
of all you have to remain faithful. It is important to finish well.
Faithlessness in the end cancels out a lot of good that you may have done.
Ray Stedman tells about an old missionary couple, many years ago,
who had been working in Africa for years and were returning to New York City to
retire. They had no pension; their health was broken; they were defeated,
discouraged, and afraid. They happened to be on the same ship as President
Teddy Roosevelt, who was returning from one of his big-game hunting
expeditions. No one paid any attention to or noticed the elderly missionary
couple dressed in worn out clothes. They watched the fanfare that accompanied
the President’s entourage, with passengers trying to catch a glimpse of the
legendary hunter and politician. The husband began to have feelings of envy.
They had served in Africa for years and no one cared about what they had done,
and this man goes to Africa for a hunting trip and everyone comes out to
celebrate his arrival. When the ship docked in New York, the mayor and other
dignitaries were present, and a band was playing. A limousine whisked him off
to his lavish residence. Newspapers were filled with stories of the president’s
trip, but there was not a single person waiting to greet the old couple. They
weren’t even able to get off the ship until the president had made his grand
exit. They didn’t know where they would be able to stay, or how they would make
a living now that they were back in the States. It all seemed so unfair. When
they finally got their suitcase to a cheap room that night, the old man was
broken in spirit and fell to his knees in prayer. He asked for the Lord to
speak to him and explain to him why things were this way. They had given their
lives to the Lord’s work and there was not a single word of appreciation. They
were lonely and living in poverty. He later told his wife, “As I was in prayer,
it seemed as though the Lord put his hand on my shoulder and simply said to me,
‘But you’re not home yet!’” Yes, there are rewards for faithfulness, but not
necessarily here and now. And we will never receive those rewards if we are not
faithful to the end.
Rodney J. Buchanan
February 11, 2007
Mulberry St. UMC
Mount Vernon, OH
www.MulberryUMC.org
Rod.Buchanan@MulberryUMC.org
Mulberry
Street United Methodist Church