God May Reduce Your Strength Before the Victory - Judges 6:25-7:15 (Session 8)

Before Gideon can confront the Midianites, God gives him a more personal assignment. He must tear down the altar of Baal that belongs to his own father, cut down the Asherah beside it, and build an altar to the Lord in its place.

In this session, Glenn and Steve examine why spiritual restoration must begin close to home. Gideon is called to deliver Israel from Midian, but the first enemy he must confront is the idolatry within his own family and community. Following God may create conflict with family traditions, established religion, or the expectations of people around us, but obedience to Christ must come first.

Gideon obeys, though he acts at night because he is afraid. His fear does not prevent him from doing what God commanded. This provides an honest picture of faith: obedience does not always require the complete absence of fear.

When the people discover that Baal’s altar has been destroyed, they demand Gideon’s death. His father Joash responds by asking why Baal cannot defend himself if he truly is a god. Gideon’s act exposes the powerlessness of the idol and earns him the name Jerubbaal, meaning, “Let Baal contend against him.”

The session also discusses Gideon’s request for the signs involving the fleece. Gideon has already seen God’s power and received the Spirit of the Lord, but he continues to seek reassurance. The conversation distinguishes between sincerely asking God for guidance and manipulating circumstances until they appear to confirm what a person already wants.

Judges 7 then records one of the most surprising battle preparations in Scripture. Gideon gathers thirty-two thousand men, but God says the army is too large. After the fearful soldiers leave and another test reduces the force further, only three hundred remain.

God gives the reason plainly: Israel might boast that its own strength produced the victory. The army must become so small that only God can receive the glory.

Even after all these signs, Gideon remains afraid. God does not condemn him. Instead, He tells Gideon to approach the enemy camp, where he overhears a Midianite dream predicting Israel’s victory. God patiently provides the encouragement Gideon needs at the moment he needs it.

Scripture: Judges 6:25–7:15
Series: The Book of Judges — An RTTB Study

Questions discussed in this session:

• Did Gideon obey with full or partial faith? 
• Do we sometimes move forward on partial faith? 
• What happens when we make a public proclamation about our faith in God?
• Do we ever have confidence one minute, and have doubts another? 

Transcript

Following God's Call, Going Against Family Religion

Speaker 2 0:21

Hello , and we'd like to welcome you back to another session of Reasoning Through the Bible . We've been working our way through the book of Judges . We're currently in the sixth chapter of Judges and God has raised up another person , a judge by the name of Gideon , and we've been looking at him and how this all came about . We've seen here that God has called him . He's asked for a sign . God has accepted the offering that Gideon has given to him . Gideon realizes that it was actually God that he's been talking with , and God reassures him that he's not going to die , but then tells him get up , you're going to go and defeat the Midianites .

Speaker 1 1:04

So let's read the next section . We're in the book of Judges , chapter 6 , starting at verse 25 . Now , on the same night , the Lord said to him take your father's bull in a second bull , seven years old , and pull down the altar of Baal , which belongs to your father , and cut down the ashura that is beside it . Build an altar to the Lord , your God , on the top of this stronghold in an orderly manner , and take a second bull and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the ashura which you shall cut down . Then Gideon took 10 men of his servants and did as the Lord had spoken to him . And because he was too afraid of his father's household and the men of the city to do it by day , he did it by night . When the men of the city arose early in the morning , the hold , the altar of Baal , was torn down and the ashura which was beside it was cut down and the second bull was offered on the altar of which had been built . And they said to one another who did this thing ? And when they searched about and inquired they said Gideon , the son of Joash , did this thing . Then the men of the city said to Joash bring out your son that he may die , for he has torn down the altar of Baal and indeed he has cut down the ashura which was beside it . But Joash said to all who stood against him will you contend for Baal or will you deliver him ? Whoever will plead for him and shall put to death by morning , if he is a God , let him contend for himself , because someone has torn down his altar . Therefore , on that day he named him Jeroboble , that is to say , let Baal contend against him because he had torn down his altar .

Speaker 1 2:39

Then all of the Midianites and the Amalekites and the sons of the east assembled themselves and they crossed over and camped in the valley of Jezreel . So the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon and he blew a trumpet and the Azbiahites were called together to follow him . He sent messengers throughout Manasseh and they also were called together to follow him . And he sent messengers to Asher , zebulun and Naftali and they came up to meet him . Okay , so in Judges 6 and verse 25 , note that these altars that God had told Gideon to tear down . Note who they belong to . Did you notice that it says they belong to Gideon's father . So God tells Gideon go down to your father's altar and tear it down .

Speaker 2 3:28

And destroy it and also take your father's bull for the sacrifice part .

Speaker 1 3:34

And if you're a rancher , then that's a valuable thing . Your bull is a non-trivial part of your business . So here's a question Is it hard to follow God if it means going against your family's religion ?

Speaker 2 3:46

Yes , it is . It can't cause great issues in families , right ? Yeah , a lot of consternation sometimes so conflict .

Speaker 1 3:53

What are we to do if we are a person that has been called by God and we're obviously feeling God's pull and we're recognizing that there is one true God , but it goes against our family's religion ? What are we to do ?

Speaker 2 4:07

We're to follow God .

Speaker 1 4:08

We have to follow God . What did Jesus say over in the New Testament about families ? He said I've come to divide families one from another . And what did he tell the man who said , Lord , I'll follow you , I just have to bury my father first ?

Speaker 2 4:22

He said let the dead bury the dead . You come , follow me .

Speaker 1 4:25

So the message is always follow Christ regardless of the cost , even if it means your family . I've seen many times when one person gets saved and it digs in and says I'm going to follow the true God . As for me , in my house we will worship the Lord , and then the family gets saved . I've seen that happen many times . Also , in verse 25 , note that he commanded him to tear down his father's altar and use it to burn the bull . So the asher was a wooden pole , and I just find it humorous almost that the job was to cut down the wooden altar and burn it to be used for the true sacrifice . So did Gideon then obey ? Yes , he did . Did he obey with full confidence and boldness ? No , because he wanted to do it at night , and he even says in verse 27 , he was afraid . So did Gideon have full faith in God ?

Speaker 2 5:20

Well , we continue to see him being a little bit timid as he advances , while he's progressing , he's following God , but he's still a little timid in a few things .

Speaker 1 5:29

This is one of the valuable things in this book is because it accurately portrays human condition . It's that all of us have some mixture of faith and lack of faith , or at least most people at some point in their lives have some degree of faith and non-faith . That's what we see ourselves here in Gideon oftentimes . So Gideon tears down these altars at night in verse 27 . And he did it at night because he was afraid of what the people would think about him . And I know early in my career , in my Christian life , I was afraid of what people would think about me . Oftentimes I wouldn't speak up about the Lord Jesus and I found out later that it's really better to follow the Lord and let the chips fall where they may . And then in verses 28 through 30 , when you get rid of the false idols and you worship the true God , people notice what happened there and the first thing in the morning the men of the city found out this had happened . So what happens to somebody with the people around them when they suddenly start following Christ ? People notice .

Speaker 2 6:35

Yeah , people notice and their reaction is not always friendly and their reaction isn't always encouraging . Their reaction isn't always supportive . In fact , most of the time it's the exact opposite .

Speaker 1 6:48

Oh , I lost friends when I became a Christian . They didn't want to hang around me anymore . Something about following Christ that some people are attracted to and some people aren't . It's like when you turn on the light at night some animals are attracted to the light and some animals run from it . I've always found that to be true .

Speaker 2 7:05

And one of the ordinances in the New Testament is baptism .

Speaker 2 7:09

Yes , and whenever believers express belief in Jesus Christ , ask Him to come in their heart and change their lives and to follow Him , one of the first ordinances that we're commanded to do is to be baptized .

Speaker 2 7:23

And that word baptismal means to be identified with , to be dipped , to be fully dipped the picture there is— To be fully immersed in Right , it's a picture of a piece of cloth being immersed into a vat of dye . The cloth might go in one color white and come out whatever the color of the dye is . And the reason that that's done is that you're declaring that you're a follower of Christ , that you have asked Christ into your heart and that you're identifying with Christ . That's what the baptismal means . It doesn't bring salvation , but it's identifying .

Baptism and Faith in God's Guidance

Speaker 2 8:03

Now , for some of us in the Western culture it's not that big of a deal , but for some people in Eastern cultures where they have strong religion , other religions , other families whenever they do that they say oh yeah , you can be a follower of Jesus , but when they go and they're baptized , that is something that they'll be— I've seen that here in the Western world .

Speaker 1 8:28

I've seen people get very , very animated when they find out a family member has actually been baptized . Yeah , that is where we get identified with Christ . New Testament talks about being baptized in Christ . We're fully immersed into Jesus Christ and I've seen family members get , as you just said , as long as you want to go worship your Jesus and ours too , just like in the Scriptures . People want to worship a different God and the true God , but until you actually say this one's exclusive . Oh wait , a minute , now we've got a problem . I've seen family members get very animated , very excited in positive ways and negative ways , when they find out people have been baptized .

Speaker 1 9:10

It's when you make a public proclamation that I am identifying myself with Jesus Christ . You can talk about God in a general sense . You have Hollywood people talking about God in a general sense . But when you mention the name of Christ , some people are attracted and some people are rejected and God says he's going to separate the sheep from the goats . And that'll happen if you just start mentioning the name of Jesus , then in verse 28, . How did the people respond in verse 28 ? They were ready to kill Gideon in verse 30 .

Speaker 2 9:41

Now again , these are people that are being oppressed by marauding Midianites people of Midian that are coming in every harvest . Usually they're coming through taking all of their produce of the land . They're forced them back up into the mountains , into the dens . They brought their tents , so they stay for a little while , then they leave , but then they're back the next year . So these are people that are being oppressed by these Midianites and yet they want to .

Speaker 1 10:08

They want to kill Gideon because he tears down their altar . They were so attached to these false idols and these false gods that they got very upset when Gideon brings back the true God .

Speaker 2 10:21

And isn't it curious , Glenn , that God has called Gideon out to go against the Midianites and to defeat the Midianites , but the first thing that he's got them doing is what ? Tearing down these .

Speaker 1 10:32

Alders .

Speaker 2 10:33

Getting rid of this worship of Baal and Asherah , the gods Well the pattern for us is clear .

Speaker 1 10:38

What's our first step towards God ?

Speaker 2 10:41

We got to get back in alignment with God . We got to clean our house , so to speak . We got to get the sin out of our lives and get back in line with Him .

Speaker 1 10:50

And we've talked about the word repentance in past broadcast . But the word repentance means to change . I'm going one direction and I turn and go the other direction . When you turn towards God , you have to turn away from the sin , the direction you were going before . If you're worshiping yourself , you're worshiping money , you're worshiping your own good , then if you want to follow the true God , you have to turn away from those things towards God , and it can't be any other way . You can't go both directions at once .

Speaker 2 11:22

We've talked about in the other sessions in regards to God calling us , god directing us , god leading us , and for us to follow that . But the first action is we need to possibly get something out of our lives .

Speaker 1 11:37

And , as you just pointed out , they've been oppressed by the Midianites . But as soon as Gideon tries to get rid of the idols , now they're ready to kill him . They're angrier at Gideon for that than they were at the Midianites . They would kill for their false idols . They would kill for their false gods . They can , but they would not defend the true God . And that shows how far Israel has gotten at this point . They're so far away from the true God that when somebody comes in and tries to get rid of the false and bring in the true , then that's when they get upset . Now , can church people ever get so far away from God that they react against people who try to move them back towards God ?

Speaker 2 12:21

Yes .

Speaker 1 12:22

And it's an ugly thing , just like this is ugly here . But there's people inside churches that if you try to re-institute true worship , they get very upset and it's a terrible thing . So then , in verse 33 , what are the people of Canaan doing in verse 33 ? They band together to then fight . Now is this intimidating , Is this scary ? We've got all the enemies banding together . Is there a reason to be afraid ?

Speaker 2 12:48

Yeah , there is .

Speaker 1 12:49

But who's on our side ? We're on God's side or we're on God's side it's a better way of phrasing it , probably , so they're banding together . It's kind of scary . Verse 34, . What does Gideon now have in verse 34 ? The Spirit of the Lord , the .

Speaker 2 13:02

Spirit of the Lord as close to him , and that's one thing we see in the Old Testament , where the Spirit of the Lord will come to people . He'll give them the Spirit of the Lord . Then he also will take it away from them at different times . Yes , that's the difference between the Old Testament and New Testament , and the New Testament posts Jesus . Once we become believers , we receive the Holy Spirit and it stays with it . It's not something that comes and goes .

Speaker 1 13:27

We're going to see later in this book of Judges , samson loses the Spirit of God and didn't realize it , and it's a very , very awful thing to see . So Gideon now has the Spirit of the Lord that empowers him . These are things . Now Gideon has the power to act because he has God's power , and without God's power he can't act . So then look at verse 36 in Judges . Chapter 6 says Then Gideon said to God If you will deliver Israel through me , as you have spoken , behold , I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor .

Speaker 1 14:01

If there is dew on the fleece only and it is dry on all the ground , then I will know that you will deliver Israel through me , as you have spoken . And it was so . When he arose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece , he drained the dew from the fleece of bowl full of water . Then Gideon said to God Do not let your anger burn against me that I may speak once more . Please let me make a test once more with the fleece . Let it now be dry on the fleece and let there be dew on the ground .

Speaker 1 14:32

God did so that night , for it was dry only on the fleece and dew was all on the ground . So he asked God for a test . He asked God for two tests . He asked God for signs . Here he is again . So he's seen God act , he's gotten the spirit of God , he's been empowered by the spirit , but he's still looking for a sign , looking for two signs . So here's the question , the theological question Was he correct in looking for a sign here or not ? And I don't know if there's a definitive answer to this , but again , I think what we said while ago was correct , in the sense that God knows their heart and if your heart is pure in looking for a sign , he'll give you a sign .

Speaker 2 15:12

At least he is going to the Lord . He's not going off on his own , like they did sometimes . Ai is an example . He is at least seeking the guidance from God as he moves forward .

Speaker 1 15:24

I tell you what the situation where it's not okay to have a sign . I remember the story of the man who was wanting to go get a donut at the donut store and he says , lord , if you want me to have a donut , let there be a parking space right in front of the donut store . And he said it was amazing . There was a space right in front of the store , but only had to drive around the block seven times before the space opened up . So that's not the kind of sign we're looking for . I've already convinced myself of what I want to have happen and I'm going to keep looking and keep looking until I see something that looks like a sign from God on what I should do . I think more along the lines of God give me direction here , and then direction comes . And I'm also again reminded of the father of John the Baptist we talked about while ago . He asked for a sign . They gave him one , but he ended up not being able to talk for nine or 10 months .

Speaker 1 16:16

So does God do things that will build our faith ? That's what's happening here with this face . God is building his faith , he's showing him . I am with you . Over and over again in the Bible we see this . I'm reminded of Ezekiel . Ezekiel had a very difficult task from God , very hard message he had to give . So the entire first chapter of Ezekiel is God giving Ezekiel these signs and visions , telling him I am with you . I'm fully convinced that God prepares us for the task he has us . He never sends us into a task that he hasn't prepared us for .

Speaker 2 16:48

Yeah , and God's not saying quit asking for signs he's giving , getting in the signs that showing he is with him .

Speaker 1 16:56

So another question does God give us the strength we need at the time we need it ? Yes , I might not feel ready now , but when the time comes , God will give me the strength . Does God show himself to be trustworthy ?

Speaker 2 17:09

Yes , he does . It's also the strength in God's timing as well .

Speaker 1 17:14

Has God ever asked us to do something without showing us that he is trustworthy and he will be there with us ? He hasn't ever with me . He's always shown me these things . So notice that Gideon in verse 34 sounds a trumpet , then later asked for a sign . Sounding a trumpet is announcing a battle . Gideon seems to become afraid again , so at one point he's very strong and then later he seems to be questioning again . Do we ever have confidence one minute or one day and then get doubts on the next ?

Speaker 2 17:47

Yeah , yeah , by blowing that trumpet . It's an announcement that can be heard far and wide , so it's not something that's done in secret .

Speaker 1 17:54

Then we get to Judges , chapter 7 . And in chapter 7 , we have here several things that's going to happen . We have some detail mentioned in verse 1 . Let me just read Judges , starting in verse 1 , and I'll read the first seven verses .

Speaker 1 18:10

Then Jerubbabel , that is , gideon and all the people who were with him , rose early and camped beside the spring of Herod , and the camp of Midian was on the north side of them , by the hill of Moray , in the valley . The Lord said to Gideon the people who are with you are too many for me to give Midian into your hands , for Israel would become boastful , saying my own power has delivered me Now . Therefore , come , proclaim in the hearing of the people , saying Whoever is afraid and trembling , let him return and depart from Mount Gilead . So twenty-two thousand people returned , but ten thousand remained

Gideon's Faith and God's Guidance

Speaker 1 18:47

. Then the Lord said to Gideon the people are still too many . Bring them down to the water and I will test them for you there . Therefore , it shall be that he of whom I say to you this one shall go with you , he shall go with you , but every one of whom I say to you this one shall not go with you , he shall not go . So he brought the people down to the water and the Lord said to Gideon you shall separate . Everyone who lapsed the water with his tongue , as a dog lapsed , as well as everyone who kneels to drink . Now the number of those who lapped , putting their hand to their mouth , was three hundred men , but all the rest of the people kneeled to drink water . The Lord said to Gideon I will deliver you with three hundred men who lapped and will give the Midianites into your hands . So let all the other people go , each man to his home .

Speaker 1 19:35

So we have here Gideon going up against this very formidable enemy , and he ends up with thirty-two thousand men . God says take everyone who's not confident and tell them to go home . And he loses most of his people . He didn't say train them , build up their confidence , he's no , send them home . And then he reduces them again with this drinking of the water thing . So he's down to three hundred . What was the reason that he gives that ? God gives up in verses two and three on why he reduces it down to this ridiculously low number . He says it so that they won't boast .

Speaker 2 20:11

They won't boast , but they'll know that it was God themselves .

Speaker 1 20:14

So when God acts , who should get the credit ? God ? God should , god should , and I think that's here Some people get caught up in the lapping of the water and how . What made a difference ? Some of the commentaries say , well , it was the people who were looking , who were alert enough to where they kept their eyes up looking around , that those were the ones and the ones who put their head down towards the water were going to leave . That's possible . It's also possible that it had nothing to do with anything . It was just a way to reduce them down , and God uses the foolish things in the world to confound the wise . The real point of the exercise was not so much how they drank water , but it was reducing it down to a number , to where only God could get the credit . That's the point .

Speaker 2 21:00

Only God could get the glory .

Speaker 1 21:01

Now look at verse one . Though just a part of our reasoning and defending the faith here . Look at the details , just in verse one . In verse one it tells us who went , what time of the day they went , the place they camped , where the soldiers were , what hill they were near . So these are historical details that have to do with the truth of the Bible .

Speaker 1 21:28

This was not some fuzzy , spiritual , high-level , funny passage that could be taken any direction . These are not words of Confucius . There could be some word game here that could be taken in any kind of manner . These are historical details about people group that happened at a particular point in time and it happened at a particular place to specific people , and it says where they were and which ones were on the north side and who was sitting where . These are historical details that are accurate because they were written by eyewitnesses and therefore , because we can trust these eyewitness accounts , we can trust the rest of it . The Bible presents things that were given to us by eyewitnesses that were there at the time and we can trust our Bible In these little passages like this . We oftentimes skip over them because there's not some profound spiritual truth in them , but I submit to you these things tell us that the Bible itself is profound spiritual truth , because it's true . These are one of the ones that I just find interesting . Maybe it's me that just finds these kind of details interesting .

Speaker 2 22:44

No , I think so , and it's good that we are calling those things out in order to highlight them .

Speaker 1 22:50

So the other thing notice when he asked who's afraid , two-thirds of the people were afraid God wanted people with confidence and faith . Think of church ministries . Is it possible to have too many people in a church ministry ? I think that on one hand , there's always a need , there's always things to do around the church . There's never a time I've ever seen where there was too many people .

Speaker 1 23:13

But I have seen some ministries that really could benefit for some people getting out of the way . And sometimes it's better to run a ministry with a few people that really see the vision than to bring in a whole bunch of people just because I think I need bodies . Sometimes , okay , it's a lot of work for a few people , but those few people have a vision , they're all on the same page , they're unified and they can get a lot of work done for the Lord . And if you bring in too many people now I mean too many cooks spoil the broth kind of a thing you end up with people that are pulling in different direction , they poison the ministry , they gossip , they this , and that Sometimes you can get more done with less people .

Speaker 2 23:50

They're not there for the right reasons . Correct , yeah , so we see the elimination of the fearful people . Then we see the elimination of the people that God sends back home and he get down to that strike force of elite men that we see that God how he uses them as they go forward to . Now these ones that went says go back to their home . They kind of went back to the base camp . They come in later . So God again in his master battle plan they do come into the battle itself later . It shows that just God knows what's gonna happen . God is working out in the battle plan itself as well as everything .

Speaker 1 24:29

I see in this whole passage here God is teaching Gideon and Israel a lesson that they should base their decisions based on his instructions and not on their own strength . When they do in their own strength , what they end up with is seven years of oppression by Midian . But if they'll just listen to God , then he will deliver them with the tools that are at hand . In the next section , in verses nine and 10 , god tells Gideon that if he's just afraid , he should go spy on the camp of the enemy and he'll be encouraged . Gideon does so . In the next verses he goes down and sneaks up at nighttime to the edge of the camp of Gideon and he overhears this dream that these two soldiers had , and one of them talks about this dream of this barley loaf that comes in . And it's a nightmare , basically , where they believe this dream is telling them that Gideon's gonna come take over , and Gideon sees that as a sign of encouragement .

Speaker 1 25:28

Is it ever the case here that Gideon must have been afraid ? God says if you're afraid , go down . And he went down , so he must have been afraid . So here again , he was originally called a mighty warrior and he was emboldened and saw victories in his life and he's seen signs , but he's still afraid . Has that ever happened to you and me ?

Speaker 2 25:49

Oh , yeah , yeah , stepping out on faith , following God . Sometimes it is fearful because you don't know exactly what's going to happen , even though you have faith , even though you have confidence that God's gonna work it out . It's not necessarily knowing how it's gonna work out , can we ? Sometimes we bring fear . Is it ever the ?

Speaker 1 26:09

case that our fear is not justified , that it's more of a fear in my mind than it is in reality . I think that happens a lot . Here's another thing Gideon is afraid , but he goes down and he finds out the Midianites are more afraid . Is it ever the case that you and I are afraid but we find out that the people we're up against are more afraid than us ? It's kind of like when you're a bully on the school yard the bully's all puffed up and ready to fight until you actually challenge him and you find out he's the one with the self-image problem and he's more afraid of you .

Speaker 2 26:41

It's something that I call projecting . It's where you and your mind think that somebody else is thinking something or has a particular way that they're thinking about you , and you're projecting what you think that they're thinking or what their reaction might be Through . That projection is what causes you to halt or falter or not follow through with what you wanna do , or maybe even treat somebody a different way , because it's all something that you have created in your mind when you really don't know . Taking out of this is that Gideon was projecting that the Midianites were bigger , stronger , when in actuality they were afraid of him because of God .

Speaker 1 27:25

So here we are . Gideon was in the middle of God's will . He's following God's commands , he's right in the middle of God's will . And God comes to him and says if you're afraid , here's a way to be encouraged . So , are we ever in situations where , yes , we're following God's commands or right in the middle of God's will ? I'm still afraid .

God's Reassurance and Victory in Battle

Speaker 1 27:43

What does God do ? He come in and he'll reassure us . He will reassure us . He knows our hearts , he's loving . He'll ask us to step out and may ask us to do something scary , but he knows what we're capable of . And if we know that , we know that we're right in the middle of God's will , he'll find a way to encourage us . He'll give us a sign . He'll give us a way to show us that , hey , you're following my path , you're right in the middle of what I want you to do , and he'll give us some confidence when we need it . And that is one of the great things about following our God .

Speaker 1 28:15

So here we have Gideon , and he's up against this formidable force , a very large one , that's a huge enemy force . They're camped out , they're to harvest time . Enemy Midian is ready to come in and steal their food . God has told him that he can come in and have the confidence to win . God has shown him that that's the case . Next time we're gonna find out how he does it and it's an amazing thing that God does that causes the victory for the Lord . We'll find out about that next time . On reasoning through the Bible Kawahahah .