Gideon

Have you ever watched A Bug's Life? There's a colony of ants who are being oppressed by a swarm of grasshoppers. Every year the ants try to prepare as much food as possible for the winter so that they can give a share to the grasshoppers and still have some of their own leftover. The next couple of chapters are all telling the story of Gideon. This first chapter of his story reminds me of the oppression the ants experienced in the movie.


Read 6:1: Israel sins and is enslaved. Little background info: In Numbers 31, the Israelites were told to utterly destroy. However, they spared the lives of many of the women and children. They've now had time to repopulate and are now oppressing the Israelites. Decisions have consequences and this bad decision has a bad consequences, even if it comes many years later.
Read 6:2-5: The oppression experienced under the Midianites is severe. The Israelites are having all their crops and animals destroyed year after year. The people are hiding in mountains and caves-really anywhere where they feel like they can go to escape.
Read 6:6: Israel cries out to the Lord because the Midianites have crushed their spirits.
Read 6:8-10: God sends a prophet (not a judge) to remind them of how He's previously delivered them and how He's told them not to fear foreign Gods.
Read 6:11: Now an "angel of the Lord" (aka preincarnate Jesus) comes to Gideon who is beating wheat in a wine press. Do you know how wheat is harvested? First it's cut down and taken to a threshing floor. Here it's beaten so that then seed is separated from the chaff (outer layer of protection). Then the seed and chaff are tossed in the air so that the chaff blows away just leaving the seed. (If you want more details, here's a nice article, with pictures.)
Ok, so now that you're picturing how wheat is harvested, refresh your memory-where is Gideon his wheat? a wine press. Clearly not the ideal place to be harvesting wheat, but it's safe. He's trying to hide from the Midianites and possibly save some of his wheat from being destroyed.
Read 6:12: Ha! "Valiant warrior," more like big chicken. Clearly this is more of a prophetic word that a current evaluation. Luckily for Gideon and lucky for us, God sees our potential. He wants to use us even when we're scared and hiding. God is with Gideon and He is with us.
Read 6:13: Gideon replies with disbelief. He can't believe that if God were really with them that all this bad would be happening. No way, God's abandoned us.
Read 6:14: The angel of the Lord, not hindered by Gideon's disbelief, tells him that he will deliver Israel (aka God raises a judge).
Read 6:15-16: Gideon is still scared so he tries to get out of it by pointing out that he's a nobody, from an insignificant tribe. But the angel of the Lord again reminds Gideon that He will be with him.
Read 6:17-22: Gideon says "prove it, give me a sign." And so He does, which causes Gideon to believe it's God.

Read 6:23: The Lord reminds him not to be afraid (a reminder he clearly needed) and lets him know he won't die trying. It's reassuring to know you're not going to die, but also a bit daunting to know that stuff is going to happen to make you feel like you might.
Read 6:24: Gideon builds an altar to God.
Read 6:25-26: Now God tells him destroy his dad's altars to false gods (owned by his dad but used by many in the town). Then using those materials build one for God instead. The two things he was to destroy were an Asherah pole (like a big wooden totem pole for a female deity) and an altar to Baal (huge rocks forming a elevated tabletop that they could sacrifice on).
Read 6:27: Gideon obeys. Of course, he's scared so he gets a couple of guys to help him and does it under the cover of darkness to avoid being seen.
Read 6:28-30: The men of the town are angry, figure out it was Gideon who destroyed the altars, and come after him.
Read 6:31: Gideon's dad defends Gideon saying Baal can fight his own battle. So the people leave him alone.
Read 6:32: Gideon is renamed Jeruabbaal which basically means Baal-fighter.
Read 6:33: Meanwhile... the Midianites are getting ready to attack again.
Read 6:34-35: The "Spirit of the Lord," aka the Holy Spirit (for more info, see note on verse 10 of this post), comes upon Gideon and he gathers up his own troops.
Read 6:36-40: Even though he's obeying, Gideon's still scared, so he asks God for another sign to prove He's going to deliver Israel. God does it. Yet Gideon needs to double check and make sure so asks again. And again, God does it.

To be continued... Chapter 7 will continue the story of Gideon and we will see if this judge that God has raised will deliver the people.

Applications:

• Decisions have consequences. Good decisions have good consequences; bad decisions have bad consequences.
• Let God use you. He sees your potential and will strengthen you to accomplish His will.
• Obey even if you're scared. God will bless your obedience.
• God can handle your doubt. 

Oh and as a nice little recap of the chapter we flipped through the pictures of this chapter in The Brick Testament (lego scenes of the story). Check it out.