The Judges Cycle

2. “The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.” (Judges 6:1-6)

3. The Judges Cycle • Once again, the people of Israel acquiesced to pagan culture and began to worship the Gods Baal and Ashereh. • Despite receiving prophetic warning, rather than heeding the warning, remembering God’s incredible intervention and creating and cultivating Godly culture, the Israelites continued to forget God’s actions and assumed the pagan culture of the land they “inherited”.

4. Gideon: From threshing Wheat to leading an army • His call: “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior”, exclaimed the angel, “go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand” (Judges 6:12,14). • His Response: I am anything but a mighty warrior, the least in my family, from the weakest clan in all Israel.

5. Gideon • A directive: “take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering” (Judges 6:25-26). • Gideon’s actions communicate that Midian’s seven years of oppression are coming to an end and that God will make a mockery of the worship of Baal and Ashereh.

6. The aggressive nations gathered again for another attack on Israel and we are told that “the Spirit of the Lord came on Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, summoning the [Israelite army]” (Judges 6:34). • From a militarily strategic perspective, such an attack defied logic, yet Gideon was not operating “by might nor by power, but by [God’s] Spirit” (Zechariah 4:6).

7. Two Sets of TEsts Gideon’s “tests” of God • Fleece test #1 • Fleece test #2 God’s “tests” of Gideon • Send home the fearful soldiers • Drinking water test • Only three hundred men remained after these tests and yet, amazingly, Gideon was still ready to battle the Midianite hordes.

8. “TheLord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords” (Judges 7:22) and the Midianite army was absolutely routed.

9. “Rule over us—you, your son and your grandson—because you have saved us from the hand of Midian” (Judges 8:22). • Gideon refused to be made king, for he knew who the true King of Israel was. • Even after all the culture cultivating Gideon engaged in, there was still an inkling of pagan culture left, a smidge left uneradicated that became a stumbling block for Israel.

10. Application • Through honest relationship with God, we will come to understand how to engage oppositional culture and I believe that God’s going to graciously give us confirmation of His plan for us along the way. • God’s use of the seemingly insignificant – Gideon and but 300 soldiers - highlights His power, authority, reign and rule. • Gideon’s failure to fully clear out pagan culture established traps and snares for subsequent generations of God’s people. What does our obedience look like and what snares we might be setting for future generations.