The Rocky Start to Gideon's Service (a study of Judges 6)
- mww
- 6 hours ago
- 17 min read
Is God's call in your life based on you or Him?
Bible Study Ideas and Commentary for Judges 6:1-16
Gideon is a very complicated figure who eventually let his God-given success go to his head. But for this lesson, we're focused on his "origin story" -- the youngest (and most timid) man from the weakest clan in a broken tribe. But God chose him to deliver the Israelites from their latest self-inflicted crisis (and he succeeded -- in God's power).
I am sending you! (6:14)
Gideon has a very high Q rating because he's the namesake of the Gideons, an organization with a very high Q rating. We have two lessons focused on Gideon, so I recommend letting this first lesson have a positive reflection on his calling; next week, we can tell the rest of his story, including his disappointing heel-turn.
When We Covered Gideon in 2017
We only spent one lesson with Gideon in 2017, so that post smashes everything into one. This year, we have two lessons with Gideon, so we will want to save some content for next week:
In that post:
"it's how you finish"
a summary of Gideon's life
who are the Midianites?
"The Angel of the Lord"
religion in the Arab tribes
the fleece
the small army
Getting Started: Things to Think About
I have a bunch of miscellaneous ideas for topics this week; the challenge is to make sure that you save some good Gideon-related ideas for next week!
Inadequate for the Task
Have you ever felt inadequate for a task? (I know the answer is yes, else our churches would never have trouble finding leaders for children's ministry or Sunday School. Or our preachers feel the need to preach on this topic semi-regularly.)
Talk it out in your group -- what do you feel inadequate for and why? What do you think you need to get rid of those feelings? Then, let other group members talk about how they overcame that feeling.
The whole point of this week's lesson is that our "adequacy" is not about our abilities or qualifications but God's power at work in our lives. What are you doing to allow God to work through you?
The Lesson You Just Couldn't Learn
We've learned that the book of Judges tells us about a repeated downward cycle.
The whole reason it was a cycle was that the people couldn't break it. They just kept repeating the same mistakes over and over again.
Have you ever had a lesson that you just couldn't learn? Or a lesson that you wished you had learned a lot faster than you did? (We all have, btw.)
I'll give you two for me personally. One involves procrastination. I have a couple of fairly routine tasks that I tend to put off too long -- "next time I won't wait until the last minute to do this!" Another involves preparation. Some of my yardwork requires protective clothing a spraying, and sometimes I'll say to myself "just real quick, I'll get that done" without the prep. And then I'll say "never again -- I'll always take the time to suit up properly".
What's that lesson for you? And more importantly, what would it take for you to learn that lesson permanently?
Were You Bullied in School?
This is a very serious topic -- much heavier than the "lighter fare" I prefer to open a Bible study with -- that should get plenty of reaction from your group. Were you bullied in school? -or for those groups who have educators in them- Do you observe bullying in your school?
Here's the point: what effect did that bullying have on you (or the kids you know who are bullied)? It's terrible. (For a primer, you might refer to Facts About Bullying | StopBullying.gov) In this week's passage, we learn about the sad condition of the Israelites who were being relentlessly bullied by the Midianites and others.
This topic might help us get begin to understand (a little) of what Gideon was thinking and why.
Climate-Adapting Your Home
In this week's passage, we learn that the Israelites adapted their society and culture to protect themselves from the invading Midianites. We probably don't experience anything like that where we live, but if we metaphorically make the climate our "bully", we can talk about ways we have adapted ourselves to our living situation.
What have you done in your home to protect yourself from "climate bullying"? For me personally, we had a carport installed at our home, and I love it. At the church, part of this big project we're doing includes replacing our 60-yr-old windows and wall ACs; it will both dramatically improve the efficiency of our building and keep the rain out.
You might think this is a boring topic (and it might be), but I'm sneakily using it as a teaching exercise for my group leaders -- you always want to "pressure test" your question ideas ahead of time. Save yourself headache from unintended heartburn from an unhelpful topic.
Unnecessary politics. My first thought with "Midianites as bullies" was to look at life in Cuba. The New York Times just released some fascinating reporting -- how the people are adapting to rolling blackouts and catastrophic gas outages, rightly celebrating the people as resilient and strong. But you can see from their headline -- Cuba, Lacking Fuel, Relies on Ingenuity to Defy Trump’s Blockade - The New York Times -- that they make Trump the "Midianites" in my analogy, rather than Cuba's leaders (who are the true oppressors). So, if you think a topic will just spark a bunch of unnecessary political debate, avoid it.
Glossing over a traumatic event. My next thought was to talk about all of the changes happening out west as people try to make their homes "wildfire resistant" fire (Ignition Resistant Homes - Wildfire Risk to Communities). But you want to be respectful of the horrible wildfires in Europe right now (my daughter was in Madrid just a month ago for study-abroad). And you want to be wary when someone brings up the inevitable "hurricane resistant" application. Don't use a topic if it will leave an unnecessary bad taste in someone's mouth.
Unnecessary social commentary. There is no topic that God does not have sovereignty over, and Christians need to seek God's mind on everything. But sometimes, those big-picture debates really don't have anything to do with the passage you're studying that week. For example, a big point I want to make this week is that the Israelites admirably adapted to their new circumstance of being oppressed by the Midianites, but they failed to deal with the root cause -- their evil behavior. If you think my "climate bully" idea will stir up a debate about human responsibility in climate change, then don't use the topic. The story of Gideon has nothing to do with that. (Blame ENSO for everything this year anyway.)
If the Midianites Invaded McDuffie County, What Would They Take?
Here's a truly bizarre idea that I love and can't take credit for (I read it in my Serendipity Bible). If, I don't know, the Canadians invaded McDuffie County to loot us, what would they take? A strange topic to get your group thinking about what they think about where we live.
This Week's Big Idea: The Midianites
Midian was a son of Abraham by his concubine Keturah (Gen 25:2), and he was sent away "to the east". The next thing we hear is that Midianites bought Joseph and sold him to Egypt (Gen 37). The passage also identified that group as Ishmaelites, meaning the two groups had become intertwined, or the two names had just become generically used of tribes from the east.
The Bible really doesn't say much about the Midianites. They seduced the Israelites (Num 25), and they harassed the Israelites during the wandering (Num 31). And that's about it. We don't know for sure where the Midianites lived, if they had a single nation, or really anything about them. (And don't forget that some Midianites -- like Jethro's family(!!) -- are spoken of highly.) Some historians have placed them south of Edom (NW Arabian Peninsula).
You'll notice in your own study that no one really places "Midian" somewhere on a map (or "Amalek" for that matter"). They were nomads who covered wide ranges, mingling with lots of other people.
In this week's passage, the Midianites are associated with the Amalekites. That's not good. The Amalekites were descended from Esau's grandson (Gen 36:12) and lived around the Sinai desert. They fought the Israelites repeatedly during the wilderness wandering (Ex 17, Num 14, Deut 25), and they were still fighting against Israel into Saul's reign (1 Sam 15).
All of this to say that the Midianites were violently opposed to the Israelites.
Bonus Big Idea: The Angel of the Lord
We talk about this every time this phrase appears because every use is unique.
The phrase "the angel of the Lord" just means "the messenger of the Lord". (We get our term "angel" from the Greek translation of the Hebrew word.) When we hear "angel" today, we immediately think of something in particular. Consequently, it's common for modern readers to assume a specific difference between "an angel" and "the angel of the Lord"; further, a lot of readers believe "the angel of the Lord" refers to a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus (more about this below).
So, let's talk about that.
Above all, remember that the ancient Israelites had a very limited understanding of angels and the Trinity -- we take for granted everything we have in the New Testament. Some of their language is simply the best they can do to describe what they experienced.
That said, you can look up every reference to a/the "angel of the Lord" -- BibleGateway - Keyword Search: angel of the lord It's interesting. Sometimes, the author seems to use "angel of the Lord" and "Lord" interchangeably. And sometimes, as in this week's passage, there seems to be a distinction between "angel of the Lord" and "Lord". And sometimes -- like in Judges 2:1 -- there's no reason why the "angel" wasn't just a human prophet (remember that prophets were also messengers). We just don't always know for certain.
Because we know from Moses' experience that no one can look at God the Father and live, I'm very comfortable with declaring that all of the "appearances" of "the Lord" in the Old Testament are actually of Jesus, God the Son. That would suggest that anywhere "the angel of the Lord" is used interchangeably with "the Lord", that's a reference to Jesus.
Some Bible translations very helpfully make this clear by capitalizing "Angel". If you ever see "The Angel of the Lord", that the translator's way of telling you they think that's an appearance of Jesus.
About Judges 6:14
This week's passage is one of the more debated ones.
12 Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said . . .
14 The Lord turned to him and said . . .
Some scholars believe these two verses refer to the same person. Some scholars believe they are different. To me (this is just me speaking), the text suggests two different people. "The Lord's messenger/angel" came to deliver a message to Gideon. But Gideon had a complaint/concern directed to the Lord Himself. For some reason (see below), Jesus (who is the Member of the Trinity who makes physical appearances to people) chose to appear and respond directly to Gideon rather than relay the message through the angel.
To me, then, this particular "angel of the Lord" is "just" an angel. But there are times when "the angel of the Lord" really should be "the Angel of the Lord".
Why? What's the occasion? Why are some events so important that God Himself appears rather than use a middle-man? I don't know. There are just times when the situation calls for it. I'm comfortable with God's judgment in these cases. You can observe for yourself the importance of this particular moment in Israel's history.
Most importantly, don't let this cause debate in your group! Whether God Himself shows up or sends a "messenger-angel", it's the word of God in either case. It's no less true or real or important if God sends an angel (e.g., the BIRTH OF THE SON OF GOD).
Where We Are in Judges
You might remember this graphic from last week's post. The first five judges, which include such heroes as Othniel and Deborah, were good and god-fearing leaders. But with Gideon, we start to see a noticeable dropoff. We're starting hopeful with this week's passage, though there will be some red flags. Next week, we see more cracks in the facade. We skip the later deterioration of his leadership.
Our final lesson in Judges covers Samson, a man who is anything but a hero.
You see on that chart that chapters 17-21 cover a "shocking decline". We aren't covering any of that in this year's Lifeway outline.
Again, the point of Judges is to show what happens when God's people cease to listen to God. Gideon's full life story helps us see how we get from the hopefulness in Joshua to the moral depravity in 1 Samuel.
Part 1: The Israelites Blow It. Again. (Judges 6:1-4-7-10)
The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord handed them over to Midian seven years, 2 and they oppressed Israel. Because of Midian, the Israelites made hiding places for themselves in the mountains, caves, and strongholds. 3 Whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and the people of the east came and attacked them. 4 They encamped against them and destroyed the produce of the land, even as far as Gaza. They left nothing for Israel to eat, as well as no sheep, ox, or donkey. . . .
7 When the Israelites cried out to him because of Midian, 8 the Lord sent a prophet to them. He said to them, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I brought you out of Egypt and out of the place of slavery. 9 I rescued you from the power of Egypt and the power of all who oppressed you. I drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10 I said to you: I am the Lord your God. Do not fear the gods of the Amorites whose land you live in. But you did not obey me.’”
I'm really not sure what they saved by skipping verses 5-6, but whatever.
Please note the acceptable use of hyperbole in Judges. If the Midianites truly left "nothing" for anyone to eat, . . . It's hyperbole, y'all.
I introduced the Midianites and Amalekites above. They are villains.
And in this case, they are villains who are being used by God as agents of judgment against His people (a theme we find regularly in the Old Testament -- think about some of the sermons David Lambert has recently preached based on the minor prophets).
This is where my "Cuba" illustration might be applicable. The people of Israel got creative in their time of crisis. This is admirable! When life gets hard, you can whine and mope or you can get to work figuring out a way forward. (If necessity is the mother of all invention, then survival is the mother of all necessity.) But here's what they didn't do -- it took them seven years to decide to deal with the actual problem! Likewise, in Cuba, the people are admirably getting creative about living without reliable energy, but the leaders are defiantly refusing to deal with the cause of the blockade.
I get it. You have to live. Survival comes first. But eventually you have to deal with the problem. (My fear with some of the problems we face in our own society is that we continue to learn to adapt to the current reality, but we never actually fix the thing causing that problem in the first place. This also has lots of application in our personal lives, especially in spiritual matters.)
Verse 8 introduces us to an unnamed prophet. There are very few of these in the Bible --
1 Kings 13:11
1 Kings 20:13
2 Chronicles 25:15
I love these guys. These are a subtle reminder that God's activity is not exhaustively contained in the Bible or that God intends for all of His servants to be immortalized and celebrated. God is at work everywhere, every day, and His instruments don't always get their name in the paper.
Anyway, this prophet explains the situation far better than I can. God is doing exactly what He said He would do if the people violated the covenant.
If any of your people missed last week, you'll need to do some recap so they know what's going on. Otherwise, this section is mainly about explaining who the Midianites and Amalekites are.
If you want more details, I'll send you to a site that always makes useful maps: 1. Gideon: The Lord Is With You, Mighty Warrior (Judges 6:1-32)
Part 2: God Chooses Gideon (Judges 6:11-14)
11 The angel of the Lord came, and he sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash, the Abiezrite. His son Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress in order to hide it from the Midianites. 12 Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “The Lord is with you, valiant warrior.” 13 Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened? And where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about? They said, ‘Hasn’t the Lord brought us out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.” 14 The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and deliver Israel from the grasp of Midian. I am sending you!”
For the longest time, I was very sympathetic to Gideon's "why has all this happened?" complaint. It's natural for us to feel that way when we experience hardship -- "has God forgotten me?" -- and it's always a valuable topic to cover.
But we just heard "why all this has happened"; the prophet just told us! This means that Gideon is completely out of tune with what's going on around him and unaware of the covenant his people made with God. Red flag! And we aren't going to cover this in our lesson outlines but note that Gideon will continue to be whiny and doubting with God throughout his service. Red flag!
Here's my take on those unflattering observations: this didn't surprise God. At no point did God think to Himself, "This guy is really starting to annoy me." God chose Gideon to be His instrument despite his weaknesses and shortcomings. Let that be an encouragement to us! If you feel inadequate for a task God is calling you to, don't accuse God of making a mistake -- God will empower you to do what God wants you to do. (Note: please don't turn out like Gideon, though; continue to follow Jesus and grow in Him throughout your life.)
I talked about "the angel of the Lord" above. This action of "sitting down" gives me "human" vibes, as in this "angel of the Lord" may just be a "messenger of the Lord" = "prophet" like in 2:1. BUT if it gives you "three visitors" vibes (from Gen 18), then that would make you think this is an appearance of God Himself (in this case, God the Son = Jesus). But I've also said that there seems to be a distinction between "the angel of the Lord" in 11/12 and "the Lord" in 14. We know for certain that "the Lord" is definitely God (see verse 16).
To bring this debate to an unceremonious close, it really doesn't matter. We know that God is speaking to Gideon, so whatever the identity of the angel of the Lord, it's God's words being relayed.
I love the details in verse 11. Threshing floors would have been elevated to make it as efficient as possible for the wind to carry the chaff away from the wheat. That would also make them accessible by threshing sledges. But that would also make them very visible from long distances -- a magnet for a passing bully to come and steal some food. So Gideon (and probably everybody else) was using the dug-in winepresses for the task by himself using some kind of a stick.
You'll find Abiezer listed among Manasseh's clans in Josh 17:2.
God's messengers usually seem to start with a surprising greeting that gets the person's attention (like Mary in Luke 1:28). If it wasn't God's own words, I would find this greeting pandering -- Gideon is neither valiant nor a warrior. But God has a very specific intent here. Why would God greet Gideon as a "valiant warrior"?
Note that Gideon immediately deflects. This reminds me a lot of Jesus' encounter with the woman at the well in John 4 -- she also tried to deflect, but Jesus kept her on task. She also left the encounter in order to bring back an "offering" (in her case, everyone else in town in order to be saved; a better offering imo).
As I said above, I believe there is a change in character in verse 14. I believe God's messenger was speaking to that point, and then God Himself (in this case in the Person of Jesus) appeared and took over the conversation.
Now the exchange makes me think of God's call to Moses in Exodus 3-4:
3:11 But Moses asked God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
4:11 The Lord said to him, “Who placed a mouth on humans? Who makes a person mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go! I will help you speak and I will teach you what to say.”
and I expressed similar condemnations of his behavior when we studied that passage: Moses Is the Wrong Kind of Model in Exodus 3
I think the key phrase for this section is in verse 14 -- "go in the strength you have" (literally "go in this strength of yours"). What did Gideon think that meant? More importantly, what did God actually mean? And finally, what does that distinction mean for us today?
This would be an appropriate time to talk about how the Holy Spirit empowers Christians. Have your group share encouraging testimonies about how God has helped them do things they didn't think they could. And remind that God isn't asking us to lead armies; God is asking us to share the gospel with our neighbor, volunteer to help in the nursery, lead our family to be faithful to God's Word, stuff like that.
The final takeaway is this: regardless of the circumstances, God was sending Gideon. It didn't matter what Gideon thought about God's decision; God had made it.
Part 3: Gideon Protests (Judges 6:15-16)
15 He said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I deliver Israel? Look, my family is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s family.” 16 “But I will be with you,” the Lord said to him. “You will strike Midian down as if it were one man.”
I've already mentioned the similarities with Moses and how we can take away that God chooses His servants based on His power, not their abilities.
I tend to get annoyed with Gideon here, but we should put ourselves in his shoes. If somebody around here got a message from God like "God wants me to deliver 12 million shoebox gifts to children around the world next year" or (more to the theme) "God wants me to hand out 80 million copies of the Bible to people around the world next year", I don't know how well any of us would handle that. As I said before, Gideon wasn't a warrior and had no experience with armies. His entire life his people had been beaten into submission by the Midianites.
And God's point is that in His power, all things are possible.
I think this is another perfectly good time to invoke the Great Commission:
Matt 28:18 All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
On this side of the cross, all of God's followers have been sent in the presence and power of God. We know what Gideon's task was. What is God sending us to do? And in what way is God with us? If your group can be comfortable with those answers, you can call this a good day of Bible study.
For another use of the "as one man" idiom, see Numbers 14:15.
Testing God
I recommend walking a few verses further. Immediately after God says this, Gideon asks for a sign to "prove it", and God miraculously burns up an offering. This gives Gideon some confidence to take a baby step, but before he takes the big step, he gives God two more tests (the fleece).
Gideon is the first person in the Bible to ask God for a sign. Moses didn't ask for signs; God gave those signs to him. What's the problem with asking for (demanding) a sign? There's no faith! Gideon receives more assurance from God than anyone else in any of these stories, and yet Gideon has more doubt in God than anyone else. Red flag!
The Gideons International
Gideon the man leaves a sour taste in my mouth (this will be clearer after next week's study), so I wonder if it would do us all some good to "cleanse the palate" by see some amazing statistics about his namesake -- Gideons International.
The Gideons ministry was founded in 1899 (our church got to hear some of this story just a week ago from one of our own Gideons, Stephen Palmer 😊) for the purpose of mobilizing traveling salesmen for evangelism, and they started with distributing free Bibles to hotels. Today, there are about 270,000 Gideons giving away Bibles in more than 100 languages. They give away 70-80 million Bibles each year, and the total count has surpassed 2.5 billion in their history.
Whatever problems I have with Gideon the man, I'm incredibly impressed with his namesake organization.
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