JUDGES 6
The enemy in this chapter is Midian, a kindred people according to nature. Nothing impoverishes more than the influence of people with whom we have something naturally in common, so that one’s own relatives may be a greater snare than any others. They “destroyed the produce of the land”
and “Israel was greatly impoverished”. A person with whom I have tastes in common is a great danger, much more so than one with whom I have nothing in common. The object of the enemy was to deprive the people of the produce of the land. It is serious for us to lose the produce of the land. We live on that, and if we do not, we are spiritually impoverished; some Midianitish influence is robbing us. How much are we enjoying the “things which eye has not seen, and ear not heard, and which have not come into man’s heart, which God has prepared for them that love him”, 1 Corinthians 2:9. That is the land, and the enemy would seek to bring us under natural influences so that we may be impoverished.
When they cried to Jehovah He sent a prophet to bring home to them that they had been disobedient. There is always the word to convict before restoration or before God intervenes to deliver. God begins with an exercised man, threshing wheat in the winepress. He is seeking to secure something of the produce of the land. The Angel tells him that Jehovah is with him, and his answer showed that he had a true sense of the position as under the governmental dealings of God. That was his might. His reply was, “Ah, Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold my thousand is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house”. What strikes one in Gideon is his concern to be assured that it is Jehovah, and of his own personal acceptance. It is a peace-offering for acceptance (see Leviticus 19:5). He was personally clear of what was evil and idolatrous; he had typically a true estimate of himself and of Christ. There was that which could be wholly accepted, and he was in accord with it.
Before the works of deliverance are wrought, the personal state of the deliverer must be adjusted with God. Gideon takes up relations with God on his own side; then Jehovah enlarges his testimony. He gives him an enlarged apprehension of Christ as the bullock of burnt-offering. This is for his father’s house and for the city. The true ground of Israel’s blessing was to be publicly set forth “in the ordered manner”. It is “the second bullock”, intimating the breakdown of all connected with the first order. It is Christ in energy and maturity displacing all that is idolatrous.
Gideon is more personally interesting than any of the previous judges, because we are permitted to see his personal exercises and how he was brought into accord with the mind [p. 142] of Jehovah, first personally and then as giving a spiritual lead in his father’s house and in the city. There are deep moral lessons here such as we have not had before; a getting back to the true basis of our relations with God. Nothing else will really displace what is idolatrous. It is remarkable that there is no sin-offering; it is rather the bringing in of what is positive as securing acceptance, so that idolatry may be completely displaced. The true ground of Israel’s blessing is seen, and in the light of it Baal is seen to be worthless.
We have to watch carefully the things which appeal to us naturally. If we are going on with God, these things would never get power. If a young convert turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and wait for His Son from heaven, as the Thessalonians did, and went on in that way, he would never fall under the power of the Midianites. To fall under their power shows that we have got away from God; otherwise their influence would have no power over us.
The first part of this chapter shows Israel’s public position. The people of God generally are influenced by what they have in common with men naturally, and they have lost the enjoyment of the produce of the land. God takes up Gideon, a man personally exercised. He was concerned about the state of things; he felt it and was doing his best to save a bit of the produce of the land from the Midianites. He wanted a little food for Israel. That is the kind of man God can take up; he is presented as feeling the situation. He is a kind of Timothy. This chapter goes with Timothy. Gideon is the result of prophetic ministry; if there is a cry to God, before He can reach His people, He brings things home to their consciences. He sends a prophet. Gideon is the result of prophetic ministry; his conscience was exercised and his heart. Paul says of Timothy, “being mindful of thy tears”. A man who would shed tears over the state of the church is the kind of man God can use. Here is a man feeling the state of things, but with a true desire to preserve what is of Christ. Such a one God can use; He says, “Jehovah is with thee”. There was nothing outwardly to distinguish him; it looked as though he was rather cowardly, but his action morally was that of a mighty man of valour. I suppose today a true sense of the position of things is power. Gideon had it.
It was an extraordinary thing to thresh wheat in a winepress, and a very difficult thing to do. The winepress suggests [p. 143] suffering. He was prepared to suffer that the people of God might have a little of Christ as food. How much are we prepared to suffer that the people of God may have a little of Christ? These feelings are brought about morally by prophetic ministry. The prophet came, and there is conviction of the true state of things, and always with that there is a sense of what the people of God need; they need Christ — the wheat — to be made available. That is a great exercise, to feel the state of the people of God today, and to be greatly concerned that they should have more of Christ as food. God can work by a man like that, and give deliverance to Israel. If there are such feelings with us, if we have shed tears, God can use us, but there are very few to weep over the condition of the assembly.
Gideon had a great sense of his own insignificance. His thousand was the smallest in Manasseh, and he the least in his father’s house. Gideon’s was not at all a distinguished part of the tribe; it was the poorest in Manasseh. All this brings him to realise that, if he is to have anything to do with Jehovah or Jehovah’s service, it must be on the ground of Christ, and we all have to come to that. If we are to be used of God, we must get entirely away from ourselves to be with God on the ground of Christ. So he brings his peace offering and his meat-offering. Gideon had learned (what had not come out before in Judges) something of the teaching of Leviticus, as to the peace-offering and the meat-offering and the altar; he had all these things in his soul. He had realised the breakdown of everything; if we do and if we have taken any true estimate of ourselves, we must feel how insignificant we are. So Paul said that he was “less than the least of all saints”. Everyone should feel that. If so, I can only be with God on the ground of what can be wholly acceptable to God, every bit of which can go up in holy fire to God; that is Christ. Gideon was a Timothy; he was deeply concerned about the state of things. It was personal exercise in a day of general departure, a day when Israel was impoverished. Are we going to contribute to impoverishment or enrichment? We are all doing one thing or the other, either helping to enrich or impoverish. Gideon is helping to enrich. I think that his exercise was first personal, then local, then general. First he brings his peace-offering, and meat-offering, and it is accepted; and in the light of this wonderful instruction he builds an altar; his own personal relations with God are thoroughly adjusted. That must be [p. 144] the first thing; it is no use for us to think of serving the people of God if our personal state and associations are wrong. At the beginning of 2 Timothy, Paul presses personal state before he speaks about anything collective; he presses the personal character of the servant before he speaks of separation. What is the good of separation if one’s personal state is not right? It is only Pharisaism.
The first exercise is to get adjusted with God, to have your altar individually, and then the Lord can enlarge the sphere of testimony, and make it influential locally. Gideon gets enlargement; he moves on from the peace-offering, which was for acceptance, to the bullock of burnt-offering. Speaking typically, he gets enlargement in his apprehension of Christ. It is a fine thing to move on from a kid to a bullock. The kid of the goats was for Gideon’s own personal acceptance, but the bullock of burnt-offering would bring all Israel into view. When Gideon is right personally, Jehovah comes in to give him an enlarged sphere of service, and in order for that there must be enlarged apprehension of Christ.
It is remarkable that there is no sin-offering; that is, God is going to set aside what is idolatrous by the positive blessedness of the footing on which everything stands according to His mind. A sense of what the people of God are with Him according to the preciousness of Christ as typified in the bullock would in itself overthrow what is idolatrous. It is all seen to be worthless. If we are with God in the blessedness of the bullock of burnt-offering — the largest conceivable expression of Christ in His delightfulness to God, it puts everything idolatrous out of court at once. So Baal and the Asherah are destroyed; everything is superseded, we may say, by Christ.
“The second bullock” suggests that nothing is secured for God in connection with the first order; everything connected with the first order has broken down, but Christ comes in distinctly as “the second”. He is “the second man out of heaven”. He took away the first that He might establish the second. “The first” in Scripture often applies to the natural and “the second” to the spiritual — see 1 Corinthians 15. These deep moral lessons have to be learned before there can be any warfare with the enemy. It is the preparation of the servant; he is put through the course of education to prepare him for service. We see in verse 34 that the Spirit of Jehovah [p. 145] came upon Gideon. He blew a trumpet and certain of Israel were rallied to him.
Not only are spiritual conditions brought about in Gideon, but he learns to set great value on the sovereignty of God, and that comes out in the tokens that he desired to have from Jehovah about the fleece and the dew. That is, he wanted to be assured, not only of his personal acceptance, and of the general truth applying to Israel, the reinstatement of Christ as the ground of the relationship of the people of God with Him, but he also wished to be assured that he was moving in line with the present movements of God in sovereignty. It is important to recognise this. If Gideon had not learnt the lesson he would not have been ready to give up his army. There must be the recognition of God’s sovereignty. Gideon does not rely at all on his own exercises, or the moral condition which had so far been brought about; he looks for distinct and sovereign movements of God wholly apart from what is of man. It shows the entire absence of self-confidence; he is just at the disposal of the Lord. The dew of divine sovereignty is more to him than weapons of war. It was this that prepared him to have his army reduced.
The lesson at the end of this chapter about the fleece and the dew indicated a preparedness in Gideon to move in harmony with the sovereignty of God without looking at the balance of power. Three hundred are more effective than 32,000 if moving with the sovereignty of God. He had been learning this all along, and that is what gives Gideon his true character. He is a “barley cake”; he is of no importance at all externally, but he has the features of Christ; he is princely. These beautiful features of Christ are developed in this way for us; we see the absolute subjection of Christ to the sovereignty of God. He would not move at all outside the range of divine sovereignty; so, when the cities rejected Him, it makes Him thankful. He says, “I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes. Yea, Father, for thus has it been well pleasing in thy sight”, Matthew 11:25, 26. There is the most perfect acceptance of divine sovereignty. That is what gives beauty to that verse, “Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest”. He invites us to come and stand alongside of Himself. He tells us where He is; He rejoices in the Father’s sovereignty. Now [p. 146] He says, You come and stand beside Me, and I will give you rest. That is the place where rest is found.
The moral state may be there, but that does not in itself qualify one to be any help to the people of God. God will please Himself as to whom He uses, and how He uses them, and when He uses them, but then would I like to be retained for the service of God? Do I love the people of God so much that I would like to be retained? Nothing is of any value if God is not in it. Some very little thing may decide whether we are meet for the Master’s use or not. John Baptist learnt this lesson; he says, “A man can receive nothing unless it be given him out of heaven”, John 3:27.
These features in Gideon were very acceptable to God; they were not the exercise of unbelief, but the exercise of faith that was patiently feeling its way. This is the exercise of a man who is patiently feeling his way; he does not wish to be rash; we often are, when we think we are right. He wants to be assured of every step.
The Lord would never move without a word. He waited for Jehovah. It is said of Him prophetically, “I waited patiently for Jehovah”, Psalm 40:1. Now Gideon waits to be fully assured that he is moving in the current of divine sovereignty, because the dew speaks of that. Micah S speaks of the dew as not tarrying for men, neither for the sons of men. It comes down in silent blessed power from God; man has nothing to do with it. All the science in the world could not make one dew-drop fall on a blade of grass; it is purely of God. Gideon asked for a double test. He wanted to have adequate testimony; it was not unbelief, but the exercise of faith. He wanted a double testimony to the reality of the sovereign movements of God at that particular moment, and God answered it. It had to do with the deliverance of Israel. How was God going to move? No one could anticipate how. God might take up the most unlikely person in christendom. He chooses whom He will, and He works in such a way that, whatever He does, all the glory of it is seen to belong to Himself. If a person is not in line with God, some place is given to what is of man or of self; but, when God works, He works in such a way that all glory is His own. The beginning of the next chapter works it out in connection with Gideon’s army. God says, There are too many for Me. If 32,000 get the victory, they will vaunt themselves that they have done something; so He thins them [p. 147] down. First of all the faint-hearted ones had to go, according to law, but still 10,000 were too many. God has to bring them down to 300. What could they do against an army of 130,000? It is entirely a question of what God can do; nothing is worth a straw but what God can do. If you come to that you get most profound peace.
If I am little enough God can take me up, and use me. Gideon retained the 300 men. Would you like to be retained? Every heart would say, Lord, retain me! If we are little enough, God will retain us. He retained Timothy, and 2 Timothy is very much a question of people retained as vessels meet for the Master’s use. The only thing is to be absolutely at God’s disposal. These 300 men were retained to be absolutely at God’s disposal. Three hundred men at God’s disposal were worth a great deal more than 32,000 that were not.
We read in verse 34 that the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon. This shows that something more than moral conditions are needed; there must be the power of the Spirit of God. If we had the most perfect moral conditions, that in itself is not power; power lies in the Spirit of God. There must be moral conditions first; there is not anyone in the New Testament upon whom the Spirit came apart from moral conditions. The Holy Spirit is given to those who obey; we could not think of the Spirit being given to a lawless person; it is a contradiction in terms. There must be obedience; then there must be the readiness to take up the testimony of the Lord. What do we want the Spirit for? We want the Spirit, not to get through, but to be supported for Christ. The evidence of those who have the Spirit is that they are really set for Christ.