In The Beginning Week 4 - Pastor Joshua Kapchinsky

Granite Creek Community Church Sermons

Today we are going on very great journey and we will be traveling for 4 weeks on this journey. Today we are taking that journey back to The Beginning. So will you travel with me on this journey as we learn about Creation. Today we are learning where in the bible it talks about Gideon and the Angel of the Lord. The account of Gideon’s life is recorded in Judges 6:11-8:32. The backdrop for Gideon’s biography begins with the Israelites being ravaged by the Midianites as a consequence of their disobedience to God (Judges 6:1). For seven years they faced invasions from the Midianites, Amalekites, and Eastern foreigners who ruined their crops and destroyed their cattle. Although they had been unfaithful to God by worshipping the gods of the Amorites, they cried out to God for His help without realizing why this was happening to them (Judges 6:6). And so God sends them a prophet to remind them of how the one true God had provided for them in the past and yet how quickly they had forsaken Him (Judges 6:8-10). God hears their cries and graciously intervenes by sending an angel to Gideon to call him into service (vss. 11-14). Gideon, whose name means “cutter” or “cutter of trees,” belonged to an undistinguished family of the Abiezrites, but from the angel’s greeting we can assume that Gideon had already proved to be a mighty warrior (Judges 6:12). Though Gideon was a willing servant of God, he needed assurance that it was, in fact, God calling him to this divine service (vs.17). In accomplishing the mission set before him by God, Gideon proves himself to be faithful, a mighty warrior, a strong leader of men (Judges 7:17), and a diplomat (Judges 8:1-3). As such, he is included in a fitting testimonial for the great men of faith in Hebrews 11:32-34. Gideon was the fifth judge and renowned as the greatest of Israel. The highlights of Gideon’s life include his victorious battle against Israel’s enemies. However, we mustn’t overlook his amazing faith, by which he carried out God’s mission and which was first put to the test and confirmed when he destroyed the Baal idols his father and the community had been worshipping (Judges 6:25-27). Gideon’s battle triumph is preceded by God’s anointing (Judges 6:34). It was no small feat that Gideon managed to enlist his tribesmen, the Abiezerites, to go into battle with him. These were the men whose idols he had destroyed and who had renamed him “Jerub-baal” (Judges 6:32). Before entering battle, Gideon’s troops number 32,000, but in obedience to God he reduces them by 22,000 (Judges 7:2-3). Again in obedience to God he decreases the remaining 10,000 by a further 9,700, leaving him with just 300 men (vss. 7-8). This was against an enemy that is described as “thick as locusts” with “camels as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore” (Judges 7:12). With the battle finally won, the people suggest that Gideon rule over them as their king, but he declines their accolades and tells them the Lord will rule over them (Judges 8:22-23).