The meeting between Gideon and the angel

 

LIMAVADY INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 14 MAY 2023 am.

JUDGES 6 VERSES 11 – 23

Maybe today you are sitting thinking of a day in the past when you knew God’s hand in situations.  Today it is dark, and you cannot see or know the experience of God.  In Gideon’s day it was dark.  The enemy had come down and taken the crop.  In a physical, spiritual and mental state.  Satan robs us today of our peace and all that is good, but God will raise up a deliverer.  Gideon was that man for Israel.  From this scripture let’s compare ourselves today.  God is in our midst.  Maybe the answer is for a fresh challenge from God today.

The most unlikeliest of meetings.  Gideon had gone out under the cover of darkness, reaped a number of sheaves, gathered them in to the winepress and was threshing them.  Quietly he did his work.  He couldn’t do it publicly.  In times past they would have threshed on top of a hill so that the wind could blow the chaff away.  Now no-one could that as the enemy would have plundered the wheat for themselves.  Gideon was trying to do a small part to keep his family alive.  God looks for the individual doing something for him today.  Perhaps if you had lived at this time and were asked ‘can God raise up a deliverer?’ you might have had your doubts.  We are living in similar dark times.  We feel God is not moving.  Perhaps we feel that God has left us.  The people in Gideon’s day were in total despair.  In Gideon’s own home there was an idol to Baal.  You might say there was no chance of God raising up such a man.  The memory of what Deborah and Barak had achieved was just a distant memory.  Those who looked back to such times were laughed at.  They probably said they didn’t need to look constantly to the past, they needed a person for this day and the future.  Gideon hadn’t much education, but God came to him one day.  God can use any one of us, we just need to be willing.  Think of Samuel who as a young boy opened and closed the temple doors each day.  One night he heard God’s voice speaking directly to him.  Or think of the little boy with his lunch.  He gave it to the disciples one day and I am sure he wondered how so little could be used to feed the vast crowd that gathered around Jesus.  Paul says “but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea and things which are not to bring to nought things that are. That no flesh should glory in his presence.” (1 Corinthians 1 verse 27)  That is why God uses someone like you and me.  Oswald Chambers said, “if you think that God is using you, he is not.”  He uses us whenever we feel like Gideon or the boy sitting in the crowd, asking us ‘what is this among so many.’  We could say the same when it came to the fulfilment of the promise in Genesis 3, the very first promise of the gospel.  “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel.”  I will give the very best heaven has – my Son.  He will come down as flesh and will take the sin of the world on himself.  He will bruise the heel of Satan.  Think of when this was fulfilled.  It came through a young girl called Mary.  Not into the palace or through someone of popularity.  A city named Nazareth and the virgin’s name was Mary.  Jesus was laid in a manger.  God’s promise was fulfilled.  God can do it again that we might be his vessels to be used today.  As Jesus looked around him one day, he saw the harvest field white unto harvest.  He said those words as they were coming out of Samaria.  The people knew he was the Promised One.  When did they hear about him?  From a woman at a well who met Jesus.  That great revival began there – the most unlikeliest of places.

It was also an unexpected meeting.  Gideon didn’t know when God would come to him.  God had turned his back on his people or so Gideon thought.  He didn’t realise that God had withdrawn his power from his people.  Don’t we hear people asking, “where is God?” when something happens.  God has been set aside today, out of people’s thinking.  They have no time for God.  Gideon was doing what he could.  He defied the enemy by going out at night to bring in the sheaves to thresh.  Quietly feeding his family. You and I are to do what we can for our families.  We cannot save them.  I am sure there are people we would love to see inside God’s house.  That is the burden we have today.  We need to do what we can, however.  Are we seeking to get them under God’s word, to bring them in, to hear God’s word?  Zacchaeus climbed up into the tree.  He never knew Jesus would stop with him and invite himself back to his house.  God comes in during unexpected times.  For 40 years Moses had attended the sheep in the desert.  A routine job every day taking them out to pasture and water.  It was a far cry from the days in Egypt in a palace.  He knew he would lead the Israelites out of Egypt but for 40 years he was set aside.  All that ambition was forgotten about.  At 80 years of age, he takes his flock out as usual.  Something happened that day, something that was unexpected.  He saw a bush burning.  God spoke from that bush.  Do you expect God to speak to you today?  To move in a way never done before in your life.  Let’s not give up but live each day expecting God to.  Without faith it is impossible to please God.  Diligently seek God today.

It was an unannounced meeting.  He was trying to save the crop from the enemy when the angel appeared. He was startled and then this person spoke to him.  God didn’t announce it beforehand.  No flashing lights, no earthquakes, no dark clouds.  God doesn’t announce anything to you.  He comes unexpectantly.  The 2 on the Emmaus Road were making their way from Jerusalem.  They were talking of all the things that had taken place.  One joined with them.  He listened to their conversation and asked them questions, but they didn’t recognise it was the Lord himself.  God comes in the quietness and stillness.  Elijah in the cave came out to the entrance.  He was looking for God.  A great wind blew, then an earthquake and a fire but God was not in any of these.  He came to Elijah in a still small voice.  Sometimes we look to the big things.  All the glitter and razzamatazz.  Sometimes it can be just in the normal everyday of getting up and reading God’s word that he speaks to us.

It was an unsettled meeting.  He was going to face his fears.  God gives a hunger and thirst in our lives.  He has a task just for you. Remember when you were a sinner and God came to you.  He forgave you, showed you the cross.  Didn’t he do that with Mary?  Settled in Nazareth and the angel came to tell her she would bare the Saviour of the world.  Moses saw the burning bush and heard God’s voice.

It was an unmistakable meeting.  Gideon would look to that day when he heard God’s voice.  Are you looking for that today?  When he presented his sacrifice, the angel put forth his staff and fire lit up the flesh and unleavened cakes – verse 21.