An Unexpected Hero
 

Background

    * God would occasionally raise up men and women who were called “judges” to lead segments of the Israelites against local enemies
    * 300 year cycle

 
The Encounter

11 Then the angel of the LORD came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah (Winfry), which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites.  12 The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, "Mighty hero, the LORD is with you!"

13 "Sir," Gideon replied, "if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn't they say, 'The LORD brought us up out of Egypt'? But now the LORD has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites."    14 Then the LORD turned to him and said, "Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!"

15 "But Lord," Gideon replied, "how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!"   

 
The Encounter

    * Let him speak to you and tell you what he wants you to do.  
    * Ask him to empower you for the task.
    * Then look for him to speak to you with the sorts of words he speaks to Gideon…"Mighty hero, the LORD is with you!"

 
The Starting Point

25 That night the LORD said to Gideon, "Take the second bull from your father's herd, the one that is seven years old. Pull down your father's altar to Baal, and cut down the Asherah pole standing beside it.    26 Then build an altar to the LORD your God here on this hilltop sanctuary, laying the stones carefully. Sacrifice the bull as a burnt offering on the altar, using as fuel the wood of the Asherah pole you cut down."

27 So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the LORD had commanded. But he did it at night because he was afraid of the other members of his father's household and the people of the town

 
The Starting Point

    * Obey God in the small areas first
    * Get rid of any idols or anything that is taking His place (clean house)

 
The Power

He Man
 
The Power

33 Soon afterward the armies of Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east formed an alliance against Israel and crossed the Jordan, camping in the valley of Jezreel.34 Then the Spirit of the LORD took possession of Gideon. He blew a ram's horn as a call to arms, and the men of the clan of Abiezer came to him.

 

The Power

    * We can have the same spirit
          o Acts 1:8    "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
    * Bye bye Coward, hello Hero

 

The Assurance

36 Then Gideon said to God, "If you are truly going to use me to rescue Israel as you promised,37 prove it to me in this way. I will put a wool fleece on the threshing floor tonight. If the fleece is wet with dew in the morning but the ground is dry, then I will know that you are going to help me rescue Israel as you promised."38 And that is just what happened. When Gideon got up early the next morning, he squeezed the fleece and wrung out a whole bowlful of water.
       
39 Then Gideon said to God, "Please don't be angry with me, but let me make one more request. Let me use the fleece for one more test. This time let the fleece remain dry while the ground around it is wet with dew."40 So that night God did as Gideon asked. The fleece was dry in the morning, but the ground was covered with dew

 
The Assurance

    * A sign of God’s patience and love

    * b. Not a model for life


The Trust

7:2  The LORD said to Gideon, "You have too many warriors with you. If I let all of you fight the Midianites, the Israelites will boast to me that they saved themselves by their own strength.


The Trust

    * God wants us to learn to trust him against the odds 
    * Be confident in Him
    * He deserves the GLORY. 
          o 7:22 When the 300 Israelites blew their rams' horns, the LORD caused the warriors in the camp to fight against each other with their swords.