Old Testament in a Year: Judges 6-16

Today is Pentecost Sunday. Some of you might be like, well, what is that? I don't even know what that is. Are we about to bring out the snakes? What's going on?

What does that mean? Is that a charismatic thing? Is that some kind of a weird thing? What is Pentecost Sunday all about? Well, I just want you to know that it's not just an Acts Chapter two thing.

It actually started long before that, when the Israelites came out of Egypt and they celebrated Passover because the death angel passed over the homes of the Israelites that had applied the blood of the Lamb to the doorpost of their home. And 50 days later, after Passover, fire came down on a mountain. The mountain was called Mount Sinai. There was wind, There was an earthquake, There was thunder. There was the voice of God.

And God gave to Moses the law, the Ten Commandments. And from that moment until now, Jews and believers all over the world have celebrated what's called Pentecost Sunday, or the feast of Shavuot, the Feast of weeks. Now, that was fulfilled in Acts Chapter two. We see all of the different feasts and celebrations in the Old Testament that were fulfilled in the New Testament. Once again, fire came down not on a mountain, but it came down on 120 people gathered in a prayer meeting in Jerusalem.

There was wind. The earth shook, and the world was forever changed by the power of the Holy Spirit. The word Pentecost comes from a Greek word, Pentecoste. It just means 50th, 50 days after Passover, 50 days after the crucifixion of Jesus. And today we celebrate Pentecost Sunday.

And what we find in Acts Chapter two is the birthday of the church, the birthday of the New Testament Testament Church. And it's a reminder to us today that every person who's in a relationship with Jesus can also have a relationship with the person of the Holy Spirit. Can I just tell you, you cannot do this without him. You cannot live a victorious life without the person of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, I have to leave so that one just like myself, another comforter, an advocate, is going to come.

And when he comes, he's going to live on the inside of you. He's going to empower you to do what you cannot do on your own. Some of you may say, what does this have to do with the Book of Judges?

We're going through the entire old testament in 2026, and that's what we're going to talk about today in Judges Chapter six. We're going to begin to read in verse one, I'm going to invite you to stand to honor the greatest book on the planet.

Judges, chapter six. It was back in November of 2015 that a young Air Force Academy cadet, 19 years older, her name was Charlotte, she was from Virginia. She travels from Colorado back to Virginia to celebrate Thanksgiving with her family. 19 year old Charlotte, while she's sitting in the house, her dad's working on a truck in the garage. Somehow the truck slipped off of the jack, pinning her father underneath.

The truck, ruptured the fuel line, started a fire in the garage. And Charlotte, this female Air Force Academy cadet, who was 56 and 120 pounds, rushes into the garage and somehow lifts the truck up off of her dad so that he's no longer pinned. Then she lifts the truck up a second time where he's able to roll out from under the truck. The tires are on fire. The whole house is threatened with the flames of this truck.

So she jumps into the driver's seat, puts the truck in neutral, pushes the truck on three wheels out of the garage. There you see 19 year old Charlotte and her dad and the truck missing one of the tire because of the fire that she had pushed out into the yard so the house didn't catch on fire and so that her family was saved. Everybody, everybody that knew about that story recognized Charlotte could not do that on her own. 5, 6, 120 pounds. No way she could lift a big pickup truck up off of her dad.

Something happened. And we've heard stories like this. Where's this supernatural strength comes on a person to do something like that? We're gonna see in Judges chapter 6. Supernatural strength comes on a guy who's in a crisis.

This guy's name is Gideon. And he needed the power to do what he could not do on his own. Just like you and I need power from on high. You guys ready for the word? All right.

Judges chapter six. Beginning in verse one, it says this. The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. And for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. We're going to talk about that in a moment.

Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain cliffs, caves and strongholds. Strongholds. And whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel. Neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys.

They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels. They invaded the land to ravage it. Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help. Skip down to verse 11.

Still in chapter six, the angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak and Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abyssrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, watch this. The Lord is with you, mighty warrior. We'll talk about that. Pardon me, my Lord, Gideon replied, but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?

Where are all of his wonders that our ancestors told us about? When they said, did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt? And now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian? The Lord turned to him and said, go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hands. Am I not sending you?

Pardon me, my Lord. Second time, Gideon replied, but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I'm the least in my family. And the Lord answered, I will be with you. And you will strike down all of the Midianites, leaving none alive.

It's one of my favorite stories in the Bible. Possibly cannot wait to unpack this with you today. Come on. Are you ready for the Lord to do what he desires to do in this place? Come on.

Will you open up your heart? Will you allow God? Will you give him permission to do whatever he desires to do in your life? Come on, let's make some declarations before you're seated. Everybody together.

Those of you watching online, those of you joining us on the Pando app. Here we go. Ready? Go. I will hide this word in my heart that I might not sin against God.

This word is life to my body, health to my bones. I will be a doer of the Word and not a hearer only. And I am confident of this, that he who has begun a good work in me, in Jesus name. Do you believe that? Someone say Amen.

Amen. You can be seated.

Listen, I want you to understand something.

God is not a mean God. God is not unfair. We read in verse one, chapter six, it says again, the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hands of the Midianites for seven years. And some of you, right then maybe you checked out and Said, hey, God's unfair, God's mean. Why would God do that to the Israelites?

Listen to me. There are consequences always to our disobedience. God longs for relationship with us. But sin and rebellion separate us from God, not God from us. We make the choice, and there are consequences to the choices that we make.

I'm going to ask my son, Pastor Cole, would you come up and help me real quick? All right.

You're going to play God. How does it feel? He's God, all right. Take this. You're God.

This umbrella, open it up. Represents your Word and your standards. Now, when we move into relationship with God, we draw close to him because he's invited us to do so. And when we walk in fellowship with God and when we obey what scripture says, we are under the protection of the Word of God and of the nature of God. But watch this.

Here's what happens with a lot of people. We're living in relationship with God. We're reading His Word, and we come across something in the Word of God that we don't like because it confronts us in our lifestyle, confronts us in our behavior, confronts us in our attitude or in our activities. And we're reading that in the Word of God, and we hit the pause button and we say, you know, I don't really like that. I don't want to live according to this.

I don't agree with this. I don't want to change my ways. And so what happens is we rebel against God. I'm going to do what I want to do. I don't have to do that.

That's legalistic. That's unfair on God's part. And we move out from under the covering of the protection of the Word of God. Here's my question. Did God move?

No. Because the Bible makes it clear God never changes and His Word never changes. But what we do is we decide. I don't like what the Word says. And we move away from God in rebellion.

And then we open ourselves up to the attack of the enemy. And that's exactly what the Midianites did. And oftentimes when we make the choice to rebel against God and we move out from under his covering, we are open game for the enemy to attack. Sickness, poverty, things unravel in our lives. And then what do we do?

God, you're so mean. How could you do this to me? No, no, no. God didn't do it. God didn't do it to the Israelites and God doesn't do it to us.

We made the choice to move out from under the protection of God. Will y' all give God a hand? Great Job. Great Job. One of the greatest portrayals of God I've ever seen in my life.

Beautiful.

Now, the consequence of the Israelites, when they rebelled against God seven years, God gave them into the hands of the Midianites. In other words, they moved out from under the covering and the protection of God. So God just allowed whatever the consequences were going to be, which for them was no cattle, no crops, no protection. But it was not because God was meant. But I want you to notice it says in verse six that then the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help.

I don't know about you, but I'm so thankful for the faithfulness of God, for the mercy of God, that no matter how many times I've blown it, no matter how many times I've rebelled against God, that when I realized, man, I have messed up when I've cried out to God, he didn't say, oh, no, no, no, no. Don't you come running back so quick. You're the one who chose this. You deal with it. Now, God in his mercy.

Is anybody thankful for this? God says, come on, come on, come on. I love you with an everlasting love. Now notice what we read. Notice what we read.

In verse 11, it says, Egideon, son of Joash, was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. We could easily skip over that, not understand the context of that. But you need to understand. Wine is pressed in a winepress. Wheat is threshed on a threshing floor.

Big, big difference. A winepress was usually located in. Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary confirms this. But it's usually located down in a valley, maybe surrounded by rocks or a cave or walls. And the reason for that was so that the wind could not blow impurities into the wine that was being processed.

A threshing floor was different. Threshing floor was usually located on a higher place, like on a flat rock or the cleft of a rock. And the reason for that is once the wheat was beaten and it separated the grain from the chaff, they would rely on the wind to come along and blow the chaff away. So that was done out in the open, that was done on a higher place. Here's what we find, though.

Gideon is threshing wheat, not up on a rock outcropping, but he's threshing wheat down in a winepress. Why? Because he's being resourceful Anytime they would separate the grain from the chaff, the Midianites would just rush in. And they greatly outnumbered the Israelites. They were very fierce.

They would rush in and just steal all of the grain. So Gideon is thinking, I need to be resourceful. I need to be wise in what I'm doing. I need to stay hidden from the Midianites, otherwise they're going to steal the grain and it's just a waste of time. Many people today use unfavorable conditions as an excuse for inaction.

In other words, when I get a better job, I'll do great things for the Lord. When I have more money, when I get out of debt, when I get healed, when I get married. And they sit around waiting for the conditions to be ideal in order to move with what God has told them to do. And that's not what Gideon did. The conditions certainly were not favorable.

They were not ideal. They were being ravaged by the Midianites. But here's the thing. Gideon is doing what he could do with what he had. The bottom line is that's what God calls you and I to do.

We don't sit around and make excuses, and we don't wait until the conditions are all perfect and until all the planets and the stars line up before we move, before we do something for God. No, we do what we can with what we have. That's stewardship. That's what God calls us to do. Look at verse 12.

When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, the Lord is with you, mighty warrior. I love this. I'm so thankful for this, that when God chooses us. And the apostle Paul makes it very clear, we didn't choose salvation. Those of you that are in a relationship with Jesus.

No, the Bible is clear. God chose you. God picked you. And when God picked you, he saw the potential in you more than he saw the problem with you. Come on, somebody.

He saw the potential in you more than he saw the problem with you. In other words, he looked beyond the addiction. He looked beyond the years of rebellion. He looked beyond all the immorality. He looked beyond the pride and the selfishness.

And he sees in you a potential to do something great for him. And that's what he did with Gideon. The Lord is with you, mighty warrior. He's speaking to the potential that's in Gideon. I'm so grateful that when God picks us, he doesn't pick the most talented.

He doesn't pick the most qualified. He doesn't pick the people that are dressed the best. He doesn't pick the people that have lived a holy life all of their lives? No. He sees the potential in each one of us.

And he says, I'm looking beyond the mistakes. I'm looking beyond the character flaws, because I see in you the potential to do something great for me. He speaks to that. The Lord is with you, mighty warrior. Verse 13, sir.

Gideon replied, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all the miracles? Didn't they say the Lord brought us out of Egypt? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites? Here's a question for all of us.

Listen to me. Do we still trust God when our circumstances are in direct contrast to what he declares? Or do we allow circumstances to define our understanding and our perception of who God is? Because let me tell you something. Circumstances of life can scream very loudly.

And circumstances of life will try to convince you to turn your back on the promises of the Word of God. And we have to make a decision. Gideon had to make a decision. The Lord is with you, mighty warrior. Oh, yeah?

Well, why is all this happening? Where's the God who did the miracles and parted the Red Sea? Where's the God who brought manna from heaven? Why isn't God doing this when God's abandoned us? What is Gideon doing?

He's agreeing with his circumstances more than he agrees with who he knows God to be. Because God never changed. The same God that parted an ocean would protect them from the Midianites. But Gideon's just talking about all the reasons, all the circumstances. Listen to me.

You and I face the same decision. When the diagnosis comes, when the bills stack up, when you lose your job, when the foreclosure comes, when the spouse walks out on you, when you're sick, when you're struggling, you have to make a decision. Will I agree with my circumstances? And will I let the circumstances define my perception of God? Will I agree with what His Word says, even though in the moment I might not see it?

Has God changed? Absolutely not. Is he still the same? The same God that protected you, healed you, provided for you a year ago, five years ago, 20 years ago, whatever it might be, he's still the same, and he'll do it again.

But we have to decide. Will I agree with the word? Verse 14? Then the Lord turned to him and he said, go with the strength that you have and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you the word strength.

There in the Hebrew is the word koach. It means literally, ability or power. Conferred by God. And God's saying to Gideon, I know your circumstances are rough right now, and you guys are being just ravaged by the Midianites. You're like a doormat for them.

But I haven't changed. As a matter of fact, Gideon, I'm going to confer on you an ability and a power to do what you cannot do in your own strength or in your own power. Verse 15, verse 16. But Lord Gideon reply, how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe.

Manasseh Gideon just pulls out his resume and says, you got the wrong guy. You don't understand my family. We're a bunch of wimps. Like, we're the weakest. You pick out all the tribes of Israel.

We're the weakest. And oh, by the way, God, let me just show you on the resume. Go down a little further. I'm the weakest in my entire clan. God, you've got the wrong person.

And some of you do the same thing. God could never use me. I rebelled for too many years. I was too immoral, I was too prideful. I was too selfish.

I got an anger issue. God could never use me. God, you've got the wrong person. Let me tell you. God loves to choose weak people to do great things so that when the great thing happens, you can't take credit for it.

And everybody watching knows you could not do that on your own. Charlotte, you could never lift a pickup truck off of your dad.

God chooses the weakest of the weak so that when a miracle happens, everybody says, wow, we know you couldn't do that. But I want to know about the God who lives on the inside of you. Our human weaknesses just are like a laboratory that provides the perfect display case for the perfected strength of God. The Apostle Paul said this. I'm going to boast about my weaknesses.

Why? Because when I'm weak, He is strong. He is strong. God loves to take weak people and do great things through them that they couldn't do on their own. Verses 18 through 24, you can read this later.

But Gideon has to make a decision because his father and other members of his family and the people in Israel had adopted some practices of worshiping false gods. They had erected these altars to baal, they had statues to baal. And Gideon's own dad was guilty of doing the same. And Gideon knew, in order for me to fulfill the plan of God and the destiny of God, I've got to tear down those altars and those idols. And he does it during the Nighttime hours because he's afraid they're going to kill me if they find out who did this.

And they did find out, but they honored him for doing it. Some of you, when you chose to serve Jesus, you paid a big price. Cause your family didn't like it. Your family didn't agree with the decision that you made. Some of you had to go against some of the generational things that have been going on in your family for a long, long time.

It took a lot of courage for you to stand against it and say, even though my dad did this, my granddad did this, even though this is what my family is known for, it's not what I'm going to be known for because it contradicts the standards of the Word of God. And that's what Gideon did. And God honored him for that because he tore down those false idols, he destroyed those altars that were dedicated to a false God. And then Gideon builds a proper altar. And that's what some of you need to do.

Some of you have mixed humanity and divinity together. And let me just tell you, the Spirit of God cannot dwell in hearts that are duplicit.

The book of James says a double minded man is unstable in all of his ways. And some of you have mixed practices in your life that contradict the standard of the Word of God. And you wonder, why do I not feel the anointing of the Holy Spirit? Why do I not feel the presence of God like I used to when I would sit and read His Word? And maybe it's because you've got some false idols, maybe you've got some altars that you've erected in your life that need to be torn down.

And when you do that, you create capacity for the person of the Holy Spirit to come and to live on the inside of you. You see, what happened in the Book of Acts was a marking moment. Because no longer was the Spirit of God going to be housed in a box called the Ark of the Covenant. No, from that moment on, the Spirit of God would be housed in the tabernacle of men and women and young people that would house the presence of God and demonstrate the anointing and the power of God in a way that would cause the world to go. I know you couldn't do that on your own.

But I want to know the God that's living on the inside of you. The key is found, the hinge point of all of this found in Judges, chapter 6, verse 34, very simple verse, but it literally everything hinges on this. And it says, then the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon with power.

The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon. The Hebrew word there for spirit, ruach, the breath of God. The wind of God, the same Spirit that came in Acts, chapter two. The Spirit of God comes on the weakest of the weakness, this guy by the name of Gideon, who could do nothing in his own strength. And the Spirit of God comes on him and clothes him with power.

377 times we find in the Old Testament the word ruach, the breath of God. The Spirit of God. Let me tell you, this thing of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is not just a New Testament thing. No, it's all the way from Genesis to Revelation. And it's meant for every single believer who has has a relationship with Jesus.

The Holy Spirit wants to live on the inside of you. And some of you have been raised to treat the person of the Holy Spirit like the uncle that gives you the creeps at the family reunion.

So for most of your life, you've kept the Holy Spirit at arm's length.

For most of your life, the Holy Spirit was just somebody that was mentioned or something that was mentioned in the back of the hymnbook, in some of the prayers or some of the songs. And that was the extent of your knowledge of this person who's the third person of the Trinity?

He is God.

Let me say it again. The Holy Spirit is God.

He's the same in position and power. He's different in function, and he wants to live inside of you. But as long as you treat him like the weird uncle, he can't. He can't come. But if you'll put the welcome mat out for him and say, I can't do this without you, Holy Spirit.

I don't understand everything about you. Listen, I don't understand microwave ovens, but I use one about every day.

You may never understand everything there is to understand about the person of the Holy Spirit. But what you do need to understand is you cannot live like God intends for you to live without him.

Zechariah, chapter 4, verse 6. And then he told me, this is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel. You will not succeed by your own strength or by your own power, but by my ruach, says the Lord. All powerful by my spirit is the way that you're going to succeed. So under the anointing and under the power of the Holy Spirit, Gideon rallies the army of God together.

He says, anybody who wants to go out to fight against the Midianites, we're sick of this. We're tired of them ravaging us. If anybody wants to join me in the battle, come on. And The Bible says 32,000 men come together. 32,000 sounds like a lot of folks, but.

But the reality is they were still greatly outnumbered by the Midianites. But Gideon's like, we'll do what we can. We'll trust God. God's going to help us. He's going to have to.

So Gideon is ready to deliver his inspiring pregame speech to these 32,000 men, when God interrupts him and says, hey, pump the brakes. Get in. Hold on a minute. What's up, God? You got too many men.

Say that again. Lord, I'm sure I just misunderstood what you just said because it kind of sounded like you said, we got too many men. Yep, that's exactly what I said. Oh, God. Have you counted?

We got 32,000. There's not a lot. Have you counted them? We can't even number them. There's so many of them.

And what you're saying is we got too many men. The Lord says, too many men. You got to trust me. Here's what I want you to do. Tell these men if anybody's scared, they can go home.

Gideon's like, boom, 32,000 men. Warriors. There's hardly anybody that's going to be willing to admit in front of all these men. Yeah, I'm a big chicken. Gideon's like, we're good.

He stands up in front of them. 32,000 men. Hey, listen up. Going into battle. Listen, here's your out.

If any of you are scared, if any of you are wimps, any of you are chicken, you can go. Gideon's like, I can probably pick. There might be a handful. They're going to be out. Nobody else is going to move.

22,000 said, I'm out. Boom, they're gone. 22,000. Kenny's like, oh, no, what are we going to do? 10,000 men.

Gideon kind of gathers himself again. He's going to give them the best pre war speech he can come up with. Hey, listen, everybody gather. Hey, hey, don't worry about them. We didn't need them anyway.

Listen, here's what we're going to do. God stops him again. Get in. Hang on.

Still got too many men.

God, you saw what just happened. You saw. 22,000 just left. We got 10,000 lambs. I know, I know.

No, I'm God, I've counted them. Here's what you need to do. Tell all 10,000 men, go drink some water. Drink water. Yep.

Drink water. Take them down to the brook, Tell everybody to drink water. And I want you to number count all of the men who lap water like a dog.

Gideon, it's like, you know, God, this is like extreme micromanagement.

Like, what? What, God? What does it matter? Just do what I'm telling you to do. Everybody drinks.

Count the ones who are laughing like a dog.

Amen. Listen up. We're going into battle. We need to hydrate. Gatorade hasn't been invented yet.

We're going down to the brook. I need everybody. Everybody. Everybody's got a drink. Drink water.

Everybody drink water. They go down to the brook. And Gideon starts counting. And there's these men got their heads down, lapping like a dog. Gideon's counting 9,700 men lapping like a dog.

Only 300 that are scooping the water up in their hands and bringing it up to their mouths. And maybe you're saying that's micromanagement. God, why does it matter how somebody drinks water? Here's why. Because God was weeding out all of those who had apathy in their hearts.

You know why? Because those who were laughing like a dog, they didn't care where the enemy was. They didn't care what was going on. They have their heads down. They're not watching for anything.

All they care about is themselves. But you got 300 men who are watching. We're the Midianites, and they're bringing the water up. And God says, that's the ones you want. You see, we're living in the last days.

I think God's looking for men and women. God's looking for young people who will say, more important than my college degree, more important than my ira, more important than anything I do.

The most important thing is the Kingdom business.

The Bible tells us to watch and pray. And I think God's looking for people who will say, my eyes are wide open. I want to be like the sons of Issachar who understand the times. I want to be watching. I don't want to be caught off guard.

I don't want to be selfish. I want to be one that God can use in these last days.

And the Bible says that God rallies 300 from 32,000 down to 300, because, again, God didn't want Gideon to be able to take credit for anything that was about to happen.

And then we read over in chapter seven, beginning in verse 16, where God gives Gideon the most unorthodox and unusual battle strategy. Says this verse 16. He divided the 300 men into three groups and gave each man a ram's horn and a clay jar with a torch on the inside of it. Then he said to them, keep your eyes on me. When I come to the edge of the camp, do just as I do.

As soon as I and those with me blow the ram's horn, blow your horns too. All around the entire camp and shout for the Lord and for Gideon. Can you imagine what those 300 men are thinking? Hang on Gideon. Hold, hang on.

Can I, can, can. Maybe I trade this for bow and arrow? Like what am I going to do with this? Gideon, what are we doing with clay jars? Hey, listen up.

You take one more step, I've got a clay jar in my head. Back up buddy. I got a ramshorn. You see this? I'm going to whack you over the head.

You come.

What's up with this battle strategy?

It was just after midnight, after the changing of the guard, when Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the edge of the Midianite camp. Suddenly they blew the rams horns and they broke their clay jars. Then all three groups blew their horns and broke their jars. They held the blazing torches in their left hands and the horns in their right hands. And they all shouted a sword for the Lord and for Gideon.

Each man stood at his position around the camp and watched as all the Midianites rushed around in a panic, shouting as they ran to escape. And when the 300 Israelites blew their rams horns, the Lord calls the warriors in the camp to fight against each other with their swords.

The 300 members of the army of God never fired a shot, never shot one arrow. All they did was obey God. Obey God you say? Why? Why clay pots?

Why ram's horns? See, I believe that God is assembling a last days army. I believe God's looking for people that will be clothed with the spirit of God, that will be anointed by the spirit of God. I believe God's looking for people who will embrace an unorthodox strategy and say whatever you tell us to do, God, even if it doesn't make sense going to do it. And I believe this.

What God was looking for then and what God's looking for now is an army that will be seen and an army that will be heard.

Because when they broke those clay pots with a torch on the inside and it was complete darkness. And all of a sudden, all around the Midianites, all they saw were burning torches and all they heard was rams horns. And in their minds there were 3 million people surrounding them because they were seen and they were heard. I believe God's looking for people who will say, I'm not looking for credit. I'm not looking for followers on TikTok.

What I'm looking for is to be used by God with the anointing of the Spirit of God in these last days.