Well, good evening, brothers. It is so good to be with you. I have looked forward for quite a while, as I have prepared my heart before the Lord, to share with you the burden that I think He has put on my heart.
We are glad you are here, and I pray that you have come to see the Lord Jesus. Certainly, that is why I am here. I pray that He will, as He has been so faithful, visit us. He knows your heart. He knows your capacity. He knows your need, and He is faithful to visit with us.
As we come to the study of God’s Word, there is a principle of Bible study that is absolutely indispensable. Those of you who have heard me before have probably heard me mention that truth.
That principle is total reliance upon God’s Holy Spirit. We need academics. We need the human side of this Book. But if that is all we have, then you could have spent this weekend in a better way.
We need the revelation of the Lord, and only God can reveal God. He delights to do it. He longs to unveil Himself, but only He can reveal Himself.
And so, at the end of the day, you must come—I must come—as a little child before the Lord and just say, “Now, Lord, as far as I know, these are the facts. I have done the donkey work. This is the academics. Now, Lord, dawn on these facts and unveil the Lord Jesus.”
I have been studying recently the wonderful Book of Acts, and a verse struck me. Let me just set that before your heart before we look together into the Word. It is Acts 9:7, and it has to do with when the Lord appeared to Saul, you remember, on the road to Damascus.
In Acts 9:7, the Bible says that those around him, those who were with him, heard the voice. But about twenty years later, he was giving his testimony, telling about the same experience in Acts 22:9. In Acts 22:9, it says that those who were with him did not hear the voice.
So, in chapter 9 it says they heard the voice, and then in chapter 22 it says they did not hear the voice. Well, I do not know Greek, but I am thankful for those people who have written Greek and English so I can study it.
I studied what that was all about, and they gave a long explanation about a special word and a special form in the genitive case. This is one of the few words used in that case, but it boils down to this: in chapter 9, it says they heard of the voice. They did not hear the voice; they heard of the voice.
Probably it was very much like John 12, where our Lord Jesus heard a voice from Heaven:
I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.
Those around Him said it sounded like thunder, and some said it was an angel.
The point I am making is this: I believe the Lord wants to speak this weekend, and it would be a shame if we just heard of the voice and did not hear the voice.
Some people hear of the voice, but they do not hear the voice. It would be a shame if you had to leave and someone said, “How was the retreat?” and you said, “Oh, man, it sounded like thunder. It was something like an angel.”
We want to hear the Lord. He wants to speak, and we want to hear—not of the voice; we want to hear the voice. We do not want to hear thunder. We do not want to hear an angel. We want the Lord to speak to us.
Now, He has promised that if we would open our mouths wide, He would fill them. It is His pleasure to reveal His Son to us. So I am going to ask you, brothers, to bow with me as we commit our time unto Him.
Our Father, we thank You that we can hear the voice, not just hear of the voice, and that You will speak directly to our hearts.
We commit our time unto You now, and we pray by Your grace that You would take the veil away. Show us Jesus. Turn the eyes of our heart unto Him in a living way, in a fresh way.
Thank You, Lord, for Your Bible, every part of it. In a special way this weekend, we thank You for Judges 6–8. Guide us as we meditate together, and we pray that we might behold You.
We ask in the precious name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Now, though I told you the text, I will ask you to turn to Psalm 67, please. Even then, we are not going to get there for a minute, so put your thumb there or something.
Let me come straight to the burden that is on my heart for this weekend. I am going to give several verses. If you want to look them up, you can, but I will go by them pretty quickly, just to release what I feel is the great thing I want to share.
In Genesis 12:2–3, God spoke a word to the father of faith, to Abraham:
I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee,
And make thy name great; and be thou a blessing.
Just the two parts of that verse: “I will bless thee, and thou shalt be a blessing.” I will bless thee, and thou shalt be a blessing. I cannot be a blessing until I have been blessed, and you cannot be a blessing until you have been blessed.
The same truth is taught at the end of the Old Testament, in Zechariah 8:13:
And it shall come to pass, that, as ye were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing: fear not, but let your hands be strong.
Is that not a wonderful word? “I will save you that you might become a blessing.” I do not know if you are familiar with the song we used to sing quite a bit, Daniel Whittle’s song, “There Shall Be Showers of Blessing.”
You know that song:
There shall be showers of blessing;
Mercy-drops round us are falling,
But for the showers we plead.
Now, that expression, “showers of blessing,” is a Bible expression. That is in the Bible: showers of blessing. But the King James actually misses the point of the original. The New American Standard does capture the point.
It does not say in the Bible, “There shall be showers of blessing.” In the Bible, it says, “They shall be showers of blessing.” Not, “There shall be”; “they shall be.”
Ezekiel 34:26:
And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing;
And I will cause the shower to come down in its season;
There shall be showers of blessing.
God wants to bless, but He has chosen to bless through the blessed. It seems like the Lord tried to recover that truth in these days with the prayer of Jabez. Remember that prayer? “Bless me indeed, and enlarge my border.”
God’s blessing is redemptive. Every time God blesses, it is a missionary blessing. It is an evangelistic blessing.
Now, I asked you to turn to Psalm 67. If you just look at that, I consider this to be the greatest missionary psalm in the whole hymnal, in the whole Book of Psalms.
I want you to look at the terminal points of Psalm 67—in other words, how it begins and how it ends. Look at how it begins:
God be merciful unto us, and bless us,
And cause His face to shine upon us;
That Thy way may be known upon earth,
Thy salvation among all nations.
Do you see the connection? “Lord, bless us. Make Your face shine on us, that Your name might be known on the earth.”
Then look at how it ends, Psalm 67:6–7:
God, even our own God, will bless us.
God will bless us;
And all the ends of the earth shall fear Him.
It is God’s plan to bless us in a redemptive way, in a missionary way. That is our prayer: that God would bless our convocation, our gathering together this weekend.
Proverbs 10:22 says:
The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich;
And He addeth no sorrow therewith.
What could we desire more, really, than that God would bless our gathering together this weekend?
As you go through the Bible, there are many illustrations and emblems of the blessing of the Lord. But over and over again, there is one symbol that God uses. He repeats it over and over again as an illustration of His blessing. I am talking about the dew from Heaven.
The dew is an illustration of the blessing of the Lord. It is hard for us to appreciate that figure because we do not have dew like they have it in the Holy Land.
You know they do not have a lot of rain over there, and they have heavy dew. They bathe in their dew. They catch the dew off the roof in big tubs. They have heavy, heavy dew.
God promises His people that if they live in union with Him, He will send the dew of Heaven. Listen to some of these verses.
He promised that if God’s people turned away from Him, if they rebelled against Him, He would withhold His dew. Haggai 1:10:
Therefore over you the heaven is stayed from dew,
And the earth is stayed from her fruit.
The dew was God’s refreshing emblem of Himself. Listen to Hosea 14:5:
I will be as the dew unto Israel:
He shall blossom as the lily,
And cast forth his roots as Lebanon.
Proverbs 19:12 says:
The king’s wrath is as the roaring of a lion;
But his favor is as dew upon the grass.
The remnant—that is the Old Testament word for the New Testament word overcomer—the remnant. Micah 5:7:
And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples as dew from the Lord,
As showers upon the grass,
That tarry not for man,
Nor wait for the sons of men.
And the psalm we sang—or the psalm we read—Psalm 133:
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity!
It is like the dew of Hermon,
That cometh down upon the mountains of Zion:
For there the Lord commanded the blessing,
Even life for evermore.
The symbol of God’s blessing is the dew from Heaven.
Now, if you will turn to Judges, I give you that by way of background because it introduces us to a special character in the Bible who longed for the blessing of God.
I am speaking of the fifth judge of Israel, the man who is associated in a special way because of his prayer for dew. Remember, Gideon asked the Lord, “Soak the fleece with dew,” and then later, “Soak the land around the fleece with dew from Heaven.”
Gideon, the son of Joash—here was a man who longed that God would bless His people. He prayed for God’s dew to come down from Heaven.
God answered his prayer, and we want to look at that this weekend. God taught him how to be blessed so that he could be a blessing, so that God could bless through him.
I would like us this weekend, God helping us, to look at Gideon, to examine his life, and to watch God’s hand as God moves in his life.
The story of Gideon, as we will touch on it, is a big record. It is from Judges 6:1 all the way to Judges 8:35—one hundred verses. There is more about Gideon’s old age and about his family later, but we will not get into that.
I would like to isolate the story of Gideon from its setting in Judges. This much is enough, I think, by way of background: Gideon’s story takes place in the days of the judges.
The days of the judges cover about three hundred and fifty years of Israel’s history. Sometimes it is called the Dark Ages of Israel’s history.
You know the expression that is used four times—in Judges 17, 18, 19, and 21:
In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
Those were the days of Judges: anarchy, independence, idolatry, immorality—terrible, dark, dark days.
Now, Judges is not the record of everything, but it tells us the tragedy of the time. Some people go through Judges and notice that there are six spiritual declensions.
In other words, in that three-hundred-and-fifty-year period, six times they fell away from the Lord, and six times God sent a foreign oppressor to bring them low. Six times they cried out to the Lord, and six times God raised up a judge to deliver them.
The story of Gideon is the fourth spiritual declension. I am just trying to get it in a setting for you. There are thirteen judges altogether. Gideon is the fifth judge. God only tells us the story of eight of those thirteen judges; He just mentions the others.
But now, having said that, Judge Gideon takes place in the dark, dark days of the judges. God helping us, I want to lift up chapters 6–8 out of the Book of Judges and share with you the story of this man and, I pray, the heart of God.
Before we actually begin in Judges 6, let me give, for those who like logical connection, a little overview of what I would like to look at.
I will have four opportunities, for which I praise the Lord, to proclaim unto you the unsearchable riches of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Tonight, I would like to show you from Judges 6:1–24 the presence of the Lord. This will make more sense as we develop it, but just to give you an idea: the presence of the Lord.
Then tomorrow morning, Lord willing, from Judges 6:25–7:8, the preeminence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then tomorrow evening, Judges 7:1–21, the manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ: the release of His life through broken vessels.
Then, Lord willing, the Lord’s Day morning, Judges 7:22–8:35, the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I pray that you will see, as we go through this, how that ties together.
Turn, please, to Judges 6. The first time we meet Gideon in the Bible, he is standing in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is how he is introduced to us.
The Lord Jesus Christ has come in the person of the Angel of the Lord, and that is where we meet Gideon. Judges 6:11:
And the angel of the Lord came, and sat under the oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.
Our first picture of Gideon, as he stands in the presence of the Lord Jesus, is that he is beating out wheat in the winepress. Now, try to get a picture of that in your mind’s eye: beating out wheat in a winepress.
We are told that the winepresses in those days were in the lowlands. They would have two large slabs of stone, one a little higher than the other. They would crush the grapes in the one, and gravity would pull the juice down so that it would be caught in the bowl in the other one.
It was down in the lowlands. Grapes are heavy, and so it is easier to bring them downhill than to bring them uphill.
But the opposite is true of the threshing of wheat. They did not do that in the lowlands. They tried to find the highest place they could find to beat the wheat, and the reason was because they would use the wind.
They would beat the wheat, and the wind would come and carry away the chaff. Then the good grain would fall down. That is how they did it.
So why is Gideon threshing wheat in the low ground, in the winepress? Why is he not up on the mountain, where he is supposed to be, on a high plane? The answer is because of Judges 6:1–6.
It must have been frustrating for him down low, where there was no wind, to beat the wheat against the rock and have the chaff fall down with the grain and all.
Judges 6:1:
And the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord: and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.
And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel; and because of Midian the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and the caves, and the strongholds.
And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east; they came up against them;
And they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, as thou comest unto Gaza, and left no sustenance in Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass.
For they came up with their cattle and their tents; they came in as locusts for multitude; both they and their camels were without number: and they came into the land to destroy it.
And Israel was brought very low because of Midian; and the children of Israel cried unto the Lord.
Gideon is hiding from the Midianites. That is why he is not in the high place. If he was up there, the enemy would see the cloud of chaff, and then they would come in and confiscate all the food.
For seven years they went through this. At every harvest—and there were a couple of harvests a year—the invaders would come up: the sons of the East, the Amalekites, and the Midianites.
They would come up, Judges 6:5 says, like locusts. They would fill the land. They would devour the crops, and the Bible says what they did not devour, they destroyed.
Vicious, vicious people. In Psalm 83, Asaph looks back at this very record, and he quotes what their leaders said:
Let us take to ourselves in possession
The pastures of God.
That is what the enemy says. The enemy is a usurper. He wants to come in and possess the Lord’s pasture.
That would be one thing if the enemy just came in and took all the food of an agricultural people, but according to the record in verse 4, they not only took the crops; they took the animals too. They took the oxen. They took the sheep. They took everything.
They did not just invade, but they brought in not just soldiers. How intimidating—they brought their families, their camels, and their servants to take back all the spoils. They brought their servants to take back the animals. They just filled the land.
Judges 6:5 says:
For they came up with their cattle and their tents; they came in as locusts for multitude; both they and their camels were without number.
Gideon is introduced to us as a man who, in that situation, is trying to make the best of a horrible situation.
It was a pretty clever idea, really, for him to figure out a way, with these enemies coming in, to take the wheat and strike it against the rocks in the winepress, in the lowlands. It was hard work, and it took a lot longer to get a little bit of grain to make some bread.
It was sort of a slick idea, I think. He is trying to outsmart the enemy.
We do not know exactly how big his family was. He is trying to provide for his family. In verse 15, we know that he is the youngest in his father’s house. But where are his brothers? Why are they not threshing wheat in the winepress?
We are not dead sure, but Judges 8:18–19 tells how the Midianites had killed his brothers. We do not know when. It might have been at this time, and that may be why Gideon is by himself.
We know his family had at least ten servants. Gideon is working in impossible circumstances, trying to get enough bread for himself, for his family, for his servants, and probably for his neighbors, if you see Gideon’s heart.
That is our first look at Gideon. That is when Jesus shows up. That is Gideon from the outside. That is Gideon, threshing wheat against the rock in the winepress.
Let us look at the inside of Gideon. Look at his heart. Look at his burden.
When we meditate on the conversation that Gideon had with the Angel of the Lord—the second Person of the Godhead, our Lord Jesus—listen to verse 12:
And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.
Gideon said to Him:
Oh my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where are all His wondrous works which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? but now the Lord hath cast us off, and delivered us into the hand of Midian.
Then the Lord looked at him and said:
Go in this thy might, and save Israel from the hand of Midian: have not I sent thee?
Go back, if you would, to verse 12:
The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.
Commentators have spent so much time on the last half of the verse—“thou mighty man of valor”—that they have missed the first half: “The Lord is with thee.”
Did you notice that Gideon was not too surprised when He said that? “The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.” Had Gideon earned a reputation for being a valiant warrior? Maybe through some guerrilla warfare and hit-and-run tactics and so on.
It seems like the enemy knew who he was. They knew his name. Remember later, when one of the Midianites had a nightmare? They said, “This is the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash.” They knew who he was.
Maybe he was a valiant warrior, hitting and running. We do not know. Some people think that expression was prophetic: that the Angel was not saying, “O valiant warrior,” but declaring what he would be—that God would make him a valiant warrior. That is also a possibility.
But, as I said, we spend so much time on “valiant warrior” that we forget the first part: “The Lord is with you.” The Lord is with you. Do not read that, “La, la, la.”
Here is an amazing thing, brothers. The second Person of the Godhead, our Lord Jesus Christ, came all the way from Heaven to stand next to Gideon as he was beating out wheat in the winepress, to say, “The Lord is with you.”
Now, you might look at Gideon’s answer, his response to that, and say, “It looks like Gideon had a problem with what the Lord said.” The Lord said, “The Lord is with you.” If you read it one way, you might think he said, “Yeah, right.”
But I think if you read it more closely, you will not see that problem. I do not think Gideon had a quarrel with that. “The Lord is with you”—I think he knew that. I do not think he had a problem with that at all.
The whole country is impoverished—not Gideon. Not Gideon. He is not impoverished. They do not have crops; Gideon does. He is beating out wheat.
They did not have any bread; Gideon did. They did not have any animals. In a little while, we are going to see him offer animals to the Lord. He had animals.
Where did he get it all? I do not think he is having a problem with this. Later, we are going to see him offer those animals. He brings a bushel of flour. Where did he get it? He brings unleavened bread. Where did he get it?
A day later, he offers a bull seven years old. That is the whole time of the oppression. Where did he get all that stuff? How come he has servants, bread, wheat, meat, animals, goats, and bulls?
I think he is doing all right, and I think it is because the Lord is with him. He knows that. “The Lord is with you.” He did not have a problem with that.
Look at his comment to the Angel of the Lord, and I think you will see his heart, his burden, and his passion. Verse 13:
Gideon said unto him, Oh my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then is all this befallen us?
Gideon did not have a problem when the Lord said, “O valiant warrior.” He had no problem with that. Gideon did not have a problem when He said, “The Lord is with you.” He did not debate that at all.
What was bothering Gideon? Did you notice in verse 13? He changed the pronoun. He changed the pronoun from the singular to the plural.
The Lord said, “The Lord is with you.” Gideon, one man—you—the Lord is with you. And Gideon looked around at his people and said, “Yeah, but how about us?”
“I know the Lord is with me, but when I look at these people, when I see Your flock…” Gideon’s heart was beating hot for the body. His heart was beating hot for the people of God.
He said, “I know the Lord is with me, but He is not with us. Look around. The enemy is oppressing us. There are no miracles. The Lord is not doing anything. The people are living in darkness, in caves, in holes in the ground.”
Look at verse 2:
And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel; and because of Midian the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and the caves, and the strongholds.
That was killing Gideon.
One of the ways that God answered the prayer, the cry, of His people was that He sent a prophet before He raised the judge. Did you notice what the prophet said in Judges 6:8–10?
I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage;
And I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed you;
And drave them out from before you, and gave you their land.
Gideon looks at all that and says, “Look at Your people. They were saved for more than this. They should not be living like this.”
They are living in the mountains, in holes in the ground. They are living like animals—like moles, like rats—in the caves, withdrawn from the light of day.
You know, seeing all those caves in the mountains of Afghanistan really made this come alive for me. Picture God’s people, redeemed to live on the land and enjoy the fullness, now living like scavenger rats—reduced to living in holes, caves, and darkness.
These are the redeemed people of the Lord. Even in the wilderness, they lived better than that.
I am suggesting to you, brothers, that that is Gideon. That was breaking his heart. He was doing okay personally. The Lord was with him. He was a valiant warrior. He was surviving. He was doing okay.
He was figuring out how to trick the enemy and have enough food for his family and his servants and so on. But when he looked out and saw the people of God, his great heart began to break.
He said to the Angel of the Lord, “Look at them. Look at them—the way they are living. I know You are with me, but You have abandoned them.”
For seven years they had been living that way. Everything they did miscarried. It went right up to the harvest, and then it died because they took it. Actually, “miscarried” is probably not a strong enough word. It was an abortion. The enemy came in and just took it away before they could enjoy any of it.
Brothers, let me home in on this great truth. Gideon was burning himself out, so to speak, beating wheat against a rock in order that he might be a blessing to his family, a blessing to his servants, and a blessing to the people of God.
I do not think there is any question about Gideon’s burden, and there is no doubt that he was doing everything he could do. He did not know what else to do.
So he goes down and figures out the only thing he can do. “If I am going to bless, if I am going to help them, if I am going to feed them, if I am going to provide for them…”
Gideon had the answer right in his mouth, right in his heart. He said it, but he did not know it. You know how sometimes you can say it—you know the truth—but God needs to teach you what you know. God needs to reveal what you already know.
We are going to see that three or four times in Gideon’s experience.
Why are you blessed, Gideon? Answer: “The Lord is with me.” That is why I am blessed.
Why are they not blessed, Gideon? “The Lord is not with them.” That is why they are not blessed.
He had the answer. It is the Lord’s presence that brings blessing. If there is no presence of the Lord, there is no blessing.
“I am blessed because You are with me. They are not blessed because You are not with them.” He had the answer, but he did not know it.
Now God is about to teach him, to quicken him to what he already knows. As soon as Gideon spoke out that truth—“He is with me; I am blessed. He is not with them; they are not blessed”—then comes verse 14.
The Angel of the Lord looked at him. I love that. The Angel of the Lord looked at him—that precious look. I think He looked at him, looked in him, looked through him. That is like the look He gave Peter. There is something about the look of the Lord.
Then He said:
Go in this thy might.
“Go in this thy might.” What is that all about? Some say it is what follows: “Have not I sent thee?” Certainly that is true. Much of our strength is in our commission: the Lord has sent us.
But I think it is possible—and I am suggesting this is what is meant by that—that it is not referring to what follows: “Go in this thy might. The Lord is with you.” Rather, it is referring to what came before.
It is as if the Angel was saying to Gideon, “Gideon, even though you do not know it, you do know it. You have discovered a great secret. You have discovered a great truth.”
“You are blessed because of the presence of the Lord. They are not blessed because they are not in the presence of the Lord. The presence of the Lord is what brings blessing. The only hope for blessing is the presence of the Lord.”
“That is the supreme thing. That is what matters. Gideon, say it again: the presence of the Lord is blessing. Go in this, your strength—in that discovery, in that secret, in that revelation.”
“You have said it. Now understand what you are saying. The presence of the Lord brings blessing, and that will strengthen you as you go forward to deliver My people.”
Brothers, I do not have time to develop it all, but it is a sad fact that God’s people today are not really concerned about the presence of the Lord.
They talk a lot about the blessing of the Lord, but not the presence of the Lord. They think somehow they can bring down the dew of Heaven and the blessing of the Lord through some programs, methods, numbers, books, tapes, conferences, or all kinds of things.
Who is crying out for the presence of the Lord? That is where the blessing is. That is where the blessing is.
That is what Gideon discovered. When he said, “The presence of the Lord is blessing,” God looked right at him and said, “Yes. Now go in that, your strength.”
In the knowledge that it is the presence of the Lord—you cannot separate the presence of the Lord and the blessing of the Lord. They are like this. They belong together.
Now follow, if you would, what happens in Gideon’s heart. He so wants to be a blessing. He so wants to communicate the blessing of the Lord, and he has almost burned himself out trying, in his own wisdom and energy, to bring a blessing.
But now he has a revelation of the Lord. He has talked to Jesus. He has seen the Lord, and he understood the principle: in the presence of the Lord, there is blessing.
His burden has not been in vain, because now God has communicated to him this great principle: “Go in this thy might.”
The next question is, “How?” That is a good question. “Thank You. I want to. How?”
Verse 15:
And he said unto him, Oh Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.
The rest of the Gideon story is the answer to that question: “How can I deliver?”
Well, there is a simple answer to that: you cannot. He said, “There is no royal blood in my veins. I have no special gifts. I have no special talents. I am a nobody. How can I deliver?”
Verse 16:
And the Lord said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.
When he said, “How can I deliver?” in what follows, the Lord has written a death sentence over that question.
Gideon enters into the beginning of the thrill of what it means to get into the blessing in order to bless. Gideon will not be the judge. He will not be the deliverer.
He will be the channel through which the Deliverer will deliver. He will be the instrument through which the Savior can save and the Blesser can bless.
I want to get to the heart of this next part and leave you to prayerfully meditate on Judges 6:17–24, this great transaction.
Look at verses 17–18:
And he said unto him, If now I have found favor in thy sight, then show me a sign that it is thou that talkest with me.
Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present, and lay it before thee.
And he said, I will tarry until thou come again.
What is that offering that he brought? You say, “Well, it is clear. Just read verse 19. He brought a young goat, unleavened bread, an ephah of flour, and some broth in a pot.”
No, it is deeper than that, brothers. That is just a representation of what he brought. Someone says, “Well, he just brought a tithe.” No, he did not bring a tithe. “They brought a fellowship meal. It is just a symbol of hospitality.” No, there is a secret in that.
I will tell you what he brought. You see, this was a surrender.
That is what he had been doing. He had been beating wheat against the stone. He had been trying to provide. I will tell you what he laid down before the Lord: he laid down his ministry.
This was an offering. This was his work. This was his own effort and his own attempt to try to bless the people of God.
He brought out this great offering, this labor of love that he had, and he laid it down on a rock. For Gideon, this was a tremendous step of faith. Do not forget the days in which he was living. He brought a tremendous offering here.
I think his heart was saying, “Lord, I have been so tired, beating my wheat against a rock, and God’s people have not been blessed. I am so tired.”
I think if any of us have been involved in any of that kind of ministry, it is more like beating your head against a rock—working so hard and so long for so little.
Then you look out, and God’s people are still living in the caves and in the darkness, impoverished and in bondage to the enemy. Your heart wants to jump out of its chest and say, “Lord, what am I going to do? How can I help that?”
“I am doing okay. Thank You, Lord, for Your presence. Thank You for the revelation You have given me. You have provided for me. But Your people, Your sheep—look at them. They are living in a hole. They are living in the ground.”
“They are like scavengers. They should not be scavengers. They were redeemed for more than that. They were saved for more than that, and I want to see more than that.”
God says, “Here is the secret. You have learned it. You said it. It came out of your mouth. In My presence, there is fullness of joy. In My presence, there is blessing.”
“You are blessed because you are in My presence. They are not blessed because they are not in My presence. It is the presence of the Lord. Go in this thy might—the knowledge of this truth that it is the presence of the Lord.”
So Gideon takes his program, his clever ministry, his ideas, and lays it on a rock before the Lord.
Notice verse 21:
Then the angel of the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there went up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes: and the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight.
Ashes. Everything he had worked for—his whole ministry—went up in smoke. Gone.
And so is the Lord. Great—now He is gone too. Everything is gone, and Gideon is standing there.
Do not get me wrong. The Lord is not angry at Gideon because of that ministry. When He consumed it, He accepted it. “Thank you for your heart. Thank you for your burden. Thank you for your passion. But lay it down. That is not how you are going to bless anybody.”
As far as Gideon was concerned, his days of beating wheat against a rock were over.
Brothers, just a little word of testimony. I can almost remember the day—certainly, I remember the season—when I laid my ministry on a rock.
I tried so hard to be a blessing. I did not understand the presence of the Lord. I did not understand what it was to know the Lord.
I remember so well trying so hard, and I had to surrender everything. God consumed it, and I was all alone, and He was gone. I did not know what to do or which way to turn. All I knew was that I wanted to die.
In a sense, that is where Gideon is. He just wants to die. He does not know what to do. He has seen the Lord. It was such a glorious revelation.
But now he is alone, stripped, and overwhelmed. Then God speaks from Heaven. He is not right next to him anymore visibly; He speaks from Heaven.
Verse 22:
And Gideon saw that he was the angel of the Lord; and Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God! forasmuch as I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.
And the Lord said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die.
Then Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord, and called it Jehovah-shalom.
God is peace. God is peace.
That was the beginning of his destiny. That was the beginning of the life of Gideon, really, right there. He so longed to be a blessing and longed that God’s people would come out of their caves. They should not be cave dwellers. They should be enjoying the fullness of the Lord.
Now God is going to teach him how to be blessed in order to bless. They will never be the same.
But as he stands there with his ministry gone now—he quit his job, he quit the pastorate, and he has nothing left—he just stands there and says, “Now what? Did I do the right thing? Did I make a mistake? Was that a blunder, laying everything down?”
No. He took it, and all of a sudden God gave him peace. He had done the right thing, and he knew in his heart of hearts that he had done the right thing.
He did not know where it was going to go from there. All he knew was, “I am not going to beat wheat against the rock anymore to bless the people of God. All of that living and serving from the lowlands is not God’s way.”
“I have learned the secret: in the presence of the Lord, there is blessing.”
I want to get one more concept before your hearts tonight to introduce the burden that is on my heart. Then we will develop it, Lord willing, in the days to come.
Based on that truth—that in the presence of the Lord there is blessing—would you not think that Gideon’s new ministry would be God instructing him how to bring the presence of the Lord to the people?
Since the presence of the Lord brings blessing, you would think, “Here is how to bring the presence of the Lord to the people.” But that is not what happens. Marvelous story, this. Follow the story of Gideon. It is so amazing.
That is not what God teaches Gideon: how to bring the presence of the Lord to the people. Although it is the people who are living under oppression, living in caves, living in darkness, living in poverty, and though it is the people who have a desperate need, only indirectly does God deal with the people.
“You want to help the people? Then I have to deal with you, Gideon,” says the Lord.
You say, “I thought Gideon was doing all right. I thought the Lord was with him.” He has learned this secret: in the presence of the Lord, there is blessing.
Now here is the wisdom of God. God stands there and says, “Gideon, here is the secret. You learned it. This will be your strength. In My presence is blessing.”
Then God says, “Now come on into My presence, Gideon.” Gideon begins to walk into the great mystery which is God. We will watch Him take his hand.
That is the outline we are going to follow. God says, “Come, Gideon. I must show you My preeminence.” As Gideon sees the preeminence of God, something happens out there in cave land.
After he sees that, God says, “Come on, Gideon. Come more into My presence and learn what it is to release My life through a broken vessel.” As Gideon comes into the presence of the Lord, the enemy starts to fall away and people start coming out of the caves.
Then God says, “Come, Gideon, into the secret place, into the glory of the Lord.” We are going to watch Gideon, not the people.
As Gideon goes into the Lord, into the knowledge of God, and into the presence of God; as he embraces the preeminence of Christ; as he understands what it means to release the life of God; as he lays hold of the glory of God, the enemy is defeated and the people come out into the day.
Brothers, that is the burden that is on my heart to discharge this weekend. That is the message of the Lord for this weekend: how to press into the presence of the Lord.
As a byproduct, you will be a blessing. That is a byproduct. But all the importance is in following Gideon into God Himself.
It all starts when the Angel of God, the Lord Jesus, comes down and says, “Are you tired of beating your wheat against a rock? Are you tired of that ministry? Are you ready to lay it down?”
“Are you ready to let Me consume it? Are you ready to let Me put the death sentence over it all, so there is nobody—just you and Me? Then come into My presence.”
Oh, brothers, it is awesome. May God help us prepare our hearts as we walk with Gideon into the presence of the Lord.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank You so much, so much, for Your precious Word—not what we think it might mean, but what You have inspired it to mean.
Work that in our hearts. Teach us what it means that in Your presence is fullness of joy.
Take us, we pray. Draw us; we will run after You. Draw us into Your presence, that we might be blessed and that we might be a blessing.
We ask it in the precious name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.