What I’m sharing today came out of such a good time of attaching to my heavenly Father while in awe of him for the Three Father’s Club he has given me.[1] Here is how he used these three fathers in their work to glorify Yahweh on one side and cleanse their nation from idols on the other. Today, a man named Gideon was added to the mix.[2]
The Scene:
The book of Judges follows a pattern of the people of Israel doing “what was right in their own eyes,”[3] turning to idols, God sending the curses on them that were required based on the old covenant,[4] the people crying out to God for deliverance, and God sending a Judge to do the delivering. The Midianites were the enemy God was using during Gideon’s lifetime, and Gideon was God’s answer to the people’s prayers for deliverance.[5] This is the part that stood out to me:
That night the LORD said to him, “Take your father's bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the LORD had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night.[6]
The Lessons:
Here are some of the lessons from Gideon’s interview by my Three Fathers’ Club:
1. “Pull down the alter of Baal that your father has”. Point: the idol must be pulled down no matter who it
belongs to. And, yes, we must admit this very thing is in our churches for us
to get the full benefit of Gideon’s example.
2. “Cut down the Asherah that is beside it”. Point: it doesn’t matter who it belongs to, it is an idol, CUT…
IT… DOWN!!! God is cleansing his kingdom of our idols no matter what they are
and who they belong to. No favoritism or partiality.
3. “Build an altar to Yahweh your God on the top of the
stronghold here”. In
the very place that idols were worshipped, an altar to the only true God would
be erected. Point: in the inner places where we hide our collection of idols
behind the fortress of our self-protection, we must set up our hearts as an
altar to Yahweh in the name of Jesus Christ his Son!
4. “Take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with
the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down”. Point: there is such complete repentance that we use our
idols as the fuel that fully returns us to our devotion to God. If we need a
picture of God working all things together for good, using the fuel of our own
idols to give glory to the Lord Jesus Christ is worth a thousand words!
5. “Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as Yahweh had
told him”. Point: with the help of men who
would work with him, and possibly even using his father’s bull to pull down the
idols, God viewed Gideon’s actions as obedient faith. We are called to the
same. Some people will do this together. Let those be “our people” who
mentor us.
6. “But because he was too afraid of his family”. Point: this is added after the affirmation that Gideon had
obeyed God so that we can be encouraged that we can fully obey God even when
our actions are customized around our fear of our family members. In this case,
Gideon’s fear of doing God’s will because it was directly against his own dad
is an example I can attach to very easily! The application to our churches is
also clear.
7. “But because he was too afraid of… the men of the town”. Point: Gideon was concerned
very directly with his dad and his family but was also aware that he would be
attacking the beliefs and practices of the whole community. This included men
who would have the potential to retaliate. He obeyed God anyway. Amen!
8. “He was too afraid to do it by day,” so, “he did it by night”. Point: it is one thing to know what we are afraid of, but it is still another thing to figure out how to do God’s will anyway. Note: God didn’t tell Gideon what time of day or night to do it, only what to do. I hope we see the encouragement in this. Even Nicodemus came to Jesus at night out of fear, but he still CAME![7]
What was the result?
The men of the town found out that it was Gideon who tore down their idols and made a burnt offering with the wood of their Asherah.[8] We can’t expect to obey God without people finding out and being upset about it.
The men went to Gideon’s dad, Joash, and called for justice. In our day, it is not difficult to see what that could look like with people taking Christians to court because their feelings are hurt over our efforts to proclaim the good news of great joy to all people.[9] This is what happened for Gideon:
But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down.”[10]
Yes, it would be nice to have a dad like that who would receive the healthy shame message about his idolatry and declared the obvious, that if Baal “is a god, let him contend for himself”. There is some comfort and encouragement in this, that we never know when a family member may just have a change of heart because we chose God instead of them. That can’t be what decides our obedience, but it is presented as encouragement nonetheless.
The Application:
I have often felt that, if church-folk would seek first the kingdom and righteousness of God[11] even when it means conflict with family, and if people would be able to pray,
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name instead of my family name; your kingdom come into my family to liberate them from their sarky, self-protective, self-justifying kingdoms, and your will be done in my life and church as it is done in heaven no matter what that means to my family,”[12]
we would be giving our families the very best gift of all at the same time as we refuse to honor their idolatrous ways.
This morning, Gideon simply encourages me to springboard off my fears and join my heavenly Father in his work no matter who comes along, who stands in the way, or who is left behind. When God reveals his will, he has already thought through all those things anyway, and what he says to do is the very best thing possible.
We must also admit that division in churches and communities is inescapably about idols. Self-protection, self-justification, and self-glorification, are just as much idols in Jesus’ church today as Baal and Asherah were in Israel during Gideon’s day.
God’s will about idols is the same as always. It is clear from Gideon’s life that fear of family members has NEVER been an excuse to disobey God. In fact, fear of family IS an idol! So is love of family for too many Christians!
As I apply all of this to my own life, and consider how to spur on others to the love and good works of Jesus’ kingdom, I will let James lay the application:
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.[13]
I can’t help smiling at the reminder of how
God worked this into my heart not that many months ago so that now Zephaniah,
Josiah, David, and Gideon, all shout out their hearty (and manly) AMEN!!!! And
so do I!
© 2022 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)
[1] In the last month or
so, God has used the prophet Zephaniah, and then King Josiah, and now King David,
to work together in my life like I have been adopted by three fathers who all
want me to have the same heart for God, and the same life of obedient faith
that wants to do all his will. Relating to these men like my father-mentors is
literally thrilling and comforting my heart beyond my expectations. I now refer
to them as my Three Father’s Club, or 3FC for short.
[2] Gideon is introduced
to us in Judges 6.
[3] Judges 17:6; 21:25
[4] Deuteronomy 30:15-20
gives us God’s statement of the covenant promises of blessings for obedient
faith and curses for disobedient faithlessness. He says, “I have set before
you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore, choose life…” (vs 19).
When he cursed them in their idolatry he was just as faithful as when he
blessed them in their repentance and return to faith.
[5] Judges 6:6
[6] Judges 6:25-27
[7] John 3:1-18
[8] Judges 6:28-30
[9] In Canada, there is a brand-new bill in place to make that even
easier for Jesus’ enemies! Obedient-faith still chooses to worship God with our
obedience in spirit and in truth!
[10] Judges 6:31
[11] Matthew 6:33
[12] According to Jesus’
model prayer of Matthew 6:9-13.
[13] James 4:7-10 in context of James 4:1-12
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