The Sword Of The Lord And Of Gideon

The books of Joshua and Judges are in marked contrast. In Joshua the children of Israel fought for every inch of ground they possessed; it cost them much to get and then to keep what they got. But Joshua and the elders of his day and all that generation passed from the scene of earth, and in Judges we find another generation in the land for which others had fought. It cost them nothing to get, and costing nothing they appreciated not its value, and again and again they sold it by their evil doings and departed from God.

Judges: a general entering upon a something: it cost them nothing to gain, so they never prized it; but they are in God's school, and it is for them to learn under His chastening hand what their fathers learnt in a very different way ; thus they might prize what they had inherited. In Judges 6. after a period of forty years' rest, the people have departed from God. and are seven years under bondage to the Midianites. A triple force-Midianites, Amalekites, and Children of the East--a threefold enemy came up against the children of Israel, and they are in dens, caves-and if you like, sand pits, but without God; they had forsaken Him, and He had forsaken them. They are distressed, and crying out because of the Midianites, because of their surroundings and conditions-brought about by their own doings. In this scene, however, there is a certain man crying to God. a man named Gideon; a solitary isolated man in the winepress beating out. wheat; and he has got a deep yearning cry in his heart: not because of the presence of the Midianites, but because of the absence of God. He said " If the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us ? -and where be all His wondrous works, which our fathers told us of?" it was the absence of God that made him cry out; not crying merely for what is present, but for what is absent-Where is God? Where is He in the power of which we heard so much, which our fathers have told us of; where are His doings?

That yearning cry! It was God's own cry in the heart of Gideon; i~ was God-wrought prayer going back to Himself. A cry to know God ; a cry telling of desire that God might be known not simply in name, but in power, reality, unction, and force.

God gives Gideon an answer to his cry. Gideon needs not to be brought back to God; he is there already. Gideon is a humble man, a really humble man-" I am least in my father's house," said he; and to this man God reveals Himself. He makes Himself known to Gideon, and now with Gideon God is going to do a great work. When Gideon discovers by an offering which he brings and puts upon the rock, and which goes up as a sweet savour, that he is in the presence of God, he is overwhelmed-indeed he thinks he is going to die. Gideon is learning a little of the God for whom his heart went forth in yearning, and thus learning, Gideon built an altar unto the LORD, and called it Jehovah-shalom (verse 24). There is something now in the midst of the desolation.

Now please read verses 25 and 26. Gideon must throw down the altar of Baal. Even though it is his father's altar it must go. To be for God is something very definite; no neutral ground ; if it is " Build an altar unto the Lord" it is "Throw down the altar of Baal": if God is to send peace, that peace involves war; and it is war to the knife with all that is not for God, beginning at home.

But if Gideon has to know God in the power of His altar, he has to know the power of the enemy; for there will be war on the Devil's part, as there is going to be peace on God's part. If there is something definitely pronounced for God, there is something definitely pronounced against God. But be it so, still there is no such thing as neutrality ; Gideon must face the situation knowing that what is for God is against all that is against God. Gideon acts, he throws down the altar of Baal.

Now please read verses 29 to 40. Gideon is in God's school again; note verse 37. In the quiet calm of night (not the heat and bustle of a "market day "), the dew falls; that which is so silent and still. In this dewy fleece we have Gideon himself, for in his early days he was moist and fresh, and all around was parched and dry. Alas, in his latter day he was dry, very dry-see chapter 8. 24-27. Nothing will retain dew like a fleece-would to God that Gideon had held the dew when he got it. May God help us to retain the dew, as a fleece only can, so that in our closing day we may know God in His power, against a threefold enemy.

Please turn to chapter 7., verses 1 and 2.. Thirty-two thousand people come, but the greater part of them not with God; they are merely with Gideon-" The people that are with thee (verse 2). There is a danger of following, and being swayed by a leader. Most of the thirty-two thousand are not with God. God is with Gideon, and Gideon is with God, for he has known God. The bulk of thirty-two thousand are in the swim of a revival. When they arc tested, twenty-two thousand go home, and ten thousand remain, but they "are yet too many." "Bring them down unto the water." This in all its significance is the thing to try them, and the ten thousand shrink and dwindle to three hundred. What is the test? There shall be those who will get down leisurely upon their hands and knees, and take a long deep draught; and there shall be those who will lap it up like a dog, in their haste to the fight, having no leisure to get down and take a good drink; they will not take things easily.

Now-three hundred only on one side. They are as nothing! Yes, and there will be deliverance. God had His three hundred, and thus Gideon had his three hundred, "and they stood every man in his place." Only three hundred-but they had learned implicit obedience. Every man in the place where God would have him to be; and each hundred in their place. Three hundred with God and with Gideon in heart and soul, aim, object and purpose; and with these three hundred God gives a mighty deliverance. Each man in his place, and each company of one hundred in their place; a happy threefold cord, and each and all acting in implicit obedience. All is of God-the Lord first, and Gideon under Him with the three hundred-" THE SWORD OF THE LORD AND GIDEON."

Address by Mr. G. R. Geddes, 1902.

unknown | Jul 1933
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