Sermon Tone Analysis

\\ /" //Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod.

The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh.//

//The Lord said to Gideon, “You *have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands.

In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her*,// //announce now to the people, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’

” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.//

//But the Lord said to Gideon, “*There are still too many men.*

Take them down to the water, and I will sift them for you there.

If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”//

//So Gideon took the men down to the water.

There the Lord told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel down to drink.”//

//Three hundred men lapped with their hands to their mouths.

All the rest got down on their knees to drink.//

//The Lord said to Gideon, *“With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands*.

Let all the other men go, each to his own place.”//

//So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites to their tents but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others.

/

/ /

/Now the camp of Midian lay below him in the valley.//

//During that night the Lord said to Gideon, “Get up, go down against the camp, because I am going to give it into your hands.//

/*/If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah/**/ /**/and listen to what they are saying./*/

*Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp.*”

So he and Purah his servant went down to the outposts of the camp.//

//The Midianites, the Amalekites and all the other eastern peoples had settled in the valley, thick as locusts.

Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore.//

//Gideon arrived just as a man was telling a friend his dream.

“I had a dream,” he was saying.

“A round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp.

It struck the tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed.”//

//His friend responded, “This can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite.

God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands.”//

/

/ /

/When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped God.

He returned to the camp of Israel and called out, “Get up!

The Lord has given the Midianite camp into your hands.”//

//Dividing the three hundred men into three companies, he placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them, with torches inside.//

//“Watch me,” he told them.

“Follow my lead.

When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do.//

//When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp blow yours and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon.’

”// //Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guard.

They blew their trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands.//

//The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars.

Grasping the torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpets they were to blow, they shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!”// //While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out as they fled.//

//When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the Lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords.

The army fled to Beth Shittah toward Zererah as far as the border of Abel Meholah near Tabbath.//"

(Judges 7:1-22, NIV)*[1]*/

 

When I think of the possibilities that God has for His church and for His people I am literally “awed”.

In today’s world our religious structures and systems are impotent and powerless and yet nothing is too difficult for God.

 

/"//Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah:// //“I am the Lord, the God of all mankind.

Is anything too hard for me?//" (Jeremiah 32:26-27, NIV) *[2]*/

 

Where we are lacking, God is all-sufficient.

He is the source, the promise for our success as we try to impact the world around us.

Not only that, the scripture also indicates that nothing is too difficult for the church.

/" //Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.//

//It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?”//

//Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?”//

//No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.//

//See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.//"

(Deuteronomy 30:11-15, NIV) *[3]*/

 

In my mind God still has a mission for His people.

He still has a role for them to play – one that is very plausible.

Unfortunately many of us today are overwhelmed at the obstacles as we try to envision and encourage the development of a healthy, God-centered church.

We’re stuck as Gideon was on the defensive, hiding afraid.

Let’s briefly retrace his steps as God brings him to the moment of truth, the defining battle of his life.

q     Threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.

The angel of God calls him a “mighty warrior”.

Gideon sees himself as the “weakest of his clan.”

q     Gideon makes an offering to the angel and it is consumed by fire.

He fears that this means that he will be put to death for what he has seen.

q     He is instructed to tear down his father’s altar to Baal and the Asherah pole beside it and replace them with an altar of sacrifice to God.

Because he is afraid he does it by night.

q     His father rushes to his defense when the people want to kill him.

He earns the name “Jerub-Baal” meaning, “Let Baal contend with him.”

q     The Midianites and Amalekites gather for war against Israel.

q     He summons the people with a trumpet and sends messengers to gather others from the various tribes.

q     The fleece thing . . .

wet . . .

dry  . .

.

you know.

And throughout this relatively short process, Gideon is in continual dialogue with God.

You know, the more we engage in dialogue with God the more we change.

The end result of prayer is a changed life.

One way or the other, God will mould us as we communicate with Him. 

 

*/1.

/**/The Culling of the Army/*

 

Thirty-two thousand troops had gathered at Gideon’s call.

A small force already compared to the 135,000 that gathered around them.

They were outnumbered, out-powered, and as soldiers, most likely outclassed.

At best, they were reservists, a hastily assembled force and most of them didn’t want to be there anyway.

I would imagine that Gideon was likely disappointed at the turnout.

He wanted the numbers up.

Four to one aren’t the best odds, especially when you are the one.

God on the other hand wanted the numbers down.

Gideon’s silence is marked as he watches the odds grow greater against his success.

I think by now that he recognizes that God is in charge and there is a point when things in life become so overwhelming that they are nearly laughable.

Murphy’s Law says that if anything can go wrong it will.

Life just seems to tell us that everything goes wrong.

I’m sure that many of you in this room today have found yourself in a sequence of calamities.

One disaster on top of another, one disappointment on top of another.

Normally it turns us into pessimists or cynics.

Or, if you so choose, your disasters, your disappointments can cause you to look in a different place to find hope and sanity.

Among the many rhetorical questions that we ask and are asked, questions like, “What’s new?”, is the question, “How’s life?”

For me that answer changes frequently.

Life is just life and if you depend on it for very long in order to find a sense of well being, you will be disappointed.