Judg 6:1-6 | KingComments | STEP | Gideon is not a deliverer about whom only one verse is written, as about Shamgar. Nor is he a deliverer standing in the shadow of a woman, like Barak. In Gideon we have a deliverer who is raised up and trained by God Himself. In contrast to the above mentioned judges, Gideon enables us to see his personal exercises and how he is led to align with God’s thoughts. God goes to work with Gideon. With wisdom and patience He makes Gideon an instrument that He can use to bless His people. The way God deals with Gideon is an example of how God prepares everyone who knows and loves Him and desires to serve Him to perform a service for Him. This service does not consist of a one-off action, but of a whole life of service. After forty years of rest, it again happens. A new generation has emerged in Israel. For them, God’s interference with His people in the past is nothing but a thing of the past. This new generation is no better than their fathers. They also do what is evil in the sight of the LORD. Again God must let His discipline come upon the people. He loves them too much to let them go on the wrong path. God wants to deal with His people. He would like to tell them what lives in His heart for them. He would also like them to tell Him what is in their hearts for Him. How it must grieve God to see His people react to all His love in this way. He wants to instruct and teach His people through their fellowship with Him. If they don’t want to, He must instruct and teach them through the hands of an enemy. This time God uses Midian. Midian is a family people of Israel. They are connected with each other through Abraham. Midian is a son of Abraham and Ketura ( ). Seven years, which speaks of a complete period, the Israelites sigh under this domination. The name Midian means ‘strife’. Is this enemy not recognizable in the lives of many deviated Christians? Is he not also present in communities of faith where people are at odds with each other? In the following verses we see the effect of this.

‏ Judges 6:1-6

Introduction

Gideon is not a deliverer about whom only one verse is written, as about Shamgar. Nor is he a deliverer standing in the shadow of a woman, like Barak. In Gideon we have a deliverer who is raised up and trained by God Himself. In contrast to the above mentioned judges, Gideon enables us to see his personal exercises and how he is led to align with God’s thoughts.

God goes to work with Gideon. With wisdom and patience He makes Gideon an instrument that He can use to bless His people. The way God deals with Gideon is an example of how God prepares everyone who knows and loves Him and desires to serve Him to perform a service for Him. This service does not consist of a one-off action, but of a whole life of service.

Given Into the Hands of Midian

After forty years of rest, it again happens. A new generation has emerged in Israel. For them, God’s interference with His people in the past is nothing but a thing of the past. This new generation is no better than their fathers. They also do what is evil in the sight of the LORD. Again God must let His discipline come upon the people. He loves them too much to let them go on the wrong path.

God wants to deal with His people. He would like to tell them what lives in His heart for them. He would also like them to tell Him what is in their hearts for Him. How it must grieve God to see His people react to all His love in this way. He wants to instruct and teach His people through their fellowship with Him. If they don’t want to, He must instruct and teach them through the hands of an enemy.

This time God uses Midian. Midian is a family people of Israel. They are connected with each other through Abraham. Midian is a son of Abraham and Ketura (Gen 25:1-2). Seven years, which speaks of a complete period, the Israelites sigh under this domination. The name Midian means ‘strife’. Is this enemy not recognizable in the lives of many deviated Christians? Is he not also present in communities of faith where people are at odds with each other? In the following verses we see the effect of this.

In the Dens, the Caves and the Strongholds

Never before had the Israelites sunk so deeply. They are forced to be vagrants and refugees in their own land and they lose their freedom. This is the result when God’s people no longer appreciate the things of God. The people are scattered, each digs his own hiding place, there is no unity anymore.

In a community of Christians where people can no longer enjoy together the blessings that God has given, where people no longer listen together to the Bible, quarrels and struggles easily prevail. Instead of looking at the Lord Jesus together, they look at each other. In doing so, one does not try to discover anything of the Lord Jesus in each other, but is annoyed by each other. The relationships can then become so clouded that there is no longer any trust in each other.

Instead of friendship, openness, trust, freedom, we keep our mouth shut and avoid each other. Suspicion comes and whispers behind the hand. They have buried themselves in their own positions, the dens and caves and the strongholds. It will be a trench war. The end is that people bite and devour each other (Gal 5:15). In this way the beauty of the Christian fellowship is corrupted and long-term friendships are broken. Lives embitter and faith communities explode.

When Israel Had Sown

The enemy knows exactly when he has to come: when Israel has sown. He will do everything he can to prevent the sown from rising, so that there is no food for the people and they become powerless. To weaken the believer, satan does his utmost to deprive him of his food. Through all kinds of things he keeps him from reading the Bible or to go to meetings to be build up in the faith. He knows very well what means he can use with every member of God’s people, drawing from a great arsenal.

The Midianites don’t come alone. Amalek is also there. Amalek is a picture of the flesh. These two enemies always go hand in hand. In Galatians 5, one of the deeds, or the works, of the flesh is called “strife” (Gal 5:19-20). Consequently, a multitude of all kinds of evil goes along, which we see represented in “the sons of the east”. Satan mobilizes all his powers to prevent a believer from collecting anything from the fruits of the land.

No Sheep, Ox, or Donkey

Gaza is a Philistine place. Here, as elsewhere, the Philistines make themselves one with the enemies of Israel. Gaza is a large warehouse for stolen goods brought there by the Midianites. So the proceeds of the land end up in Philistine hands.

We have seen before that Philistines represent nominal Christians, people who claim to belong to the people of God, but do not belong to them because they have no life from God. They claim the fruit of the land, the spiritual blessing, for themselves, while they rob it from those who truly form the people of God. This can only happen by the unfaithfulness of God’s people, the church, because they do not live in what God has given. The joint enemies ensure that nothing remains for God’s people to live from. As a result, there is no power.

What is left of the church when it comes to her testimony in the world? We see it in the book of Acts. How powerful is her witness in the beginning. But that power has disappeared. One of the reasons for this is that in professing Christianity the Bible is no longer presented to Christians as the real food. People who do not possess the Spirit have ‘conquered’ the Bible and explain it according to their own insights. Another cause is that Christians themselves are not open to the pure Word of God. Paul warns Timothy that there will come a time “when they will not endure sound doctrine; but [wanting] to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires” (2Tim 4:3).

Thus, “no sustenance in Israel as well as no sheep, ox, or donkey” is left. If the Bible no longer contains food for the Christian, it is over with the sacrifice, of which sheep and ox speak, and the service for the Lord, of which the donkey speaks.

Brought Very Low

The land of which God has said it is “a land where you will eat food without scarcity” (Deu 8:9), has fallen into great poverty. When we have a Bible at home, we have all the treasures of heaven within reach. But if we do not get around to open the Bible and read it prayerful, it is of no use to us.

We may know that we live in the land, in other words, that we are “blessed … with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly [places] in Christ” (Eph 1:3), but what use do we have of this this if our lives are dominated by bitterness and strife? Despite our wealth we are paupers. It is time to cry to God, just as the Israelites do, so that He may give an outcome.