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A life lesson is revealed out of Judges 6 and 7. When Joshua led the people of Israel into the Promised Land, they were full of strength and vigor. They followed the Lord fully; they had seen His hand moving in great power. But after Joshua and the other leaders died, the next generation that arose after them didn’t know the Lord. They hadn’t seen His miracles, and they fell away from following Him.

Where there is no relationship, there is no foundation of faith. And without faith the soul longs to be filled by that which the world offers. Troubles will surely follow.

That’s the life lesson. When people are drawn to the ways of the world and turn their back on God, they are weakened spiritually. Sin reduces a person, and when enough people turn away from God, the nation itself is weakened. That’s what happened to Israel.

The result is trouble, more trouble than they could reckon with. In their weakened state it was easy for their enemies to arise and bring even greater troubles.

Here’s a question. If troubles arise in a person’s life when they turn their back and walk away from God, does it mean there will be no troubles for the one who walks steadfastly with God? No, not at all. In fact, Jesus said that in this world you will have many troubles.

What’s the difference then? If troubles arise if you walk away from God and troubles arise if you walk steadfastly with God, why walk with God?

Here’s the answer: if there will be troubles in this life, I want God to walk with me in those troubles. I want God to be for me and not against me. I could then say as David said in Psalm 23, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for Thou art with me.”

When Israel turned away from following God and turned toward the gods of the world, the result was predictable. They lost their strength spiritually, and so they lost their strength nationally. They would then cry out to the Lord and the Lord would send a deliver, a judge, to save the people from their oppression. As I mentioned last week, at least they knew to whom to cry when they were in trouble.

This pattern repeated over and over for 250 years. The people would follow the Lord when the deliverer was leading them, but when that judge died, the people would go back to the gods of the world.

In Judges 6, the nation of Israel was oppressed by the Midianites. They came across the Jordan from the east like locusts for number. They came into the land to devastate it, leaving no produce of the earth as well as no sheep, oxen, or donkey. Israel was brought very low because of Midian, and the sons of Israel cried to the Lord.

Israel needed a deliver, but the one whom God chose did not appear to be much of a deliver. When we first meet him, he is threshing wheat in a winepress because he was afraid of the Midianites. He was met by an angel of the Lord, an appearance of Christ in the Old Testament, who greeted him with, “The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior.” God was addressing him as he would become, because at that moment he was neither valiant nor a warrior.

At first, Gideon responded the way many respond when life takes a turn for the worst, he blamed God, “If the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about? The Lord has abandoned us.”

The Lord answered, “Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?”

“Me?” Gideon responded, “How shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is least in Manasseh, and I am youngest in my father’s house.”

The Lord’s answer is simple, “Because I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man.”

“First, however, take two bulls and tear down the altar to Baal that is in your father’s house and cut down the Asherah that is beside it.” In other words, let revival begin in your own house, your own heart, your own life, and then you will see the power of God move.


Pastor Rich Jones
Pastor Matthew Dodd
Rich Jones Calvary Chapel
Calvary Chapel Worship Center
Calvary Chapel Hillsboro
Calvary Chapel Oregon
Calvary Chapel Beaverton
Calvary Chapel Portland

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