Judges 6:11-24 And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained to Joash the Abiezrite… I. THE SANCTION GIVEN: "The Lord looked upon him." Oh, what a mercy ! His father might have looked upon him long enough, and surnamed him Jerubbaal or what he pleased, but it would have been no use unless the Lord had looked upon him. But there are many senses in which the Lord looks upon His people, and upon His enemies too. He looked upon the affliction of His people in Egypt: "I have looked upon them, and have come down to deliver them." He looked upon David in all his affliction. Then, again, you will remember how the Lord looked upon Peter. What a significant and expressive look! But, to put these matters a little more into form, mark, first of all, that Gideon seemed as if he would avoid all lookers-on. He was withdrawn from observation. Some of the sweetest seasons in which God looks upon His people are when they are retired. And hence the direction given by our blessed Lord, "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet," etc. Now just look again at this great sanction from above. While Jehovah looks from His high throne upon the objects of His love to inspire them for His special work and for the great objects to which He has appointed them, He withdraws their affections from other objects and leads them forth with an ardent desire to glorify God in His work. II. THE COMMAND: "Go in this thy might." Why, I do not know that Gideon had confessed to possess any might; on the contrary, he had concealed himself from time to time from all those very enemies he was about to vanquish. He said unto the Lord, " Wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house." Well, now, if I first of all view this as typical of Christ, did not He spring from a poor family? Yet He was the "Captain of the Lord's host." But — mark this — all glory to His name, it was His own essential might. I beseech you, lose not sight of this all-important fact, to which, I think, Gideon's history points typically — that Christ had the whole matter with regard to the salvation of His Church entrusted to His care; therefore is it written, that He hath "laid help upon one that is mighty and exalted — one chosen out of the people." I come to the secondary view — I mean the sending of God's own servants; because, while I allow no efficiency whatever to be ascribed to them, yet are they instrumentally employed for the express purpose of saving Israel out of the hands of the Midianites. Now, have you not Omnipotence pledged in your personal experience? If you have not you have got no experience at all. It was Omnipotence that broke your hearts, and subdued you at the feet of Jesus. God humbles the sinner thus; He lays us low, strips us of all confidence, makes us deeply conscious of creature-weakness and insufficiency, so as not to be sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; and then we get the pledge of Omnipotence on our side. We may well go forth thus to the war armed with strength — "Go in this thy might." Well, but how could it be said to be his? Why, what is freer than a gift? It was given him — it was his might — "in this thy might." No man is strong but he who is strong in Jehovah's might. III. THE PROMISE OF SUCCESS: "And thou shalt save Israel from the hands of the Midianites" — cruel and vexatious, always to be wanting the territories of Israel. I must here refer you back again to the commandment of God at an earlier period than this with regard to these Midianites. After Balaam had instructed Balak how to seduce God's Israel, the commandment came from the Lord, "Vex the Midianites and smite them, for they vex you with their wiles." Here we might include in this vast multitude, "like grasshoppers for number," all the opposers of God's gospel, all the enemies of His Cross. But to bring this matter nearer home. The Midianites that every Christian has to contend with he finds in his own camp, in his own tent, within his own heart. Now mark the simple process of the war. I do not read that there was a weapon of war in any of their hands, but they were to go forth under the simple direction of Gideon. Now look at their weapons. Each man was to have a trumpet, a pitcher and a lamp inside. Pretty things to go to war with, truly! Well, then, but while we glance at the simplicity of the means thus employed, and the cry that went forth, "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!" mark that the Midianites all fled. (J. Irons.) Parallel Verses KJV: And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites. |
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