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Unexpected Opposition (Part A)

Cross Reference Radio / Pastor Rick Gaston
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December 25, 2020 6:00 am

Unexpected Opposition (Part A)

Cross Reference Radio / Pastor Rick Gaston

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December 25, 2020 6:00 am

Pastor Rick teaches from the Book of Judges (Judges 8)

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He doesn't stay to deal with them. He doesn't major in the minors. He majors in the majors.

He stays focused on the important things. He goes after the Midianites. The war continues. And here's another lesson, God's forces will march forward without you or with you.

It's up to you. It was up to the men of Sukkot. They could've joined ranks. They should've stayed more of the men than the men who were the first.

should have joined ranks. Anybody thinks that they're just so important that if they leave the church, the church is going to crumble. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Judges.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Judges chapter 8 as he begins his message, Unexpected Opposition. Judges chapter 8, Unexpected Opposition. That's a theme that stands out to me.

Maybe you'll see it too, or not. But here's Gideon on the brink of total victory driving out the Midianites. 135,000 warriors of the Midianites had invaded the land of Israel, and with just 300 men, he started their destruction. And then he called the other tribes, and they joined, and the Midianites turning their swords on each other. The other tribes of the Jews then entering the fight.

What was left of the Midianite army began to flee back across the Jordan River to get away from the Jews, to get out of the land, and Gideon with his 300 men are going to pursue them. And so here he's on the brink of total victory against these invaders, and he's faced with challenges from his own people. You win the war, or you're winning the war, only to find yourself fighting the allies, obstructors, his own people. Victory can bring battles. There's a word that stands out in all of this.

If I'm in Gideon's place, it's but the 300. They stuck with him all the way. And I think there's a hidden lesson in that. It doesn't take much to support the fight. It just takes enough. Verse 1, Now the men of Ephraim said to him, Why have you done this to us by not calling us when you went to fight with the Midianites? And they reprimanded him sharply.

Well, this is taking place again after the slaughter of the Midianite, the major force, the 120,000 of them. There's always a fly in the ointment. It's like, it's part of life.

It's just such an irritating part of life that you really have little control over stopping, but you have the opportunity, we have the opportunity, to learn how to stand up to it. Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes, Dead flies putrify the perfumer's ointment and cause it to give off a foul odor. So does a little folly, the one respected for wisdom and honor. So you have this distinguished individual, and they do something a little silly that just kind of ruins everything. Not a harmless silly. There's such a thing as a harmless silly, then there's also such a thing as a harmful one.

Just a little bit of something to mess it up. And that's how it is for Gideon here. He's on this victory. You would think the men of Ephraim would say, yeah, Gideon, thanks for calling us to the battle. No, they've got a nitpick. They've got a, why didn't you call us first?

And there's several reasons for that. He did not call them first. He invited them after the initial rally call. Would they really have followed a farmer? Ephraim is a very proud tribe.

It's a very large and influential tribe amongst the Jews. Should they have come to his aid? Usually, when these kind of criticisms come up, there's something personal in the background pushing it forward that you may never find the reason why. You see this often, somebody, all of a sudden they've got a big problem with a little thing. And it's really a big problem to them. They're not letting it go. It's because there was something else there. And they don't want to tell you, because they're probably guilt, I would assume. In Ephraim's case, what they really were saying is we wanted to be called to the fight so we could get the spoils of war, and you didn't call us so we can't get the best stuff.

That's where this is coming from. It's good that Gideon again and Israel did not call them to the battle. What would have happened if this proud tribe was told, you need to go back to your tents because you got down on your hands and knees to drink water, and we're looking for those who are not doing that. They would have made a bigger problem for everybody, could have knocked swords, went to war with Gideon over. How dare you? We got spoils over there in the Midianite camp.

We want to get our hands on. Who are you to tell us we can't go to war? I don't think Gideon planned it that way. I think he just called these other tribes, not thinking of, he probably said Ephraim's not going to come if I call him. But God saw that, and it was deliberate by God, unintentional oversight by Gideon, not by God. What would have happened if the tribe of Ephraim was told, we're going to war with just 300 of our men and none from Ephraim.

And so he is faced with this now. God, of course, in back of it all, because God said you had too many men, I want to thin out your ranks, I don't want the people getting the glory, I need to get this glory. Ephraim's going to pull this again as a tribe when we get to Japheth. Japheth didn't take any mess from anybody. They messed with the wrong man when they got up in his face, and he slaughtered them. Gideon was not like Japheth. Japheth was not a statesman. Gideon had some class to him, we see that now in verse 2. So he said to them, what have I done now in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer? Now remember, the Midianites are getting away, and you've got to stop, stop all the operations and deal with this silly protest.

Why didn't you call us? But instead of handling it like Japheth, which I kind of like, appeals to my Carmel major, Gideon excels here. He just rises up. His gracious statesmanship averts bloodshed. It would have gotten violent very quickly.

They already had their swords on their hips, they're ready. Proverbs 15, 1, a soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up strife. And this is a kind answer he's giving them. He's saying to them, where he says, God has delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeb, verse 3.

What was I able to do in comparison with you? Then their anger toward him subsided. Now Gideon, he is an Abizerite. He is, as he says in verse 2, what have I done in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer? In that, I guess, proverb, he's saying you came to war late, so you gleaned and you captured the two princes of the Midianites. You came in late, but you got the good stuff. Nobody from my town was able to do this.

This is outstanding. My hometown boys could not catch these men. You did and you got the spoils that went with them. And they heard that and they said, well, you got a good point. See, instead of him locking horns with them and saying, I'm the commander, who are you to step up here and get in my face like Japheth will do? Gideon just tells them, think about it, guys.

You're not missing anything. In fact, you got better stuff than the rest of us. Proverbs 6, he who is slow to anger is better than the mighty. He who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. That ain't me. I wish he who is slow to anger, I'm too quick with the guns.

If I were a gunsling, I'd been dead long time ago. Somebody faster would have just bumped me off the hothead. I'm not as hotheaded as I used to be and I never was totally reckless, but I'd still notice that about myself.

And maybe you do too, or maybe you're married when that does, or notice it in someone else. But the proverb stands. He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty. And here is Gideon slow to anger.

So fantastic a victory that, again, we've covered this last session. The psalmist and Isaiah twice will bring up these two men, Oreb and Zeb, who the children of Ephraim had captured and executed, or killed in the battle. So one of the lessons that comes out of all of this is after victory against foes, there can be wars against friends. Confrontations at the least.

So you put a double guard up. This is the first of three allied attacks on Gideon. This one was relatively mild, but potentially disastrous. This could have just, again, gotten out of hand. We'll get to the others as we move through. Verse 4, when Gideon came to the Jordan, he and 300 men who were with him crossed over, exhausted, but still in pursuit. Now we go to verse 5 with it, and he said to the men of Sukkoth, please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing Zeba and Zalmunah, kings of Midian.

So he had already taken out the princes through the tribe of Ephraim, but the kings had gotten away. But Gideon's not letting them get away with it. He's going after them. He's saying to himself, okay, this ugly mess with Ephraim is now behind me.

I can get back on to the business of war against these invaders because if these two guys get away, they're just going to regroup and come back next year. He's got to get them. That's his thinking. He needs to finish the job, and that's very admirable about him. And so he's saying, okay, now I can fight the enemies.

Wrong. Incidentally, the radius of the battle theater is expanding very rapidly after he's dealt with Ephraim. He's expanding twenty-five miles, thirty-five miles, because we're getting these cities, the names of these cities, and we're charting them from where it all battled. The battle started until he's sixty-five miles away.

That's where it ends. At Kharkor, that's behind enemy lines. God picked, the God-picked three hundred men of Gideon, the Gideon Guard. That's who's with him, and they are exhausted. Look again, it says, exhausted, verse four, but still in pursuit.

Pursuit of what? Complete victory. General MacArthur told one of his generals while he was moving his way towards the Philippines, he said, you have your teeth in him now, don't let go.

And he didn't let go, and of course they won. And that's what Gideon is. Gideon said, I got my teeth in them, I'm not letting go. These guys, Gideon's three hundred, are chasing fifteen thousand troops out of the land. They don't know it's only three hundred, but Gideon, he doesn't care.

He's just full of the spirit in this war. It is dangerous to underestimate the power of evil, but it is also paralyzing to exaggerate it. You've got to be able to understand what you're up against, but also understand who is with you. And this is the case with Gideon, and it's yet another lesson. So we've got, gotten a couple of lessons. One is, your allies can turn on you over nothing very quickly. And so you set a guard. Your victory against the foe, yes, but confrontation with friends.

That's how it is. Don't overestimate the enemy, and don't exaggerate his strength either. They're both counter productive. And I think in this phrase, exhausted but still in pursuit, is quite beautiful.

I have a topical on this from years ago. I probably should give it another shot. Hopefully I'd do better. But is this not a description of Christian perseverance? Exhausted, but still going.

Still chasing. Still following the commandments of the Lord. In this little phrase, parallel lessons, they're inescapable.

They sit right there waiting for us. A striking application in our own lives. Remembering that exhaustion exceeds tiredness. It goes beyond just being weary.

You're, you're, you're now approaching the end of yourself. Maybe there is a season in your life where you are exhausted in your efforts to carry out the Lord's orders. Maybe you are just tired of putting up with someone or something.

Perhaps it could be a sickness. Perhaps it is your own flesh. You're just sick and tired of not corralling the flesh. But you still go after the Lord. You still pray. You still read. You still show up to church when you can.

You do your duty. You're exhausted, but you're still in pursuit of obedience. You still have to fight also when you reach the enemy.

That's another thing. They were exhausted. They're still chasing. Well, what if they caught the enemy in their exhausted state? They'd have to fight like that.

It's not, you know, you have to hurry up or else he gets away or he gets in a position where he's going to make it worse for you. And Gideon knows this. They get to a stronghold. What are they going to do?

Have to deal with them next year. That's just a thought Gideon is not prepared to embrace. In verse 6, then the leaders of Sukkot said, Are the hands of Ziba and Zalmunna now in your hand that we should give you bread to your army?

Really not an army, just a company. This is the fruitless fig tree that Jesus dealt with. It promised fruit, but it did not deliver the fig tree. He saw that it had leaves, which meant the fruit was on the tree and there was none.

And so he cursed the tree. Well, here is Gideon. He's now in a territory of Gad.

He's crossed over Jordan and this is in Gad's territory. These are his people and he's asking them for food for the fight. And they're saying, Did you kill these guys yet or are they still out there? Well, you come back and talk to us when you've got their heads, but until then we're not giving you anything. Because if you lose this, Gideon, they're going to come after us. Might is more important than right according to them. They are wrong. Others were risking their lives, but these men of Gad, they were withholding blessings. They were enabling the enemy to get away and to remain strong. Not even a recorded blessing, not even, Gideon, we can't help you, but the Lord be with you.

Be warm and be filled. God bless you. Not even that.

Critical omission, which is an admission of guilt. Yahweh was in none of their thoughts. Each did what was right in his own eyes. Show us their heads. And Gideon, he's tired, he's hungry, he knows he's got these guys and he's not getting help from where he would have expected it the most. And he's got to face his men.

What are they to do? Slaughter a sukkot and turn on their own people? Well, he's going to punish them.

He's just not going to do it now, which is another lesson that comes out of all of this. Now, you might say, well, the people of Sukkoth had good reason to fear. No, they did not. The fact that Gideon is chasing and retreating a full army and full retreat, the fact that he's chasing them out of the land is evidence enough. They should have rallied.

We see you got them. They don't offer troops and he doesn't ask for any. Remarkable how people of inaction can almost ruin the war, break your heart in the process. They offer him nothing. No food, no troops, no blessing, nothing. In fact, we're told in latter verses, in verse 15, that they even mock him.

That probably sealed their fate. So here is another lesson. He doesn't stay to argue. He doesn't stay to deal with them. He doesn't major in the minors. He majors in the majors.

He stays focused on the important things. He goes after the Midianites. The war continues. And here's another lesson. God's forces will march forward without you or with you.

It's up to you. It was up to the men of Sukkoth. They could have joined ranks. They should have joined ranks. Anybody thinks that they're just so important that if they leave the church, the church is going to crumble. I can't tell you how many people have implied that over the years. I'm leaving and I'll be taking a bunch of people with me.

And you'll be out of a job and you won't be able to, oh gosh. Satan gets in the heart of the best of us. This was a war that everybody had to take a risk in. They didn't know that they were taking a risk with the wrong side, these men of Sukkoth. But they were. While Gideon was risking his life and his men on the battlefield, it gets worse.

Don't worry, it gets worse. Verse 7, so Gideon said for this cause, when Yahweh has delivered Ziba and Zalmunah into my hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briars. That's probably the point where they started mocking him. Oh yeah, sure, ha ha, right.

We're always shaking in our sandals. But Gideon, knowing how big this army is he's chasing, knowing how small his company is, he's got, we're going to take these guys. I don't have to kill the whole army. I just got to kill those two.

That's all I've got to do. What a man! I bet he messes it up, messes it all up at the end.

Not completely, but he does damage. Anyway, this brand of neutrality in the war is going to cost them, and it's going to cost them severely. He could have, again, dealt with them on the spot, but he remains focused. Refusing to help the servants of Israel, they ended up helping the enemies of Israel.

What a lesson! Jesus said it this way, he who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. And that's the men of Sukkoth, and don't worry, as I mentioned, there's more. Verse 8, then he went up from there to Penuel and spoke to them in the same way, and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Sukkoth had answered.

More countrymen from Gad. Again, he's six miles hungrier, and more tired, and more irritated. He's got to be asking himself, what is with these people? Auditory is with these people, that's what. Jesus is saying, is it me?

Why am I the only one that can understand? I've got my teeth in these guys, and I can't let them go. Don't you see the enemy is in full retreat? It's not even a sensible retreat. They're not even setting guards to slow us down.

They think that they just need to pell-mell out of here, and they're safe, and that's going to be the enemy's downfall. Verse 8, so he also spoke to the men of Penuel, saying, when I come back in peace, I would tear down this tower. He will, and it's going to hurt, but he's going to hit them where it hurts.

He reminds us a little bit of Nehemiah. He didn't play around at this point, but he's going to do more damage to them than they're ready for. There's going to be blood. So he gives them a heads up, and he says, you can't be neutral. Not in this.

You will be scourged for it. Verse 10, now Ziba and Zalmuno were in Kharkor, and their armies with them, about 15,000, all who were left of all the army of the people of the east, for 120,000 men who drew the sword had fallen. That's 135 warriors, 120 killed already, and being killed probably as this is going on west of Jordan, back in the promised land, and he's in Kharkor.

We know Kharkor is in enemy territory, so that's how far he chased them. Gideon is outnumbered 50 to 1. The size of his, he's got 2% of their army, just 300 divided into 15,000.

He's at 2%. 11% of the Midianite army has survived, and he doesn't, again, he doesn't have to wipe out the whole army. He just has to take out the leaders.

Incidentally, Kharkor means flat or a plateau, so it's an ideal battlefield, and it's an ideal campground, but it doesn't offer any coverage. We're not going to be told how Gideon gets these two guys, but I'm suspecting there was, you know, a night mission involved. They just swooped in and took them and went on, because it just, I mean, you can't, 300 men just can't kill 15,000 men with a sword, not in a day. I mean, you only get tired.

Even if you're eating a sandwich while you're just chopping them up, you just can't. It would be foolish for us to think that he will not annihilate them. He'll do some damage to some of them, but he gets away with it. Verse 11, then Gideon went up by the road of those who dwell in tents on the east of Nabah and Jogbetha, and he attacked the army while the camp felt secure. Well, the road, where it says the road of those who dwell in the tents, that's a caravan route, and he is surprised. The reason why he gets the advantage of a surprise attack is because they let their guard down. They're like, we're out of Israel's territory.

We're not even in Gad's territory now, and they felt pretty good about themselves. Thanks for tuning in to Cross-Reference Radio for this study in the book of Judges. Cross-Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. If you'd like more information about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. You'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick available there, and we encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. By doing so, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross-Reference Radio. You can search for Cross-Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app, or just follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. That's all the time we have for today. Join us next time to continue learning more from the book of Judges, right here on Cross-Reference Radio.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-01-11 09:45:38 / 2024-01-11 09:56:02 / 10

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