Obedient Peace

Obedient Peace

(Judges 6:1-32)

Yearly Theme:  “Peace is…”

Series Title:  “Peace in the Promised Land”

March 14^th, 2021

Something to think about:

Obedience is something we often struggle with our whole lives, with many of us spending them trying to escape from one authority or the other. We think things like “When I graduate and am out on my own, I’ll be completely free” but how quickly we realize that even when “out on our own” we still have those in authority over us that we will have to obey, such as college professors, bosses, political leaders, and religious leaders. There will always be those in authority over us no matter how far we get in life. Furthermore, we are all ultimately held accountable to the authority of God.       

The sooner we can find peace with the idea of obedience the sooner we will find the peace that obedience brings.

This is the story of Gideon, a Judge of Israel and a man who obeyed God. Much can be learned from Gideon about obedience. Let us take a look at how he reacts to a direction from God.

Judges 6:7-27

7 When they cried out to the Lord because of Midian, 8 the Lord sent a prophet to the Israelites. He said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of slavery in Egypt. 9 I rescued you from the Egyptians and from all who oppressed you. I drove out your enemies and gave you their land. 10 I told you, ‘I am the Lord your God. You must not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you now live.’ But you have not listened to me.”

11 Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. 12 The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!”

13 “Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.”

14 Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”

15 “But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!”

16 The Lord said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.”

17 Gideon replied, “If you are truly going to help me, show me a sign to prove that it is really the Lord speaking to me. 18 Don’t go away until I come back and bring my offering to you.”

He answered, “I will stay here until you return.”

19 Gideon hurried home. He cooked a young goat, and with a basket[a] of flour he baked some bread without yeast. Then, carrying the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, he brought them out and presented them to the angel, who was under the great tree.

20 The angel of God said to him, “Place the meat and the unleavened bread on this rock, and pour the broth over it.” And Gideon did as he was told. 21 Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and bread with the tip of the staff in his hand, and fire flamed up from the rock and consumed all he had brought. And the angel of the Lord disappeared.

22 When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he cried out, “Oh, Sovereign Lord, I’m doomed! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”

23 “It is all right,” the Lord replied. “Do not be afraid. You will not die.” 24 And Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and named it Yahweh-Shalom (which means “the Lord is peace”). The altar remains in Ophrah in the land of the clan of Abiezer to this day.

25 That night the Lord said to Gideon, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one that is seven years old. Pull down your father’s altar to Baal, and cut down the Asherah pole standing beside it. 26 Then build an altar to the Lord your God here on this hilltop sanctuary, laying the stones carefully. Sacrifice the bull as a burnt offering on the altar, using as fuel the wood of the Asherah pole you cut down.”

27 So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord had commanded. But he did it at night because he was afraid of the other members of his father’s household and the people of the town.

Key Point:  “Peace comes through obedience to God’s calling on our lives.”

There are three stumbling blocks to obeying God that we all face, including Gideon. It’s helpful to take a look at what they are and how God responds to them.

• Am I capable of this?

Judges 6:15 (NLT) “15 “But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!”

• Is this really God?

Judges 6:17 (NLT) “17 Gideon replied, “If you are truly going to help me, show me a sign to prove that it is really the Lord speaking to me.”

• How is this going to impact me?

Judges 6:22 (NLT) “22 When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he cried out, “Oh, Sovereign Lord, I’m doomed! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”

Judges 6:27 (NLT) “27 So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord had commanded. But he did it at night because he was afraid of the other members of his father’s household and the people of the town.”

Something to take home:

Even the great heroes of the Bible struggled with doubt. They often doubted themselves, doubted God, and they often struggled to discern God’s voice. However, even despite that, every single time God follows through with his promises. The peace brought by obedience is the peace in knowing that God is God, and I am not. To obey God is the very foundation of Peace.

Key Point:  “Peace comes through obedience to God’s calling on our lives.”