by Eric and Lana Elder
Shalom and welcome to Bethlehem! I’ve written the title of tonight’s story on this board (hold up board) and wonder if someone can read it out loud so that everyone in the room can hear it. Go on, just say it out loud. (The board says:)
(Wait a few seconds) What? You can’t read it? Oh, maybe that’s because you’re trying to read it from left to right (motion with hands left to right across the board), as some of our visitors do. Remember, in Hebrew we read from right to left (motion from right to left). Now, try it again. Go on.
(Wait again) Hmmm, maybe one of your guides can help you. (Guide says: “Shalom”)
“Shalom,” that’s right. And do you know what Shalom means? Shalom means “peace.” When we say, “Shalom” to each other, we’re saying, “Peace be with you.” We could all use a little more peace now, couldn’t we?
But how can we have peace with all these Roman soldiers around? How can we have peace when terrible things happen to us? That’s what we’re going to learn from our story tonight about a man named Gideon.
You see, when Gideon was a young man, our land of Israel didn’t have much peace, either. Every time we planted crops in the ground, the people from Midian came and ravaged our land, destroyed our crops, and spared nothing for our people, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys.
One day, when Gideon was down in a winepress, threshing his grain and trying to keep it hidden from the Midianites, an angel of the Lord appeared to him...right there in the winepress! The angel said, (dramatically) “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior!”
Now, this is one of the most important parts of our story, so I want you to say that line again with me, “the Lord is with you, mighty warrior” (motion with hands for the crowd to say it with you). “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior!”
I’m sure Gideon didn’t feel like a mighty warrior, hiding out down there in the winepress. And I’m sure he didn’t feel like the Lord was with him, either. In fact, he said so to the angel: “If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all His wonders that our fathers told us about...? The Lord has abandoned us.”
Maybe you’ve felt like Gideon before. You’ve wanted to believe that the Lord was with you, but instead, you felt like the Lord had abandoned you. But let me assure you tonight that the Lord is with you, just like He was with Gideon.
The Lord said: “Go, in the strength that you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hands.”
(sheepishly) “But Lord,” Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”
Gideon thought of himself as the least of the least. But remember, the Lord called him a “mighty warrior.” That’s because the Lord sees us not only as what we are, but as what we are to become.
So Gideon asked God for a sign that this was really God talking to him. Gideon prepared some food for the angel and set it on the table. The angel touched the food with his staff and POOF! the food was consumed in the fire, like an offering on an altar, and the angel disappeared!
Convinced that the Lord was with him, Gideon tore down all the altars to false gods in his town and rallied 32,000 men to prepare for battle against the Midianites. A few days before the battle, Gideon asked the Lord for another sign to confirm that God would use him to save Israel. He placed a woolen fleece on the ground and asked God to cover the fleece with dew, but let the ground be dry. The next morning, it was so, and Gideon wrung a bowlful of water out of the fleece.
The next night, Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew.” That night God did so.
Just as Gideon was probably starting to feel like a mighty warrior, God did something unexpected. God told Gideon he had too many men. God said that if they won the battle, they might think that their own strength had saved them. So God told Gideon to send home everyone who trembled with fear. 22,000 men went home, leaving Gideon with only 10,000.
But God told Gideon he still had too many men! God told him to take the men down to the river, and all those who got down on their knees to drink were to go home. All those who lapped the water with their hands could stay and fight with Gideon. Nine thousand, seven hundred men got down on their knees to drink and were sent home, leaving only 300 to fight with Gideon.
Now Gideon must have been really afraid. He wanted to trust God, but it seemed impossible. The night before the battle, Gideon looked down into the valley of the Midianite camp below him and saw that the Midianites were as thick as locusts. Their camels alone were more numerous than the sand on the seashore.
Knowing that Gideon might still be afraid, God told him to sneak down into the Midianite camp and listen to what the men were saying. Then Gideon would be encouraged that God was still with him.
So Gideon snuck down into the Midianite camp just as a man was telling his dream to a friend. “I had a dream,” he was saying. “A round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed.”
His Midianite friend responded, “This can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon... God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands.”
(As an aside, to the crowd) Yes, that’s what I always think when I have a dream about a loaf of barley bread smashing into a tent! But for Gideon, that was just the sign he needed. When he heard the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped God, returned to the camp of Israel and called out, “Get up! The LORD has given the Midianite camp into your hands.”
So Gideon and his three hundred men surrounded the Midianite camp. They blew their trumpets, smashed the jars they were holding on the ground and shouted, “For the Lord and for Gideon!” The Midianites were so afraid that God caused them to turn on each other with their swords. Those who were left and tried to run away were chased by Gideon and his men, until the Israelites won the complete victory!
For the rest of Gideon’s lifetime, for forty more years, the land enjoyed peace. And that brings us back to the beginning of our story.
How can you have true peace, true “shalom,” even in the midst of trouble? You can do what Gideon did. Remember that the Lord is with you, mighty warrior!
- When you’re in a battle and don’t think you can win, remember: The Lord is with you, mighty warrior, and He will help you win.
- When you’re overwhelmed and don’t see a way out, remember: The Lord is with you, mighty warrior, and He will help you find a way out.
- When you’re struggling with sin and don’t think you can overcome it, remember: The Lord is with you, mighty warrior, and He will help you overcome it.
One day, as the prophet Isaiah has told us, the Lord God will send us yet another deliverer, one even greater than Gideon. He will be called the Prince of Peace, the Prince of “Shalom,” and He will be yet one more sign to us that the Lord IS “with us.”
Who knows when that day will come, but until then, you can still have the peace of God, even in the midst of trouble, by remembering that the Lord is with you, mighty warrior!
And may His peace be with you, too. Shalom! (bow)
