Title [Farmer Gideon's Trumpet]
Contents
[Farmer Gideon's Trumpet] Judges 7:4-8 2007.05.13 Sunday Evening Service
1) For several weeks, we listen to the sermon on the topic of what God wants to use on a Sunday evening. The things that God uses greatly in the history of salvation, whether things or people, are essentially useless and insufficient.
2) What we saw in the Bible, such as Jacob's stone pillow, Moses' bent rod, and manna that came down from heaven, are things in themselves that no one pays attention to and are useless, but when used in God's hands, they become a stone altar and become a miracle. As a staff of power to raise, and manna to feed the hungry. It's like God lifts people up and makes them successful.
3) In the days of Gideon, the Israelites suffered from the great nation of Midian. Especially at harvest time, they would come in flocks to plunder and kill people. Gideon, a farmer, was harvesting grain at night without anyone knowing that he might be plundered by the Midianites. At that time, God called him to be the savior of Israel and caused an unprecedented and amazing work. Looking back on what God called this Gideon, we can only thank God.
1. Let's see how Gideon was summoned.
1) In the Bible, Gideon was an ordinary farmer and a weak man. Fearing the predators of Midian, they hide at night and gather grain in vineyards, not wheat. Then he is called and confesses to God. Judges 6:15. “Gideon said to the Lord. I dare to ask, how can I save Israel? As you can see, my family is the weakest among the tribes of Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.” He was a man who realized his lack of God's calling.
2) Of course, I have strength in front of God's calling. I am strong. No one can confidently say that. And Gideon also stood before God with such a heart. The Bible reveals the answers of those whom God uses and those whom God calls. When Moses was called, he confessed his shortcomings to God. Joshua was also afraid of the call, but God called him and said to him, “Do not be afraid. Be bold. I have called you, so be very courageous in your heart.”
3) When God sought Gideon, he was in the weakest state. God called Gideon, the smallest and most timid among the Israelites, and gave him courage and confidence. In the same way, we hope that God will choose and call us like Gideon, even if we are weak and lacking. Because then we show our abilities. This is the principle of God's writing.
2. What is the truth of God choosing Gideon?
God chooses the right tools for His hands. The tool is arrogant and high-spirited, and if he does not obey his master and reveals himself sullenly, he is the one who throws him away.
1) First of all, when He called and used Gideon, a timid farmer, why did God use Gideon, who was afraid of people with such a small wall? I am puzzled. But God's ways are not like the ways of the world. The same goes for war. He says that war is not done by human strength and skill, but by the Lord, and that God is mighty in war. God often says that God Himself fights and takes the lead in the war. Since God was fighting on his own, the Israelites had to go to that war and simply pick up the victory that God had made. In such a war, what kind of power did God need other than human talent and strength? Only those who obeyed his words and obeyed his will were enough. In that sense, Gideon was a suitable person to obey God's heart.
2) Yes. God's war is not based on the number or the few. Rather than the number of people, it is in the question of whether God directly takes the battle as victory.
When the war with Midian began, Gideon gathered thirty-two thousand warriors and prepared for war. God tells Gideon to send the soldiers back twice, leaving only three hundred men. When Gideon told Gideon to leave only three hundred warriors, he made it clear that he could not defeat the widowed Midian with his own strength and ability, and that it was God's help, not their number, that was able to win the battle.
As such, we are only strong in the power and grace of God.
Faith is essentially the realization of this. So, the first step of faith is to discover one's own incompetence, and the second is to rely on Almighty God.
3) To be honest, I just had to do this regardless of our position of faith. My ability has accomplished many things. And if you rely on yourself, you are a person without faith. Because faith begins where you realize your incompetence. Do we have anything to offer? Is there anything I'm proud of as my ability? Do you have some money? What about social status and honor? Do you think that there is nothing in the world that cannot be done with my own strength? So do I do this if I do, ahem Then we are unbelievers. You cannot be used by God.
3. God-given surrender training
1) God only uses those who have completely surrendered to Him. After God told Gideon to take only three hundred men and go to the Midianite army, he tells you to prepare trumpets and jars. No, you go to war, what kind of trumpet do you fight? And what kind of jar is the jar? But God's clever plan blew a trumpet and broke the jar, so the Midianite army was startled and fled. That was Gideon's victory.
2) This is Judges 7:20. “The three generations blew their trumpets and broke the jars, and they took torches in their left hands, and they lifted their trumpets in their right hand, and they blew, and they cried out, “Sword of the LORD and Gideon!” When three hundred blew their trumpets”
3) The fact that God won Gideon's war with the trumpets and jars means that the victory was not in Gideon or his soldiers, but by God's power, indicating that our salvation is not in our own strength but in God. Our Christianity is not a faith of “self-salvation”. If anyone can save himself, he himself is the savior, and this cannot be faith. The Christian faith is “salvation by force,” that is, receiving the grace of God’s salvation.
Conclusion.
1) Today's story of Gideon, how he defeated the tens of thousands of Midianites with an army of three hundred men with trumpets and jars is God's absolute saving grace. We look to the Lord of the Cross because we cannot save ourselves and open the way ourselves.
2) Like Gideon, who was broken before God and surrendered to victory with three hundred points, if we surrender before God and ask for His help, Gideon's miracle will come true for us today as well. I pray in the name of the Lord Jesus that you will become such saints who work like that before God.