The Names of God
09/02/2001 - Jehovah Shalom, "The Lord Our Peace"
This morning we continue our series on The Names of God . And throughout this series we've been looking at some of the classic stories of the Old Testament. Stories that has reminded us how great God is. He is El Elyon, "God Most High," El Shaddai, "God Almighty," Jehovah Jireh, "The Lord Who Provides," Jehovah Rophi, "The Lord Who Heals," Jehovah Nissi, "The Lord Our Banner," Jehovah Tsebaioth, "The Lord of Hosts." He is awesome. And he's the same today as he was back then. He's hasn't gotten any older or weaker or distant, he hasn't retired and moved to Florida. He's available to you and to me.
The series has also introduced us to some of God's choicest servants. Men and women who literally changed the world, like Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Moses and Joshua. And I think it's real easy in a series like this to be intimidated by these heroes of the faith. After all, who here has the faith of Abraham or the charisma of Moses or the courage of Joshua? I mean God did miracles for them, we think, because they were special people. But me, there's nothing special about me. I'm an ordinary guy or gal, working an ordinary job, living an ordinary life. I'm no spiritual giant. I'm no great leader. My life runs hot and cold and is full of ups and downs. How can God use me?
You might think those thoughts, because I know I think those thoughts from time to time. Which is why I was encouraged this week when I read this piece called "Can God Use Me?" Listen to what it says.
"Can God use me? The world might say there are many reasons why God wouldn't want to. But don't worry ... Moses stuttered. David's armor didn't fit. John Mark was rejected by Paul. Hosea's wife was a prostitute. Amos' only training was pruning fig-trees. Solomon was too rich. Abraham was too old. David was too young. Timothy had ulcers. Peter was afraid of death. Lazarus was dead. John was self-righteous. Naomi was a widow. Paul was a murderer. So was Moses. Jonah ran from God. Miriam was a gossip. Gideon and Thomas both doubted. Jeremiah was depressed and suicidal. Elijah was burned out. John the Baptist was a loudmouth. Martha was a worry-wart. Mary was lazy. Samson had long hair. Noah got drunk. Did I mention that Moses had a temper? So did Peter and Paul and lots of others. God doesn't require a job interview. He doesn't hire and fire like most bosses do, because he's more like our Dad than our boss. He doesn't look at financial gain or loss. He's not prejudiced or partial, not judging, grudging, sassy or brassy, not deaf to our cry, not blind to our need. Satan says, "You're not worthy." Jesus says, "So what! I am." Satan looks back and sees our mistakes. God looks back and sees a cross. He doesn't calculate what we did way back when. It's not even on the record. Sure, there are lots of reasons why God shouldn't want us. But he does in spite of all our imperfections. He'll use us in spite of who we are, where we've been, or what we look like. Can God use me? Absolutely!"
God can use us. God can use every single one of us to make a difference in this world no matter what is going on in our lives right now. And he wants to. We don't have to be perfect. In fact, thinking we're perfect, or least a pretty good deal for God, only gets in the way. This morning we're going to discover what it takes for God to use ordinary people like us.
The character in our story today could be on that list. In fact, he is on that list. His name is Gideon. Gideon doubted God. Gideon was an ordinary guy, working an ordinary job, living an ordinary life when God interrupted. If you have your Bible turn to Judges 6.
First, let me give you some background. This series has given us an opportunity to learn a little bit about the history of Israel, God's chosen people. The nation began with God's call of Abraham in Genesis 12 that was two thousand years before Jesus Christ. God gave Abraham a son named Isaac. He was the child of promise. And from Isaac came Jacob whose name God changed to Israel. And from Jacob came twelve sons who became the twelve tribes of Israel.
For four hundred years the children of Israel lived in bondage in Egypt until God raised up a deliverer named Moses. And around 1,500 BC, Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt in an event called the Exodus. And for forty years the Israelites wandered around in the desert until the whole generation, including Moses himself, died off. Then Joshua led God's people across the Jordan River into the Promised Land and the walls of Jericho came tumbling down.
Now Joshua is dead and for the next 350 years, from about 1,400 BC to 1,050 BC, Israel is being ruled by men and women called judges. The judges were both military and political leaders that God raised up to lead Israel against her enemies. Twelve judges are described in the book of Judges and one of them is an unlikely character named Gideon.
During this dark period in Israel's history they had fallen into a negative pattern that would repeat itself again and again and again, not unlike the pattern of an addiction. It's called The Cycle of Judges. The people would sin, usually by worshipping some foreign god. God would discipline them for their sin by handing them over to serve that foreign people. The nation would cry out to God for help in supplication. God would answer their prayers and raise up a judge to save his people. And then there would a period of silence or peace , until the nation drifted away again into sin and the cycle would repeat itself over and over and over again. In fact, the whole book of Judges can be summed up by the very last verse, Judges 21:25, In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.
So when we come to Judges 6 we find Israel at it again, doing evil in the sight of the Lord. Look at Judges 6:1-6, Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. 2 Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. 3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. 4 They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. 5 They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count the men and their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. 6 Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.
This time the enemy was the Midianites. They were nomads that lived south of the Promised Land along the Gulf of Aqaba. They were the first people to use the camel as a military machine. They could cover 400 miles across desert without water and the Israelites had absolutely no defense against the Midianites.
So for seven years, when the Midianites and the Amalekites would invade at harvest time, they ran to the mountains and hid in caves while their fields were stripped clean and their livestock stolen. And while they were hiding in those caves they cried out to God for help and in response God sent them a prophet to remind them that he was still mighty enough to save if they obeyed.
Look at verses 7-10, When the Israelites cried to the Lord because of Midian, 8 he sent them a prophet who said, "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 9 I snatched you from the power of Egypt and from the hand of all your oppressors. I drove them from before you and gave you their land. 10 I said to you, 'I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.' But you have not listened to me." Obedience brings God's blessing. Disobedience brings his judgment. It's that simple. It was that way for Israel then, and it's that way for you and me today.
So after God sends the prophet, then he sends the angel of the Lord. Look at verses 11-16, The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior." 13 "But sir," Gideon replied, "if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, 'Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?' But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian." 14 The Lord turned to him and said, "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?" 15 "But Lord," Gideon asked, "how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family." 16 The Lord answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together."
God sends the angel of the Lord to Gideon. The angel of the Lord in the Old Testament is none other than Jesus Christ himself. Last we week saw how he appeared to Joshua. Now he appears to Gideon while he's hiding in the mountains, afraid for his life, secretly threshing a little bit of wheat in a winepress. Normally wheat was threshed on a large, flat plateau on the top of a hill so the wind could blow the chaff away, while the grain fell to the ground. But this was war, and the little bit of wheat that Gideon did have had to be threshed in a small, hidden winepress.
He's shocked that God would come to him of all people. He's just a poor farm boy, the least in his family, maybe he's the little brother, from the weakest clan in his tribe. He's not a prophet or a priest or some spiritual giant. In fact, he lives with his dad who has an idol and an altar to a pagan god in his own backyard. He feels like a coward and a compromiser. Yet the Lord says to him, "You're a mighty warrior, Gideon. You're going to save Israel from Midian's hand." That's like God coming to one of us while we're mowing the backyard and saying, "You're going to lead a revival that will sweep through this country and bring America back to God." Who me? Not!
What's going on here? How can God say those things about Gideon? I'll tell you what's going on here. God is choosing to work through a person who has no credentials of his own to demonstrate that the power of God in his life and in ours comes from who he is and not from who we are. God saw the potential in Gideon. He wasn't a mighty warrior then, but he would become a mighty warrior through the power of the Holy Spirit. Gideon, just like us, doesn't need to become someone he's not. He just needs to submit who he is to God. Obey what God tells his to do and God will do the rest.
He has faith, but like us he's full of doubt too. So he asks God for a sign.
Look at verses 17-18, Gideon replied, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. 18 Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you." And the Lord said, "I will wait until you return."
Gideon puts the Lord on hold, if you can imagine that, and goes inside and makes dinner. Gideon went in, verse 19, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak. 20 The angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And Gideon did so. 21 With the tip of the staff that was in his hand, the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared. 22 When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, "Ah, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!" 23 But the Lord said to him, "Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die." 24 So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord is Peace, Jehovah Shalom. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
Gideon brings the meal to the angel of the Lord. He puts it on a rock and God saps it and then disappears. Gideon is now convinced that he's just had an encounter with the living God and he's changed by it. He builds an altar, calls it Jehovah Shalom, God is my Peace, and then with God's help risks his life to do a hard thing.
Look at verses 25-32, That same night the Lord said to him, "Take the second bull from your father's herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father's altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. 26 Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering. 27 So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the men of the town, he did it at night rather than in the daytime. 28 In the morning when the men of the town got up, there was Baal's altar, demolished, with the Asherah pole beside it cut down and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar! 29 They asked each other, "Who did this?" When they carefully investigated, they were told, "Gideon son of Joash did it." 30 The men of the town demanded of Joash, "Bring out your son. He must die, because he has broken down Baal's altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it." 31 But Joash replied to the hostile crowd around him, "Are you going to plead Baal's cause? Are you trying to save him? Whoever fights for him shall be put to death by morning! If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar." 32 So that day they called Gideon "Jerub-Baal," saying, "Let Baal contend with him," because he broke down Baal's altar.
Gideon does a gutsy thing with God's help. He tears down the altar of Baal and replaces it with an altar to God. He's afraid, but he knows God is with him. And when the men of the town find out they want to kill him. But to his Dad's credit, he comes to his son's defense and Gideon's life is spared. He later goes on to defeat the Midianites, but not before he tests God again. This time by laying out a fleece.
And that story's found in verses 36-40, Gideon said to God, "If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised 37 look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said." 38 And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew-a bowlful of water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, "Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew." 40 That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.
Gideon had faith, but like us, he also had doubts. Yet, God was patient with his doubts and allowed Gideon to even test him with the fleece. But he could use Gideon, because he was willing to obey. Chapter seven goes on to tell us how he routed the Midianites in a miraculous victory, three hundred Israeli soldiers took it to 135,000 Midianites, overcoming a ratio of 450 to 1! Amazing! And for that Gideon ends up in God's Hall of Fame for his in Hebrews 11.
So what are the lessons we can learn from Gideon's life? How does God use ordinary people like us?
First, be aware of your own inadequacy. That starts, of course, when we trust Jesus Christ as our Savior. We can't begin to spiritually live until we first realize that we are spiritually dead, bankrupt, separated from God by our sin. And the only way to have our sin forgiven and a relationship with God established is by trusting Jesus Christ as our Savior. That's the starting point. That's when we have peace with God. That's when he becomes our Jehovah Shalom.
But it goes way beyond that. It involves a growing understanding that apart from Jesus Christ we can do nothing that will have real, eternal value. Jesus put it this way in John 15:5, I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing.
Does that mean we can't get out of bed without Jesus Christ? No. Does that mean we can't go to work, earn a living, get married and raise a family without Jesus Christ? No. People do it all the time. What it means is that we can do nothing that will have eternal value, nothing that will out live this life, without being connected to Christ. We can be busy doing a lot of things without Christ in our lives, but in the end our lives will be fruitless.
God uses ordinary people greatly who have a growing sense of their own inadequacy. People who, like Gideon, are continually amazed that God puts up with them, that God keeps forgiving them, that God wants them in the game. People who live with the sense that I don't deserve any of the blessings that God has given me.
Gideon's statement, My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family, reminds me of what the apostle Paul said in Ephesians 3:8, I am less than the least of all God's people.
Second, be convinced of God's complete adequacy. Gideon needed a sign. He needed to know that God could really make him into a mighty warrior. In fact, he actually needed three signs, the zapping of the meal and the placing of the fleece ... twice. His faith wasn't always strong, but he was willing to obey.
Like Gideon, we need to be reminded often of God's complete adequacy to take care of us and to use us to do things way beyond what we're capable of. One reason we gather here every single Sunday is to be reminded of God's adequacy. This series is especially suited for that. Each week we're getting a snapshot of how great God is. We're reminded when we worship. We're reminded when hear the Word. We're reminded when we hear stories like we've heard today of what God is capable of doing all around the world. That's how our faith is built. Those are the signs we need to give us the courage to obey God.
God uses ordinary people who believe that he is able to pull off miracles for them. Not because their extraordinary, but because he is! The Lord is with you, God said to Gideon. That makes all the difference!
Third, be filled with God's Spirit. That was the key for Gideon and that's the key for us. Judges 6:34, Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him.
Gideon had the power to do the unthinkable because he was filled with God's Spirit. And that's what God commands of us in Ephesians 5:18, Be filled with the Spirit.
But that can only happen after we've cleaned out the idols in our lives. See the "then" in Judges 6:34 is very important. God's Spirit couldn't come upon Gideon until after he destroyed the family idols. They were getting in the way. And sometimes we can be just like Israel, wondering why our life is being overrun by the Midianites. We don't make the connection, that it might be because we're housing an idol in our life, some secret sin we want to hold on to or some fractured relationship that we refuse to repair, or some goal we're pursuing that we know is not of God. God's asking us, with his help, to clean house, so that he can fill us with his Spirit and use ordinary people like us to do extraordinary things for him that will last forever. That's a life worth living.