Christian Living

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Based on Judges 6:1-16

     The story I am about to tell is fiction, but it is funny and it has a point. After 38 years of marriage I thought I knew everything about Lavonne.  But I discovered something new when we got back from our trip to Washington.  I was putting things away and I was pushing something under her side of the bed when I discovered a box that was in the way.  I asked her what it was and she just told me not to get into it.  I kept carrying things in from the car, but my mind was on that box.  When she went down for another load I quickly grabbed a peak into that box.  I was really surprised and mystified for in that box there were three eggs and 500 dollars.

        When Lavonne came back up I told her I was just too curious and could not resist looking into the box.  I asked her why there were three eggs in it? She just told me that when I would preach a sermon that was not very good she would put an egg in the box.  I thought after 30 years of preaching that only three eggs was not bad at all.  But then I asked her what the 500 dollars was doing there?  She explained, "Every time I get a dozen eggs I sell them." 

        The story isn't true, but it is an excellent illustration of the need to laugh at our selves, and to realize that the best preacher and the best leader, and the best Christian are nothing without God.  Sarah laughed when the Angel of the Lord said she would bear a child in her old age.  What a joke that God would use her feeble body to change history.  If you want to see the sense of humor that God has, just look at the heroes of history in and out of the Bible. Paul knew his history when he wrote, "God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong."  This is what the 4th of July is all about.  It is about celebrating the freedom that the weak have won from the strong. 

       The 13 colonies were divided and weak, and they were going up against the greatest military power in the world on both land and sea.  The men who signed the Declaration of Independence knew they were signing their own death warrant, for death was the penalty for defying the crown of England. They were men of great stature like Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.  But the fact is, they were all weak in many ways, and they knew that without the providence of God they did not stand a chance. 

        The Declaration of Independence was composed by using phrases from the popular sermons of that day.  Listen to it and you can hear the clear sense of dependence upon God.  "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.... We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, that these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, Free and Independent States.... And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."

       What we need to keep in mind is that these noble words were forged in debate.  Jefferson, the deist, did not want so much about God in the Declaration, but he was out voted by the others.  Many did not want to approve of the Declaration, and there were eloquent voices that spoke against it.  John Adams called it the greatest debate of all and he argued vigorously for its acceptance.  When congress voted nine of the thirteen colonies voted for it, but that was not enough, for it had to be unanimous.  So the debate went on and on until all of the colonies agreed, and thus they became the United States of America. 

        The more you read of the history of our nation the more you realize the heroes of our history were not gods come down to earth, but they were weak and fallible men who knew they didn't have a prayer without the providence of God.  It was their dependence upon God that enabled them to declare their independence from tyranny.  Dependence upon God was the key to freedom. It was a joke to think this puny body of people could win a war with England, but that is just the kind of joke God loves to play on the tyrants of history. 

       Puny David defeated Goliath; puny Daniel defeated the powerful leaders of Babylon, and puny Israel defeated the Egyptians and the mighty Midianites.  It is one of God's favorite jokes, and we see it again so clearly in the life of Gideon.  We want to focus on his story as an illustration of how God works in history, for it is a great encouragement to all of us who feel so weak and inadequate to do the will of God in this fallen world.  That Gideon would ever become a hero was a real joke.  He was one of the greatest cowards in the Bible, and he had good reason to be one.  His whole nation was a people of weakness.

       Israel was oppressed by the power of the Midianites.  Every year they would plant their crops, and then just when they were ready for harvest the Midianite hoards would sworn over their land and destroy it, and leave them in poverty.  They were helpless, and they had to leave their land and climb into the mountains and live in caves.  They were like the scrawny little chicken that all the other chickens pecked until it was nearly dead.  Among these weaklings was Joash and his son Gideon.  They had some grain that was secretly threshed in a wine press to hide it from the Midianites.  Imagine being so weak you had to hide your food lest a bully take it away from you and leave you starving.

       Now we see the humor of God, for the Angel of the Lord comes to Gideon as he is making enough grain for his lunch, and looking around to make sure the Midianites do not spot him.  He is in fear lest he be caught making his lunch, and the Angel greets him with these words, "The Lord is with you mighty warrior."  Mighty warrior was such an exaggeration that Gideon did not even respond.  He just questioned the Lord being with him, or with anyone among his people.  Not only was Gideon a weakling and a coward, he was a skeptic and a pessimist.  They lived in fear for their lives, and even lived in fear while preparing their lunch.  They were a weak and helpless people. They had every reason to be discouraged and disillusioned about the good old days when God lead His people out of Egypt with great power.  Gideon's question was, "Big deal, what has he done for us lately?"  

       The Angel of the Lord persists in the joke of treating Gideon like a mighty warrior, and he says, "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of the hand of the Midianites."  But Gideon is equally persistent in trying to set the Lord straight on the facts.  "All this talk of strength and power is superficial.  Look at the facts:  Israel is the weakest nation around, and I belong to the weakest clan in my tribe, and I am the least in my family."  If the Guinness Book of Records was printed in Gideon's day, he would be found under the weakest man in the world.  Gideon could not even make a sandwich without fear and trembling that the Midianites might see it and take it away from him. 

        From a human point of view this would be a handicap for one called to lead an army against a mighty foe.  But from God's point of view this is just the kind of man He was looking for.  Why?  Because the problem of God's people all through history is that they thought it was their power and their goodness that made them God's people.  And in their pride they fell.  God was continually having to teach them that He did not choose them because they were wonderful.  He chose them in their weakness to reveal to the world how great and wonderful He was in loving and saving people even though they were totally unworthy.

        If we get God's joke, we will laugh at ourselves, and we will see the foolishness of pride and self-glory.  Tal Bonham in his book Humor God's Gift points out that ability to laugh at our selves is the key to spiritual health. Christians who take themselves too seriously, as if their gifts and their wisdom and their service is the key ingredient to the success of the kingdom of God, have missed the whole point of God's joke.  The success of anything that leads to God's glory is not dependent upon man but upon God.  We need to laugh at ourselves when we have the audacity to think that God's plan depends upon us.
 
       Ethel Barrymore said, "You grow up the day you have the first real laugh at yourself."  Reinhold Niebuhr, the great theologian, said, "The less we are able to laugh at ourselves, the more it becomes necessary and inevitable that others laugh at us."  Many are convinced that people that cannot laugh at themselves cannot see their sinful nature, and so they are really blind to how weak they really are.  Bernard Ramm said, "Humor reminds us that we are not gods nor goddess."  He said that dictators and fanatics always lack a sense of humor because they have classified themselves among the gods.  They refuse to tolerate any reminder of their humanity.

       The point is, the truly humble person that God is looking for is one who, like Gideon, knows it is joke to call him a mighty warrior.  He is weak and he knows it.  But he also knows that if God is really with him, he can be used to do mighty things.  Gideon was a chicken and a skeptic, and he needed all kinds of proof that God was with him.  And even when God gave him evidence he did not boldly obey but had to get up in the middle of the night to destroy the altar of Baal.  He was afraid of the Midianites and afraid of his own people as well.  This great hero was afraid of everybody, and he was afraid of God also.  He pleaded with God not to be angry with him for his doubting spirit.

       When Gideon did finally raise an army to fight the Midianites God had to teach him again that his might was not in the power of man, but in the power of His providence.  He had 32 thousand men ready to fight, but God had him whittle his forces down to 300 men to fight an army that was so vast that it filled a valley with camels.  They were so numerous they could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore.  Again we see God's sense of humor. What a joke-300 men with trumpets and pitchers going against a mighty army.  Why not send the youth group with peashooters against an army of tanks?  God does go to extremes sometimes to make His point.  His point is made clear in 7:2 where he says to Gideon, "You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands.  In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her." 

       God used the totally inadequate band of 300 men to route the mighty foe just to make this point that He is the one who won the battle.  We need to declare our independence from man in order to be free to depend upon God for victory.  We see this in the Bible and in our own history as Americans. We are not a great nation and a free nation because we are such wonderful people.  We are so because we had heroes who were dependent upon God. They knew they were weak and inadequate, but they knew they were strong in the Lord.  Listen to the famous words of Patrick Henry in 1775:  "There is no longer hope.   If we wish to be free, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us! They tell me that we are weak, but shall we gather strength by irresolution?  We are not weak.  Three million people, armed in the holy cause of liberty and in such a country, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us.  We shall not fight alone.  God presides over the destinies of nations, and will raise up friends for us.  The battle is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.... Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, almighty God!  I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

       God gave us liberty because of men like that, and God gave Israel because of men like Gideon.  God called him a mighty warrior.  He was a nobody and a coward, but God made him a hero, and by so doing made it possible for every believer though history to realize that successful living does not depend upon them and their gifts.  Success living depends upon our freedom to be dependent upon God. 

       All the evidence points to the fact that the church is enslaved to the world, and it is much like Israel under the Midianites.  The church is often afraid to be the church, and so it conforms to the world.  The church has adopted the idols of our culture, and it gives only token honor to the God of our salvation. The average American Christian cannot stand to give more than an hour or two to the things of God each weak, but they spend many more hours pursuing the idols of our culture.  They care more about success and what looks good than about the kingdom of God.  If it has a Las Vegas glow and a Hollywood show, that is the way to go.  Pride goes before a fall, and many of God's people have fallen because they thought they could stand in their own power.  This is folly, for no one can stand alone.  All of us need a constant dependence upon God to remain free.

        We are free as a nation because of men and women who took God's joke seriously, and they believed that the weak can be victorious over the strong if they are dependent upon God.  We celebrate the 4th of July because of weak people who found their strength in God.  The only way we can experience the full joy of freedom in Christ is to take God's joke seriously.  We need to realize that He can use us in all of our weakness to make a difference in this world if we declare our dependence upon Him. 

       Laugh at yourselves, and laugh at the dreams and schemes of men who think they can make a difference by their own wisdom and power.  Psa. 127:1 says, "Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain."  The bottom line is this: We need to be a people of prayer and a people of dependence upon God.  We need to do more than just say Lord, Lord.  We need to live in a way that reveals that Jesus is truly Lord of our lives, or we labor in vain.  May God help us as we celebrate the Declaration of Independence to declare our dependence on Christ, and thereby experience the inner freedom to match the external freedom we have as Americans. Dependence on Christ is the key to freedom.

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