Outline // Sunday School #9: Gideon in the Winepress

Judges 6:11-16
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.”



Threshing wheat was usually done in a large open area, ideally, on top of a tall hill or something like that, so that wind would help the process.  They would have animals trod on the wheat over and over again, to break it down and process it, and the chaff would blow away in the wind, until what was left, was only the useable parts for making food.

Gideon was living in a time where the Israelites were hopelessly oppressed by the Midianites.  The Midianties would come and raid and steal their food, if they saw anyone using the threshing floor, they would have taken it.

Gideon says, my tribe is the weakest, and I am the least in my entire family...but the angel addresses him as MIGHTY HERO!

we can encourage and call qualities out of people that are in there…maybe just buried right now. THAT’s how Jesus used that power. Not to call governments into place, or change leaders, or get rich quick. Or even to build Himself up. He called PEOPLE into greater things. He spoke LIFE.

It’s almost as if God was just waiting for SOMEONE to ask those questions.  THIS is why I say all the time that God isn’t afraid of your anger.  I think sometimes God is just waiting for SOMEONE to get angry!  SOMEONE to care! ANDDD someone to direct their anger to the RIGHT source.  

1. Is our enemy against flesh and blood?  People get the wrath of our anger all the time…but do PEOPLE deserve it? Or are they just deceived and entrapped and enslaved by the same sin and selfishness that we are?
   1. Well, if it’s not people…then the next logical question you might ask is…
2. Is our enemy God? Does God deserve Gideon’s anger? 
   1. No...God didn’t oppress them. God didn’t cause them to be disobedient and unruly, and unfaithful. 
   2. So why does expressing this anger to God help?  (It changes our perspective)

Sometimes, God just needs someone with the bare minimum amount of faith. The faith of a mustard seed.  Just a LITTLE. Just give me what you have…because God is a multiplying God. He doesn’t add, he MULTIPLIES. He takes whatever is in our hand, whatever we’re willing to give, and he multiplies it! 

I am sending YOU. YOU don’t have to be qualified, I AM qualified.

Sometimes it isn’t US that God changes.  God didn’t say that Gideon would become strong enough to handle a whole army.  He also didn’t say that he would only be fighting one man.  But He did say that it would be AS IF he were fighting one man. God didn’t say he would change Gideon.  He didn’t say He would change the enemy.  

The ONLY difference God promises here is perspective.

If HE is with you–who can be against you?
If HE is with you–do you need to be “qualified”?

In my view:
God saw Gideon not as strong, or powerful, or qualified.

God saw Gideon as hard-working, determined, servant-hearted, and just angry enough to fix a problem.

God saw a person He could use. Not a person who had earned a title.
A person he could teach.  Not a person who knew it all.
A person who had the right heart position.  Not someone angry at all the wrong things.

And He called Him to fix it. 

In my view, God calls us to BE someone…way more often than he calls us to DO something.

What is your character like when no one is watching?  
If God came down into your circumstances, would he find you being useful? Serving the people around you, even though it’s hard?  Or would He find you serving only yourself?  Would He find you asking HIM questions, or blaming the world?  
Would He find you preparing yourself for a calling? Or just entertaining yourself to pass the time?

Gideon started, not by defeating the Midiantites.  
He STARTED by tearing down the altars to the idols.

That’s where we start too.

You will never be free from sin, while you still have an altar set up to it.