Home Recent Previous Series Phil's background Creation and science Miscellaneous Links Contact Phil

Gideon - Part 1

The power of Midian

Judges 6v1-10

10th July 2015

As my good friend Les Payce was preaching on Gideon last Sunday, I began to see that the story of that ancient hero is a message for all who will listen for God's call today. Like many heroic Bible stories, it doesn't begin heroically at all. The opening words of this story are:

Judges 6v1
The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.

It's not that the Midianites were holier than the Israelites, or were sent to help them; the Midianites were God's chosen implement of judgement on His chosen people.

We, the English church, easily forget that God's blessing on our mission and our country depends on our obedience to His holy word. If we're willing to depart from God's word - the Bible - then God will give us into the hands of our oppressors, too. The more we compromise Bible teaching, the more we lose influence on our society, and the more we're oppressed.

But many Christians in England seem to believe exactly the opposite. They think that re-interpreting scripture - badly - so that we're less offensive to the people around us will make us popular. Surely recent experience in this country proves that isn't true. The more we compromise, the more we're pressured to compromise further, and the more we're despised.

The Midianite oppression was terrible to endure:

Judges 6v2-6
Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. 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. They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it.

Of course, the English church is not in anything like such dire straits, but we have been invaded by our enemies. We increasingly see false teaching, sinful practices, and even the worship of other gods in some English churches. And we are experiencing oppression. English evangelists are being arrested, English workers are being sacked and English businesses are being prosecuted when they admit that they believe God's word. It's not our country any more. The prime minster says this is a Christian country, but it really isn't.

We don't realise it, and our oppressors don't realise it, but this is God's judgement on the church - God's holy people. As the prophet Isaiah says:

Isaiah 5v20-21
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.

We must not accept fashionable ideas if they're contrary to the Bible. It's as simple as that. Either we hold to God's word or we don't. The kingdom of God is not just about love; it's also about obedience to God's word.

Eventually, God's people began to turn back to God:

Judges 6v7-10
When the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of Midian, 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 o the land of slavery. I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land. 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."

The turning of the tide began when the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of Midian. When the oppression became so intense that God's people finally realised that, without God's help, they couldn't drive out the invaders and they couldn't survive the occupation, they became a people of prayer again. How much blasphemy, injustice, sexual sin, financial sin, and abortion will we abide before we cry out to God our deliverer? May I ask you, are you so heartbroken at the state of Christianity in England that you're crying out to God?

In response to their prayers, God sent them a prophet. If He sends us a prophet, will we receive him as a prophet? The wod of God through His prophet reminded God's people that:

And having reminded His people of all the help He had provided for them in past generations, God also reminded them that "I said to you, 'I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.'" And then He convicted them, "But you have not listened to me."

The gods of our land in our generation include humanistic thinking, a "rationalism" that excludes God and therefore is not rational at all, and what has come to be called "political correctness", which is an assault on free speech. We're not cowering in caves like the ancient Israelites, but we are hiding our beliefs, keeping our mouths shut, hanging what we say and how we say it. That's partly because we're learning to be more gentle and kind, but it's mostly because we're afraid of oppression.

And God calls us to repent - to hold fast to the one true God, and to His infallible word, the Bible. The oppression will not end until we come back to our Sovereign Lord in committed, heartfelt prayer and repentance.