Gideon - Part 4
Tear down your father's altar
Judges 6v25-32
31st July 2015
After then the Midianite invasion, the Israelites called out to God for help. God responded by choosing Gideon to lead their resistance movement.The angel of the Lord appeared to him and promised him victory. Gideon was less than convinced. He asked for sign, and the angel of the Lord set fire to his dinner. He experienced the fear of the Lord - which is much more helpful than fear of the Midianites - but God old him "Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die". In a worshipful response, Gideon built an alter to the Lord, and called it "The Lord is peace".
We read on:
Judges 6v25-26
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.
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."
God had called Gideon into His service. Gideon had doubted, and asked for a sign that it really was God speaking to him. God gave him a sign, as he requested. Now he could not - probably he dare not - question God's call on his life. He had gone from doubt to faith. Now, that same night, it was time to move from faith to action. How many Christians today have gone from doubt to fath, but have never really gone from faith to action?
God's command to Gideon was to destroy his father's altar to Baal and Asherah pole - to put an end to the idolatrous and wicked worship there - and to consecrate the site to God by building an altar on it and making a sacrifice. So often, we need to tear something down before we can build something better. Many Christians are enthusiastic about living for God, but refuse to put to death the idolatry in their hearts and lives so they can be fit for God's service.
Judges 6v27
So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the
townspeople, he did it at night rather than in the daytime.
Like many of us, Gideon's first steps of obedience were done in secret. We fear the reaction of our neighbours, our friends and, perhaps particularly, our families. He knew his father would not have been pleased but God had spoken. Gideon obeyed God, but tried to do so anonymously. It didn't work out that way:
Judges 6v28-29
In the morning when the people 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!
They asked each other, "Who did this?"
When they carefully investigated, they were told, "Gideon son of Joash did it."
At the start of the story, Gideon was afraid of the Midianites. Then he met God and discovered the fear of the Lord. Now he was afraid of his neighbours. They wanted to lynch him. For a moment, obedience to God might have seemed a dubious option:
Judges 6v30
The people 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."
But God knows the end from the beginning. He knew that this crisis would bring Gideon's father back to his senses, and to thetrue God:
Judges 6v31
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."
Joash was willing to fight for his son but, more importantly, he was willing to fight against the very idols he was worshipping the day before!
Judges 6v32
So because Gideon broke down Baal's altar, they gave him the name Jerub-Baal that day, saying, "Let Baal contend with
him."
Gideon had made a name for himself. Now, all the people called him "Let Baal contend". He had made a stand for the Lord, and the Lord had upheld his cause. He had destroyed his father's idols, and his father had come back to God. Gideon had passed an important test.
He would soon be called to greater things.