From His Heart

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Have you begun a process of cutting corners with your faithfulness in your Christian walk? Here's Pastor Jeff Shreve.

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Those of us who are familiar with the Bible know about Gideon. Gideon was this guy who was a coward when the Lord met him in Judges chapter six and came to him and said, "Hey, almighty man of valor." He's a coward, beating out wheat in the winepress.

God took this coward of a man and made him a courageous conqueror. But then, this coward who became a conqueror became a compromiser.

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He can heal every scar with real truth, real love, real hope from his heart.

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God took Gideon, a coward of a man, and made him a courageous conqueror. But sadly, towards the end of his life, he became a compromiser. This is from his heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve.

Thank you for being with us today on the program as we'll learn how a Christian can be powerful enough to conquer the schemes of the devil in this life and also avoid slipping into compromise mode headed for trouble. We'll learn these lessons that are evident in the compromises of Gideon, and we'll then be able to honestly evaluate our lives and learn how to get back to yielding fully to God.

The lesson is from Pastor Jeff's new 10-message series, "Before There Were: The Cost of Compromise." It's also our thank you gift for your support of any amount from His Heart. You can get it in the format of your choice for that gift. You can go to promisheart.org to find out more, or I'll tell you more later.

First though, open your copy of God's Word to the book of Judges, chapter seven, as Pastor Jeff begins warning about the dangers of compromise. The lesson today is titled "From Conqueror to Compromiser."

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Those of us who are familiar with the Bible know about Gideon. Gideon is listed in Hebrews chapter 11, the hall of Faith. He was a coward when the Lord met him in Judges chapter six and came to him, saying, "Hey, almighty man of valor." At that time, he was beating out wheat in the wine press.

God took this coward of a man and made him a courageous conqueror. However, toward the end of his life, this conqueror became a compromiser. We want to look at the compromise of Gideon now. It is, as Paul Harvey used to say, the rest of the story. Many of us don't know about this part of Gideon's life; we don't know what happened after he won the great victory with his 300 men against 135,000 Midianites.

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And.

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And he blew the trumpet and broke the pictures and shined the light. And they began to shout, a sword for the Lord and for Gideon. And the Midianites were put into a panic, and they began to stab one another. And he brought about a great victory. But the sad reality is he didn't finish his life well. He compromised with sin. And because he compromised with sin, there were tremendous consequences. The Bible tells us in 1st Corinthians 10, verse 12: "Therefore, let him who thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall."

There was a Scottish pastor, Andrew Bonner, who said this: "Let us be as watchful after the victory as before the battle, because if you think you stand, take heed lest you fall." So what is the rest of the story concerning Gideon? Judges, chapter seven. I'll begin in verse 22. When they blew 300 trumpets, the Lord set the sword of one of the Midianites against another, even throughout the whole army. And the army fled as far as Bethshittah, toward Zerah, as far as the edge of Abel Meholah, by Tabith. The men of Israel were summoned from Naphtali and Asher and all Manasseh, and they pursued Midian. Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, "Come down against Midian and take the waters before them as far as Beth Barah and the Jordan." So all the men of Ephraim were summoned, and they took the waters as far as Beth Bara and the Jordan. They captured the two leaders of Midian, Oreb and Zeb, and they killed Oreb at the Rock of Oreb, and they killed Zeb at the winepress of Zeb while they pursued Midian. And they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeb to Gideon from across the Jordan.

Then the men of Ephraim said to him, said to Gideon, "What is this thing you have done to us by not calling us when you went to fight against Midian?" And they contended with him vigorously. But he said to them, "What have I done now in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer? God has given the leaders of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb, into your hands. And what was I able to do in comparison with you?" Then their anger toward him subsided when he said that.

Three lessons for today from the rest of the story concerning Gideon. Lesson number one: Gideon exemplifies the right way to deal with angry people. The right way to deal with angry people. So here's the story. Gideon goes with his 300 to fight the 135,000 Midianites. Remember, he had 32,000, but the Lord says, "That's too many." And then he had anybody that's afraid can leave. 22,000 left, and he only had 10,000. And the Lord says, "You have too many." And so then he thinned out the ranks by getting the dog lappers. "Go, let them drink." And the one that takes the water in his hand and laps it up like a dog, that's the one you choose for battle. Well, there are only 300 that did that. So the rest of the guys, the 9,000 plus, they left. He's just got 300 guys.

And they are in three different camps of 100. They come around the enemy camp in the middle of the night, and they shout and break their pitchers and blow their trumpets, and the light is there, and the sound of the crashing pottery and the sound of the trumpet and the war cry, "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon." And God throws that Midian army into a panic, into confusion. They begin to stab and kill one another. 120,000 soldiers died that night on the battlefield. Well, 15,000 fled, along with the leaders of Midian. The leaders Oreb and Zeb, and then the two kings, they flee. And so Gideon is chasing after them. He calls the camp of the tribe of Ephraim to say, "Come and help us." And so Ephraim helps them, and they kill the two leaders, Oreb and Zeb.

Well, everything seems to be like a time of celebration. I mean, they had been under the thumb of Midian for seven years. It was very, very difficult because Midian was just destroying their crops and stealing all their stuff. And so this should be a time to cheer, but it's not. It's a time for Ephraim to criticize and criticize very angrily. Look at it again. The men of Ephraim, chapter 8, verse 1, said to Gideon, "What is this thing you have done to us by not calling us when you went to fight against Midian?" And they contended with him vigorously, very, very strongly. These guys are upset.

Now, Ephraim is one of the biggest tribes in Israel. And if you know about the 12 tribes of Israel, you know it's the 12 sons of Jacob. Jacob's name was changed to Israel. "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob." Jacob's name gets changed to Israel, and he has 12 sons. Well, one of his sons, the favorite, remember, they got the coat of many colors, Joseph. Joseph's two boys. The first one is named Manasseh. The second one is named Ephraim. They became two tribes in Israel. Joseph doesn't have a tribe. You don't have the tribe of Joseph, but you have the tribe of his two sons.

And the name Manasseh means "God has made me to forget the trouble with my brothers." And the name Ephraim means "fruitful." God has made me fruitful in the land. And Ephraim is one of the biggest tribes. Well, they get mad at Manasseh. And if you think about it in terms, go back up into the family tree. Manasseh's the older brother. Ephraim's the younger brother, and they're mad. And Gideon's from the tribe of Manasseh. They're mad at Gideon. "Why didn't you call us? Why didn't you have us help in the battle?" Well, it wouldn't have done any good anyway. God thinned him out; it was just going to be 300. If the tribe of Ephraim had come, he would have just had to send them home. So he didn't call them. God didn't lead him to do that.

But they're angry, and the question is, why are they so angry? Well, Warren Wiersbe points out the reason they're angry is because when you win a big battle, you get to enjoy the spoils of battle. And if you didn't fight in the battle, you wouldn't get to enjoy the spoils of the battle. There are 120,000 dead Midianites in the valley, and they weren't part of that. And so they're mad, and they angrily criticize Gideon because of a personal grievance. Now, angry criticism typically has a personal grievance behind it. There's a reason why somebody is angry and criticizing you angrily. And so you have to keep that in mind.

Okay, what is fueling this? Because it's almost always some kind of a personal issue with a person. And they were mad because they felt like they were missing out on the spoils. Well, when somebody gets angry with you and criticizes you angrily, maybe it's to your face, or maybe it's on social media, or maybe it's an email or a letter. But here's the question: How are you going to respond to angry criticism? How did Gideon respond? See, your response to angry criticism does one of two things. You can either smooth it over or stir it up. Your response can smooth it over or can stir it up. Proverbs 15:1: "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger."

So what does Gideon say to the Ephraimites? He said to them, "What have I done now in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer?" You say, "What in the world does that mean?" He's saying to those guys, "Hey, guys, you are so much better than I am. And then my family, I'm the least in my family. My family's the least in the tribe of Manasseh." He said, "Your vineyards, they would do the harvest, and then they would have the gleanings, which is the stuff they would leave for poor people. You remember? That's what Ruth picked up. You would pick up the gleanings. They would leave it there for the poor. And it's the stuff that wasn't as good, and you just kind of left it there. We're not going to harvest that. You can harvest that."

And he is saying, "Hey, you guys, the stuff you don't even harvest that you don't think is very good, that's better than the vintage that my family has. You guys are so great. And let's talk here about what you did versus what I did. I smashed some pictures and blew a trumpet, and we yelled, 'The sword of the Lord and Gideon.' But you killed the two leaders of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. You have done something so much greater than what I did." And when he responded to them with a gentle answer, their anger subsided.

So what do we see in Gideon? A lesson for today. Gideon exemplifies the right way to deal with angry people. Listen, we live in an angry world. People are angry. They go to the airport and they're angry. They get on airplanes and they're angry, and they're just ready to throw down and fight. People on the road are angry. You know, you have somebody gets cut off in traffic, and they're ready to shoot you, and so you gotta be careful. A gentle answer turns away wrath. This is a good lesson. This isn't part of his fall. This is a good lesson. It shows us how to deal with angry people. And Gideon knew, "Hey, there's more to do. I haven't finished yet." They're the two kings of Midian that I need to go chase. And if I start fighting with the Ephraimites, that's going to be a terrible, terrible thing.

So the first lesson: Gideon exemplifies the right way to deal with angry people. Lesson number two: Gideon exemplifies the right way to deal with rebellious people. So, angry people, the tribe of Ephraim. But he smoothed that over. Then he deals with rebellious people. Verse 4: "Then Gideon and the 300 men who were with him came to the Jordan and crossed over, weary yet pursuing. He said to the men of Succoth, 'Please give loaves of bread to the people who are following me, for they are weary and I am pursuing Zeba and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.'"

The leaders of Succoth said, "Are the hands of Ziba and Zalmunna already in your hands that we should give bread to your army?" Gideon said, "All right. When the Lord has given Zeba and Zalmunna into my hands, then I will thrash your bodies with the thorns of the wilderness and with briars." And he went up from there to Penuel and spoke similarly to them. And the men of Penuel answered him, just as the men of Succoth had answered. So he spoke also to the men of Penuel, saying, "When I return safely, I will tear down this tower."

Now Ziba and Zalmunna were in Karkor, and their armies with them, those two cities of the tribes of Gad not going to help him. And so then he goes to Karkor, and he defeats the two kings of Midian, Zeba and Zalmunna. And then he comes back. He had told them, "Listen, you're not going to give me anything, okay? When I come back, I'm going to deal with you." And so the scripture lets us know that he does defeat. He captures the kings and he comes back.

And this is what it says in verses 15 through 17: "And he came to the men of Succoth and said, 'Behold Ziba and Zamuna, concerning whom you taunted me, saying, "Are the hands of Ziba and Zamuna already in your hand that we should give bread to your men who are weary?"' He took the elders of the city and thorns of the wilderness and briers, and he disciplined the men of Succoth with that. He tore down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city."

So here's the question. He dealt with the people of Ephraim in a gentle way. He deals with the tribe of Gad in a very, what, seemingly harsh way. And so some have said, "Well, he never should have done that." You know what he did with Ephraim? He should have had that same spirit toward the tribe of Gad in those two cities. But this is a different instance. He's not dealing with angry criticism with the tribe of Gad; he's dealing with rebellious people. Now, they should have been helping Gideon, but here's what they said to themselves. I mean, these guys aren't clueless. They know when 15,000 of the enemy soldiers go past your city, you know it.

And the two kings are fleeing with their soldiers, 15,000. Gideon has 300 guys. So they do the math and they say, "Wait a minute, Gideon, you're pursuing those guys. They may be on the run, but they have a lot more guys than you have. And if we help you, then when you lose to the Midianites, they'll come back here and they're going to discipline us severely, if not kill us. So we're going to sit this one out. We're not going to help you." And they didn't give them basic hospitality, which is a staple in the ancient Near East. You provide hospitality to those in need, to those who come to you, especially when they're your brothers who are delivering you from the Midianites. But they didn't do it. They said no.

Both Succoth and Penuel see, they had spurned hospitality and the leadership of the Lord. Gideon is not doing this on his own. The Lord sent him to do this. He sent him to deliver Israel. And so to spurn Gideon and his men was to say, "Well, we're not going to follow the Lord." That was rebellion against the Lord. Dealing with angry people is one thing. Dealing with rebels is a totally different thing. And so they spurned the Lord's leadership. "No, we're not going to get involved here." They rebelled.

Now, 1st Samuel, chapter 15, verse 23. The Prophet Samuel says this to King Saul: "You rebelled against the Lord. Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry." That is a serious, serious, serious sin. When you rebel against the Lord, when you are insubordinate, when you don't do what the Lord tells you to do, when you say, "Well, I'm not going to follow the Lord. I'm going to hedge my bets here. I'm not going to help my brothers in battle because that could affect me down the road." Serious sin. And they deserve the consequences of the sin that they committed, the consequences of their actions.

Now, he disciplines the leaders, 77 leaders of Succoth. He whips them with the briars, with the thorns. Think of it like getting swats at school. Some of you can remember that. This is up a level from that, but I can remember how I would get swats from my coach, from the assistant principal. You know, if you did something in class that you shouldn't do, they'd say, "You're going to the principal's office."

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Office.

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You're going to go see Mr. Sheridan. I don't want to see Mr. Sheridan. Mr. Sheridan has a board. And he would always give us a choice. You can have swats or you can have detention hall. It's like, I don't want detention hall because then I have to stay after school; I'll take the swats. And after the third swat, you're like, detention hall. Let's go back in time. Because that really hurt. Well, it's a deterrent, I think, personally, just an aside. We need to get back to corporal punishment in our school system because it makes a difference when you wear somebody out.

But now, for parents, this is very, very important. If your child makes mistakes, foolishness is bound up in the heart of the child. The book of Proverbs tells us the rod of discipline will remove it far from him. Kids do dumb things, and it said, you know, you have to discipline them. When kids do rebellious things, you desperately and definitely need to discipline them because you need to teach them how to submit to authority. You know, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It's the beginning of knowledge. It's the beginning of everything. We recognize God is God, and I'm accountable to God. I'm not God. He tells me what to do. I don't tell him what to do.

And from that, we honor our father and mother, which is the first commandment, with a promise that it may go well with us and that we live long on the earth. And so we come into this world, mom and dad, we obey mom and dad. We understand that God is God, and we obey the authorities that God put over us. And if we get a rebellious heart, rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. It's a terrible, horrible sin.

And so he whips the men of Succoth and he pulls down the tower of Peniel and he kills some of the men there. You say, well, is that beyond the pale? Well, some of the commentators will say he went too far there. This is not Gideon acting on behalf of the Lord. This is Gideon's wounded pride, and that's why he did what he did. I don't know. You can make a case either way. But one of the things you have to remember is Gideon is now the leader in Israel. He's not the king, but he's the leader. He's the Judge, he's the deliverer. He brought wrath on the people of Succoth and the people of Penuel, and so he shows us the right way to deal with rebellion.

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Well, this has certainly been an eye-opening and fascinating study in the Book of Judges that we began today called "From Conqueror to Compromiser" from Pastor Jeff's new 10-lesson series. Before there were the Cost of Compromise, the famous Christian hymn states, "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it; Prone to leave the God I love." Well, indeed, God's people are very prone to wander into sin, most often through compromise. Such is the case in the Book of Judges, as we've learned today, as God's people fall into a terrible cycle of sin and servitude.

In this series, Pastor Jeff Shreve provides powerful insight into the cost of compromise in the time of the Judges, a time in Israel's history before there were kings. This series we're in this month takes us through the book with clarity and conviction for the things of God, and the series is entitled "Before There Were Kings: The Cost of Compromise." This series is our gift of thanks to you this month for your support of any amount to the ongoing outreach of From His Heart. You can request it on a USB flash drive, CDs, DVDs, or MP3 download of your choice. To get yours, call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE) or go online to From His Heart. We know that God can use it to encourage you and give you peace in the midst of the storm. God bless you as you also help us continue to reach out each day through these kinds of broadcasts. We can't thank you enough.

Well, let's close with the final scripture today and a reminder that our faithfulness needs to mirror that of our Lord. Lamentations 3:22-23 says, "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." Thank you for joining us today on From His Heart. I'm Larry Nobles, inviting you to join Pastor Jeff tomorrow for part two of today's challenging lesson entitled "From Conqueror to Compromiser." That's on Tuesday when Pastor Jeff Shreve will open up God's Word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from God's heart here on From His Heart.

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There is truth, there is hope that you always bring love he can heal every scars of it. Real truth, real love, real hope. From His Heart.

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From His Heart is the listener-supported broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve, speaking the truth in love to a lost and hurting world.

Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

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