21/06/09 Gideon… the lesson of history Judges 8:22-35
The lesson of history is that we don't learn the lessons of history (George Bernard Shaw – I think!!!!)
1. Maybe that’s what the writer of the book of Judges was thinking as he told the story of what had happened in the history of the people of God.
The book of Judges tells the story of the people of God in the years after Joshua had died. You remember he was the successor to Moses who had led the people to freedom from Egypt… and Joshua was the one who with God’s guidance had led the people into the promised land. Well after his death it seems as if the people of God kept forgetting their history, and they kept on making the same mistake. They kept behaving as if God could be ignored, they kept choosing to worship other Gods.
2. Gideon is part of the story of that time.
He started off so well.
He had needed a lot of help from God a lot of encouragement. He had asked lots of questions… but when he was asked to go and fight the enemy, Gideon trusted that God would keep the promise that that he made. “I will be with you.”
On his own. Gideon had been afraid and hiding in a hole… but with God he had become someone who could be bold enough to stand up to the bullies who were ruining the lives of his people. Gideon became the mighty hero that God saw he could be.
But after the Midianites were defeated and the land was at peace… things didn’t go quite so well.
Gideon by now had become a celebrity… and that can be difficult for anyone to handle.
The people wanted him to be their king… and if we listen to what Gideon said at first… he appeared to refuse this invitation… he said…
“I will not rule over you, nor will my son.
The Lord will rule over you!
But it seems that despite what he said, Gideon couldn’t turn his back on the possibility of celebrity status… because he did ask people to give him lots of the gold earrings that they had taken from the defeated Midianites… and they also gave him the gold ornaments and fine clothing of the Kings of the Midianites as well.
The bible says
He had lots of wives, he had over seventy sons,
he was a rich man… and the bible records say that one of his sons, a son born to one of his concubines was given the name Abimelech.
Abimelech means “my father is a king.”
So Gideon may have said that he wouldn’t be king…
but he certainly lived like one!
3. And although God had promised to be with him… Gideon seems to have decided to do something to show everyone that God was with him. The reference in the bible passage to a SACRED EPHOD that he had made and put up in his home town seems to be a description of some sort of representation of God, an idol.
God had already said that his people should never try to represent his form in the shape of an idol… but Gideon took no notice… and the bible says that the Israelites prostituted themselves by worshiping it, and it became a trap for Gideon and his family.
4. It’s a sad story. The story of Gideon started with him hiding in a hole, in fear of his life. But later in life he became proud and fell into another hole… one that he had dug for himself… a trap of his own making.
So Gideon went from being a servant who trusted God to a celebrity who disobeyed God.
At the start he trusted God who helped him to fulfil the mission God gave him to set his people free… but at the end as a celebrity he lived as a King even though God had not made him a King and he disobeyed the commandments of God by making an idol and honouring it as if it were God.
The bible says… As soon as Gideon died, the Israelites prostituted themselves by worshiping the images of Baal, making Baal-berith their god.
So at the end of his life.. the people of Israel instead of being closer to God - were farther away from God and once again they were turning their backs on the God who had brought them out of slavery in Egypt.
5. In the book of Judges the story of Gideon is just part of a pattern that keeps on repeating itself. The writer of the book of judges could see the pattern… This is how it is explained in chapter 2 vs. 18-19
Whenever the LORD placed a judge over Israel, he was with that judge and rescued the people from their enemies throughout the judge’s lifetime. For the LORD took pity on his people, who were burdened by oppression and suffering. But when the judge died, the people returned to their corrupt ways, behaving worse than those who had lived before them. They followed other gods, worshiping and bowing down to them. And they refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.
What was that quote…
The lesson of history is that we don't learn the lessons of history
Well maybe there are some lessons that always have to be learned by everyone in every generation.
The story of Gideon reminds us there are lessons about the dangers of pride that we all need to learn… whether we become celebrities or not.
It is always dangerous to forget how much we depend upon the grace and kindness of God.
So much easier to fall into the trap of judging and condemning others when in our pride we forget how much we need to be forgiven.
And there are lessons about God that everyone in every generation has to learn. That’s why Jesus brought the church into being on the day of Pentecost when a new people of God were created.
Today in this generation we are a people who know the final fulfilment of the promise of God’s presence that was made to Gideon.
As we were saying a few weeks ago on Pentecost Sunday, God has come to make his home with his people through the gift of his Holy Spirit.
6. Whether or not this generation, will learn about the grace and kindness of God seen in Jesus depends on us now.
The people who we meet during our years on earth, the people who inhabit the places where we live and work… they can only learn about God if they are taught by those who know him.
And they will learn wrong things about him if they are taught by those who do not know the God and father of our Lord Jesus.
And when you and I are called home to be with Jesus then the generation that comes after us will have the same responsibility to make Jesus known to the people of their time.
7. The pattern that we see in Judges was a pattern in which generation after generation of people were repeatedly learning the wrong things, repeatedly failing to know God …and were suffering as a result.
We do need to learn the lesson of history. We need to look back and see what God has done for us in Jesus. We need to remember and thank him for the gift and presence of his Holy Spirit with us now…
And then we can learn that the lesson of our history is…. that the future can always be different!
Jesus has the power to break the cycle of repeated failure that can trap individuals and can ensnare whole nations.
Jesus has promised that we are moving day by day towards a better world, a better future, a world where everyone will know and honour him.
It is as if the word failure was written over all of human history before the coming of Jesus - but that word has now been changed… and in it’s place a new word has been written… HOPE…
because Jesus said “yes you will have troubles and difficulties in this life but don’t be afraid I have overcome the world (john 12) By his death and resurrection he has replaced our failure with hope and new life.
Time and again we will see example of failure to love God, failure to love one another… just like we see in the book of Judges…
But that failure is not the end of the story… it just part of the old story, the story that we wrote before Jesus stepped into our history and changed it course for ever.
In our generation may be faithful to the mission that God has entrusted to us.
May we show that we have learned the lesson of our history and that we know that with Jesus there is always hope. Hope of change, hope of new life, hope of escaping from the prison of destructive habits so that our life doesn’t have to just go round and round in a circle of failure like the experience of the people of Israel in the time of Gideon.
Make sure that you have learned the lesson of our history …. the lesson that the future can always be different! May we not fail to be good teachers, showing in our lives and in our words that it is GOOD to live in the love of God our father, it is GOOD to know Jesus his son and it is so GOOD to know the presence of the Holy Spirit with us.