FROM OBSCURITY TO VALOUR

And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abi-ezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.
(Judges 6:11-12)

The Midianites had spoiled Israel of their livelihood.

They destroyed their harvests.
They sought to starve Israel out.
And this went on for seven years.
And we learn it was due to the evil that Israel committed in departing from God.
They brought their own trouble upon themselves.

At first they hid away in caves, but soon began calling on the Lord., as they should have done at the start.

We later learn they were involved in idolatry.
But the idols were obviously not helping them in their peril.

Imagine the people of Israel with all their history of the miraculous proofs that attested to the fact that God is real.

How could they turn to idols?

This picture of Israel turning to idols is similar to today's believers backsliding and doing the things they know full-well are wrong for them to do.

It is committing sins that one knows are wrong.
One previously served God and loved Him in a life of obedience to Him, but slipped away and is involved in sins they know are wrong.
Israel is an example of a backslidden Christian.

Gideon was threshing grain by a winepress near an large oak tree in efforts to hide.

He did not thresh openly because the Midianites were out to destroy any harvests they had.
They would not think to look for grain by a winepress near this old tree.

You may be like Gideon today.

You're backslidden from where you used to be, and are coming to the church today to hide.
That is good!
The Bible actually encourages it.

Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,
(Psa 17:8)

Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.
(Psa 31:20)

We come to Christ to HIDE form the onslaughts of the enemy that have come upon us due to our neglect to do God's will.

Rest assured, He wants us to come to Him.
It's good to hide in the tower in which the righteousness come to hide.

However, when you come to hide around the threshing grain and winepress, source of bread and wine, God can change your situation, and bring from hiding in obscurity to valour.

You may come for just involvement in a social event at best, in your pursuit to hide, but God wants to get hold of your life.

And the bread and wine should always be trained in your minds and faith to remind you of a reference to the cross, for the bread and wine in the last supper was referred to as the body and blood of Jesus that He gave in sacrifice for our salvation.

You've come to hide where the bread and the wine are being prepared.
You've come to the right place.
You did wrong and failed God, but you came to hide and to call on the name of the Lord which you should have done at the start of your trouble.
But you're here, and God will take you from obscurity to valour.

All is NOT lost if you fail God.

You can be restored.
You may feel as though you will only come here and leave again each week.
But God is going to get hold of our heart today.
God never revokes his gifts and callings.
They are without His repentance.
You still have that calling on you.

Gideon saw an angel come to him and sought to entertain the angel with cakes, meat and broth.

It was not time for a picnic, though.
The angel told Gideon he would be a mighty man of valour and to prove it in the form of a sign, he did this:
He commanded Gideon to lay out the meat and cakes on the rock by the tree, and pour the broth over them.
And the angel touched the food with his rod and the rock burned up the food in a burnt sacrifice.
It reminds us of Elijah's sacrifice used with twelve barrels of water poured out to ensure the miracle of fire from heaven was not faked.
Imagine a man who came to hide, being introduced to ministry similar to Elijah!

The first thing Gideon was commanded to do was to be done that first night.

Hew down the groves (wooden idols) of his father's making.
That night he took an axe and chopped the wooden idol up and took his father's beast and sacrificed it and used the wooden idol for kindling.
That beast was to be sacrificed to Baal, but God wanted it sacrificed to Himself.

The next day the neighbours told Gideon's father what he had done.

Joash told them that Baal can fight for himself.
Evidently, Gideon put his own father under conviction and stirred him up to speak against Baal after having made an idol to him.

We can influence those around us to get back to God, as well, when we commit the first step, represented by Gideon's first night -- REPENTANCE.

True repentance destroys the idols of our lives, and commits our hearts to God.

It destroys the things in our hearts that we know are wrong and should not be there.
Like Gideon chopping down the idol, we need to destroy any idols of other things that cause us to sin and depart from God.
We are not going to do those things any longer that are displeasing to God and contrary to a life conducive to serving God in holiness.

Night 2.

The next night Gideon asked God to encourage Gideon regarding this call to be a man of valour.

He asked God to cause a fleece of wool he placed on the grass to be soaked with dew, and to leave the rest of the ground surrounding it to be dry.
This was naturally impossible.
But this, God did!

The fleece is from a lamb.

It speaks of Christ.
And being soaked in water speaks of water baptism into Christ's death.
Dipping beneath water does not do anything in and of itself.
But baptism in Jesus' name involves faith that Christ died as us, and we are recognizing that and enjoining ourselves to that.
Repentance and water baptism are items that correspond to Christ's death and burial.
And when we go through these steps, as sinners, we are allowing God to save us.
But even as Believers we need to get back to God in the same manner.
No, we do not get baptized in water a second time because we have backslidden and wish to return to Him.
But we recount our experiences all over again in our hearts.
We remind ourselves that we were crucified with Christ and buried with Him, so as to restore our lives to the manner they should be.

If you wish to get back to God after being backslidden while sitting on a pew or out altogether, nothing will encourage you, as Gideon was encouraged, to realize you are still crucified with Christ and were buried with Him.

Just cut loose your ties with sin through repentance, and realize your life is hid with Christ in God.
Get back on track!
Be encouraged to know you are still His child, and you have His name upon you through baptism in His name.
Come home, prodigal!

Night 3.

The third night, Gideon request another experience of encouragement.

He asked God to do the reverse with the fleece and the surrounding ground.
Make the ground soaked with dew, but the fleece dry as a bone.
This God did!
In fact, woolen fleeces usually draw water, but this fleece was dry amidst all the ground wet with dew.

If the fleece being soaked speaks of water baptism, then the water all around the dry fleece speaks of rising up out of water baptism into resurrection of newness of life.

Acts 2:38 says we must repent, be baptized in Jesus name for remission of sins, and receive the Holy Ghost.
Dead, buried and resurrected.
Three steps.
One each night.
To bring us to the third day.
It was the third day that Christ rose from the dead.
Coming to the third day in our lives is coming to a real understanding that we truly did die and were buried and resurrected into newness of life.

I often tell people they need to come to the third day understanding.

What I mean by that is that they need to realize that if they are dead, buried and risen with Christ, then they are more than conquerors!
That is all the experience they need in order to conquer hell at every turn!
To truly get that into our hearts is to come to a place of strong faith.
When you ponder over what God did for you through Acts 2:38 experience, applying Christ's death, burial, and resurrection to your life, then you will have strong faith in what you can do for God!
That experience united you to Christ and gave His name to you.
And you have POWER to defeat Satan!
Use that power!
But you have to come to the "third day" understanding in order to truly get that sort of faith.

People who come to hide around the bread and wine will get a third day revelation if they pay heed to the word of God!

But there was a fourth night.

Too many people stop at Acts 2:38. and the three days.
The fourth night saw Gideon told by God to go down by the tents of the enemies, and listen.
This he did, and he heard two Midianite men speak about a dream one had.
The dream was of a cake rolling down the hill and absolutely destroying a tent.
The other told the man with the dream that this was a word saying Gideon the man of God is going to destroy the entire Midianite army!

On top of coming to the third day revelation of who you are in Christ, through His death, burial and resurrection, which took three days to occur, you need to understand that the DEVIL your enemy is scared of you more than you realize!

Once you experience the Acts 2:38 experience, Satan is absolutely terrified of you.
His only hope is that you never fully appreciate what God did to you and act on that.
His only hope is that you remain ignorant as to who you are in Christ due to the cross.
For he knows that you're in Christ and you have power over him now.

And this fourth night was the same night Gideon finally DID SOMETHING about who he was.

He took 300 men and they all sounded trumpets and broke their pitchers to let the inner lamps shine out in the darkness on the hillsides over the Midianite armies.
The trumpets always speak of giving revelation in the Bible.
"Lift up thy voice like a trumpet and SHOW MY PEOPLE."
You ar declaring who you are through Christ!
You learned about it, and now you are declaring it IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST.
And the breaking of the pitchers represents the fact that Christ's breaking of his body in death was your breaking of your flesh in death.
And because you died with Christ, you have His power within you, like light that flashes away the darkness.
And you can defeat the devil!

Gideon's army of 300 saw the Midianites slay one another in mass confusion.

You will send confusion to the enemy armies of your soul when you let the light shine out of your life!

FROM OBSCURITY TO VALOUR!

You came to hide, but you experienced something more that you expected because you came to a place where there is bread and wine -- real teaching from the Bible about the cross and who you are in Christ.

Go forth, Gideon. The sword of the Lord AND OF Gideon, indicates that you and God, together, are an unbeatable force.

Never try to defeat the enemy on your own strength.
Go forth in the name of the Lord.
The Lord and you together are a majority!

Rise from obscurity to Valour!