April 18th, 2021 Partners in Prayer: “Everything We Need!” Study of Gideon- “We may be small, but God is mighty!” Dear Partners in Prayer Team,

“In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” Judges 21:25 (NKJV)

“And the Angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, and said to him, ‘The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor!’” Judges 6:12 (NKJV)

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9 (NKJV)

“The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. Those who know Your name trust in You because You have not abandoned those who seek You, Yahweh.” Psalm 9:9-10 (HCSB)

Have you ever felt God has abandoned you? You pray and it seems like He isn’t listening. That is the way it was for the people of Israel during Gideon’s time. It is impossible to visit the land of Israel without being aware of the suffering and the resiliency of the Jewish people. The name “Israel” was given to the people by God which is a word that means: “After wrestling you have prevailed” (Genesis 31:28). This last week was “Holocaust Remembrance Week” for the nation. Sirens blare as Israel comes to a standstill in remembrance of Holocaust victims. Public life stops during two minutes of silence dedicated to memory of six million Jews killed, as daytime ceremonies honoring those persecuted by the Nazi regime get underway. The annual Holocaust Remembrance Day is one of the most solemn days on Israel’s national calendar. Israel’s resolve to remember their horrific history fuels their determination to succeed in an environment that is arguably the most hostile in the world. I remember visiting the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. The experience and moving of my heart to weep was extreme. The word for weep in the Old Testament is “Bokim.” There were moments during their hardest times that the people who lived during Gideon’s day remembered their hard times, and God visited them and promised His presence (Judges 2:1).

One of Israel’s greatest patriots is Simon Wiesenthal. While Simon survived Hitler’s concentration camp, eighty-nine of his own relatives were killed by the Nazis. He actually looked on, helplessly, as Hitler’s henchmen crammed his mother into a freight car with hundreds of other elderly women. She died in the Belzec camp. And his wife’s mother was shot to death on the stairway of her home. On May 5, 1945, as the war grounded to a merciful halt, the Allied Forces freed Wiesenthal from imprisonment. When released, Simon weighed less than 100 pounds. He decided that though he had been an architect before the war, he would devote the rest of his days to fighting anti-Semitism and prejudice, and keep the memory of the Holocaust alive.

While incarcerated at the Mauthausen camp, Simon was awakened one night by another prisoner named Arthur: “Simon, do you hear?” “Yes,” he mumbled, “I hear.” “I hope you’re listening because you really must hear what the old woman said.” Irritated and half asleep he responded, “What could she have said?” “She said, ‘God was on leave.’ What do you think of that, Simon? God is on leave.” “Let me sleep,” he said, “and tell me when God gets back, if He gets back.”

The next morning, Simon awoke wondering if that conversation really happened. He was unsure, so he walked over to find Arthur and asked about the night before. He said, “Aurther, what were we talking about last night?” Arthur told him that Joseck, a venerable prisoner whom Wiesenthal very much admired, had asked an old woman in the camp if she had heard any news since she had just arrived. She only looked up to heaven and she prayed, “O God, God Almighty, [El Alyon!] Please come back from Your leave and look at us here at Your earth again!” That set Simon Wiesenthal thinking. “One really begins to think that God is on leave. Otherwise the present state of things wouldn’t be possible. God must be on leave. And He doesn’t have any deputies.” (Simon Wisenthal, The Sunflower pg. 13).

The interesting thing about God’s people in Gideon’s day, was that they didn’t have any help or “deputies” either. That word is a good translation for the “judges” that God raised up over seven times to deliver His people. Gideon is the middle-most story in the book of Judges. He also is the story most given to narrative- over 150 words as told from Judges 6-9. The second judge most spoken about was Sampson.

Yet, have you ever felt abandoned by God? You pray and it seems like God isn’t listening. As we’ve been learning, there were times during the book of Judges when, all things being equal, God took a leave of absence- He left His people to their own devices and let their enemies oppress them. But as Judges 2:16 and 18 say, “Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judges; for the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them” (2:16, 18).

So, I ask again, have you ever felt abandoned by God? Do you know God sometimes providentially orchestrates our situations so we find ourselves at the most vulnerable moments? He allows us to struggle through our trials so we realize after all we’ve done, we need His strength. Whoever you are and whatever you’ve done, if you’re willing to come back to God, He’s willing to forgive your sins- He is a gracious God. He is on a great rescue mission, especially in these days when everything morally seems to be going down the drain.

With this backdrop, we now meet the fifth judge of Israel, Gideon; whom God called a “mighty warrior!” What will amaze you is that there was nothing, if little, very important about Gideon. He isn’t a warrior or even very strong when God finds him hiding in a winepress, a place where he should not have been. Even though we see him as insignificant, weak, fearful, and introverted, we should take courage from his story; if God can use a Gideon, He can use us! And God can make us mighty people of prayer!

Are you ready and willing to go toe-to-toe and face-to-face in wrestling with God? You may think, “No way would I want to contend with God! Who could win?” Yet, daily we witness that mankind is always fighting with God against His ways.

In the Bible there was another man who had a story which actually parallels that of Gideon. It was the patriarch Jacob. When he was returning home with his whole family and all his possessions to his father Isaac, he feared the confrontation which would eventually happen as he came face-to-face with his brother Esau. We read in Genesis 31: “Jacob now sent messengers to his brother, Esau, in Edom, in the land of Seir, with this message: ‘Hello from Jacob! I have been living with Uncle Laban until recently, and now I own oxen, donkeys, sheep, goats, and many servants, both men and women. I have sent these messengers to inform you of my coming, hoping that you will be friendly to us.’ The messengers returned with the news that Esau was on the way to meet Jacob—with an army of 400 men! Jacob was frantic with fear” (vs. 3- 7)! All the reports indicated that Esau was sending an armed force against him. He sent his families over the Jordon and fell asleep praying. He was awakened in the night by a stranger, whom he may have thought was his brother, and started wrestling.

The story goes like this, “But during the night he got up and wakened… and was there alone; and a Man wrestled with him until dawn. And when the Man saw that he couldn’t win the match, he struck Jacob’s hip and knocked it out of joint at the socket. Then the Man said, ‘Let me go, for it is dawn.’ But Jacob panted, ‘I will not let you go until you bless me.’ ‘What is your name?’ the Man asked. ‘Jacob [which meant heal catcher or tricker],’ was the reply. ‘It isn’t anymore!’ the Man told him. ‘It is Israel—one who has power with God. Because you have been strong with God, you shall prevail with men.’” (Genesis 31:24-28 Living Bible). Jacob realized that this man wasn’t a man at all but was the Angel of Jehovah and was very God Himself! He was terrified that he wrestled face-to-face with God and was not killed. And in that lesson, God changed Jacob’s name to indicate a change in his nature. His name was changed from “trickster” to “Israel- one who wrestled with God and prevailed.” We certainly know it wasn’t Jacob’s own strength, but that encounter was a life faith moment that changed him. Some would say it was his true “conversion.” Why change his name? To indicate a great moment of faith took place that changed his life. Abraham and Sarah had moments like that. Often others through the Bible had moments like that.

It is no surprise that Gideon had that same moment when he came face-to-face with the same Angel of the Lord in Judges 6:12-14. That had to be a moment of faith and conversion for Gideon, because God changed his name by a tweaking of the vowels from Gideon which means “one who cuts down” such as wheat, to “one who is a mighty warrior who cuts down evil” (Judges 6:12). And Gideon had the same humbled reaction in verse 22: “When Gideon realized that it was the Angel of the LORD, he exclaimed, ‘Alas, Sovereign LORD! I have seen the Angel of the LORD face-to-face!’”

When we get into a wrestling match or contention with God, we know God always wins! So let me share with you that there is one moment when we should engage with God in a wrestling match- “When we wrestle with God in prayer!” There were many times through the Scriptures when men pleaded in prayer as if they were Jacob fighting the unknown Angel of the Lord, or even agonizing or laboring in prayer as we “Ask, seek, and knock” (Matthew 7:7-8). Even Epaphras, a prayer warrior in Colossians 4:12, wrestled in prayer: “Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured” (Col. 4:12 NIV). So I argue that if we are going to be strong prayer warriors, there will be moments when we wrestle in prayer with God.

E. M. Bounds calls this kind of praying “importunate prayer.” He said this: “We must not only pray, but also pray with great urgency with intentness and with repetition. We must not only pray, but we must pray again and again. We must not get tired of praying. We must press our prayers upon God. Without continuance the prayer may go unanswered. Importunity is made up of the ability to hold on, to press on, to wait with unrelaxed and unrelaxable grasp, restless desire and restful patience. Importunate prayer is not an incident, but the main thing. Few things give such quickened and permanent vigor to the soul as a long exhaustive season of importunate prayer. Our whole being must be in our praying; like John Knox, we must say and feel, ‘Give me Scotland, or I die.’ Pray and never faint, is the motto Christ gives us for praying.” (Purpose in Prayer; Characteristics of True Prayer, pg. 45-46).

When we pray, God loosens our grip on our own lives, our plans, and our ministries. As He takes over, things change because people change. No surprise that some in the church would rather stay in control of perpetuated spiritual lethargy rather than let God take charge via a transformational spiritual movement. Getting ready for a championship event takes hours of practice. It doesn’t matter if it’s a boxing match, swim meet, hockey game, or as most of the world has been captivated recently by – soccer. There are months of rigid training, exercise, proper diet and the list goes on. Here are three things we need to understand about wrestling with God in prayer, taken from Gideon:

1. We need to know who our enemy is and it isn’t God. Gideon may have thought that his opponent was God. He even asked why God had been absent. “Then Gideon said, ‘Pardon me, sir, but if the LORD is with us, why are we having so many troubles? We heard that he did wonderful things for our ancestors. They tell us that the LORD took them out of Egypt. But now it seems the LORD has left us and is letting the Midianites defeat us’” (Judges 6:14 ERV). So often when we are found in the places where we hide in shame, and in our trials, such as Gideon being in the “winepress” instead of at the threshing floor, we mistake our enemy to be God. We ask, “Why is God doing this to us? Why has he abandoned us?”

But we know in the battle or in our wrestling matches of prayer, the real enemy isn’t God. He is identified by name. We know him as Satan (1 Peter 5:8). He is our adversary, accuser of the brethren, father of lies. He is identified not only by name but by his nature; we are reminded that his schemes are designed to wage war upon us, to deceive with crafty assaults. As we look at the Scriptures, we are told “finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might” (Ephesians 6:10). The idea behind the word “strong” is to appropriate by grace, prayer in obedience to the word. Remember too that we battle our fleshliness (Romans 7:18-22). We are at war with ourselves. Gideon and the people of his day forgot that the problems that came from the Midians were because of their own undoing. They disobeyed and received the consequences. Also, we know that the world system is working against us to conform us to its wrong way of thinking (Romans 12:2). But when we wrestle in prayer through any situation, we need to understand it is not God who is our enemy.

2. We need to put on right spiritual equipment in order to gain strength in the wrestling matches of prayer. In Ephesians 6:13-19 Paul reminds us that we need the armor of God. We try to fight or wrestle in prayer with our own human strength and means that will cause us to end in defeat. Paul goes on in the next verse to say put on the full armor, and that has the idea of permanence so that we can stand firm against the schemes of the devil, that struggle of hand-to-hand combat, which is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. We are told to put on the girdle of truth, or to gird our loins with truth. This has the idea of being truth controlled, being strengthened or braced up by truth. We go next to the breastplate of righteousness- the need for moral integrity, holiness which includes all the emotions that have been built into us. Oh, how we need a fresh touch from the hand of God that we might have men and women today that are dressed in the righteousness of God.

We must also have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel; proper readiness to go and share the love of Christ in a gospel centered way, with peace and confidence in God‘s sovereign love. Next we’re told to put on the shield of faith and with it we’ll be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the devil. To have faith in the holy God as we walk through the trials and tribulations of this day. And finally, we need to put on the helmet of salvation and carry the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. The enemy seeks to bring discouragement and doubt. We need to be reminded of the security that is ours in the salvation that we received as a gift, by being students of the word of God. One last thought, 2 Corinthians 10:5 says the weapons of our spiritual warfare cannot be “carnal” but must be “spiritual.” That is the only way we will get through as contenders of faith.

3. Lastly, we need to rely on God’s resources which makes our prayers strong in the wrestling. We must pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. Paul reminds us, “To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak” (Eph. 6:20).

We have the glorious privilege of having the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. We have the opportunity and privilege to spend time seeking the face of God in prayer. As you are aware, the theme verse for the 6:4 Fellowship is Acts 6:4 where we are told “that we will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word”. Are you putting your faith and trust in God, and His ability to hear and answer your prayers, based on His word?

Christian, you are in a fight for the souls of men. Our adversary is the master manipulator and he longs to undermine your victory and hinder your service. In conclusion, let me ask you, “Are you winning the battles?” You are in a fight! That fight is for the souls of men, so we need to be aware of the schemes of our adversary for he is the master manipulator and he longs to create doubt in your heart, to undermine your victory, and to create doctrinal confusion, which will hinder your service, causing division within the body of Christ. Satan wants to convince us that our service to the body isn’t important. He wants to get us to trust our own resources, and to infiltrate the church with worldliness, filling us with disobedience and apathy. A fresh touch from the Spirit of the living God, being engaged with His transforming presence will radically alter who we are and how we live.

Several years ago I was engaged in a conversation with an army captain, who was telling me about the value of war games. They are expensive exercises, but they train the troops to be ready for the real thing. As we study this next part of Gideon’s story, we as Christ followers should be getting ready for the battle. Are you ready?

John MacArthur in his commentary says this: “If we are walking worthy of our calling, in humility rather than pride, in unity rather than divisiveness, in the new self rather than the old, in love rather than lust, in the light rather than darkness, and wisdom rather than foolishness, in the fullness of the Spirit rather than in drunkenness of wine, and a mutual submission rather than self- serving independence, then we can be absolutely certain we will have opposition and conflict”.

It will be on my tombstone: “The comfort zone is the danger zone.” Biblical, spiritually-passionate prayer is simply uncomfortable for self-satisfied Christians. The fresh movement of the Spirit in a praying church is, by God’s design, fresh, free-flowing, and yet unimaginably fruitful. For folks uncomfortable with this, I often quote a verse from 2 Daniel 3:5 (smile) where it says, “Get over yourself.” It is not about us. It is about Him. It is about His gospel. It is about the supernatural accomplishment of His mission through us as we journey in this very short earthly appearance. None of this can happen apart from the Holy Spirit. None of this will happen unless we pray – collectively, passionately, and enduringly. This is the New Testament pattern – like it or not.

As I’ve been preparing this next lesson on Gideon, I couldn’t help but remember a scene from a good old classic film called On The Waterfront. This 1954 film starring Marlon Brando and Karl Malden, where two men, a priest and dockworker were fighting for the rights of the common worker against organized crime. Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) is a dockworker whose brother Charley "the Gent" (Rod Steiger) is the crime boss’ right- hand man on the docks of Hoboken, New Jersey. In the story, Terry has been a promising boxer until the crime boss instructs Charley to have Terry deliberately lose a fight so that the mob boss can win money by betting against him. Terry is struggling with following the mob boss, and meets in private with his brother Charley. If

Charley can’t coerce his brother Terry into keeping quiet, Charley knows Terry will be killed. Charley tries bribing Terry, offering him a good job where he can receive kickbacks without any physical work, and finally threatens Terry by holding a gun against him, but recognizes that he has failed to sway Terry, who blames his own downward spiral on his well-off brother. Terry reminds Charley that had it not been for the fixed fight, Terry's prizefighting career would have bloomed. "I coulda' had class. I coulda' been a contender. I could've been somebody", laments Terry to his brother, "Instead of a bum, which is what I am – let's face it." This is one of the most memorable lines and moments of the picture and is the turning point of the film when Terry decides to fight the mob.

I think that we are all Gideon-like in our faith coming from places which are humbled and small. We often wonder if we could be mighty or even achieve anything significant for God and for His church. Like Marlon Brando’s portrayal of Terry, we find ourselves saying: “God, I wish I could have been a somebody, I wish sometimes I could have been a contender, but now it seems I keep failing You.” We even feel that way when we pray. We feel that we will never significantly amount to much. But Jesus, the Angel of the Lord comes looking for us, and He makes us mighty. He takes us from zero to hero. Not because we have something inside us of value and worth. We are sinners to the core. We are rotten and fallen through and through, but when we are weak, He is strong! As D. L. Moody observed “We may easily be too big for God to use, but never too small.” Junior Samples (of Hee-Haw) was right when he said: “Size ain’t got nothin to do with it. If it did, a cow could outrun a rabbit.” Though you may not see yourself as a high impact player for God or this church, His unbelievable power can turn your doubts into faith and then enable you to be a “somebody” for Jesus. It’s the secret of being nearer to God’s presence that makes one “mighty” because God is mighty! Yearn for the mightiness of God over our own un-doings and weakness.

When I was at Keswick pastor’s conference in February I started preparing for our series about Gideon. At that same moment I found a free book which I picked up and began to read called: The Secret Success of Missionary Hudson Taylor. Hudson grew up in England and became a doctor, and while in his twenties went to an unknown foreign mission field of mainland China. While there, he discovered, in order to reach the people, Taylor needed to dress like them. So against the law, he had his hair cut and ponytailed and put on Chinese clothes. He was brought to British authorities and sentenced to improper behavior. But that didn’t stop him. He was foremost a prayer wrestler and warrior. Years later we know him to have been a hard worker and efficient medical man who was able to care by crossing cultural lines. Above all, he put to the test the promises of God and proved it possible to live in a consistent spiritual life on the highest plane. He overcame difficulties such as few men have ever had to encounter, and left a work of 27 years, which after his death that is still growing. He did it without a salary and without ever asking people or churches for mission support. Imagine a missionary who never appealed for financial help! Yet, he never had a debt. He never asked men to join him, yet 200 people gave answer to his prayers and came to join him in China! What was his secret? Was Hudson Taylor a “mighty” man in himself? NO! His secret was wrestling with God in prayer! The book opens with this wonderful instruction about Hudson Taylor’s secret: “What was the secret, we may well ask, of such a life? Hudson Taylor had many secrets, for he was always going on with God, yet there is but one---- the simple, profound secret of ‘DRAWING FOR EVERY NEED, TEMPORAL OR SPIRITUAL, UPON THE FATHOMLESS WEALTH OF CHRIST.’ We want, we need, and we may have Hudson Taylor’s secret and his success, for we have Hudson Taylor’s Bible and His God. Remember them that had the rule over you, and considering the issue of their life, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yea and forever” (Introduction, pg. 1).

It’s the same secret for Gideon and us! We may be small…. but God is mighty! We are not all spiritual giants and we will not all be spiritual celebrities. We may never qualify for big things for God. God just wants to make something glorious for Himself out of you! Draw near to Him!

Let’s pray, “Holy Mighty God, we are people who cannot make ourselves anything nor even make ourselves clean. Even as Your children, we love evil and resist what You have said is good. We thank You for Jesus, who was revealed during Gideon’s time as the Angel of Jehovah, who during our time has rescued and redeemed us from ourselves. Keep us from pride and self-sufficiency. Keep us from making distance between You and us. Help us learn the secret of prayer and relying on Christ’s unfathomable riches. May we find our strength in Him. Like the hymn- “we are weak, but He is strong, yes, Jesus loves me.” Holy Spirit, we are utterly feeble and weak, and we need Your power at work in us. Help us! Make us more like Jesus today. When we grow weary, and our strength is small as we fight against the sins of our hearts, help us find our all in all in no less than Jesus Himself! Cause us to live so that others would see that the strength to trust You could never come from us. We pray for our Savior to come soon. So until that day, we trust and hope afresh, captivated by His glory and lost in His love. Amen.”

Praying from zeros to heroes, Pastor Corvin <><

Quote: “The best stimulus which the saints have to prayer is when, in consequence of their own necessities, they feel the greatest disquietude, and are all but driven to despair, until faith seasonably comes to their aid; because in such wrestling the goodness of God so shines upon them, that while they groan, burdened by the weight of present calamities, and tormented with the fear of greater, they yet trust to this goodness, and in this way both lighten the difficulty of endurance, and take comfort in the hope of final deliverance.” … John Calvin (1509- 1564)