Matt Hagee - God's Way Always Wins

Hello and welcome to this week’s Sunday conversation. We’re on to the book of Judges. The book of Judges again is in the series of scriptural books that we call historical books, Joshua being the first. This book is a stark contrast to that of Joshua. Joshua is a story of how an individual, called of God to lead a nation to its destiny, accomplished and succeeded in all that God told them to do by their trust and obedience in His word. Jericho fell because they trusted in Him. No army had ever won a battle by walking seven times around the walls and then shouting. But when they obeyed God, He demonstrated that He was the one who fought for them.

Here in the book of Judges, we have a cycle that repeats itself seven times. What happens is the children of Israel start to drift away from God’s word. Remember what He told Joshua: «Do not turn to the right or to the left.» But as they start to drift away from being obedient to God’s word, they fall into a place where they are terrorized and taken over by an enemy. It goes from obedience to disobedience and then down into oppression. And it happens over and over and over again. In this hour of oppression, God raises up an individual leader. In this book of Judges, they’re called the judge, who begins to declare the word of God to the children of Israel.

Remember the law of Moses? Well, these judges were ruling over the law and telling the children of Israel, «We need to get back into compliance and obedience.» As they begin to become compliant and obedient and submit their lives to God’s word, God begins to use the judge to deliver them from their enemies. Then they go back to an obedient and prosperous life. This is evidence of what Moses shared with the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 28. In Deuteronomy 28, he told the children of Israel, «If you will obey,» and then he began to list all of the blessings that come from obedience. «If you will obey the truth and the statutes of God’s word, I will bless you in the city. I will bless you in the field. I will bless you in your bowl. I will bless you in your basket. I will bless you in your going in. I will bless you in your coming out.»

We sing songs about these blessings. But then after about 14 verses of blessings, Moses flips the script. He says, «If you will not obey, if you choose to disobey, if you turn to the right or to the left, the opposite of a blessing occurs. You won’t be blessed; you’ll be cursed.» Listed among those curses is that you will be oppressed by your enemies. Think about how this works in our lives. When we drift out of obedience into disobedience, doesn’t that rapidly lead to oppression, some oppressive behavior, some oppressive feeling, something that keeps us from experiencing God’s blessings in our lives? Then through repentance, we begin to return to our highest place. That’s what the word «repent» means. «Re» means to return, and «pent» is where we get «top» or «penthouse.» Repentance means to return to your highest status, which is obedience. We begin to experience God’s blessings.

Well, in the book of Judges, we see this cycle repeat itself seven times. We see the judge Deborah, we see Shamgar, we see Samson, and today I want to take you for a few moments to Judges chapter 6, where we see the life of Gideon. Gideon is a farmer by trade, but he’s a pessimist at heart. He is a boy who grew up hearing stories about God’s deliverance-hearing how God delivered the nation of Israel out of Egypt, hearing how God used a shepherd named Moses to part the Red Sea, hearing how Jehovah, the great I Am, had done all of these wonderful works in the wilderness and then continued them through Joshua as they walked into the promised land and through Caleb as he defeated giants. And though Gideon has heard all of these stories all of his life, he chalks them up to fairy tales. He thinks they’re fables and legends because this is not the life that Gideon is living. Gideon is in the promised land, but he’s not experiencing the promises.

Gideon is raised on these stories, and he becomes skeptical because he doesn’t see any evidence of their truth. Why should he believe that there’s a God who does such powerful things when everything in his life is underneath the oppressive thumb of his enemies? He’s heard about God, but he doesn’t believe God. He’s been to church, but he’s not sure that it works. He’s listened to people tell him how good God is, but he’s not aware of that goodness in his own life. Why? Because in his lifetime, rather than living on the promises of God in the promised land, he’s hiding in a cave from the Midianites. He was told God gave them this land, and yet he’s hiding from people that God supposedly took this land away from. He’s fighting and scraping and scratching for just enough to eat. Why? Because the Midianites were people who lived in the mountains on the high ground.

They would watch the Jewish farmers and the children of Israel grow their crops down in the valley. They would watch them go out and plow with their oxen and their cattle. They would watch them plant by hand. They would watch them monitor the crops and grow. And just as the harvest would come, the Midianites would come down from the mountain, steal the harvest, and take it back up into their kingdom. So Gideon, rather than spending all of his effort and energy growing one more crop to be stolen, has decided that whatever God was working with Moses and Joshua and the children of Israel, He’s not doing the same now. And we have another skeptic on our hands, a doubter. He certainly doesn’t seem like a hero of the faith.

And yet when you read Hebrews 11, he makes the list. Gideon is no more a hero in Judges 6 than he is a coward. But what changed him? I know a lot of people who have heard stories of God’s goodness. They’ve heard stories of miracles and healings. They’ve heard about revivals and powerful moves of God in separate moments of time throughout history. And yet they look at the circumstances in their own life and they wonder, «Where is God?» What I want you to understand is that God is not a circumstantial God. He is a constant God. God is not somebody who changes based on the things that are happening in our world. He is the same, unchanging, unwavering, constant, consistent. So when we don’t see what we want from God, it’s not Him who needs to make an adjustment; it’s us who needs to adjust to Him.

Let me tell you where Gideon is when we first meet him. Judges chapter 6, verse 11, it says, «Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in a winepress in order to hide it from the Midianites.» Now this is a very interesting picture because a winepress is used to crush grapes to extract juice in order to make wine. It is not where you thresh wheat. When you thresh wheat, you need to be in an open-air environment where you can take the seeds and disturb them so that when you throw what you’re threshing into the air, the wind will carry away the chaff, which is the rough part that protects the seed and the part that you don’t want to grind into flour. It’s undesirable. The wind needs to carry away the chaff so that the pure seed will fall back down, and you can collect the seed and then make flour. What Gideon is doing is he is taking wheat and chaff and grinding it in a winepress so that he can have something to eat. But what he has, he’s not going to enjoy. It’s not going to make good bread. But he’s reasoned within himself: a little of something is better than nothing.

Now there’s a point there that will preach. When you do things God’s way, you get the right outcome. When you do things your way, it may look like bread, but it’s not going to be good bread. It may do the job, but it’s not going to satisfy. Gideon is hiding his wheat because he doesn’t want it to be taken from people that he knows can have it anytime they want. Gideon is at a point where the God that he has been taught is not the God that he can see. And I think it’s important that you realize this is when the angel of the Lord shows up. Many times, people think that God won’t use you until… But what you need to know is that God is the one who knows the plans that He has for you.

This is what He told Jeremiah: «Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and I ordained you.» So when Gideon was born, God saw him and God said, «There’s the one I’m going to use to deliver My people when it’s My time.» And even though he’s not acting like a deliverer, even though he’s not acting like a leader, God still sees the potential in him. That should give some of you hope today. If you know individuals that aren’t living up to their potential, God still sees that potential, and God will still use it.

So the angel of the Lord comes to Gideon, and it says the angel of the Lord appeared to him, and listen to this: He says, «The Lord is with you, mighty man of valor.» Anything but a mighty man of valor! It would have been more appropriate if the angel of the Lord had said, «You big wimp! Why are you hiding?» But remember God sees those things that are not as though they were. We always judge from the outward appearance; God sees the heart. And Gideon responds to the angel of the Lord, «Oh my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all of this happened to us?» And this is a very important phrase: «And where are all of His miracles which our fathers told us about?»

Gideon is saying, «Why are the good old days gone? If the Lord is with me, why am I hiding wheat in a winepress? If the Lord is with me, why am I hiding in a cave? If the Lord is with me, why are the Midianites able to rule over us?» Sometimes we wonder, «If God is on my side, why am I struggling? If God is on my side, why do I have to walk through this storm? If God is on my side, how come I don’t feel like more than a conqueror?» Again, our circumstances do not determine the quality of our God. He is faithful and true, and it’s our responsibility to line up our lives with Him.

Gideon wants to know, «Didn’t the Lord bring us out of Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.» In verse 14, it says, «Then the Lord turned to him and said, 'Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you? '» Now, very important here: Rather than argue with Gideon, rather than justify all of the things that have brought Israel to this point, rather than give an explanation, He just gives a command: «Go.»

In the book of Romans, we read these words: «Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.» When we see in the Old Testament the angel of the Lord, theologians call it a Christophany-it’s an appearance of the person of Christ in the Old Testament. Now, predicated on how you interpret those words, we can all agree on the fact that it is a celestial being, somebody who came from heaven. And as a celestial being, if it’s just an angel, the word «angel» means «messenger of God.» If it is a Christophany, a vision of Christ in the Old Testament, then it is the Son of God. But regardless of which one it is, they’re bringing a message from God.

So rather than hear an argument, rather than get an explanation, Gideon gets a word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And it’s his action upon that word that brings deliverance. Again, he didn’t ask for an explanation. «How are we going to do this?» He didn’t ask for information. He just receives a word. And so Gideon responds, «My Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.» And the Lord said to him, «Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.» And then he said to him, «If now I have found favor in your sight, then show me a sign that it is you who talks with me.» Gideon goes to throwing fleeces before the Lord. You’ll sometimes hear people use that phrase, «I’m putting out a fleece.» And in this particular case, Gideon literally used the wool from sheep, and he was asking God for particular signs: «If it’s you, make the bottom side wet and the top side dry.» God did it. And then he says, «Okay, if it’s really you,» and then he gives God a different test.

And while it’s easy for us to look back at Gideon’s life and say, «Well, how would he do that? Why would he ask God to prove Himself?"-how many times do we do the same thing? «God, if you really want me to do this…» and then we give God some hurdle to jump. Not that He needs one, not that He hasn’t proven Himself already, but it’s just some way for us to justify in our own minds that this is what we’re hearing. Remember, your blessing comes from obedience. Your blessing comes from your willingness to do what you are being asked to do, even if you don’t understand it. Eventually, Gideon perceives that it is the angel of the Lord, and Gideon submits himself to the call of God. He builds an altar and begins to take the action that he’s been asked to take.

When you get to the end of the story, Gideon is victorious over the Midianites, but he’s victorious over the Midianites in a very peculiar way. God doesn’t give him the strength of a thousand men so that he can go and defeat the enemies. God actually tells Gideon, «Call an army.» And tens of thousands come. And God tells Gideon twice, «Reduce your numbers. You’ve got too many.» Traditional warfare says if we have more, we’re well-equipped; we can fight. God told Gideon, «You’re not going to do this with tens of thousands. You’re not going to do this with hundreds. You’re going to do this with a small troop of 300 men.»

And God gives Gideon the exact strategy. He tells Gideon, «It’s going to be a night raid, and I want you to surround the army of the Midianites, and I want every man to hold a torch and put a jar over the torch, and then you blow the trumpet. When the trumpet blows, every man will break the jar, and 300 torches surrounding the Midianites in the darkness of the desert are going to begin to flare. The Midianites will believe that they are surrounded by tens of thousands of people instead of just a few hundred.» Gideon follows the plan, and the plan works to perfection. As a matter of fact, it’s a battle plan that is studied in modern warfare even to this day-how to overcome your enemy through deception.

However, God giving Gideon this plan gives him victory over his enemies and restores Israel’s faith in the one true God. I believe that we get to see a lot of parallels in our nation today and in the book of Judges. We’ve seen it recently here in this past election. People believe that God is using this new administration to bring righteousness back to this nation. You’ve heard me say that this nation has not returned to righteousness. This nation has just returned to reason. We’re willing to admit that the direction we were going wasn’t going to work; we’re willing to address that we needed to change. Now we have an opportunity to change. But righteousness will not come from an administrator; righteousness will come from God’s people, from the church, from you and me, from our willingness to be obedient to His word and fulfill His great commission and shine with His light and His love.

Now, here’s the question I have for you: Are we going to let things get so bad in this nation that we desperately cry out for a deliverer to come and help us return? Or are we going to take the word that He has given us, apply it to our lives, obey it, and in our obedience remain in the place of blessing that His word has promised us: blessed in your going in, blessed in your coming out, blessed in the fruit of your womb, blessed in your basket, blessed in the city, blessed in the field? Because I assure you the God that we serve is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His word was true when He spoke it to Joshua and to Gideon, and His word is true to us today. Our obedience to that word brings the blessing.

Our disobedience pushes us into a cycle where we will not experience the promises of God’s goodness in our life, but the burden of our poor choices. I want you to have God’s goodness. I want you to walk in His blessings. I want you to see His hand of grace, mercy, and faithfulness upon you wherever you go, which means you have a decision to make: Are you going to believe it and obey it, or are you going to pretend like the circumstances that you’re living in are greater than something God can overcome? I assure you, give God the chance to show you what a mighty God we serve. Thank you for being a part of this week’s Sunday conversation.