C: This lesson is about Gideon. After Deborah and Barak died, Israel fell into sin, and they were oppressed by the Midianites. We'll begin reading in Judges 6.

1. The Lord Is With You

Judges 6:6-12
6 Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the LORD for help.
7 When the Israelites cried to the LORD because of Midian,
8 he sent them a prophet, who said, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
9 I snatched you from the power of Egypt and from the hand of all your oppressors. I drove them from before you and gave you their land.
10 I said to you, 'I am the LORD your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.' But you have not listened to me."
11 The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.
12 When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior."

C: According to v.6, the Israelites were in trouble, so they prayed. And when they prayed, God did a very interesting thing. He did not solve their problem. Instead, he sent them a prophet to preach to them (v.7)! Sometimes we pray for God to help us, and someone preaches the word to us instead. The truth is God's way of solving our problems. God's prophet told them to stop their idolatry (vv.9-10). So the next time you pray and you think that God has not answered you, look carefully. Perhaps he'll send you a prophet to disciple you.

C: In v.11, we see the angel sitting under a tree. There Gideon was threshing wheat secretly, so that the Midianites would not know about it. And the angel said something amazing to Gideon: "the Lord is with you, mighty warrior" (v.12).

Q: At that moment in time, do you think Gideon was a mighty warrior? [No, he was hiding. And he was threshing wheat instead of fighting the enemy. And he wasn't praying.]

C: Sometimes we do not feel very mighty. But when God is with us, we are mighty. Jesus promised us that when we make disciples, "I will be with you always..." (Matthew 28:20). So let's get confident! Let's get excited, because no matter how bad our situation may be, we've got God on our side.

2. Do Your Best With What You Have

Q: Imagine if you had a chance to meet an angel and ask him a question. What question would you ask? {Let a few people share, and SHARE YOURSELF.}

Judges 6:13-16
13 "But sir," Gideon replied, "if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, 'Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian."
14 The LORD turned to him and said, "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?"
15 "But Lord, " Gideon asked, "how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family."
16 The LORD answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together."

Q: What question did Gideon ask the angel? ["If God is with us, why has all this happened to us?" (v.13).]

C: Sometimes bad things happen to good people. He doesn't always do miracles to save his people. The Lord told Gideon to "go in the strength you have, and you'll save Israel" (v.14). All along God was planning to save them. His plan was to use Gideon. But Gideon could only see the problem. A lot of the time when we get depressed, we forget that God wants to use us to solve our own problems. Even after this, Gideon argued more. He said, "how can I do it? Our family is nothing, and I am nothing." But God promised him again that he would be victorious.

C: The next time you are feeling weak and afraid, remember Gideon. He wasn't strong, or courageous. But God told him to "go in the strength you have." All of us can do that!

3. Demolish the Sin in Your Life

Judges 6:25-32
25 That same night the LORD said to him, "Take the second bull from your father's herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father's altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.
26 Then build a proper kind of altar to the LORD your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering."
27 So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the LORD told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the men of the town, he did it at night rather than in the daytime.
28 In the morning when the men of the town got up, there was Baal's altar, demolished, with the Asherah pole beside it cut down and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar!
29 They asked each other, "Who did this?" When they carefully investigated, they were told, "Gideon son of Joash did it."
30 The men of the town demanded of Joash, "Bring out your son. He must die, because he has broken down Baal's altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it."
31 But Joash replied to the hostile crowd around him, "Are you going to plead Baal's cause? Are you trying to save him? Whoever fights for him shall be put to death by morning! If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar."
32 So that day they called Gideon "Jerub-Baal, " saying, "Let Baal contend with him," because he broke down Baal's altar.

C: Later in the day God appeared to Gideon, and he told him to tear down his father's idol to Baal and build an altar to God (v.26).

Q: How did Gideon feel about this command? [He was afraid, so he obeyed at night (v.27).] How did the town people feel about what Gideon did? [They wanted to kill him (v.30).]

C: Verse 31 is amazing. Gideon's own father, who had built the altar to Baal (v.25), defended his son. He said that Baal can defend himself, and the town people did not need to punish Gideon for toppling the statue.

C: Like Gideon, we must have a radical attitude towards sin in our lives. We must demolish it. We face lust, smoking, anger, false "Christianity," selfishness, pride, and many other sins. We must smash them completely in our lives, even in our friends, boss, or family do not like it.

4. God Leads Us Through Our Doubts

Judges 6:33-40
33 Now all the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples joined forces and crossed over the Jordan and camped in the Valley of Jezreel.
34 Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him.
35 He sent messengers throughout Manasseh, calling them to arms, and also into Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali, so that they too went up to meet them.
36 Gideon said to God, "If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised--
37 look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said."
38 And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew--a bowlful of water.
39 Then Gideon said to God, "Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew."
40 That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.

C: We see in verses 33-35 that the Midianites were preparing for battle. So Gideon blew the trumpet and called all the men to be ready to fight. He was doing what was right. But in his heart, he had doubts. Earlier in the chapter (verses 17-24), Gideon had doubted God, asking him to do a miracle to prove that he would help Gideon in the battle. After Gideon tore down Baal's altar, again he doubted God. He put a wool garment out at night, and he asked God to send dew only on the wool fleece, and to keep the ground dry. He wasn't sure that God would give him the victory.

Sometimes we doubt. We don't have good quiet times for a few days. We get discouraged. We even are tempted to test God. But even when Gideon doubted, he was still ready to fight. He just needed that extra confidence. We must remember that as long as we keep talking to God, as long as we look to him, as long as we keep helping others, God will show us the way out of our doubts. Gideon had doubts, but he prayed about them, and God gave him the answer! He gained the courage to lead all the men to victory.

C: Some of us are thinking about becoming disciples. The time has come to trust in God, take his hand, and follow Jesus all the way to heaven. God will lead us through all our doubts if we keep seeking him.

Conclusion

It is so encouraging to see how God used Gideon even though he was fearful and weak. God can use us, too!