Author: JR
Last saved by: Andrew Nugteren
Company: URBANINITIATIVES

THERE IS A CONNECTION BETWEEN FIRE AND BURNS
Hebrews 12:1-13   Judges Chapter 6:1-24 (text)
Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, very often in the Bible the life of faith is portrayed as a warfare. A couple of Sundays ago, when we last looked at the Book of Judges, we looked at chapter 5 at that Song of Deborah and Barak over the victory that God had given them over Jaban and Sisera. We saw that that song of victory was also connected to many other parts of Scripture especially those to do with the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ into Heaven and Pentecost. At Jesus’ ascension he return to Heaven at which he received from his father the rewards of His battle. Then, like a victorious general, he shared out those rewards with his troops. So Christ at His ascension received from his father the Holy Spirit and then at Pentecost He poured out the gifts of the Holy Spirit upon the Church. 
But sometimes this warfare business gets a bit tiring. Do we always have to be struggling against temptation? Do we always have to be fending off the fiery darts of the devil which he throws at us to make us doubt our faith? Do we always have to have the "sword of the Spirit, the Word of God" at hand and ready to do combat with the devil’s temptations and with the false ideas that we come up against in the world around about? 
Sometimes we would just like to drop the military metaphor for a bit wouldn’t we? Why could you not just deliver us from temptation, Lord, for a while? Even as we pray, even as you told us to pray. We would like to relax sometimes. It would be nice sometimes if life would just go easily, smoothly for a bit. Well, the Lord does give us those times, praise his name. We need them. But they are a mixed blessing, to say the least. 
There is a little post-script to the Song of Deborah and Barak, just half a line – "and the land was undisturbed for forty years." There is something there that should make our ears prick up straight away. For forty in Scripture is always the number of trial, of testing. And maybe you ask, "You mean to say that even times of rest, and peace and prosperity, times that are undisturbed are times of testing?" Yes, they are, and they are times of testing under which we often do not fare well. We are often tripped up more by ease and peace than by difficulties and hardships. So what do we read? "And the land was undisturbed for forty years, then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord" (5:31c – 6:1a). 
#	In the story of Ehud and the fat man, we learn that God uses very crooked sticks sometimes to do his work. 
#	In the story of Deborah, we learned that by faith we can overcome the world. And with the part that Barak played in that story, we learned that even under the feet of very ordinary believers, God crushes down the devil. 
#	In the story of Gideon we learn that God gives his people the victory against all odds. But God takes His time telling us this story – three chapters. He wants us to learn some other things and to remind us of some old things along the way. In particular in this morning’s text He wants us to remember that there is a connection between fire and being burnt. 
God is a God of order. The natural world runs according to natural laws. When you play with fire kids, you get burnt. Mum and Dad have told you that lots of times, I’m sure. Moving from the world of nature to the world of man, that runs according to God’s moral law. So, for example, we read in the Proverbs "Can a man take his neighbour’s wife to his bosom and not get burnt?" And God deals with us, his people, according to the laws of His covenant – just a special application of His moral law actually. 
The law of the covenant is not a mechanical thing. It’s a very personal thing which God operates personally because God has made himself our God by covenant. He has bound Himself to be our God. He has bound us to himself as his people as a man woos and binds to himself a woman to be his wife. So when we break the laws of his covenant, when we break that love relationship, he doesn’t just say "Oh well, I suppose that's it. I might as well go." He takes the initiative to win us back to himself. And we see that in our text. 
"So the land was undisturbed for forty years." All that Israel asked for, God gave them and they blew it. "They did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord." So what does God do?
There are three things I’d like to say this morning
1.	THE LORD MADE THEM MISERABLE
"The Lord gave them into the hands of Midian for seven years." That’s what we read in verse 1. Now, I want to be careful in what I say here and I think I need to set out a little bit of background first.
Perhaps there are many others but there can be at least four reasons why the Lord’s People suffer in this world.
First of all, this world is a world that suffers the effects of sin. Romans 8 tells us that the whole creation was subjected to futility, to a slavery to corruption. It groans and suffers as it awaits the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ when even the material world will be delivered from that as we will also. We are still part of this old creation, and so neither do we, the Lord’s people, avoid sickness, accidents, floods, droughts, death, the effects of crime or any of these things. That’s just part of the state of the world that we live in. That’s one reason. 
The second reason would be this. Sometimes the Lord wants to glorify Himself as victorious over sin and the effects of sin. So, for example, he allowed the devil to test Job so that the Devil would learn that he has no power over God’s children except that God gives him that power. Or, for example, like that blind man in John chapter 9. "He was born blind" said Jesus, "not because he sinned or his parents sinned but so that my father would be glorified when I healed him." 
Thirdly, there is what we might call a ‘general discipline’ and Hebrews 12 was talking about that in part also. Like a coach pushes his team at training sessions to get the best out of them, so the Lord does this with us as well. And then Jesus tells us in John 15, even when we are working well and being fruitful, he trims us, he prunes us even more so that we will be more fruitful. 
But then a fourth reason is that the Lord may well bring special discipline upon us when we sin. Especially when we sin blatantly and deliberately and unrepentantly. In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul says "He who does not examine himself and eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily, eats and drinks judgment upon himself." "For this reason, many among you (yes, in the New Testament) are weak and sick and a number sleep and have died. And when we are judged like this", Paul says, "we are being disciplined by the Lord, so that we might not be condemned along with the world." 
And congregation, as I said, the Lord does this personally. "The sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and the Lord gave them over into the hands of Midian." It didn’t just happen. It wasn't just an automatic consequence of the rising power of Midian. It was personal, and it can be pretty rough. 
These Midianites came sweeping in from the East, every year, just when the harvest was ripe – in innumerable hordes. And they were mobile – they had the latest all-terrain vehicles - camels. They could go anywhere and they were fast. They swept the country from – well, in NZ terms, from North Cape to Bluff in no time at all and they scoured the land. "So they would camp against them and destroy the produce of the earth – as far south as Gaza, and leave no sustenance to Israel as well as no sheep, ox or donkey. They would come in like locusts for number. Both they and their camels were innumerable. They devastated the land. So Israel was brought very low because of Midian." 
And it had gone on for seven years so that Israel was reduced to living in caves and dens in the mountains. The Lord made them miserable and so they cried to the Lord. What did he do?
2.	THE LORD SENT THEM A PROPHET (verses 7-8)
Now why on earth did the Lord send them a prophet? A prophet of all people. I mean, prophets were not very nice guys. They had this nasty habit of shooting from the hip, of spitting out home-truths in no uncertain terms, of throwing the book at people, of getting out the law and reading the riot act. 
And these people are in trouble Lord! They are suffering, they have been brought low – so low there is Gideon threshing, no he’s not threshing, he’s just beating out the wheat with a stick, in a wine-press. Talk about making the job hard work. Any other time grain was threshed out in an open, rocky place that caught the wind, on the top of a hill or somewhere, and you’d have a great heap of it and the oxen would be there and they’d pull sledges over it to open the grain, open the ears. Then you’d get shovels out, toss it high into the air so that the wind would take away the chaff and the heavy kernels would fall to the ground so that you could then gather them up. But here is Gideon, stuck away up on the hillside somewhere, down in a wine trough, out of sight where there’s not a breath of wind, beating out a few sheaves with a stick. The people are suffering and the Lord sends them a prophet! 
Why would the Lord, who is "slow to anger and abounding in loving-kindness" not send them a priest? Someone who, according to Hebrews 5, "is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God. Someone who can deal gently with those who are ignorant and misguided. Someone who understands our human weakness and can sympathize with it because He Himself is also beset with weakness." 
Surely God would know that when people are suffering they need to be healed? And when people are crying, they need to be comforted. And he sends them a prophet! And what does the prophet say? – verse 8 – "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 'It was I who brought you up from Egypt and brought you out from the house of slavery, and I delivered you from the hands of all the Egyptians and from the hands of all your oppressors and dispossessed them before you and gave you their land and I said to you, I am the Lord your God, you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live. But you have not obeyed me."' You’ve been ungrateful, you’ve forgotten all I’ve done for you, all my saving work. You’ve turned to other gods which I told you not to do, you’ve disobeyed me.
People of God, we need to be very careful before we say that someone is suffering because of some particular sin they’ve done, just because of all those other reasons I mentioned earlier and maybe there are others. Not every time somebody burns, is it because they personally have been playing with fire. But it does happen. It happens often and sometimes it is very obvious. 
In today’s world, we are not taught to take responsibility for our actions. Far too often in the Church also, people will cry about how hard life is, what difficulties they are going through and I have heard people in the Church crying about how the Church did not help them when they were in difficulties and maybe there are times when the Church is to blame. And yet, there are times too, when the cause of their difficulties is plain, even admitted sin, deliberate, persisted in and unrepented of. 
Now is a doctor kind when a patient comes to him and spells out all his symptoms and the doctor sympathizes with him and does this and does that and does the other thing to relieve all the pain and yet he fails to say, "I’m sorry sir, madam, this is going to be very painful, but really to help you we are going to have to perform this or that operation. And it's going to be a very slow recovery time and it will hurt for a long time." Is that kindness? Is that love? 
There are many time when we must be kind and sympathetic and act the part of a priest when troubles come people's way. On the other hand there are times when the cause of trouble is obvious, open sin and so the Lord Himself makes us miserable. "The way of the transgressor is hard,"’ says the book of Proverbs and the best favour we can do in that situation is to act the part the prophet and tell them plainly. 
There are times when it is not kind and loving to try to alleviate people's sufferings. When anybody who can read the Bible can see that they live in deliberate sin. And that is the point congregation. What the law says – the law of the land, what current standards are, what everyone else is doing, mean nothing to God. Everyone else in Canaan was worshipping the Amorite gods. So God disciplines them as a whole nation, because "what they did was evil in the sight of the Lord." 
And what we need most desperately to hear is the Word of God. As Nathan said to David, "Thou art the man, David." When our sin is obvious in the light of Gods’ Word then we cannot justify our problems and put them down to current economic conditions or because we did not get a job, or because we’re having family problems or whatever. Or the age we live in, or the anti-Christian forces at work. God says, "Whatever these things are, whatever they appear to be, when you live in deliberate and open and obvious sin, it is really Me delivering you into the hands of these things because you sin against me." God has given us innumerable mercies, "renewed every morning," the book of Lamentations says. But when we are ungrateful, he gives us innumerable troubles. 
The third thing I want to say is this:

3.	THE LORD FRIGHTENS THE WITS OUT OF GIDEON TO GIVE HIM PEACE
Forgive me for this, if you have to, but this bit reminds me of a scene in The Hobbit when Bilbo Baggins and his crew, I think, are just going over those mountains before they get to Beorn's place and they’re attacked by wolves. They scamper up the pine trees to get out of the way of the wolves and then Gandalf comes along and gets out his wand – and zap – and there are burning wolves leaping all over the place. 
This must have been some experience for Gideon. The angel comes along and he tells him "Gideon, you’re a valiant warrior and the Lord is with you." Now maybe Gideon had just heard that prophet who had recently told the people that they were ungrateful for all God’s good work of delivering them from Egypt, because he straight away says, "Oh Sir, if the Lord is with us, how come all our problems? Where are all the miracles that God was supposed to have done all those years ago. Seems more like Deuteronomy 31:17 to me sir. Are not all these evils come upon us because God is not with us? 
The visitor jut carries on and he says "Go in this your strength and deliver Israel. Have not I sent you?" "Oh, come on sir, my family is the least in Manasseh and I am the youngest in my father’s house." Now I think there’s a little bit of disingenuous false modesty going here because later we find out that Gideon, himself, can muster quite a few servants. But he has got one point. 
You remember Manasseh was the real oldest son of Joseph. Do you remember when Jacob, the grandfather, came to bless Joseph’s two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, and he crossed his hands, and he gave to Ephraim, the youngest, the blessing of the firstborn? He passed over Manasseh. God’s doing it again, isn’t He? Here he is. He’s going to use Manasseh, who formerly was rejected. 
So we’ve had Barak the ordinary guy. We've had Ehud of the left hand. And now we’ve got Gideon from the rejected family. 
At any rate, Gideon goes on and he asks for a sign. He goes and gets the meal that the angel asks for and he sets it down on the rock and the angel of the Lord touched it with his staff. And out of the rock springs fire! And the whole bit – prime, export quality lamb, bread that took 20kgs of flour to make – "a very valuable commodity at the moment, in Israel, I might remind you" says Gideon. Or at least, so he thinks. And the whole lot goes up in smoke and the angel disappears.
And Gideon realises he hasn’t been talking to an angel at all. It was "the angel of Yahweh" (verse 21) – the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Gideon simply falls down and says "Oh Lord, Yahweh, I am a dead man, for I have seen the Angel of Yahweh face to face." And Yahweh calls out of Heaven, "Peace, Gideon, do not fear, you shall not die." Wow! That is some way to calm the spirit Lord, with a display like that. 
What is going on here? We are not told that Israel had repented before God sent Gideon to save them. But because of the way God works and especially the way God works in the Book of Judges we should expect that they did. But it is not stated and perhaps it hasn’t happened at this point. So perhaps we are to understand that even before they repent, God starts preparing to deliver them. There is a lovely verse in Isaiah 65 that says "Before you call, I will answer." 
So here is this story in which we see that God disciplines us, even very hard sometimes, and then he sends prophets. Sometimes, what we need is a little less soft soap and a good dressing-down instead. And yes, in a certain sense, God may desert us. 
But if we are his, it is for our good. And at the same time God appears to be working against us, he is really working for us. It certainly must have been a frightening experience for Gideon, but God had accepted the offering and Gideon did not die. What better sign could God have given him? 
And so, congregation, while God gives us into the hands of whatever agent sometimes, to bring hard times upon us – and however hard it is to hear that it might be our sins that are the cause of our troubles – it does not mean that the Lord has deserted us. For at the very same time, if we really are his, he will be working for our salvation. 
"My son," quotes the writer of the Hebrews, "Do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him, for those whom the Lord loves he disciplines, and he scourges every son whom he receives. He disciplines us for our good that we may share his holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful, yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness." 
Congregation, why do we so often "kick against the goads," like the apostle Paul did, with which the Lord is trying to prod us back to Himself. We cause ourselves so much sorrow and hardship while the Lord wishes to fill our mouths with good things! 
We sang some of Psalm 32 earlier. We read in it these verses. "When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night, thy hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of sun, but then I acknowledged my sin to thee and my iniquity I did not hide, I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,' and thou didst forgive the guilt of my sin. Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to thee in a time when thou mayest be found." 
There is an old saying that "confession is good for the soul." Maybe it sounds a little trite but it's true, people of God. When people confess their sins to the Lord and to others against whom they’ve sinned, a new light comes to their eyes, a new lightness in their step, a new joy and peace in the heart. 
Why, why, do we not do this more freely, more readily and more often? "Many are the sorrows of the wicked but he who trusts in the Lord, lovingkindness shall surround him. Be glad and rejoice in the Lord, you righteousness ones and shout for joy all you who are upright in heart."
May the Lord give us the grace to do it, people of God, and enjoy all the salvation that He has so freely given to us.				Amen.
        Rev. John Rogers, Reformed Church of the North Shore, 17^th June, 2001