Main Idea

The cycle of restoration to God, contentment with God, abandonment of God, and judgment by God continues in Judges 6. After seven years of judgment, God sends an angel to call Gideon to be the judge of Israel. The angel finds Gideon hiding in the winepress yet calls him a mighty man of valor. Is Gideon the unlikely hero Israel needs? Or is there another unlikely hero in the story?

Judges 6:1–12
¹ The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. ² And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. ³ For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. ⁴ They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. ⁵ For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. ⁶ And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the LORD. ⁷ When the people of Israel cried out to the LORD on account of the Midianites, ⁸ the LORD sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. ⁹ And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. ¹⁰ And I said to you, ‘I am the LORD your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.’ But you have not obeyed my voice.” ¹¹ Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. ¹² And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.”

Deuteronomy 6:4–9
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

Deuteronomy 30:19–20
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”

Mark 9:23–24 NKJV
Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

Lessons

1. Reveal Answer
   is the
   Reveal Answer
   of the story.

2. We have the opportunity to
   Reveal Answer
   Reveal Answer
   or
   Reveal Answer
   .

3. God knows our
   Reveal Answer
   , realized through
   Reveal Answer
   and
   Reveal Answer
   .

4. Reveal Answer
   begins when we deal with the
   Reveal Answer
   in our
   Reveal Answer
   .

5. Reveal Answer
   has prepared
   Reveal Answer
   for us to
   Reveal Answer
   .

Hebrews 12:1–2
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Discussion Questions

1. What characteristics do you think a hero should have? Who are some people you consider heroes? What makes a hero unlikely? Who is the hero of your story?

2. Read Judges 6:7–10. God’s rescue of Israel from Egypt is a major event in history. Yet the people of God continually forget all God has done for them. How has God worked in your life up to this point? How do you remind yourself of God’s work in your life? How does remembering God’s work in our lives help us obey his voice?

3. What idols do you struggle with? How can your church family come alongside you as you tear down the altars?

4. What good works has God placed before you? How are you walking in them? How can God help your unbelief?