Scripture Focus (Judges 6:11-16, 24-27) – “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.” [13] And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” [14] And the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” [15] And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” [16] And the LORD said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” … [24] Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD and called it, The LORD Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites. [25] That night the LORD said to him, “Take your father’s bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it [26] and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” [27] So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the LORD had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night.”
I. The Internal Altar of False Identity (11-16)
A. What was happening in the natural (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.”
B. What was seen in the Spirit (12) – “And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.”
C. What was declared in the flesh (13) – “And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
D. What was decreed from the throne (14) – “And the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?”
E. What was answered in insecurity (15) – “And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”
F. What was reinforced in authority (16) – “And the LORD said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.”
II. The Generational Altar of Unholy Allegiance (24-27)
A. Gideon responded in surrendered truth (24) – “Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD and called it, The LORD Is Peace…”
B. God required a generational severance (25) –“…pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it…”
C. God commanded a generational statement (26) –“…and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.”
D. Gideon obeyed in trembling trust (27) – “So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the LORD had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night.”