Advent Midweek III:
“Symbols of Salvation: You Shall Defeat Them as One Man”[1]
December 15, 2021
Text: Judges 6:11-24, 7:2-9
God
chooses what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. He chooses what is weak in the world to shame
the strong (1 Cor. 1:27). God chooses “what
is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing
things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God”
(vv. 28-29; ESV). In fact, He says to
the Apostle Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made
perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).
So
it is, that of all people, God chooses Gideon son of Joash to deliver His
people from the oppressive terrorism of the Midianites. The “mighty, menacin’
Midianites.”[2] Every year as the Israelites planted their
crops, the Midianites and their friends would descend like locusts on the land,
devouring everything. And they must have
raped and pillaged along the way, for they drove the Israelites themselves to
the hills to hide in dens and caves for fear of them. This, by the way, we read, was a chastisement
from the LORD. He sent the Midianites in
response to Israel’s idolatry. Let this
be a warning to us. When we reject God,
the Lord sends His rod of discipline. In
love, to be sure, for our good, as a Father disciplines His Son. But it hurts.
It isn’t pleasant.
Now
we meet Gideon, in a wine press beating out what little bit of wheat he was
able to salvage, hiding from the invading hoards. He is, as he himself says, the least in his
father’s house, from the weakest clan in Manasseh (Judges 6:15). A rather pathetic figure.
But
there is the Angel of the LORD, sitting under the terebinth, watching
Gideon. And we know who this Angel
is. This is the preincarnate Christ, the
Word, the Son of God, and we are not surprised to find Him under a tree. Now He speaks, and the first thing He
announces is His own divine, gracious presence, “The LORD is with you, O
mighty man of valor” (v. 12).
The
LORD is with you, a greeting familiar to us.
We say “The Lord be with you, and with your spirit,” as a
confession of faith, and as a blessing that bestows the reality that our God is
just as present with us, Emmanuel, as He was with Gideon at the wine
press. In fact, even more present, if we
may speak that way, because He is with us incarnate, with us in flesh
and blood.
And
then, “O mighty man of valor.”
That must be a joke. Remember,
Gideon is hiding. And he’s a
whiner. He complains: “if the LORD is
with us, why then has all this happened to us” (v. 13). Why doesn’t He do something about our
enemies? Why doesn’t He smite
them? Why doesn’t He help us and deliver
us? Our fathers told us all about
how this LORD brought us up out of Egypt.
But now? Now the LORD has
forsaken us and given us into the power of our enemies. What do you mean, “the LORD is with” us?
Isn’t
Christ’s response to Gideon’s lament rather curious? “Go in this might of yours and save Israel
from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” (v. 14). Go in this might of yours? O mighty man of valor? Gideon, the weakest of the weak, hiding,
moaning and complaining… mighty? Sent
to save? How? What might?
Why does the LORD say this?
Notice,
the Source of the Gideon’s might is not within Gideon. And that is the key to this whole encounter. The LORD sends Gideon precisely because He is
weak, a nothing, a nobody. Because then
everybody will know it couldn’t possibly have been Gideon who saved Israel, but
the LORD working through Gideon, who is with Gideon to “strike the
Midianites as one man” (v. 16). The
LORD is the One Man. He is the
Savior. He is Gideon’s Might. God’s grace is sufficient for Gideon, and for
all Israel. His presence. His Word of sending. “But I will be with you” (v. 16). That is the Promise. And no one will see it coming. It will be a great surprise, a mighty
mystery. God will get all the
praise. Which is to say, the people will
once again believe in YHWH. They will
return to Him in repentance and faith.
God
chooses the foolish, the weak, the things that are not, to accomplish His
saving purpose. His power is made
perfect in weakness. This is how God
works. So when the time comes for the
world’s salvation to appear, for God to deliver us from the mighty, menacin’
demons and their satanic lord, from sin, from death, from hell, and from
ourselves… He doesn’t come as an invincible warrior, obliterating His enemies
in a blaze of glory. He comes… as a
Baby. Flesh and blood. The Son of God, to be sure, eternally
begotten of the Father, conceived by the Holy Spirit. But born to a poor, unwed virgin girl from…
Nazareth?... Born, in of all places,
Bethlehem, Ephratha, too little to be counted among the clans of Judah (Micah
5:2)? In a stable, complete with all the
sights and smells one might expect in such a place, surrounded by beasts and
dirty shepherds, wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in the feed bin, because
nobody has any room for Him inside the house?
Foolish. Weak.
Just what kind of a God do we have here, anyway? How is a Baby supposed to save us? If this is how He is with us
(Emmanuel), no wonder the Midianites always walk away with the spoils.
But
things are not as they appear. And there
is the LORD with His tree. In Gideon,
the LORD gives us a picture of how He wins the victory over our enemies. When He sends Gideon out to deliver Israel,
our… hero?... raises an army of 32,000 fighting men. Well, that’s not bad. We’ll give those Midianites a contest, at
least. But the LORD says, “That’s too
many! See, I intend to keep My
Promise. The Midianites will be
defeated. But if you do it with that
many men, you’ll think you did it, and then you won’t believe in
Me. So dismiss everyone who is
afraid.” Just like that, 22,000 abandon
the field. 10,000 left. Against the locust-hoards of Midian. Now the situation is dire. But… still too many! With a test at the water, God whittles it
down to 300 men! 300 who lapped
the water like dogs. Now the situation
is hopeless. Humanly speaking. But that’s the point. That’s right where God wants us. Because now He will come down and win
the victory. And that’s what
happens. Gideon’s army advances on the
camp of Midian with trumpets and torches hidden in jars. They smash the jars and blow the trumpets and
before they can raise a weapon of their own, the LORD sets the Midianite camp
in such panic and confusion, that each Midianite turns his weapon on his
comrade. The enemies of God’s people
defeat themselves. The LORD wins the
victory with an army of nobodies who do nothing.
The
LORD with His tree. The Baby grew up to
be rejected by His own, His people, whom He came to save. Our flesh and blood God, mocked, spat upon,
tortured, scourged. An innocent Man
condemned to death. Crucified between
two criminals. A band of nobody
disciples scattered in hopelessness.
But
they should have known. This hopeless
moment is THE great moment of salvation, when the LORD turns His enemies’
weapons on themselves. He harnesses
death and damnation… to deliver the death blow… to death and
damnation. And Satan, and the demons,
and our sin and misery. For in suffering
death and damnation, in submitting Himself to the hoards of evil, He suffers
the just penalty for our sins, and pays our debt in full. He faces down our enemies as one Man. And He defeats them. For after all, what happens on the Third
Day? The grave is empty. The stone has been rolled away. Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. There He stands… victorious!
It
is a great surprise. A mighty mystery. No one saw this coming. No one can say that weak and sinful man
won this victory. The LORD did it. His angel.
On His tree. And now?
From
the vast army of humanity, the LORD gathers His 300, which is to say, His
little Church of redeemed sinners, the weak, the whining, the moaning, and
complaining… absolved and renewed by Him.
That is our role in this. We are
the 300. Nobodies from Nowheresville. Chosen at the water. We are given lamps under jars; that is, the
Light of Christ, the Spirit, and our Lord’s resurrection Life are in us. But for now this treasure is hidden in jars
of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us (2 Cor.
4:7). And trumpets, to proclaim God’s
victory. That is, the preaching, your
daily confession of Christ in the world, lives of love and sacrifice in Jesus’
Name. But we know it isn’t us who win
the victory. It is our new and greater
Gideon, Jesus Christ, who does all that.
All
cloaked in the weakness of flesh and blood, and the holy cross. The LORD Himself wins the victory. We just enjoy the spoils, now in a hidden
way, in the foolishness of God that is wiser than men, in the weakness of God
that is stronger than men, the things that are from the things that are not,
Words and water, bread and wine, repentant lives of faith, always looking
forward to that Day when the angelic trumpets sound, and the jars are smashed,
and what is hidden is revealed.
So
we pray, “Come, Lord Jesus. Advent to
us.” And He does, right here and
now. He comes to this little
congregation, the Messiah and Lord of all.
To be with us now in flesh and blood. To give us His victory. Under His tree. At His Altar.
Go then, beloved, in this might of yours. Jesus is with you, to defeat your enemies as
one Man. In the Name of the Father,
and of the Son X, and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
[1] The theme and a number of the
elements in this sermon are taken from Aaron A. Koch, Symbols of Salvation:
Foretelling Christ’s Birth (St. Louis: Concordia, 2021).
[2] R. Reed Lessing, https://www.lutheranhour.org/sermon.asp?articleid=648&mode=print
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