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Bob Dutko Commentary
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Dive into a deep discussion on how God navigates human frailties to demonstrate His power, relying not on human strength, but on faith and humility. Drawing parallels from biblical accounts of Gideon and Deborah, the episode underscores that God’s intervention often comes through the least expected avenues. This poignant reflection reveals that divine success is not tied to human prowess, but rather to faith and the almighty power behind earthly endeavors.
SPEAKER 01 :
Of all the heroes, and I’m using the word hero here, advisedly, in the Old Testament, who’s the greatest? There’s not much question, really, among Old Testament scholars or among Old Testament readers, I should say, King David. A man who seems to have been utterly without fear almost from the very beginning. Can you imagine a young man like he was, a shepherd boy, really, who comes to the king and says, well, no one else is willing to fight this giant Philistine? I’ll fight him because God will be on my side. And of all the emotions that played back and forth, perhaps pride, perhaps vanity, maybe a little arrogance, maybe a little foolishness, the one thing that was absent where David was concerned was fear. He just was not afraid. Now, no doubt a great deal of that lack of fear came from faith. He believed God. He trusted God. He knew this Philistine was defying the armies of the living God. And that sort of thing just should not happen. And so he said, who does he think he is? And he offered to fight. The story is completely familiar to us. And that day set a pattern for this man’s life. It established him really in Israel as a hero, as a fearless man, as a man of war, a man of weapons, a man who could fight and was willing to, who even though he probably was not a particularly large man or impressive as a warrior, his courage, his forcefulness, his faithfulness, his willingness to fight and that utter fearlessness that seems to have been with him all of his life was a big factor. But you know, one of the best indications of the kind of a man you’re dealing with is the men who follow him. What kind of men is he able to inspire? What kind of men can he command their loyalty? What kind of man were the men that followed David? 2 Samuel chapter 23 says, contains a tribute, as it were, maybe not a tribute, but a catalog, a summary, of those men who were David’s staff, maybe in modern terms, but in those terms there was no such thing as a non-fighting staff. These men all fought. They were all warriors. They were all warriors in the classic mold. They are listed here. It says in chapter 23, verse 8 of 2 Samuel, These be the names of the mighty men whom David had. The tachmonite that sat in the seat, chief among the captains. This would have been David’s chief of staff. But he did not dwell in the Pentagon. When there was a battle to be fought, he was always there. The same man was Adino the Esnite. He lifted up his spear against 800 men whom he slew at one time. Now, I don’t know how that worked. I don’t know how he fought them. I don’t know if this was a mano a mano, sequentially fighting one man and then fighting another. I don’t know if it was in the middle of a battle. But in single combat, in the midst of a battle or wherever, this man, in one occasion, managed to kill 800 men. No mean accomplishment. This is the kind of a man who wears his clothes out from the inside. Men with the bark on. Tough people. Men who are muscular. Men who are strong. Men with endurance. Men who know how to fight. Men of weapons and who know how to use them. After him was Eliezer. He says he was one of the three mighty men with David when they defied the Philistines that were there gathered together to battle. And the men of Israel had gone away. There were three of them with David and the rest of them had run. And they were the ones that stood there and defied them and said, no, we’re not running. You may kill us, but we’re going to fight. He arose and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary and his hand claved to the sword. This man had fought so long and so hard that when the battle was finally over, he could not make his hand let go of the sword. It was locked. He was a man of combat, what the Bible calls a mighty man. The Lord wrought a great victory that day and the people returned after him only to spoil. The only reason anyone else showed up was to help spoil. But it was David and three men, this being one of them, who fought that battle. After him was Shammah, the son of Aji, the Haranite. And the Philistines were gathered together into a troop. And there was a piece of ground full of lentils. And all the people fled from the Philistines. But he stood in the midst of the ground and defended it. and killed one Philistine after another, and the Lord wrought a great victory. Three of the thirty chiefs went down and came to David in the harvest time to the cave of Adullam. And the troop of the Philistines pitched in the valley of Rephaim. David was then in a hold, and the garrison of the Philistines was in Bethlehem. And David said, Oh, man, I wish someone could just give me a drink of water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate. Now all this was, at the time he said it, was campfire talk. But I want you to understand the kind of man you’re dealing with here. The kind of man he could inspire to follow him. They heard David say, man, I’d sure like to have a drink of cold water out of that well. Not just any well, out of that well. the three mighty men broke through the host of the Philistines. In other words, they fought before they ever got to the well. They did not sneak in. They fought their way in. They drew water out of the well of Bethlehem by the gate. They took it, fought their way out, and took it back to David. When David was given the water, he would not drink it. He poured it out to the Lord and said, Be it far from me, O Lord, that I should do this. Is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives? Therefore he would not drink it. These things did these three mighty men, warriors, fighters. Then Anabashi, the brother of Joab, the son of Zariah, was chief among three. He lifted up his spear against 300 men, and he killed them and had a name among the three. Was he not most honorable of three? Therefore he was their captain, howbeit he attained not to the first three. Now this is another trio of fighters. He’s a man who could kill 300 men in one day in combat, and yet he was not good enough to be considered one of the first three. It begins to tick them off. Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, who had done many mighty acts, he slew two lion-like men of Moab. He went down also and slew a lion in the midst of a pit in time of snow. He slew an Egyptian, a huge man. The Egyptian had a spear in his hand. He went down to him with nothing but a staff. He took the spear away from the Egyptian and killed him with his own spear. And the Egyptian, we’re told, was a goodly man, which means he was big. He was huge. He went down with a staff, took his spear away from him, and killed it with it. Strong men. These were not men you trifle with. These things did Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada. He had a name among three mighty men. He was more honorable than the 30, but he still was not good enough to be one of the first three. But David set him over his guard. And Asahel, the brother of Joab, was one of the 30. And then he begins to tick off all these men. Ironically, in verse 39, the last name mentioned is Uriah the Hittite. There were 37 men in all. They were David’s Staff, should we say, his closest fighting men, strong men, powerful men, men of war. Now it says in this verse, it said the Lord wrought a great victory. And it was the custom all times to give God the credit for the victories and the things that were won. But you have no particular evidence in most of these cases of God’s direct involvement. He is there as a presence. He is involved in it. God is honored in all that they do. But there isn’t any comment here about his direct involvement in what these men were doing. The fact is that in the times of God’s direct involvement, it never involved men like these. When the time came for God to use his hand, for God to step into the breach, for God to take steps, he did not choose men like these who could kill 800 men in one day single-handedly. Men like these, three of whom could fight their way through a whole garrison of the Philistines, draw a bucket of water and take it back to their king without shedding a drop of their own blood. Other people lost their lives, certainly, in the process. But certainly, it did not involve men like these. Now, if you’ll turn back with me to the sixth chapter of Judges, I want us to try to learn a lesson about God, about His work, about what He does, about how He thinks, about how He does things. The sixth chapter of Judges is a time when Israel was deeply troubled by the Amalekites and by the Midianites. Their enemies were so numerous. It was not merely that they were not able to fight. I mean, they could fight. But there were so many Midianites and so many Amalekites. I mean, they were like grasshoppers on the land they’re described as. And their camels, he said, is like the sand of the sea in number. And the Israelites would go out and plant their crops. And when the crops began to grow up, here came just a swarm of these people with their asses and their camels. And they came across the land like locusts. And when they were gone, there was nothing left. And when they left, they took sheep and oxen and everything else in sight. The Israelites had to flee up and live in a cave during a lot of this time just in order to stay free of these people. It was a terrible time for them. In fact, the Bible says that Israel, verse 6, was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites. And they cried to the Lord. There were nothing they could do. In verse 7 it says, But then finally in verse 11, There came an angel of the Lord and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah that pertained to Joash, the Abba’s Israelite. His son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. He went where he could to try to keep them from finding what he was doing, so they came and stole it from him. Now you’re going to see as we go along that the angel must have had his tongue in cheek slightly. Not that Gideon was a coward. I don’t believe that he was for a moment. But you can tell for sure as the story develops that this was not a Joab. This was not a Benaiah. This was not one of these men that would break through the walls of a city or kill 800 men single-handedly in one day. He was not that kind of a man. He was a farmer. He was a courageous person, but even courage has its limits. Gideon said to him, “‘O my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then has all this happened to us? Where are all His miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, “‘Didn’t the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. And the Lord looked at him and said, Go in this your strength and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Haven’t I sent you? And he said to him, O my Lord, how am I going to save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh and I am the least in my father’s house. This is a pattern. You ought to maybe mark this verse and keep it in your memory because this pattern will be repeated again and again through your Bible. That oftentimes when God chooses a man to do something, He chooses the last. Or He chooses the least. Or He chooses the youngest. Or He chooses the weakest. Or He chooses the homeliest. Or He chooses the one least likely to succeed. He said, you have come to a poor family. Israel was impoverished. My family is impoverished in Israel. We are the poor of the poor, and I am the least of my family. Why in the world? What makes you think that I could do it? The Lord said to him, surely I will be with you, and you shall smite the Midianites as one man. He said to him, if I have found grace in your sight, then show me a sign that you have talked to me. Now, you say, what do you mean that you have talked to me? I mean, here we are talking, and I want a sign that you have talked to me. But he said, you don’t leave here, please. You stay right here until I’ve come and I have brought my gift. The angel said, I will wait until you come back. So he went, and he made ready a kid, and he made food. You know, he prepared the food to eat. He made cakes and a broth, and he brought them back. And when he brought them, the angel of God said to him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes and lay them upon a rock and pour out the broth. And he did it. The angel of the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes. And there rose up fire out of the rock and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. And then the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight. When Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the Lord, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God, because I have seen the face of an angel of the Lord face to face. He felt that if he saw even an angel of God face to face, you were going to die. And the Lord said, Peace be to you, fear not, you are not going to die. So he built an altar, and he tore down an altar that had been there previous to that time, that had been an altar of Baal. And the men came around and challenged him for having tore it down. And he says, What are you doing here challenging me about this? If Baal is God, let him come challenge me on having torn down the altar. And they left off and didn’t say anything to him. But then it says in verse 33, Now notice we’re talking about here the choice of a man, not a particularly impressive man. He is called a man of valor, which means a courageous man, but the least of his father’s house. the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him. And he blew with a trumpet, and Abiezer was gathered to him, and he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, that’s the tribe of Manasseh who were gathered to him. He also sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they came up to meet him. They came up, and by the time they all got there, there were 32,000 men. Now, mind you, we’re not dealing with picked troops. We’re not dealing with battle-hardened veterans. We’re dealing with 32,000 sheepherders, farmers, vinedressers, you know, carpenters, whatever, you know, they were doing for a living. This is not your standing army. This is not even really the National Guard. They hadn’t been training together once a month. And Gideon said to God, Now, I want you to understand the difference here between this man and David. David did not even have God come to him and say, I’m going to do this with you when he killed Goliath. God didn’t appear to him. God didn’t promise him anything. God didn’t have to show him anything. He didn’t have to give him any miracles. David came up there and made a simple exercise in logic. He said, this man defying the armies of the living God will not be tolerated by God. He cannot stand before God. I can fight for God. A child can fight for God and win against this man. And he just went out and fought. Now bear in mind we’re dealing with a different man. However, this is, like David was, a man whom God chose for his time. He is not a man of overpowering faith. He is not a man who is utterly without fear. He is not a man who is not ridden by doubt. Not at all. He says, if you will save Israel by your hand, as you have said, good grief. I think to myself, if I knew that God had said it, Why am I asking any questions? Well, he asked questions. If you’re going to do it, I know you said it, but if you’re going to do it, behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the floor. And if in the morning the dew be on the fleece only and is dry on all the ground around it, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand like you have said. And it was so. He got up early in the morning. He squeezed the fleece together and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a whole bowl full of water. It was wet, and presumably the ground was dry. Gideon said to God again, Let not your anger be hot against me. Don’t get mad, but I want to speak, but this once let me prove I pray you, but this once with your fleece, let it now be dry on the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew. And God did so that night. It was dry up on the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground. So finally, when all was said and done, he’s ready to go. But didn’t it take a lot of divine intervention, a lot of instruction, a lot of encouragement, a lot of signs, a lot of everything to get this man to believe and to be willing to take the chance? Chapter 7, verse 1, Then Jerubbael, who is Gideon, and all the people that were with him, rose up early, and they pitched beside the well of Herod, so that the host of the Midianites were on the north side of them by the hill of Morah in the valley. And the Lord said to Gideon, and this is one of the classic scriptures in all the Bible, The Lord said to Gideon, The people that are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands. You have too many men. You are too strong. I can’t do it with this many men. Why? He said, Lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand has saved me. Now, you know, it’s always a tricky business. Anytime you’re facing a challenge, a problem, or a difficulty in life, and you pray and you ask for God’s help, and then you go out and you do your best. It’s always tricky to know, did God do it? Was I lucky? Would it have happened anyway? Did what I do did it? I’ve been prayed for that God would heal me. Did I get better because God intervened? Or did I get better because the doctor prescribed the right medicine? Or did I just get over it anyway? Was it something that would have passed in time? And people often have difficulty in coming to grips with God’s involvement. And it is difficult. There are times, though, where God says we’re going to have to do this in such a way that there will never be any question in anybody’s mind as to how it was done. The people that are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands. Now, therefore, go to the people and proclaim in their ears, saying, Anyone here who is fearful or afraid, let him return early from Mount Gilead. and they had 22,000 went back now that’s kinda striking in a way because he didn’t get up there and make that easy for them he said anyone here who is fearful anyone here who is afraid can go home now how do you feel about that you know do you own up to the fact that you’re scared Do you own up to the fact that you’re afraid something might happen to you? 22,000 of them did. I have a feeling that of the people who stayed, some of them were afraid. They just were also afraid to admit that they were afraid. The Lord then said to Gideon, the people are still too many. He only had 10,000 left, still way too many people. The Lord said, Bring them down to the water, and I will try them for you there. And it shall be that of whom I say to you, This one will go with you, the same shall go with you. Of whomsoever I say to you, This one shall not go with you, the same shall not go. So he brought the people down to the water, and the Lord said to Gideon, Everyone that laps of the water with his tongue like a dog laps, you set him on one side. Everyone that bows down on his knees to drink with his face in the water, you set him on the other side. The number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, reaching down to the water, pulling up to water and drinking. He said, these were 300 men. All the rest of the people got down on their knees with both hands on the shore and leaned over and put their face in the water to drink. The Lord said to Gideon, by the 300 men that lapped, will I save you and deliver the Midianites into your hand? Let all the other people go. Every one of them home. Send them home. He started out with 32,000 men and wound up with 300, plus himself, 301. You know, that works out to be almost exactly 1% of the original force.
SPEAKER 1 :
1%.
SPEAKER 01 :
Now, you know, this is a lot of trouble to go to to make a point, so I have to assume that the point is important. Wouldn’t you? That there is something down in here that we really need to understand. God works in history. And God was working in history when David was king and when these mighty men were setting fear in the hearts of all the enemies of Israel on every side. But when God directly involves himself in what’s going on, he does not work with men like that. He chooses men like Gideon, and he selects a group of men, not weak men in one sense of the word, not men without some element of courage, not men who were not willing. They were all of those things, but they were not like Benaiah. They were not like Joab. They were not men like Abner was in years that came. So the people, he said… took victuals in their hands and their trumpets, and he sent all the rest of Israel, every man home. And he retained those 300, and the host of Midian were below him in the valley. It came to pass the same night that the Lord said to him, Arise, get down to the host. I have delivered it into your hand. But if you fear to go down, go down with you, with Fura, your servant, down to the host. Now, if you’re afraid, you don’t have to go down by yourself. You can take your servant with you. And you shall hear what they say, and afterward your hands will be strengthened to go down to the host. You never would have needed to do this with David. Never. But with Gideon, he had to. So it says, Gideon went down with Phurah, his servant. So he was afraid. He didn’t have that fearless quality that we see in David. He was afraid. So he took his servant down there with him. to the outside of the armed men who were in the host. And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along the valley like grasshoppers for a multitude, and their camels were without number like the sand of the sea in multitude. And when Gideon was come, he could see a man who was telling a dream to his fellow, and he said, You know, I dreamed a dream. And behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian and came unto a tent and hit it, and it fell and turned it over, and the tent just collapsed.” And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel. For into his hand has God delivered the host. Now, you know who he’s hearing here? He’s hearing his own name being discussed over a campfire by a couple of Midianite soldiers discussing one man’s dream to the other. And the interpretation that is given is that he is going to conquer Midian. That was, I guess, the final thing that Gideon needed to hear. It was so when he heard the telling of the dream and the interpretation of it, he worshipped. And he returned to the host of Israel and said, Arise, for God has delivered into your hands. Each of them took a lamp and a pitcher, as it were, to cover the lamp. so that no one could see the light. I suppose it might have lighted their feet, but nothing more. And they slowly and quietly scattered themselves all around the host of Midian. And there was a point in time that Gideon says to them, Now, I want you to do what you see me do. Every one of them. 300 men had trumpets. And, of course, normally you only have a trumpet in charge of one group of men. You don’t have every man with a trumpet. Well, this was implying that he had 300 divisions of men, 300 platoons or companies of men scattered around. And in the dark, in the confusion of the dark, it’s oftentimes hard to tell. They would expect maybe one man with a torch and one man with a trumpet and fighting men behind each of them. These 300 men formed a line around the camp. And when Gideon blew the trumpet, broke his pitcher, and displayed his lantern all of a sudden, all of them did the same thing. The Midianites poured out of their tents like ants and looked around and heard nothing but trumpets on every side of them. Saw lights all around them. What did they conclude? Well, we’re surrounded. And they’re coming. And so they came out to do battle in various forms of undress, in their underwear, what have you. And you know, when you get down and you’re fighting in your underwear, all men look pretty much alike. It’s hard to know who the enemy is and who your friends are. And these men, very shortly, were falling upon one another, fighting with one another, because they assumed that this man running this direction with a spear or a sword is an enemy. And they cut him down. And someone saw that, and they said, well, that was my friend, and they cut him down. And the next thing you know, the whole army is fighting against themselves. By the time they realized what was happening and began to flee, they had Gideon and his men hard on their heels. The rest of the story in itself is interesting. worth reading and fascinating because of the encounter where the men of Ephraim got mad at Gideon and said, why didn’t you call us? He said, oh my. He said, we’re not even a ward on you people. We’re nothing to compare with you and you could have done this without us, I suppose. And they were all, you know, flattered them real good and they felt good about it and went their way. But you know, this is a fascinating account of a situation where God steps in and decides to intervene and the strength of or the power or the faith or the courage of the people he chooses to use are simply not a factor. Now, why is this important? Well, it’s very important to people like you and me who would never in our lives be able to identify with the faith of David. We just, you know, we are afraid. We do get scared when things happen to us. We are frightened by certain diagnoses that we might get from the doctor. We’re afraid and we lock our houses up at night and we pull the blinds and we maybe try to secure as well as we can and then maybe sleep with a tear gas thing by your bed in case somebody breaks in. We’re not just courageous. We don’t always lie down at night and sleep. We are afraid. We don’t have faith. We’re not strong. We’re not able to fight off an adversary. We’re not able to engage in man-to-man combat and defeat 800 people in one day or 300 people in one day or two people in one day or one. And so it is that we can understand that God’s intervention does not depend on what you bring to the encounter. This is kind of shocking, I think, to some people. They think, well, I’ve got to measure up or I’ve got to be this or I have to be the other thing. No. No, not really. God’s direct intervention in your life does not depend on any of these things. What does it depend on? It depends on Him. Now, if you want another interesting illustration, just a few pages back to the fourth chapter. I’m not going to take the time to read through all this. But the judge of Israel at this time was, quote, a mere woman, end quote. Ah, but what a woman. Her name is Deborah, and she has an incredible influence over the people of Israel. She is a prophetess of God, and the people recognize her as such. But the time came when they were under a similar type of oppression, and God told them the time would come to do something about it. So she calls a man named Barak. He’s the captain of the host now. He’s the man to go out and fight. She gives him instructions to go fight Sisera. God will be with you. What’s Barak’s reply? I’m not going unless you go with me. David would never have even thought those words, much less spoke them. Would never have even crossed his mind that he had to have a, quote, mere, end quote, woman with him in order to go into battle, even though she be a prophetess of God. Notice, the one who was speaking for God in Israel at this time was a prophetess, a woman. And so the battle is joined finally because Deborah did go with him. And they fought against Sisera. And Sisera was put to the worse and he fled from them. But God did not allow Barak to kill Sisera. He fled into a tent. A woman’s tent. And he was exhausted and he lay down and he fell asleep. And this woman, whose name was Jael, takes a nail, actually a tent stake, while he sleeps. And a large mallet puts the stake over his temple and pounds it through and nails his head to the floor. A mere woman put him to death. Was that Barak’s doing? No. No. It was God’s doing. Sisera was not done to death by a man like Abner or a man like David or a mighty man like Joab or by a warrior who could kill men by the dozens or who fight his way through a troop and get to a well. Oh, no. He was killed by a girl with a hammer and a tent stake. What is, once again, the message? Well, I’ll tell you, if you’re going to understand God, you’re going to have to understand these events. And there is a scripture, another fascinating little encounter in the New Testament that I want to take you to, because it helps us to understand what’s going on here. In 2 Corinthians chapter 12, this is that famous scripture that people puzzle so much over, where Paul talks about being caught up into the third heaven in vision. He says in chapter 12, verse 1, He’s talking, by the way, about himself. He was caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man how that he was caught up, verse 4, into paradise and heard unspeakable words which is not lawful, maybe not even possible for a man to utter. Now of such a one will I glory, yet of myself I will not glory but in my infirmities. Now what is an infirmity? Well, an infirmity is a bad knee. An infirmity is a bad back. An infirmity is a chronic eye condition. An infirmity is a muscular weakness. It means you are not firm. It means there’s some aspect of your body or your spirit or your heart or what have you that doesn’t work like it’s supposed to do. You are infirm. He said, I’m not going to take pride in any of the events, the great spiritual events of my life. Now, you know, that’s an odd thing in itself. Here is a person… Caught up to the third heaven. Of these things he might have much to say. And he might assume that because God had taken such care and was so concerned about him. And had shown him all these things that he must be greater than somebody else. But he says, I take no pride in this. I take pride in my infirmities. My gout. My, you know, bad lungs. My poor eyesight. That’s where my source of pride is. He said, now… Though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool, for I will say the truth. Now I will forbear, lest any man should think of me above what he sees me to be, or what he hears of me. What he is saying, in simple words, is what you see is what you get. And I don’t want anyone to think of me any more than that. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh. the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. Now what’s this all about? Well, I don’t have a clue as to what it was. I mean, I say I have a clue. They say that it was his eyes. And it may have been his eyes. It may have been something else. It may have been a demon that came and jobbed him awake three times a night. I don’t know what it was. What it was is not important. Why it was is very important. Because God sent to him or gave him a thorn in the flesh and a messenger of Satan was sent to buffet him for a reason. Lest he should be exalted above measure. That it may be necessary if you are not weak to weaken you. If you are not buffeted to buffet you. If you are not low to bring you down. Why? Why? In order that you could be of any use. Don’t you understand the message of the 32,000 troops. That had to be brought down so they could be of any use. We had to trim that by you know 99% of them had to be sent home. In order for the army to be of any use. It had to be weakened. Paul is saying precisely the same thing. that for me to be of any value to God, I had to be weakened. There was sent to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Now I besought God for this three times that it would leave me. He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness. My strength is made perfect in your weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I take pride in my infirmities in order that the power of Christ might rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions and distresses for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, that is precisely when I am strong. Now, the message in all of this is fascinating when you ponder it. That an army had to be weakened. That a man had to be chosen who would not even go into battle without the prophetess being alongside of him. And when the time came for killing the captain of the enemy host, he was not killed by a mighty man of war. He wasn’t even killed by a farmer. He was killed by a girl. While he slept in his tent. All these patterns that God shows us are absolutely consistent when it comes to choosing a man like Paul directly to be of use to him. You want God to speak to you? Would you like for God to appear to you in a dream? Would you like for God to catch you by the hair and catch you up into the third heaven and speak to you things that are not lawful for any man to utter? No. Would you like to have that close, direct intervention with God? Oh, it would be a glorious thing. But you must be prepared to be weakened, to be brought low, to be diminished, to become less effective in some ways yourself because your effectiveness is not what God is looking for. if he’s to have direct intervention in your life. These things, I think, are rather fascinating when you look at them. The mistake that most would-be leaders make, both male and female, whoever they may be, they fail to realize that God is the prime mover and the initiator of all his direct involvement in this world. All of it. He is not one to stand by and be snoring away or sleeping or paying attention or pursuing something else. And here’s this call comes up from the earth that initiates, moves him to action, stirs him to do because of our earnestness. Oh, he hears our prayers. And yes, he responds to our prayers. I don’t mean to suggest that he does not. But do you realize that even the prayer is motivated by him personally? prompted by him paul said in another place we don’t even know how to pray like we should but the spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered we are moved to pray so that god can answer the prayer god’s is the prime mover people would say in a war if we can only get god involved we can win but the fact is you can’t get god involved in your schemes He likes to get involved in his schemes, not yours. Would you turn back to Romans, the ninth chapter? Because here again, we have… a fascinating concept developed along the same lines, an important one for us to understand. I say the truth in Christ, he says, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit. I have great heaviness. I have continual sorrow in my heart, for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. And I cannot imagine anything that could bring me to make a statement like that. And yet… Here it is. It is not as though the word of God had taken no effect. They are not all Israel who are of Israel. Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children. But in Isaac shall your seed be called. That is they which are the children of the flesh. That is those who were born of Abraham in fleshly sense. They are not the children of God. The children of the promise are counted for the seed. Now he develops this concept. And as you go along, you may get a little lost, but stay with me because this is really very important to understand. He said, this is the word of promise. At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son. Now, bear in mind that they were not quite content to wait for that promise. Sarah had actually given Abraham her handmaid. Hagar, he had gone into her. Ishmael had been born. Ishmael has been a trouble to Israel ever since, but that was the way it all started. He was the one born after the flesh. Isaac was the one born after the promise. He said, this is the word of promise. At this time I will come and Sarah will have a son. Not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, our father Isaac. For, this is where it stops you. For the children being not yet born. neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calls, it was said to her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. Now I want you to stop and think about that for a moment. Before the children were born. Paul’s statement is clear as to what he’s driving at. He says that God made up his mind about these boys before they were born. In order that his purpose might be selection, not merit selection. Now, do you suppose he made up his mind about them because he knew the future and knew what kind of people they would be? You reckon that’s a problem? I see someone shaking their head. Why not? Because all you have done, you see, is move the problem further ahead. You have not solved it. You have simply found another way. If you say God looked into the future and saw what kind of man Esau would be, so he made this decision before they were born, you have said God chose the one because he was better than the other. Whereas Paul is saying he chose them before they had a chance to be better or worse, one than the other. Now, I know that’s a little hard to get your mind around. The idea of election as opposed to merits or works or accomplishment or strength. But you see, it all goes back to the very concept of reducing your army from 32,000 to 301, counting Gideon. It all goes back to that one simple precept. That God does things His way, in His time, how He wants it. He chooses whom He wants and turns down the one that He doesn’t want. It is His to choose. The children not having been born. What shall we say then? Verse 14. Is there unrighteousness with God? Oh my, no. He says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. And whom I will, he said elsewhere, I harden. Didn’t say that here, but that’s what he said. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, For this same purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore he has mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardens. Now that’s spooky. Because you might sit there and say, Now wait a minute. Supposing then God chooses to harden me. Well, if he does, you will be hardened. Well, supposing he chooses to call me. Well, then you will be called. That’s part of it. God chooses. Jesus told his disciples, don’t we recall? You have not chosen me. I have chosen you. And yet, I still encounter people who really seem to believe that they chose God. That they made the decision. That they’re the one that went off down that road. That they’re the one that went looking for God instead of God coming looking for him. Well, I don’t know what to tell you. I just know what I read here. Then why will you say to me, well, if that’s the case, how can God find fault? Nay, but, O man, who are you that reply against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why have you made me this way? Has the potter not power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel to honor and another to dishonor? You bet he does. And I can remember sitting around once having read that scripture and wondering to myself, did God make me a vessel to honor? Or did he make me a vessel to dishonor? And if one or the other, what can I do about it? And I troubled my heart with that. You needn’t trouble yourself with it. You are what you are. God has made you this. But you see, what I’m looking at, the people I’m talking to, have been elected by God. Have been called by God. who are vessels chosen by God, not rejected, not turned back, not chosen for dishonor. So you needn’t concern yourself with the other side of this equation. You need to look very carefully, though, at this side, the side that says you have been called, the side that says you have been chosen, and realize that it is God who has selected, not you. What if God, willing to show His wrath and willing to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted destruction? He put up with them for a long time before He actually broke the vessel. That He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy which He had before prepared to glory. Even us whom He has called, not only of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles. As He says in Hosea, I will call them My people who were not My people. I will call her beloved who was not beloved. And it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said to them, you are not my people, there shall they be called the children of the living God. The idea is developed. And he says finally in verse 30, What shall we say then that the Gentiles who followed not after righteousness have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith? Israel, who followed after the law of righteousness, have not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they sought it not by faith, but by works of law, for they stumbled at that stumbling stone. In theory, what they did was they went out with an army of 32,000. Instead of with 300. They followed after their own strength. They went for the mighty man. They took the option of finding the best warrior. And they leaned on the best warrior. And they fought the battle of the west the best way they knew how. Instead of trusting in Jesus Christ. He continues this thought in chapter 10 and says, Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record. They have a zeal of God. but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. Christ is the objective of the law, the purpose of the law, for righteousness to everyone that believes. Moses describes the righteousness of the law that the man that does these things lives by them. The purpose of them is to give you life and to make your life better. But the righteousness of faith speaks this way. Don’t say in your heart, who shall ascend into heaven to bring Christ down? Now we’re going to take the argument all the way to the absurd. Let’s get it all the way out to as far absurd as we possibly can get it. What are you going to do to save yourself? Which of your works are you going to perform that will accomplish your salvation? You’re going to do it by keeping the Sabbath or by abstaining carefully from unclean meats. You’re going to do it by keeping the holy days. And you’re going to go on with this law and that law and that ritual and the other ritual. All of which are given to you to tell you a right way to worship God and the difference between right and wrong. That’s all. You’re going to do these things, right, in order to get yourself saved. People are fond of asking me. They say, well, this law or that law required for salvation. I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you go up to heaven and bring Christ down? If your works, if what you do, if your power, your might, your strength, your ability to fight, your ability to do anything is going to save you, why don’t you get on up there and bring him down? That’s what he’s saying. Who has ascended into heaven to bring Christ down? Or which one of you is going to go in there and roll back the stone and walk into the tomb and raise Jesus from the dead? You’re going to do that, right? Well, if we’re going to talk about you saving yourself, folks, this is what’s got to be done. Because there’s no point in talking about this law or that law or the other law. Because what saves you is Jesus Christ. Having come down from heaven. Having lived a righteous life. Having died for your sins. And walking out of that tomb. Resurrected the Son of God. That is what saves you. And you didn’t have any part in any of it. Right? And so he says, what does it say? The word is near you. It is even in your mouth and in your heart that is the word which we preach, that if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and you will believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. That’s the word. Believe him. Trust him. Do what he says. Follow him. This is your mighty man. This is your strength. This is your leader. This is the one who can save you. Nobody else can do it. For with the heart man believes to righteousness. With the mouth confession is made to salvation. For the scripture says whoever believes on him shall not be ashamed. There is no difference between Jew and Greek. The same Lord over all is rich to everyone that calls upon him. For whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? Even the preacher has to be sent by God. As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. And he continues his talk. What I am trying to tell you today is one small piece of a very large puzzle. But this piece is quite clear. God does not directly work through human strength. God does not directly work through human strength. Rather, he works through human weakness. Now, you can take that and put it together with some of the other things you know about God.
