Tonight we are going to look at a foundational passage of Scripture from the Book of Judges, Chapter 6, verses 10-24.  Before doing so, it may be helpful to take a brief look at the background to this chapter. The time period covered by the Book of Judges is 1380 to 1050 BC.  It was, as we are told in Judges 21:25 a time when "there was no king in Israel, everyone did what was right in his own eyes" and Israel had, once again, fallen into its old recurring pattern.

They did evil in the sight of the Lord.		Apostasy
The Lord allowed their enemies to overcome them.		Oppression
The people cried out to the Lord.		Repentance
The Lord raised up deliverers whom He empowered with His Spirit.		Deliverance

By deliberately choosing to serve foreign gods, Israel broke covenant with the Lord and the Lord therefore stepped back and allowed them to fall into the hands of their oppressors.  As we come across Gideon, he is living in a situation where, for seven years, the Midianites let the Israelites work their fields but when harvest came they, as Matthew Henry's Commentary puts it, "came and seized all, and ate up and destroyed it, both grass and corn, and when they went away took with them the sheep and oxen, so that in short they left no sustenance for Israel, except what was privately taken by the rightful owners into the dens and caves". The people laboured only to have their harvests repeatedly stolen and destroyed by the Midianites year after year.  It was a time of hardship and trial which caused the people to cry out to the Lord and repent.  When they repented and turned from their evil ways, God forgave them, and raised up Spirit empowered leaders to deliver them.  Gideon was one such leader.

Let us hear the Word of the Lord:  "I said to you: `I am the LORD your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.' But you have not listened to me.  11 The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior."  13 "But sir," Gideon replied, "if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, `Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian."  14 The LORD turned to him and said, "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?"  15 "But Lord," Gideon asked, "how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family."   16 The LORD answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together."  17 Gideon replied, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. 18 Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you."  And the LORD said, "I will wait until you return."  19 Gideon went in, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak.   20 The angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And Gideon did so.  21 With the tip of the staff that was in his hand, the angel of the LORD touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the LORD disappeared. 22 When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the LORD, he exclaimed, "Ah, Sovereign LORD! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!"   23 But the LORD said to him, "Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die."   24 So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it Jehovah Shalom, the LORD is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites".
(Judges 6:10-24)

What can we learn today from the text we have just read?  I believe that there are eight important principles that are as relevant to us today as they were to Gideon in his day.

(1)  God attaches a cost for disobedience
(2)  God is watching us all the time
(3)  God speaks to human beings
(4)  God has a different perspective to ours
(5)  God is still the God of wonders
(6)  God, plus one, is still a majority
(7)  The presence of God eliminates fear
(8)  A meeting with God will change your life.

Let's take a closer look at these principles.

THE COST OF DISOBEDIENCE
God gave, and still gives, us the choice of obeying Him. "Follow my decrees and be careful to obey my laws, and you will live safely in the land"  (Lev 25:18).  "But if you do not obey the Lord and if you rebel agains His commands, His hand will be against you, as it was against your fathers"  (1 Samuel 12:15).  We all have free will and the right to choose, however we must understand that we will live with the consequences of our decisions.  There is a cost for disobedience.

GOD IS ALWAYS WATCHING
Psalm 145:20 tells us "The Lord watches over all who love Him".  He sees all we do and say and think.  Gideon was grumbling and depressed because he had lost all he had for the seventh time and he bemoaned his own and his peoples' situation.  God gets the blame for many things He has nothing to do with - it's often easier to blame God than take a long hard look at our own actions and realise that our troubles are the consequences of our own bad choices and actions.  The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak tree and watched Gideon as he threshed his crops in his hidden, unsuspected place.  As Gideon took on the work normally reserved for an animal, the Lord watched and listened.  It is exactly the same for us today.  No matter where we are and what we do, the Lord is watching us.  He always knows where we are and what we're about.

GOD STILL SPEAKS TO PEOPLE
The Lord watched Gideon before He spoke to him.  He watched and waited until He saw that Gideon was in a place where he could hear Him. "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (Revelation 2:7).  Gideon, working secretly and alone in that winepress, was able to express himself freely and openly before God and as a result he heard the voice of the Lord.  We can still hear from God today.  Satan uses the noise and bustle of the world to distract us, but the Lord's voice is still audible to those to choose to listen for it and who are willing to be guided by it.  As Charles Wesley wrote:

It is interesting how Gideon reacted to his encounter with the Lord.  While he was a bit doubtful and wanted a sign of assurance, he did not dismiss his experience.  Rather he acted upon it and, in faith, went and prepared an offering.  "... give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you."  And the Lord, in His mercy and understanding of human nature, agreed to wait.  He knew what Gideon needed.  It probably took Gideon perhaps 3-4 hours to prepare his offering of meat, bread and broth.  No doubt Gideon was asked what he was doing as he prepared the offering and, when he told his family, they most likely laughed at him.  Nevertheless he was undeterred.  Performing the long task was an indication of Gideon's faith and he was rewarded with absolute proof positive when the Lord took the offering and caused it to burn up. Gideon cries out "Ah, Sovereign LORD! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!" No-one will ever cause him to doubt the Lord again.  His belief is now unshakeable.  What a priviledge.  And all because he was willing to both to listen to the Lord and act in faith.

GOD'S PERSPECTIVE IS DIFFERENT TO OURS
"The Lord does not look at the things man looks at.  Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart".  (1 Samuel 16:7)  God sees things very differently from us.  He saw the potential in Gideon, even though Gideon's actual behaviour was anything but what the Lord declared to him.  The Lord called him a "mighty warrior" when, in reality, Gideon was nothing of the sort.  Like us, Gideon saw only the surrounding negative state of things and not the potential of those circumstances.  He saw only his problems:
    -  where are all the miracles our fathers told us about?
    -  the Lord has abandoned us to our enemies.
    -  my clan is the weakest
    -  I am the least in my family
However, the Lord knew the kind of man Gideon could be if only he would put his trust in God.  "The Lord turned to him and said, 'Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you'?"  The Lord sees potential in every person and in every situation.   Are we willing to trust in what God sees in us and forget about our own personal feelings of inadequacy or fear?

GOD IS STILL THE GOD OF WONDERS
Gideon recalled about the wonders that used to be and lamented their apparent lack in his day.  After the Lord spoke to him, he sought a sign of assurance and was given it.  Some people say that the day of miracles is over but there never was a 'day' of miracles, there never will be a day of miracles, there is just the God of miracles who is the same every day.  "Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus" (Acts 4:30).  We too have the assurance that God is still the God of wonders and miracles because "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).

GOD + 1 = A MAJORITY!
The Word of the Lord is mighty motivation.  Notice what the Lord said to Gideon: "The LORD answered, 'I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together'." (Judges 6:16).  It is a joint effort.  We can take encouragement and strength from knowing that God is with us.  We are in covenant with Him if we "do whatever I command you and walk in my ways and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and commands, as David my servant did, I will be with you"  (1 Kings 11:38). Being "together" in covenant with Almighty God, obeying His Word, means that, even if we appear to be alone to the world, we are still the strong majority, because God is with us.  "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age".  (Matthew 28:20).  We can take heart because of this truth and courageously press on.

THE PRESENCE OF GOD ELIMINATES FEAR
One acronym of the word fear is False Evidence Appearing Real.  The presence of the Lord brings about an absence of fear.  In Him there is knowledge of truth, and resulting peace.  "So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it Jehovah Shalom, the LORD is Peace" (Judges 6:24).  The word "Shalom" means wholeness, security, well-being, prosperity, peace and friendship.  This is what we have when God is with us.  "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubles and do not be afraid" (John 14:27).  Peace is not, as the world imagines, an absence of strife but the presence of Jesus in our lives.

A MEETING WITH GOD CHANGES YOUR LIFE
It happened many times throughout the Bible.  People such as Abraham, Moses, Gideon, David, Isaiah, Mary, Peter, Paul et al all had a meeting with God that changed their whole lives.  And this experience is not consigned to the past.  The principle is still the same today.  God still changes lives.  One person's experience may not be the same as someone else's, but the bottom line is consistent - life will never the same again!  "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come" (2 Corinthians 5:17).  Our priorities change and with them our whole outlook.  With God in our lives we can stop struggling and find true contentment - "For I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances" (Philippians 4:11).  He is the One in whose strength we can do anything. "With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall.  As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless" (Psalm 18:29).  As we read on in the Book of Judges, we can see the change in Gideon as he recognises that the Lord is with him and so it can be in our lives too.

So what about today?  As we have seen from the principles noted above, the Lord God does not change ("I the Lord do not change" - Malachi 3:6).  He is the same God today as he was yesterday and will be tomorrow.  His laws and principles are established forever and provide the same possibilites for you and for me.  The same signs and wonders are available in our day.  God requires the same obedience from us as he did of the people in the Bible, and the same results spring from that obedience and faith.  We receive the same rewards for faithfulness.  Gideon made a complete turn-around in his relationship with God and when he did so, he positioned himself in the place where God could use him mightily to accomplish His will and purpose.  And as Gideon made himself available, the Lord blessed him abundantly.  He desires to do the same with us, if we'd let Him.

The story of Gideon in the winepress teaches us some very important principles that we can apply to our lives today.  We all have to start somewhere.  For Gideon, his starting point took place where he least expected it and when he least expected it, but he wasn't the same man after it.  Sometimes our time of distress and anxiety is God's time to appear for his people's relief.  When we learn what Gideon did, we too may step out bravely with the Lord.