RE: FIRST THINGS FIRST
Posted by: pastor1 <pastor1@...>
FIRST THINGS FIRST
Judges 6:25-32
For seven long years, Israel has suffered at the hands of the Midianites as divine judgment for forsaking the Lord. For seven years, bands of the Midianites would swoop down on the farms of the Israelites and pillage and plunder at will. For seven years, the defenseless Israelites would run away in terror, leaving their homes and possessions to the enemy. For seven years, Israel had prayed for God to help them.
After seven years, God has raised up a man by the name of Gideon to lead the people in battle against the Midianites. Now, Gideon is the most unlikely candidate for a national deliverer you could imagine. He was a farmer not a soldier. He had probably never been in a fight before.
Gideon reluctantly answered the call, and God used him mightily at a very important time in Israel's history. We are all familiar with the great victory Gideon won with his reduced army of 300.
However, there was another battle Gideon had to fight before he ever got to the Midianites. Before God would send him against the invaders of the land. He sent him against the idols of the land. Gideon thought his first fight would be with Midian for they were the problem after all.
First things first! The night that Gideon surrendered to God's call. God came to him in a vision and told him that before he was to do war against Midian there was one other battle that had to be fought. You see, the Midianites was not the problem. They were the symptom. It would do no good to rid the land of the Midianites if they did not get rid of what brought the Midianites to the land. Israel's greatest problem was not with the Midianites; it was with Baal.
Their spiritual problem was greater than their physical problem. It was their worship of Baal that had caused God to send the Midianites to them to begin with. And God was not going to take away the Midianites until they took away Baal. Baal would have to be renounced before the Midianites could be driven out.
So God puts Gideon to a test. He is sent to tear down his father's altar to Baal and raise an altar to Jehovah in its stead. With the wood from which the altar to Baal was made he was to build a fire on the newly erected altar and sacrifice a seven-year-old bullock thereon.
Now, the overall lesson in this incident is first things first. Before Gideon could be trusted to deliver a nation, he must first deliver his family. Before he would do war with the Midianites, he declare war on Baal.
"We are first tested in the less before being called to the greater." Gideon must prove his commitment in the small task before he can be trusted with the larger task.
He had to tear down a false altar before he could build a true altar (26). Many would compromise here, however. They would consent to build the altar of God, but they do not want to give up the altar of Baal.
I. The Spiritual Must Come Before The Physical
Israel's greatest problem was a spiritual oppression, not a physical oppression. Israel's first concern was the Midianites; however, God's first concern was their idolatry. Isarel wanted help but not holiness. Israel wanted revenge but not righteousness.
They wanted God to deal with the symptoms; but God dealt first with the cause of the problem. They wanted God to deal with the consequences of their folly and disobedience; God ‘s desire was that they deal with what led them into it. It was not going to be God and Baal, but rather God or Baal.
If we are going to really solve our problems, we need to deal with the cause of the problem, not just the effect, not just the symptoms. Israel had a great problem with the oppression of the Midianites. For seven years the Midianites had plagued the Israelites, and so much so that they had "greatly impoverished" (Judges 6:6) the Israelites. But the Midianites were not Israel's main problem. Their main problem was their forsaking of Jehovah. They had turned from Jehovah to Baal. Because of this, God brought chastisement upon them in the form of the Midianites. Getting rid of the Midianites would not solve their problem. They needed to deal with that which brought the Midianites upon them
In order to fix a problem, we need to know what the real problem is. If you or I thought our money problems resulted from a lack of money instead of a lack of discipline, as soon as we would get more money, we would just face more problems until we took care of the real issue.
For the Israelites, the real issue was not the load of oppression, but instead the lack of obedience towards God.
God does not deliver people in their sins ; He delivers them from their sins. There is no need to build an altar to God if you do not first tear down the altar to Baal.
So many people want God to solve their physical problems (Midian), but they don't want Him to deal with their spiritual problems (Baal).
"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. " This does not mean that we should not be concerned with material things; however, it is just not to be our first concern. The priority of our life should be spiritual and eternal matters first and physical or temporal concerns second.
I. The Spiritual Must Come Before The Physical
II. The Private Must Come Before The Public
If we don't practice our faith at home, how can we practice it sincerely anyplace else? Gideon had to take his stand in his own village before he dared to face the enemy on the battlefield.
Before God gives His servants great victories in public, He sometimes prepares them by giving them smaller victories at home. Before David killed the giant Goliath in the sight of two armies, he learned to trust God by killing a lion and a bear in the field where nobody saw it but God (1 Sam. 17:32-37).
A TOUGH ASSIGNMENT
Before Gideon could take the war to the country, he had to fight the war at home. Revival works from the inside out. Before Gideon could lead others to righteousness, he had to be righteous himself. Before he could reform a nation, he must first reform his home.
The circle of divine influence expands from the center. In Matthew 6, Jesus turned to the Pharisees in the crowd and nailed their hide to the wall. He called them hypocrites because they were doing in public what they would not do in private. He denounced their giving (6:1-2), their prayers (6:5-6), and their fasting (6:16-18) because it was all done in a superficial show of spirituality. Their private walk did not match their public walk. The private must come before the public.
The secret of spirituality is what is done in secret. It is the private that makes what you are in public. What you are in secret is what you really are.
FIRST THE INSIDE AND THEN THE OUTSIDE (Matthew 23:25-26). Jesus scolded the Pharisees for their hypocrisy because they clean only the outside of their lives. When you only clean up the outside of your life that is reformation, but when you clean up the inside of your life that is regeneration. The Pharisees didn't need another bath, they needed a new birth.
When the world attempts to help men, what does it do? It starts on the outside. We think if we can reform him with a new environment, food, clothes, and education that we will change him. I am not saying that we should not compassionately help change man's environment. Instead, I am saying that man needs more than soap and soup, he needs salvation. He needs a birth from above, not merely a boost from below.
The private must come before the public.
TRUE ALIGNMENT
It was not going to be God and Baal, but rather God or Baal.
I. The Spiritual Must Come Before The Physical
II. The Private Must Come Before The Public
III. The Small must come before the spectacular
Before you can be trusted to lead an army, you must prove yourself with your household. There may be some tasks too big for you, but there should never be any task too small for you. Do not expect God to call or give you larger tasks when you will not do faithfully the lowly task.
Some are too big for God to use, but none are too small for God to use.
Moses, tend to your father's flocks, and then we'll see about leading Israel out of Egypt! David, stay in the field watching dumb sheep, and then we'll talk about being king. Joshua, be loyal to Moses, and then we'll discuss you being his successor. Elisha, serve Elijah faithfully, and then we'll talk about that double portion.
See Luke 16:10. This is a maxim which will almost universally hold true.
First, the principle of dependability. "Faithful in... least is faithful also in much." This principle is denied by many, especially by politicians. But it is still true. If you are unfaithful in small matters, you will be unfaithful in larger matters. Second, the promotion from dependability. "Not been faithful... who will commit to your trust... have not been faithful... who shall give you" (Luke 16:11, 12). There are many applications, both earthly and heavenly, to these words concerning promotion and advancement through faithfulness.
The general idea is that if you are not dependable, do not complain if you are not advanced to positions of greater responsibility. if you cannot do the job on a lower level, do not expect to be promoted to a higher level.
A man that shows faithfulness in small matters will also in large; and he that will cheat and defraud in little things will also in those involving more trust and responsibility. Be faithful in the small things. If you'll be faithful in the small things, the big things will take care of themselves When we prove that we're faithful with a few things, God will trust us with greater things (Matt. 25:21).
IN HIS ETERNAL GRIP,
Pastor Jimmy Chapman
Victory Baptist Church
706-678-1855
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