 Amen. All right. So we're in Judges chapter 8. So this is the third chapter that we're talking about the same judge. Gideon has three chapters dedicated to him in the book of Judges. So that's, you know, not too many men have three entire chapters in the Bible dedicated to them. So of course in the first couple of chapters, the first chapter in Judges chapter 6, Gideon was called by the prophet and by the angel. And then of course in Judges chapter 7, you know, we saw in Judges chapter 6 that Gideon tested God. He asked for a sign several times. And then we saw that in Judges chapter 7, God tested Gideon. He got rid of his entire army of 32,000 men and makes him go forth and fight the battle with only 300 men, which we also see here. And you know, of course, you know, Gideon, you know, wins the battle. The Lord wins the battle for him. That was the point of cutting it down to 300 men, so the Lord could show that it was me that gave you that victory. So they would not forget that. And then of course in Judges chapter 8, we see the battle continuing. The Midianite army is in retreat and Gideon is pursuing after them. Now in Judges chapter 8, I believe that we see the reason that Gideon is mentioned for three chapters in the Bible. I believe Judges chapter 8 shows the greatest aspect, the greatest character trait of Gideon. And I'll explain that to you towards the end of the sermon. But let's go through Judges chapter 8 and then we'll look at the application of Judges chapter 8 in, you know, the life of Gideon. Look at Judges chapter 8 in verse number 1. So we see the Midianite army, they're in retreat and the children of Israel now. There's more than 300 now. There's several tribes of Israel. They're now involved in this battle that are chasing the Midianite army out of the Promised Land. In verse number 1 the Bible says, And the men of Ephraim said unto him, Why hast thou served us? Served us thus, and thou called us not when we went to fight, when thou wentst to fight with the Midianites. And they did chide with him sharply. So here the men of Ephraim, they, the Midianite armies on the run and the men of Ephraim, of course in the first couple, the last couple verses of Judges chapter 7, you know, they basically were chiding Gideon here for not calling them right away. And of course Gideon had this great victory with his 300 men. And the men of Ephraim here are saying, How come you didn't involve us in this? Basically, and it says they chided him sharply. So they were very upset about this. You know, now what actually happened if you flip back to Judges chapter 7? Look at verse 23. It says in Judges chapter 7 verse 23, the Bible reads, And the men of Israel gathered themselves together out of Neftali, out of Asher, and out of Manasseh, and pursued after the Midianites. So here we see three tribes that do come to help once the Midianite army starts running, starts retreating, and it was not Ephraim. And then in verse number 24, the Bible says, And Gideon sent messengers throughout all Mount Ephraim saying, Come down against the Midianites and take before them the waters unto Bethbara and Jordan. And the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together and took the waters unto Bethbara and Jordan. So Ephraim gets involved in the last part of the battle here. Okay, and it says that they slew these two Midianite princes. So on its face, it kind of looks like Ephraim kind of is kind of like that guy that comes when the fight's over. And he's like, How come you didn't call me when the fight was going on? You know, I would have been here. And you know, but the fight's pretty much, you know, the army's running at this point. And the men of Ephraim were upset that they weren't involved in the beginnings. But they did get involved at the last part of the battle. Okay, now it's interesting is how Gideon handles this. Look at verse number two of Judges chapter eight. So here you have the men of Ephraim. They're very upset over this. They're chiding him sharply. They're upset. And if you know anything about Ephraim, we'll talk about it in a little bit. You know that that's something that's serious. That's something that could go wrong quickly. Look at verse number two. This is how Gideon handles it. And he said unto them, What have I done now in comparison of you? Is not the gleaning of grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abbe-Azer? God hath delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Aura bin Zeb, and what was I able to do in comparison of you? Then their anger was abated toward him when he had said that. So he basically tells them, he tells Ephraim how great they are and what a great victory they had by slaying these two princes at the end of the battle. And he says, you know, who am I compared to you? He says this twice. He basically flatters them and it appeases their wrath. So it's very interesting how he handles that and how he diffuses this situation, but it seems to work. Now look at verse number four. And Gideon came to Jordan and passed over. He and the 300 men that were with him, faint yet pursuing them. And he said unto the men of Succath, Give, I pray you, wows of bread unto the people that follow me, for they be faint. And I am pursuing after Zeba and Zel-Mune, kings of Midian. So basically Gideon quickly diffuses the situation with the men of Ephraim. So what? So you can continue pursuing the Midianite army. And he goes across the river into what is, you know, we see these two cities here, but they're basically in the tribe of Gad. If you remember, there were some tribes that settled on the other side of the river that didn't want to cross the Jordan. They're just like, hey, we're happy here. You know, the half tribe of Manasseh and Gad were those tribes. So here we see Gad on this side of the river. And it's interesting because I did preach a sermon about, you know, the other side of the Jordan. I forget the actual title, but it basically talking about how, you know, they were disconnected from Israel. And we certainly see that here. We certainly see that they were not, you know, in unison with the children of Israel. At least Ephraim, when they were called, even at the end of the battle, what did they do? They came to the battle. And many of the other tribes came down and fought the battle right away when Gideon sent word out after he defeated the army with his 300 men, with the pitchers and the trumpets. So we see the tribe of Gad across the river. It shows the separation that they felt or the separation that they had towards their brethren. So, you know, they didn't consider the fight personal, basically. Look at verse number six. So he is, he's tired. These men have fought a battle. They're chasing this huge army. They're dealing with these situations like the situation with Ephraim and they're tired. It says they're faint. And look at verse number six and they ask for some bread, for some, for some, you know, some food and water. And the princes of Sukkot said, are the hands of Ziba and Zalmuna now in nine hand that we should give bread unto thine army? He's like, well, how come you don't have them yet? You know, you don't seem very, I mean, they just start, you know, basically, you know, giving lip service and back talking Gideon and his men. Look at verse number seven. And Gideon said, therefore, when the Lord had delivered Ziba and Zalmuna into mine hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briars. And he went up thence to Penuel, another city, and spake unto them likewise, and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Sukkot had answered him. And he spoke also unto the men of Penuel, saying, when I come again in peace, I will break down this tower. Saying, when I get done with the Midnight Army, he's like, I'm coming back to punish you for, you know, your, you know, non-alliance to me for your, you know, for not helping me. Now, Ziba and Zalmuna were in Kokar and their hosts with them, about 15,000 men, all that were left to the host of the children of the East for their, for their fell and 120,000 men that drew the sword. And Gideon went up by the way of them that dwelt in the tents on the east of Noba and Jogabah, and smote the host for the host was secure. And when Ziba and Zalmuna fled, he pursued after them and took the two kings of Midian, Ziba and Zalmuna, and discomforted all the hosts. So he destroys them and just like Orab and Zeb, here's more. So basically this Midnight Army and all these children of the East were made up of all these different princes and kings that were, that were brought together. And they were, they were not a monolithic army, if you want to think about it that way. They weren't all one. They were all these different nations. So he's just hunting down, you know, these different kings one at a time. And Bible says, and Gideon the son of Joash returned from the battle before the son was up. So he basically defeats their army. And he caught the young man of Sucketh and inquired of him and he described unto him the princes of Sucketh. He caught a young man, I'm sorry, of Sucketh. And he described unto him the princes of Sucketh, the elders thereof, even three score in 70 men. So they find a man of Sucketh to kind of, kind of tell them, you know, how the, the decision was made to not help them. So now the battle is over. He has these kings of Midian and he grabs this man of Sucketh as he's coming back now to execute judgment on, you know, these two cities that didn't help him. And this man describes to him the three score in 17, you know, the 60 plus 17, the 77, you know, men that run the city. And he explains to him, you know, how this worked and how the decision was made to not help him. And he came unto the men of Sucketh and said, behold, Zeba and Zalmuna. So what did they say to him when he first came through? So it's interesting that he didn't kill these two kings before he comes back to Sucketh. So what does he do? They said to him, oh yeah, you're chasing these two kings. Whoa, where are they? Talk to me, you don't have them yet. And he says, when I come back, he's like, I'm gonna punish you. And, you know, so he comes back and who does he have with him? Just to kind of, you know, put it right in their face, they're, to show their error, he has these two kings with him. And whom did you up braid me saying are the hands of Zeba and Zalmuna now in a nine hand that we should give bread unto thy men that are weary? And he took the elders of the cities and the thorns of the wilderness and briars, and with them he taught the men of Sucketh. And then, so basically, what does that mean? So it probably means that he killed those men, okay? And, you know, we don't know exactly and know the details of it, but he killed them in a punishing sort of way. And you can probably say that he killed those men because of what he does to Panuel in the next couple of verses where it says, and he beat down the tower of Panuel and slew the men of the city. So basically, he comes back and he slays the men of these two cities. And then he said, now he turns to the two kings that he took after he defeated their army, the two kings of the Medianite army or the armies of the east, as the Bible says, then said he unto Zeba and Zalmuna, what manner of men were they whom ye slew at Tabor? Now, this is something different. And they answered as thou art, so were they each one resembled the children of a king? And he said, Gideon said, they were my brethren, even the sons of my mother. As the Lord liveth, if ye had saved them alive, I would not slay you. So basically, at Tabor, this army of these two kings has killed Gideon's family, has killed his brothers. He literally said, the sons of my mother, you know, so this army had gone through this city of Tabor and they killed Gideon's family. So, you know, it's not going to work out well for them. So then Gideon tells his son to get up and kill these men. And he said unto Jethar, his firstborn, up and slay them. But the youth threw not a sword for he feared because he was yet a youth. So, I mean, talk about, you know, growing up as a man and having your dad tell you something to do. I mean, we talked about on Sunday morning on holding a flashlight. I mean, he basically tells, if he's yet a youth, that means in the Bible that you're somewhere south of 20, okay? I mean, the Bible considers, you know, someone who's a man 20 years old and up, that's a man who can go to war. This boy is a youth. That means he was probably in his, I would guess in his early to mid teens. And his dad basically tells him to get up and kill these two kings with a sword. I mean, that's, look, I mean, I've been hunting all my life and you know, you shoot a lot of things and all this, but I mean, to kill something with a sword or a knife, I mean, that's some up close and personal stuff, especially for a young man. And he doesn't wanna do it. He's afraid, okay? But we see more, you know, masculinity in the type of men that were in the Bible. We see even from these two kings of the East. Look at verse number 21. So the two men that were told to be executed, the young man, just picture the scene here. You know, Gideon tells his son, it's like, get up and kill these two kings. So basically they killed your uncles. They killed your family. They killed your dad's brethren. So get up and kill these two men. And the son, you know, he doesn't wanna do it. He feared, he's just a child. But these two kings, they chastise the boy and they're basically saying to him, be a man. Be a man about it. So I mean, these two kings, they're not cowards. Whatever you wanna say about them, they're not cowards. Then Zeba and Zalmunah said, rise thou and fall upon us. They're saying, just be a man and do it. For as the man is, so is his strength. They're saying, you wanna be a strong man is what they're saying. And Gideon arose and slew Zeba and Zalmunah and took away the ornaments that were on their camel's necks. And the men of Israel said to Gideon, rule thou over us both thou and thy son and thy son's son also, for thou has delivered us from the hand of Midian. So we see this whole chain of events. Gideon chases down this army. He punishes the two cities that would not help him. And then at the end of this whole thing, the children of Israel ask Gideon. And I mean, you can totally see this happening. He's pretty much a hero of the nation at this point. He's freed the nation. Of course, it was the Lord that did it. And Gideon knew that, especially in the beginning of chapter eight, Gideon knew that. Gideon was a very humble person. We'll talk about that in a little bit. But this is the first time that you see the children of Israel ask for a king. They ask Gideon to be their king. And they ask not only for him to be a king, they ask for a dynasty. So the children of Israel right now, think about this, they're not under a dynasty. They're not under a monarchy. They're not being ruled by a king. They're being ruled by this system of judges. Okay, and the judges, they have two things that they're doing. Number one, they're judging the people. They're interpreting the word of God to the people. They're settling disputes, using the word of God. They're prophesying the word of God. And then of course, they're freeing, they're raised up, God raised up these judges to free the children of Israel from captivity, from whoever was keeping them in servitude at the time, whoever had conquered them. So turn to first Samuel chapter eight. So the difference is, is that Gideon is asked to be a king, but a judge is not a king. And you say, what's the difference, really? Well, the difference is this. When the children of Israel ask again for a king from Samuel, the last judge, I guess you could say, what Samuel tells them is what the difference is and what a king will do, aside from what a judge will do. And he's saying, basically Samuel here in first Samuel chapter eight is telling them, you don't want this. God basically says, hey, I'm gonna give it to him. They haven't turned their back on you. Samuel was really disappointed. He's like, they've turned their back on me because God set up the system of the judges. It wasn't men that did that. God raised up the judges for the children of Israel and they rejected that and they wanted a king. They saw all these nations around them. So not only did they turn constantly away from God onto the other gods of all these nations around them, is it becoming more clear as we read the Bible more, as we study the Bible more, why God wanted them to get rid of these nations? Because they just kept wanting to adopt all of these wicked things that these other nations had ruling them. They adopted their gods and now they want to adopt their form of government. So they want a king. And where did they get the idea of a king from the nations around them? Is where they got the idea of a king. But look at what Samuel says in first Samuel chapter eight and verse number six. But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. Skip down to verse number 11. And he said, this will be the manner of king that shall reign over you. He will take your sons and appoint them for himself for his chariots to be his horsemen and some shall run before his chariots. So basically Samuel is starting to give this list of what a king is gonna do. He's like, you don't want a king. This is what a king's gonna do. He's gonna take your sons. He's gonna take your sons and use them for his army. He's gonna take your sons and he's gonna send them to war. Is what the Bible is what Samuel is warning them about. Look at verse 13. And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries and to be cooks and to be bakers. And he will take your fields and your vineyards and your olive yards, even the best of them and give them to his servants. He's gonna take your livelihood, he's saying. He's gonna take your businesses. He's gonna take your farms and he will take a tenth of your seed and of your vineyards and give to his officers and to his servants. Look at verse 17. He will take a tenth of your sheep and ye shall be his servants and ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you and the Lord will not hear you in that day. Look, he basically says he's gonna take your families. He's gonna take your businesses. And then he says, what's interesting, he's like he's gonna take a tenth of all your stuff. He's gonna take a tenth of all that you earn, of all your crops. And then it says in verse number 17, it says he'll take a tenth of your stuff and that will make you his servant. Now, what are we then? When I read this, I'm like, okay, this king is gonna come here. He's gonna take your sons and he's gonna send them off to war. Well, I mean, hasn't that happened here? I mean, that's happened to people in my own family where sons were literally taken and said, you know, you have to go to war now. You know, what do I have to do with this? I'm on a farm in the middle of North Dakota but no, you have to go to war now and they take your sons and they go to war. And then a tenth of your goods makes you a servant. Now, if you're to the making a living point in your life as we talked about a few weeks ago, you know that the government today, our government takes much more than one tenth of what you make, okay? And so, if a tenth, the government taking a tenth means that you're a servant. Let's just move on past this so we don't get too wrapped up in this. But you know, I don't know what to tell you. This is what the king, he's saying, this is not what you want. But look, it speaks volumes of Gideon here. Go back to Judges chapter eight. It speaks volumes of Gideon. You say, why? Because he didn't want the power. Because they offered him everything. They offered him, hey, we want you to be the king, which means you have complete power over us. We'll give you our families. We'll give you our money. We'll give you our businesses. And he's like, I don't want the power. We'll give you that power to you and to your sons. He's like, you can be, your family can rule Israel. And he's like, I don't want the power. Because look at verse 24. And Gideon, well, so basically Gideon says no. He says no in verse number 20, I'm sorry. He says no in verse number 23. And Gideon said, I will not rule over you. Neither shall my son rule over you. The Lord shall rule over you. That is the system of the judges. The Lord is ruling. It is the word of the Lord that is speaking through the judges and the prophets. And that is the system that they have. So you could say in the book of judges and in the system of the judges that it was still the Lord ruling over Israel. All right, it wasn't a king that they put in power over them. All right, so look, Gideon's doing so well at this point. He gives up that power. I mean, this is the kind of leaders that you want. The leaders that step in to lead, but they don't want control and they don't want complete power. You know, theoretically we used to have leaders like that. I mean, not in my lifetime, but I've read about it. Okay, so look, look at verse 24. Then things kind of go south here. And I'm gonna explain to you why things go south. And Gideon said unto them, I will desire a request of you that you would give every man earrings of his prey for they had golden earrings because they were Ishmaelites. And they answered, we will willingly give them and they spread the garment and did cast there in every man the earrings of his prey. In the weight of the golden earrings they requested was 1,700 shekels of gold besides ornaments and collars and purple raiment that was on the kings of Midian and besides the chains that were about their camel's necks. And Gideon made an ephod thereof and put it in his city, even an ophra. And all Israel went a whoring after it which thing became a snare unto Gideon and his house. So what does he do? They just defeated this army of hundreds of thousands of people of tens of thousands of people. And what did they have? They had all the spoil. They had all the gold. They had all the chains. They had all the jewelry of these people of the east, the Ishmaelites. They wore earrings apparently. And they go and they melt down all this gold and they make an ephod, which is like a breast plate. It's a, they make a trophy. They make a trophy of the battle of the victory, okay? And look, here's what's interesting is it doesn't say necessarily that it was the ephod itself that became a snare but all Israel went in after this, after this trophy and it lifted Gideon up with pride because basically this was this trophy of Gideon's, you know, battle, his victory but it really wasn't Gideon's victory, was it? It was the Lord's victory that he gave him. Basically it took away his humility. It became a snare unto him. Look at verse 28. Thus Midian subdued before the children of Israel so they lifted up their heads no more. And the country was in quietness 40 years in the days of Gideon. And Drubabal, that's Gideon, the son of Joash went and dwelt in his house. So he goes home and they had peace for 40 years. And Gideon had three score and 10 sons of his body begotten for he had many wives. In his concubine that was in session, also she also bear him a son whose name he called the bimilech. This will be important coming up in the next chapter but basically, you know, we see this word concubine here. What is a concubine? Okay, so look, a concubine is basically, it's still a monogamous relationship in the Bible when you see this word concubine. But it's basically, it's not the full status of a wife if you wanna think about it that way. It's think of it of a wife as a lesser rank in the Bible. Okay, a servant or lesser relationship. Exodus 21.7 gives rules for how to treat concubines Deuteronomy 21 the same. But look, these are pragmatic laws in the Bible. There's other pragmatic laws in the Bible. Like Matthew 19 explains that Moses suffered, you know, you to put away your wives because of the hardness of their hearts. These were pragmatic laws to take care of people because people were doing the wrong thing, if that makes sense. Since it was happening, there was rules put in place to make sure that people were treated properly. So a concubine is like a lesser wife in the Bible. Now look, we have to, as we're reading the Old Testament and especially the Book of Judges as we continue forward, you have to remember something about stories in the Bible. Stories in the Old Testament are exactly that. They're stories of things that happened. It doesn't, you know, a story in the Old Testament, I'm gonna give you a methodology tonight on how to handle reading the Old Testament. A story in the Old Testament is not doctrine. Okay, a story of what a man did or what a man, you know, how he acted or what happened to him in his life is not doctrine by itself. So if you hear somebody preaching, there's two things you have to look at. Okay, because here's the thing. Men in the Old Testament did the wrong things. You know, and they did things that were not correct. They're just stories that actually happened. Okay, so look, especially in the Book of Judges, we're gonna see a lot of these stories where you're like, man, that's messed up. That's a messed up story in the Bible. But like, look, men did messed up things in the Old Testament and the Bible is telling us the history of those things. These are historical books in the Bible. So what we have to do, excuse me, is you must pair, when you hear preaching about stories in the Old Testament, here's what you have to do. You have to pair the story in the Old Testament with a biblical concept and put those two things together. Okay, and because look, I mean, couldn't you just preach any, you can't just read an Old Testament story and just preach whatever you want about that story. It must match up with biblical doctrine on that thing. A good example is, you know, I could just, I could just read this story of Gideon and his sons and I could say, see, Gideon, Gideon was a great man of the Bible. Gideon was a judge. Gideon, he was raised up by God and Gideon had all these wives. It's okay to have all these wives, but that's a misapplication of that story in the Bible because the Bible teaches against polygamy, okay? So look, I mean, a good example is in Deuteronomy chapter 17, the Bible says, neither shall he multiply wives to himself talking about a king or a ruler that his heart not turn away, neither shall he greatly multiply himself silver and gold. So basically the Bible is warning kings here not to take many wives because why? Because their heart will turn away from the Lord. What happened to Solomon? The same thing happened, okay? So we have to take stories and we have to make sure that when you hear preaching on an Old Testament story that the concept from the Bible is applied correctly. So that's a good check for yourself, just those two things. So when you hear a story in the Old Testament, you're like, man, that's messed up. What's just a story? It's what happened. It's what somebody did. These are men. These are women. These are sinners in the Bible that did certain things, okay? Look at Judges chapter eight and verse 32. So we see that, you know, Gideon, I mean, he did a lot of good things. I mean, he had great humility. He did a lot of good things. He raised up, he followed God. He had great faith in God. He tested God at the beginning. You know, his faith was kind of wavering at the beginning. He tested God. God tested him and he passed. And then God gives him this great victory. He has great humility which helps him get through the rest of the battle. And, you know, but then he kind of falters at the end. You'll see that with many kings, by the way, in the Bible, many of the good kings. There's so many kings in the Bible that they started out really well and they just ended badly. It's very rare on a king of both Judah and the Northern Kingdom of Israel. I think it's, I did the math on it one time. It's like 10% or less. That actually started well and ended well in their rule. Okay, it's very, very, it's the minority that does that. So I mean, look, these are men. They make mistakes. So when we hear stories in the Bible, we just need to make sure you don't have to sit there and think, oh, this is terrible. All these wives and this concubine and all these things. Look, that's not what God wants. That's not God's plan. Okay, that wasn't God's plan for marriage. This is just what these men did. Okay, look at Judges chapter eight and verse 32. The Bible says, And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age. He was buried in the sepulchre of Joash's father in Ephra of the Abazurites. And it came to pass as soon as Gideon was dead that children of Israel turned again and went a whoring after Balaam and made Bel Bereth their God. And the children of Israel remembered not the Lord their God who had delivered them out of the hands of their enemies on every side. Neither showed their kindness to the house of Jerubbabel namely Gideon according to all the goodness which he had showed on to Israel. So we see the end of Gideon's life and of course the people turn away quickly and that leads us into chapter nine. But I just wanna give you this evening, I wanna give you two lessons from Judges chapter eight. Turn back to verse number one of Judges chapter eight. Let's go back to the people of the children of Ephraim and look at how Gideon handled this. Let me give you two lessons from Judges chapter eight that we can apply to our lives. So I'm gonna apply, so here we go. I'm gonna apply some biblical concepts to this story. So we need to take concepts from the Bible that the Bible teaches us and apply it to the story. So I want you to just imagine, let's just read these three verses. And the men of Ephraim said to him, why has thou served us that thou callest not when thou wentest to fight the Medianites and they did chide with him sharply? Now think about being there and being one of these 300 men that was with Gideon when these guys say this, imagine what you must have been thinking. I mean, as Gideon talks to them, I mean, you have just chased the entire army, basically almost out of Israel and these men are like, hey, how come you didn't call us? Instead of saying, hey, good job and praise God for you and all this stuff. I mean, these men are tired, they've won this great victory. And then Gideon says this to them in verse two and he said unto them, what have I done now in comparison of you? Is not the gleaning of grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abbe-Azer? God hath delivered into your hands the princes of Median, Aura and Zeb. And what was I able to do in comparison of you? Then the anger was abated toward him when he had said that, turned to Matthew chapter five. Two lessons from Judges chapter eight. The first one is this, turn to Matthew chapter five and look at verse number nine. The first lesson is this, blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are the peacemakers is the first lesson from Judges chapter eight. The Bible says in Matthew five and verse number nine, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. Now what's interesting, what Gideon did here was at the expense of himself, he made peace in this situation. Himself and his 300 men had just won this great victory and he says, he says twice. He says, who am I in comparison to you? He says to them to appease their anger and their wrath. So by all intensive purposes, Gideon could have claimed one of the greatest military victories probably in the history of the world up to that point. Yet he says, who am I in comparison to you? To diffuse this situation. But I mean, the fact that he did this shows that he's a peacemaker. He's a peacemaker. So let me ask you a question. Do you do this? Do you do this? Look, it's a sign of great maturity and humility to be a peacemaker. Do you take issues and make them small? Or do you take issues and flare them up and make them bigger? Okay, do you deescalate situations? Turn to Proverbs chapter 28. You say, how is that a sign of humility? Well, I don't know, the Bible, I'm gonna show you. You say, that's your opinion. I'll show you. We know that Gideon was humble. Turn to Proverbs chapter 28 because of what the Bible says about humility. This is why Gideon was so great, folks, because of his humility and the way he handled this situation. Look at Proverbs 28 and verse 29 or verse 25, I'm sorry. So Proverbs, we see a lot of opposites in Proverbs, right? He that does this is this, but he that does this is this. One thing, the opposite of that thing. So look at Proverbs 28, 25. He that is of a proud heart stirs up strife. We're just gonna look at the first part of that verse. So it says, somebody that's proud stirs things up. Somebody that's proud takes a small thing and whips it up into a big thing. So what can we infer from that? We can infer that somebody that's humble takes a small thing and just makes it, makes it puts away strife. He doesn't kick up strife. Especially, look, these were brethren. The children of Ephraim, these were brethren. They were all the children of Israel. Turn to Galatians chapter five. Turn to Galatians chapter five. Look, it takes a humble heart to put away strife, especially with what Gideon did at his own expense. And I mean, look, if Gideon could be humble here, anybody could be humble because Gideon had some things to be proud about here. Or it would have been very easy for him to be proud about what had just happened. Look at Galatians five in verse number 15. But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one another, of one another. Be not consumed one of another. This I say then, walk in the spirit you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Look, that's very interesting right there because I am sure Gideon's flesh was just like, when those guys said that. But what he did was he didn't fulfill the lusts of his flesh. He didn't do what his flesh wanted to do. Instead, he humbled himself, he walked in the spirit, and he just put it on himself. He's like, I'm nothing compared to you. You guys killed those two princes, that was great. You guys said that battle over there? I was like, that was awesome. He basically tells them how great they are at his own expense. Look, these were his brethren and to fight in this situation would have been a travesty. I mean, think about it, they would have consumed each other. So he makes peace to avoid fighting and he moves on with the mission. He thinks about the mission and he moves on even at his own expense. Lesson number two about judges eight. Lesson number two about judges chapter eight. Pride will completely blind you. Pride will completely blind you. This is why, turn to Proverbs chapter 29. This is why pride is super dangerous. You should all be afraid of pride. As you move forward in the Christian life and as you grow and mature as a Christian, you should be scared to death of getting prideful. Because pride will completely blind you. You will see things different than everybody else. It's scary, you need to pay attention to these situations in the Bible because look, that's how you can learn from these stories in the Bible is see when people get prideful how they're blinded. They're examples for us. They make you vulnerable to manipulation. So here's two major dangers of pride. First of all, flattery will work on you if you're prideful. Look at Proverbs 29. The Bible says in verse five, a man that flattereth his neighbor spreadeth a net for his feet. Look, you will fall if you get prideful. In Proverbs 16, the Bible says, pride goeth before destruction. So look, pride comes right before you get destroyed and it says you'll fall for flattery. Well, what happened to the children of Ephraim? Did they, it worked on them. Gideon flatter them. In his case, he wasn't spreading a net for their feet. He was just trying to make peace in the situation. But look, there's gonna be people, and I've seen this so many times in my life, it works. On a prideful person, you'll just have somebody that just comes up to you and just be like, you're the greatest. You're so great. And they're just like, well, I am great. Thank you for saying that. And you're just like, you're watching it from a distance and you're just like, oh, how can this even be happening? I've seen it so many times in life and work and career, whatever. And if you're prideful, it works on you. You wouldn't think, but you see things, you're blinded when you're prideful. And you won't see these things at all. You won't notice it. That's scary. You do not want to be prideful. Everyone around, Ephraim, I can't imagine those 300 men, when they were saying that, they must have been thinking, what in the world? It's like you guys did nothing. And yet Gideon says that to them and they're like, well, thank you, we know we're great. Well, okay, great, thank you. We are great and you're forgiven as long as you think we're great. Turn to 1st John chapter two. Look, it speaks volumes of Ephraim. It speaks that they're a very prideful people. And we will see that throughout the Bible. They're constantly wanting, first of all, what does a humble person do? They're a peacemaker, a humble person's a peacemaker. What does a prideful person do? They stir trouble. Ephraim stirs trouble in the Bible. We'll see that in later chapters. They're just constantly stirring trouble. They're constantly trying to cause problems with the brethren to the point of war in later chapters. And we'll see, so Gideon diffused it here, but somebody doesn't end up diffusing it so well in a couple of chapters down the road. But look, all over small things, all over small things. And it's not handled this eloquently in later chapters and judges. So look, they were willing, they were absolutely willing to fight with their brethren over this situation in the first couple of verses. And we can see that because of who Ephraim is in what happens in later chapters. But look at 1 John chapter two. So we see that they're prideful and they're just, they're willing to stir up trouble in any small cause against their brethren. But look at 1 John 2, 11. The Bible says, but he that hateeth his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness. And knoweth not whether he goeth because that darkness has what? Has blinded his eyes. So I mean, they're blinded, they're prideful. They stir up trouble. And what do they do? They fall for flattery. I mean, it all fits perfectly like a key, like a combination lock. We know exactly who Ephraim is and what their problem is. And Ephraim, many times they were the first ones the prophets tell us to turn on God. The split kingdom, Jeroboam, was from Ephraim. He set up his capital, he built sesham in Mount Ephraim. They were quick to turn on their brethren, they were rebellious and they were blinded by darkness, the Bible says. Pride, it all starts from a place of pride. So look, I mean, it's scary when there's things happening around you that everybody knows that are completely obvious to everybody else. But you don't see it, you will not see it if you're prideful. That is why this story about Ephraim should scare us and warn us about pride. Because you're like, I mean, we're reading this story. Aren't we reading this story? We're like, what were they thinking? We read about Gideon in the first two chapters and all of a sudden these guys, like who do these guys think they are? They're prideful. And they'll stir up strife and they'll be blinded by that pride. Look, it's common, it's common, especially military situations, military leaders throughout history, prideful. I mean, Hitler invaded Russia in the winter. You know what I mean, what were you thinking? I mean, Gettysburg, General Lee, marches his whole entire army across a mile of open ground when all his generals told him, you can't do it. His second in command, General James Longstreet, told him, I am sure that this charge will fail. But General Lee was so prideful. He thought he couldn't be beaten. He thought that he could not lose. Well, I mean, it's common. But look, this is one of the powers of humility. God granted Gideon the victory and Gideon knew it. And that's how he could come to Ephraim with such humility even after that happened. Because he knew that God gave him that victory. And then what happens at the very end of the chapter? He gets lifted up. He gets lifted up. But he knew it was God's doing. And that's how he was able to be the peacemaker at the beginning of this chapter. So again, are you a peacemaker? Let's focus on yourselves. Are you a peacemaker? I mean, at work, look, at work, did you know that it's the peacemakers that find solutions? Did you know that in your careers, men, it's the peacemakers? Look, if you make small problems go away, it's those types of people that find solutions. Look, those getting involved in strife and kicking up strife, they're always hindering progress. They're always hindering for, I mean, they're the ones, look, Proverbs 26, if there's no wood, right? If there's no wood, there's no fire. But these are the ones that are fanning the flames, these people, the peacemaker is putting situations out. At home, at home, are you a peacemaker in your home? Think about that. Or do you add or create chaos in your home? Strife in your home. I mean, look, if you're this person that kicks up strife and makes things worse, who would ever come to you for answers? Who would ever come to you for solutions? Nobody is the answer. Let me go ahead and just give that to you. But think about this, when Ephraim was creating strife, when they were kicking up these flames and Gideon put them out, let me ask you this, where was the army? Where were the Midianites? They were getting further and further away. As they were kicking up these small strife with Gideon and the enemy was getting away. Yet they chose to create and sow strife at that time. You think about the home, the education, the goals, the raising of the children. Look, as you're sowing strife and you're not putting out fires, but you're kicking up fires and you're not being that peacemaker in the home, those goals are slipping away. These kids are not getting younger every day. These goals are slipping away day by day by day. It worked the same thing. As you kick up problems, as you just, you're part of the problems, the goals, they're slipping away from you. And you will be known as someone who has no solutions. They may not know why. They may not think the strife is your fault because there may be so many people mixed up in this strife but you will certainly not be the one creating solutions and fixing problems. I mean, it's for sure. But look, to be a peacemaker, to be a peacemaker takes humility. It takes humility. Look, that is what will allow you to be a peacemaker because you know what? Just take it on yourself if you have to. So all this problem just, it's fine. It's my fault. I won't let that happen again. Let's just move forward. Let's get this thing moving. That's what Gideon did. I mean, it will be tremendous. This humility is such a tremendous tool in your relationships with people, in your church life, in your career, with your home, your entire Christian life should be filled with humility. And then you will become that peacemaker. You will become that person that has solutions, that people come to for solutions. You'll be the person that people just see. They're just like, you know what? They might not exactly know how, but they'll be like, you know what? That guy just, he just gets things done. He just makes things happen. Whenever we give something to that guy, it just gets done and it gets done well because you're a peacemaker. You don't get wrapped up and kick wood on small fires. Pride will be your destruction, humility, your deliverer. And that was the greatest characteristic of Gideon in the last three chapters. So we see the great story of Gideon, but we see that his humility really is what carried him through. It was his greatest character trait that kept this battle going and allowed them to prosecute this battle to the end. So don't forget that. Don't forget that in your life. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.