Learning How to be a Faithful Farmer for God’s Harvest!

A Faith that Takes God at His Word!

Hebrews 11:32-40 (NASB)

God is in the business of transforming stories through the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are to grow strong in God’s grace as active participants in the world He created. God has entrusted His creation to His people to work as His Harvest workers – “All the world’s a field, and all the disciples of Jesus Christ merely farmers!” Therefore, let’s be faithful farmers by following the four-step strategy of a hard-working farmer: 1) cultivate people with faith; 2) sow the good seed of God’s grace (the gospel) into their hearts and minds; 3) care for them as their stories are transformed into fruit-bearing plants; and 4) reap a harvest of praise as the church of Jesus Christ. This strategy must be empowered by the Holy Spirit because apart from God we cannot bear any good fruit (John 15:5). Therefore, harvest workers of God’s kingdom are called to grow strong in God’s grace. Let’s take the first step by learning from the transforming stories of the Hall of Faith, found in Hebrews 11.

STEP #1 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: CULTIVATE THE SOIL WITH FAITH

Today’s story is about Gideon, found in Hebrews 11:32-40:

And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.

Gideon’s story is found in Judges 6-8. What is it about this story that put Gideon in the hall of faith? In my Seize the Moment devotional on Judges 8, I posed this question, “Gideon will always be remembered as one of the heroes of faith for his military victories, as seen in Hebrews 11:32, but what should we emulate from his life?”[1] Let us pray for God to cultivate the soil of our hearts and minds, and then we will look at the next action step to answer that question.

STEP #2 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: SOW THE GOOD SEED OF GOD’S GRACE

Gideon’s story proclaims the gospel of grace in a beautiful way, and pointedly not because of Gideon himself – his is a God-story, and maybe that’s the point! It is almost as if Paul was thinking of the book of Judges when he explained how God called people according to the power of the gospel in 1 Corinthians 1:21-31:

For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Today’s story of Gideon’s transforming faith builds off what we learned from Rahab last week: God chooses people on purpose! It doesn’t matter your past or present, or what other people think about you, or even what you think about yourself; when God calls, He has plans to do good works through you, just as Ephesians 2:8-10 makes clear, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Let’s look at the story of Gideon’s call to illustrate this and then we’ll move on to see how God used Him for His glory. Gideon is introduced to us and called by God in Judges 6:11-16:

Then the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the Midianites. The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior.” Then Gideon said to him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.” The Lord looked at him and said, “Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?” He said to Him, “O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.” But the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man.”

Obviously, God had more faith in Gideon than Gideon had in either God or himself! Today’s lesson is about learning to trust God’s Word. Let’s take the next step to learn how this seed can grow into a faith that takes God at His Word. With Gideon, as we will see, it’s a process!

STEP #3 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: CARE FOR THE MATURING PLANT

Gideon in not my hero even though he was included in the Hebrews 11 hall of faith. There are a couple men listed that I will be teaching you about who I consider counterexamples, rather than models of the faith. But I would not be considered a very good example either if all my personal times with God were recorded on paper and my doubts, fears, and bad decisions were highlighted for all to see. So, like we just learned, I choose to take God at His Word, submitting to Him and His choosing of us – aren’t we a happy family of ragamuffins… God is far more gracious and forgiving than I am, as I wouldn’t choose me, just like Gideon tried to opt out of God’s calling. I can tell you many ways that I consider myself disqualified, and that led to me delaying in answering God’s call on my life to be a pastor for five years.  

But God! Watch Gideon continue to carry on with God in Judges 6:17, “So Gideon said to Him, ‘If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who speak with me.’” God responded to his request, Gideon worshipped Him, and then obeyed the Word of the Lord and faithfully accomplished God’s will (18-25). Gideon was faithful, and you think he would have learned his lesson to take God at His Word with this amazing victory. Unfortunately, he had more to learn, as we all do; it’s a process! Gideon carried on with God again, in what has probably become one of the most misapplied stories in the Bible, from Judges 6:36-40:

Then Gideon said to God, “If You will deliver Israel through me, as You have spoken, behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I will know that You will deliver Israel through me, as You have spoken.” And it was so. When he arose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece, he drained the dew from the fleece, a bowl full of water. Then Gideon said to God, “Do not let Your anger burn against me that I may speak once more; please let me make a test once more with the fleece, let it now be dry only on the fleece, and let there be dew on all the ground.” God did so that night; for it was dry only on the fleece, and dew was on all the ground.

First off, can I just say thank you God for persevering with us in our moments of unbelief! How many times does God have to demonstrate His faithfulness to us until we get it and just trust Him enough to take Him at His Word? Secondly, can I ask that we stop normalizing Gideon’s testing of God by joining him in our metaphorical putting out of fleeces. Just because Gideon did it doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do. I don’t see us casting lots to choose our next pastor (ref. Acts 1:26). There are some things we find in the Bible that are descriptive of what happened, not prescriptive for what should happen. We need to learn the difference.

We are to grow in the kind of faith that takes God at His Word, which obeys Him so that we can say with Jesus, who testified of His own life in John 17:4, “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.” Let’s now turn to the last action step so that our lives will reap a harvest of praise to the glory of God.

STEP #4 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: REAP A HARVEST OF PRAISE

Ultimately, because God is faithful, Gideon’s life reaped a harvest of praise to the glory of God for two primary reasons, and this is what I want us to learn from him and emulate:

The peace that Gideon won both militarily and politically, as God’s chosen judge, lasted until his death, but then the people turned back to idol worship, as Judges 8:33-35 describes:

Then it came about, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the sons of Israel again played the harlot with the Baals, and made Baal-berith their god. Thus the sons of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side; nor did they show kindness to the household of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in accord with all the good that he had done to Israel.

The cycle of the period of Judges continued, as the people of God entered a period of disobedience, rebellion, and oppression. It doesn’t need to be this way for the church of Jesus Christ. Every judge of Israel followed God in imperfect ways, but how is that different from us? Gideon was slow to trust God, but ultimately, every victory that He had was because He took God at His Word. Every pastor, just like every leader you look to, or try to be yourself, will be imperfect. We must learn from Gideon’s story and realize he is not in the hall of faith because he was perfect, but for his faith that led him to act upon the Word of the Lord.

We have a king, the rightful King of kings, who has established us as rightful citizens of His Kingdom. He has won us the victory over sin and death, giving us everything we need to experience His victory if only we have a faith that takes Him at His Word; we, too, must act upon the Word of the Lord. Jesus Christ speaks to you today from John 14:11-15, 21, and 23:

Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. … He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him. … If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.

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