One of the many unpredictable elements of air travel is turbulence. I barely understand the weather here on the ground, so I could little predict or explain what causes bumpy airplane rides thousands of feet in the air. When a plane encounters turbulence, my wife tends to clutch my hand—rather tightly. I, on the other hand, usually view turbulence as a kind of amusement park ride that got thrown in for free (just about the only thing without a surcharge offered by airlines these days). However, even I must admit there are levels of turbulence that frighten me.

Judges 6 is an extremely turbulent chapter of the Bible, coming right on the heels of a very temporary period of smoothness under the leadership of Deborah and Barak. Judges 6 opens with the account of a turbulent seven-year period in Israel’s life that leads to a heart-clutching cry for help.

Questions for discussion: What kind of effect do bumpy air or roads have on you as a passenger? What physical reaction does this prompt? Can you name a time when life got “bumpy” for you?

Right Reaction, Wrong Motivation (6:1-3, 7-10)
“Oppressive” is an understated description of the Midianites during Gideon’s day. Thousands of years before nuclear weaponry, the people of Israel have built bunkers—the equivalent of bomb shelters—in mountain clefts, caves, and strongholds. Like schoolyard bullies, the Midianites do everything they can to ensure the people of Israel have nothing left to enjoy. The Midianites invade the Israelites’ land, ruin their crops, and kill their livestock. The description of what they do to the Israelites in 6:4, 5 is eerily similar to the descriptions of the 10 plagues in Exodus 7-10.

Sadly, verses 6 and 7 betray the Israelites’ sole motivation for communicating with the Lord: “Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.” Neither the Lord’s goodness, the people’s needs, nor even a traditional “that’s-how-we-were-brought-up” brand of faith would elicit such a cry from the people. Only the most bitter cruelty would drive them to their knees, and it appears they held out for seven long years before succumbing to it as a kind of last resort.

Verses 8-10 give an indication God intends to honor his covenant with this backsliding people. God allows even intense pain to drive us into his presence, knowing that often nothing else will get us there. And he is willing to display his power in the lives of those whose motives are not always completely honorable. But at the same time, he expresses his desire that we reject idols and come into his presence simply because of his love for us marked by his deliverance.

Questions for discussion: What deliverance story should the Israelites have been clinging to? What kinds of painful situations have driven you toward the Lord? What positive motivations could we find to bring us into the Lord’s presence?

Are You Sure You Have the Right Guy? (6:11-16)
Judges introduces us to Gideon in a peculiar way: he is a cowering farmer, busy threshing wheat in a winepress because he fears the Midianites will find and destroy his food.

When we look at the rest of the story of Gideon, and Gideon’s legacy in Hebrews 11:32-34, we see just how unlikely a hero he is. We find him disillusioned with stories of God’s power that he has never personally witnessed. His family is as dysfunctional as his nation, with an idolatry issue that will follow Gideon to his grave. And he ends up defeating one of the world’s most powerful armies with just 300 unarmed men.

Only through the Lord’s power could this outlandish prophecy be fulfilled. In fact, Gideon spends the rest of Judges 6 doubting and negotiating and testing. What we see is a familiar theme in the Bible: the “Who, me?” moment that resounds through the stories of Moses and David and Isaiah and Peter and Paul. It is the period of time when any believer must come to terms with the reality that God’s holiness is only available in spite of us and not because of us.

Gideon only has one thing going for him. To this cowering farmer, an angel of the Lord delivers perhaps the seven most empowering words a person could ever hear from God: “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior” (v. 12).

As Gideon persists in giving God very legitimate reasons why he shouldn’t go, the Lord continues to counter each one with a reminder of his presence. In verse 14, “Am I not sending you?” In verse 16, “I will be with you.”

What might happen if we, as believers, took this same approach with our turbulent days and turbulent jobs and turbulent families and turbulent churches and turbulent struggles? What would the result be if we believed we were armed, no more or less than Gideon, with that same seven-word arsenal: “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior”?

Questions for discussion: What turbulent areas of your life/world would require this kind of complete trust in God’s empowering nature? What part of Gideon’s initial story do you connect with?

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*All Scriptures are from the New International Version, unless otherwise indicated.