1.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly
Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Amen. The message from God’s Word
today as we observe our 3rd Lenten Midweek Service is taken from
Psalm 78, Judges 6 & Matt. 12:38-42, it’s entitled, “Oak at Ophrah,” dear
brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
Maybe something like this has happened to you: You
move to a new place and, when you ask for directions, someone answers in a way
that depends on an old landmark that’s no longer there. For example, maybe
the person said something like, “Go down this road until you get to where
that big, old oak tree used to be before it was cut down, and then turn left.”
3.
Well, maybe no one asks for directions anymore at
all—everyone uses their smartphones now—and Google Maps certainly is not going
to use a cut-down oak tree as a landmark. But in the First Reading, a terebinth
(ESV) or oak tree (KJV, ASV, NIV, NASB) at Ophrah, a town that belonged
to Joash the Abiezrite, served at least at that time as a landmark, not unlike
the great trees of Mamre near the Machpelah. Under the oak at Ophrah, the Angel
of the Lord came and sat while Gideon was beating out wheat in a winepress,
attempting to hide it from the Midianites. The conversation that ensued between
the Lord and Gideon, Gideon’s later testing of God by asking for signs, and the
scribes and Pharisees’ much later asking of Jesus for a sign all are relevant
for us who are, as it were, “Living among the Bible’s Trees,” the theme
for our special Lenten sermon series. Tonight, considering the Oak at
Ophrah, we realize that, though we, like Gideon, sin by seeking signs and testing
the Lord, Jesus saves all who believe from sin, death, and Satan.
4.
The Lord called Gideon to be a “judge” or “leader”
of at least a group of the Israelites when they cried out to him on account of
the Midianites. The Lord had given Israel over to Midian because, despite all
he’d done in delivering them from Egypt, the people hadn’t obeyed the Lord’s
voice but had done what was evil in his sight. As you may know, the Book of
Judges is full of similar cycles of the people straying from the Lord,
being oppressed, crying for deliverance, and being provided a judge (or “deliverer”).
The generation after Joshua hadn’t been well-formed in the faith, as they, in
general, didn’t know the Lord or the work that the Lord had done for Israel
(Josh 2:10). But, as we heard in the reading, Gideon had heard of the Lord’s
wonderful deeds. Apparently, he couldn’t reconcile what he had heard about the
Lord with what the people were now experiencing. Maybe somewhat ironically,15
the Angel of the Lord called Gideon a mighty man of valor, though
Gideon’s response suggested that he would be anything but brave in war. Gideon
was reluctant to answer the Lord’s call, asking for a sign of the Lord’s power
and willingness to help Gideon save Israel.
5.
Of course, Gideon isn’t alone in history either in
asking the Lord for signs of proof or in putting the Lord to the test, trying
to make the Lord prove himself. The second-longest psalm, Psalm 78,
which we recited earlier, tries to teach the next generation by recalling the
glorious deeds of the Lord so that they wouldn’t, like the previous
generations, forget his signs, rebel against him, and test him. Nevertheless,
in Jesus’ day, the Jewish leaders ignored the signs Jesus did, rejected him,
and asked for other signs. We may also seek signs, at times reject Jesus, and
ignore those signs that he does give us. By nature, we’re part of the same evil
and adulterous generation as the Jews of Jesus’ day. And, like the Israelites
of Gideon’s day, all too often even we Christians don’t obey the Lord’s voice
but instead do what’s evil in his sight. Unless we repent, as God calls and
enables us to do, we’ll be like the unrepentant scribes and Pharisees at the
judgment, condemned by those Gentiles who answered God’s call to repent through
Jonah and Solomon. But, when we repent—when we turn in sorrow from our sin,
trust God to forgive our sin, and want to do better than to keep on sinning—we
receive God’s forgiveness. He forgives our ignoring his signs, rejecting him,
asking for other signs, or whatever our sin might be. God graciously forgives
all our sin on account of the death of his Son, Jesus the Christ.
6.
Greater than Jonah and Solomon, Jesus is the Son of God
in human flesh. The same “Angel” or “Messenger” of the Lord, who
in a preincarnate form came and sat under the terebinth or oak at Ophrah,
Jesus himself saved Israel and all people from sin, death, and the power of the
devil. Jesus lived the perfect life we fail to live, and on the cross he
himself died in our place the death that we deserve on account of our failures.
And Jesus didn’t stay dead, but, as the greatest sign of all, after parts of
three days and nights in the belly of the earth, he rose from the dead and
declared his victory. As God repeatedly showed mercy and forgave the Israelites
whom he brought out of Egypt and brought into the Promised Land, so not only
this Lenten season but always God shows mercy and graciously forgives all who
cry out to him in repentance. God forgives you all your sins!
7.
And God gives you miraculous signs of his forgiveness,
so you don’t have to doubt his gracious favor toward you or otherwise put him
to the test. God gave Noah the rainbow (Gen 9:12–13, 17) and Abraham
circumcision (Gen 17:11). God gave Gideon miraculously consumed broth and
unleavened bread, the wet fleece, and then also the dry fleece. God gives us
all together his read and preached Word, and God gives us individually his Word
with water in Holy Baptism, with the touch of the pastor’s hand in Absolution,
and with bread and wine that are Christ’s body and blood in the Sacrament of
the Altar. Better than the reminders of old covenants—entrance rites that
only directly benefited some and were one-time signs of God’s favor—God’s Word
and Sacraments are means of his grace that connect us to the new covenant.
These means are directly available to all, and can and should be returned to as
often as we need his forgiveness—which is pretty often, considering we daily
sin much and, apart from his forgiveness, surely deserve nothing but punishment
(Small Catechism, Fifth Petition).
8.
Not everyone is called by the Lord to “judge” or
“lead” Israel as Gideon was. But, forgiven by God through his Word and
Sacraments, we serve in the vocations to which God calls us by doing the good
works he gives for us to do. And, like Gideon, our faith will know “moments
of uncertainty as well as heights of greatness.”16 Especially at
those “moments of uncertainty,” we can be encouraged by the Lord’s
patience with Gideon, whom the divinely inspired author of Hebrews seems to
suggest was made strong out of weakness (Heb 11:32–34). And as was the case
with God’s testing of Abraham (Gen 22:1; Heb 11:17), God’s testing of us is for
the purpose of refining our faith and drawing us closer to him (Heb 12:5–11). So,
considering the oak at Ophrah, we realize that, though we, like Gideon, sin
by seeking signs and testing the Lord, Jesus saves all who believe from sin,
death, and Satan.
9.
Even with landmarks such as the oak at Ophrah,
navigating our way at times can be difficult as we are “Living among the
Bible’s Trees.” But, we’re not alone! The Lord is with us! In contrast to
his early success, Gideon and his family were later ensnared by a foolish act
of idolatry—even if under a best construction it may have been well-intentioned
(Judg 8:27). Despite that sin, the author of Hebrews can still commend Gideon
through his faith and speak of his being made perfect (Heb 11:39–40). In this
life, neither he was perfect nor are we perfect. This Lenten season and always,
we’re humbled in repentance to live only by grace through faith. To that end,
we close now by praying as we sang in the Office Hymn: “No binding sign we
ask, No wonder from above. Lord, help us place our trust alone In Your
unswerving love” (LSB 424:3). Amen.
Now the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts
and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting. Amen.
15. Arthur E. Cundall, Judges:
An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity
Press, 1968), 104–5.
16. Cundall, Judges, 109. Used by permission.
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