The Bible has a pattern that shows up over and over again. Sin leads to suffering. Suffering leads to supplication. Supplication leads to salvation. Then the cycle starts again.
Adam and Eve sinned, suffered the curse, and God promised a Seed who would crush the serpent.
During the flood the earth sinned, suffered judgment, and Noah and his family were saved through the ark.
You also see it in Egypt. Israel suffered under Pharaoh, cried unto the Lord, and God raised up Moses to deliver them.
You see it through the whole book of Judges, where the cycle repeats seven times.
You see it at Babylon, where Israel went seventy years into exile and then came home. You see it most clearly at the cross, where mankind sinned, suffered the curse of the law, and Christ paid for our salvation with His own blood.
You see it in the prodigal son, who sinned, ended up in a pigpen, came to himself, came home, and was restored.
- Sin
- Suffering
- Supplication
- Salvation
The pattern never changes.
Judges chapter six, Gideon is sitting right in the middle of the suffering stage. He hasn’t cried out for help yet. He’s just trying to survive. And the enemy oppressing him paints a picture of the enemy that oppresses every one of us today.
The Enemy We’re Up Against
We have an enemy. He’s real, and he’s active, and he’s working against every Christian every single day.
John 10:10, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
1 Peter 5:8, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”
His end goal is to steal, kill, and destroy. But that’s not where he starts. Sin never shows up at our door looking like death. It shows up looking like fun.
Hebrews 11:25, “Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;”
The pleasure is real, but it’s temporary. The fun is the bait. The destruction is the hook.
Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
The path seems right at the start, but the end is death. That’s the devil’s playbook, and his favorite tool to run that playbook is deception.
2 Corinthians 11:14, “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.”
He looks helpful and smart and modern and reasonable.
We Usually Don’t Know We’re Living Under It
The hardest thing about enemy oppression is that it doesn’t feel like oppression at the start. It feels like freedom, fun, and progress. By the time we feel the weight of it, we’ve already been living in it for a long while.
The nation of Israel had been under Midianite oppression for seven years when we meet Gideon. His daily life paints a picture of what enemy oppression looks like in a Christian’s life.
- We live in secret when under oppression of the devil
Judges 6:11, “And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.”
He had to hide he was feeding himself. A Christian under enemy oppression starts hiding his faith, hiding his work, hiding his life. The light that was supposed to be on a hill goes under a bushel.
- We do things in the wrong place when under oppression of the devil
A winepress was for grapes, not wheat. Gideon was doing his work in the wrong place because fear had driven him there. Enemy oppression pushes us into wrong places. Wrong jobs, crowds, and settings. We feel like we have no other option.
- We watch our blessings get stolen when under oppression of the devil
Judges 6:4, “And they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, till thou come unto Gaza, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass.”
Israel sowed the seed and God gave the increase. However, the Midianites took it. The enemy doesn’t give anything, he only steals.
A Christian under oppression watches the blessings God gave him get taken one by one.
Peace, joy, family, ministry, and witness the devils steals one by one.
- We work in fear instead of in faith when under oppression of the devil
Fear was running every decision Gideon made. When fear is driving the choices, the enemy is in the driver’s seat.
2 Timothy 1:7, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
We forget who we are in Christ.
Right before our text, the angel of the Lord called Gideon “thou mighty man of valour” (Judges 6:12). But Gideon couldn’t see it.
Judges 6:15, “And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”
The angel called him mighty, but Gideon called himself the least. Enemy oppression rewrites our identity. We forget we’re sons who are bought. We forget what Scripture says about us!
Romans 8:37, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”
1 John 4:4, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”
The Way Out
The good news is that Gideon’s story didn’t end at the winepress. It started there. God showed up when Gideon cried out. God delivered Israel through him. The cycle of sin, suffering, supplication, and salvation kept moving until salvation came.
The same is true for every one of us. If you find yourself living under enemy oppression, if you’re hiding, if you’re in the wrong place, if your blessings are being stolen, if you’re running on fear instead of faith, if you’ve forgotten who you are in Christ, the answer is to cry out to the Lord just like Israel did.
