Judges 6: Coming Out of Hiding Under God's Gaze

Introduction

Riverside Church continues its series "Escaping the Cycle" in the book of Judges. This Sunday, Judy takes up a passage many people know from Sunday school: the calling of Gideon in Judges 6. She reads it from a particular angle, that of hiding.

The Israelites had been delivered again and again, and here they are, hiding once more. Why do we keep reliving the same day? What pushes us to hide, to stop expecting or accepting the forgiveness and grace God offers? Judy asks three questions: why do we hide, who are our enemies, outside and inside, and what brings us out of hiding and into lasting freedom?

Message Outline

1. Reliving the Same Day Over and Over

Judy brings up the film Groundhog Day (1993). Bill Murray plays Phil Connors, a cynical weatherman condemned to relive the same February 2nd. Because he knows how the day ends, he uses that knowledge to manipulate, steal, and get rich. At one point he even cries out, "I'm a god."
When he falls in love, he realizes he has been his own god. Knowing he is loved, he begins to look beyond himself, and that is how the loop is broken.
"I'm not saying romantic love will break the cycle," Judy clarifies. But the love of the God we have just worshiped does break it, "not just temporarily, but for good."
At the end of Judges 5, Israel had won a great victory and sung: "So let all your enemies perish, Yahweh, but let those who love him be as the sun when it rises in its strength" (Judges 5:31). In chapter 6, the people are hiding again, because the deliverance was temporary.

2. Why Do We Hide?

Judy shares that her dreams often reveal her worries. The night before, she dreamed that at church everyone was asked to wash one another's feet, and she refused to take off her shoes because she hadn't done her nails. When she woke up, she laughed, and then she saw in it an area of pride and shame.
We hide because the power of temptation, shame, and evil feels so oppressive that we no longer dare to look God in the face. "The hand of Midian prevailed against Israel," and the people retreated into "the dens which are in the mountains, the caves, and the strongholds" (Judges 6:2).
Gideon threshes his wheat in the wine press, "to hide it from the Midianites" (Judges 6:11). It is a posture of hiding: delivered yesterday, they cower today.
In the beginning, the world was in shalom, a Hebrew word that is hard to translate: a flourishing life with God, which weaves together God, human beings, and all creation in justice, fulfillment, and joy. "God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good" (Genesis 1:31).
The day before, Judy talked about shalom with a friend who doesn't believe. Hearing her describe the world as God intended it, and how far we have drifted from it, her friend began to cry. We feel so far from the justice, unity, and love God intended.
Adam and Eve were naked and felt no shame (Genesis 2:25). After the fall, "the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked" (Genesis 3:7). Shame enters the garden, and they hide.
For Judy, this is one of the saddest verses in Scripture: they hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God. "Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, 'Where are you?'" (Genesis 3:8-9). Even today, God calls: "Do not hide from me, for my love and grace are here for you." His compassions are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23).
She invites us to pause: if God called your name, where would you be? Are there "no entry" areas in your life where his loving gaze cannot go? No area needs to be hidden, because he loves us and forgives us.

3. Sin, a Broken Compass

Judy takes up a definition she appreciates: sin is a deeply rooted tendency in each of us to live as the center of our own lives. Human nature is like a compass whose needle has been demagnetized. Even when we want to aim for true north, goodness and God, our desires pull us toward ourselves: our comfort, our power, our ego.
Paul describes this same pull: "I don't practice what I would like to do, but what I hate, that I do" (Romans 7:15). Even someone we imagine as a superhero feels this attraction toward self, which sets us on the throne of our lives.
We often think of sin as a tightrope we fall off with every wrong action. "But what about the good we don't do?" There are sins of commission and sins of omission: God's promptings ignored because we are too busy or too comfortable.
Jesus cares about this: "I was hungry, and you didn't give me food to eat; [...] sick, and in prison, and you didn't visit me" (Matthew 25:42-43). "It's not to make us feel guilty," says Judy; it is a call to align our hearts with his world of justice.
Sometimes we hide "in plain sight": we think we are heading north without realizing we have drifted, until God, in his kindness, and the Holy Spirit show us. Every year, Judy chooses a "north star" verse to ask herself: who am I living for? We cannot escape his loving gaze.

4. Enemies Outside and Inside

The enemies are not only Midian and Amalek. Through the prophet, God reminds them: "I am Yahweh your God. You shall not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But you have not obeyed my voice" (Judges 6:10). Israel settled in the land and began to serve its gods.
For us, secularization, power, and the very air we breathe are so strong that we forget to live distinctively, for Jesus and not for ourselves. These gods are everywhere, and we can worship them without realizing it.
Another enemy: the way we see ourselves. Self-esteem is a struggle for young people, but also for everyone. Gideon answers: "My family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house" (Judges 6:15). Faced with the news and social media, the enemies look too big to us and we want to hide.
Judy reminds us how God sees us: "You are my child and I love you. I see you as beautiful, pure, beloved." She encourages everyone to come and pray in this area to receive his love, his acceptance, and his forgiveness again.
Last enemy: disappointment. "If Yahweh is with us, why then has all this happened to us? Where are all his wondrous works which our fathers told us of?" (Judges 6:13). Judy loves this question. Some time ago, the church went through "From Weary to Wonder," and Judy still keeps her card on her dresser. Have we lost our wonder at creation, at the grace that calls us out of hiding?
The morning songs reminded our souls: God has been faithful, he always has been, even in the valley.

5. From Temporary Deliverances to Lasting Freedom

If we stay within the Old Testament, all deliverances are temporary. It ends badly for Gideon, it ends badly for Moses. Israel leaves Egypt, then falls back into captivity.
Yet the prophet says: "I brought you up from Egypt [...], I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all who oppressed you" (Judges 6:8-9). God pursues his people again and again. "No matter how far from him you feel this morning, he has not given up pursuing you with his love."
Further on, Yahweh says to Gideon: "Peace be to you! Don't be afraid. You shall not die" (Judges 6:23). Judy hears in this the promise of the coming deliverer, Jesus: until he came, every deliverance was temporary. With him, the deliverer enters history and freedom becomes eternal.
She loves Psalm 32, written by a David who had fallen badly: "You are my hiding place" (Psalm 32:7). In other words, we don't hide far from God, we hide in God, in the love, forgiveness, grace, and freedom of Jesus.
Ezekiel foretold it: "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness, and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh" (Ezekiel 36:25-26).
To restore the compass, the needle must be exposed again to a strong, true magnetic field. In God's presence and love, the Holy Spirit reshapes and realigns the heart from within. Every time you consciously spend time with him, whether you read a verse or a chapter, go to your house group, or attend the service, you are telling him: "Bring me back to true north."
Grace is new every day, but forgiveness, once received, is eternal. What Jesus did on the cross, his victory over death and sin, makes this freedom lasting. He gives us a new heart, a tender heart, which he softens again every time we are in his presence.
"Everyone who commits sin is the bondservant of sin. [...] If therefore the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:34, 36). It is not temporary: we are no longer slaves, but free for good.

6. "Yahweh Is with You, You Mighty Man of Valor!"

Judy, who has "always been rather small," loves verse 12: "Yahweh is with you, you mighty man of valor!" She imagines Gideon turning around to see who is standing behind him. "No, it's you," because God has put his power, his forgiveness, and his joy in us.
God sees us very differently from the way we see ourselves. "For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3).
She quotes John Ortberg: "The cure for sin is maintaining a right vision of God." Many Christians spend enormous energy trying not to sin. The goal is not to sin less by staring at sin, but to fix our eyes on God, to remain with him, in love and grace.
According to Ortberg, the spiritual disciplines, silence, fasting, and prayer, help us escape the cycle. Praying, being silent, withdrawing from the world, or giving something up helps us face sins of commission as well as sins of omission.

7. "Haven't I Sent You?"

The passage ends like this: "Go in this your might, and save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Haven't I sent you?" (Judges 6:14). After looking at our hiding places, Judy invites us to look toward the world, which desperately needs the love and shalom of Jesus.
This week she read that a local church can be "an island of shalom in the storm." An island that turns outward and longs for restoration. The story of the Bible begins in paradise and ends with the restoration of all things in Revelation. In between, we have a role to play.
We have been set free, and we have friends, family, and loved ones we pray for who are still in chains. Judy tells how she came to faith singing "My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee." Those precious words showed her that her chains could fall and her heart could be free.
She reads a prayer by Jo Hargreaves, taken from a collection of prayers and poems: "Keep me from worshiping at the altar of myself and my preferences. I remind my soul, my will, my thoughts, and my emotions that I am gloriously made in your image, but you are not made in mine." She ends with these words: "A tender heart is your superpower."
Every time God softens our hearts with his grace and forgiveness, we can look toward a world that has hardened its heart to God's love. Judy concludes in prayer: "Everything is yours. I live for you, Jesus, not for me, but for you." And she asks God to show each person, this week, who to point toward him.

Key Takeaways

We hide when temptation, shame, and evil seem stronger than God's gaze. Since Eden, God has been calling: "Where are you?"
Sin is putting yourself at the center of your life. It includes the wrong we do and the good we neglect to do.
Our enemies are not only external: the gods of our culture, a poor image of ourselves, and disappointment send us back into hiding.
In Jesus, deliverance is no longer temporary. His forgiveness is eternal and he gives a new heart. We no longer hide far from God, we hide in him.
God sees a "mighty man of valor" in you and sends you, with the strength you have, to those who are still in chains.

Personal Application

If God called you by name this morning and asked "Where are you?", what would you answer him?
Which areas of your life remain "no entry" to God's loving gaze?
What good have you neglected to do lately because you were too busy or too comfortable?
Do you see yourself as "the least in your father's house" or as the one God calls a "mighty man of valor"?
Who around you is still wearing chains, and how can you point them toward Jesus this week?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Gideon hide in the wine press?

The hand of Midian weighs so heavily on Israel that the people take refuge in the dens, the caves, and the strongholds (Judges 6:2). Gideon threshes his wheat in the wine press to hide it. For Judy, this is the picture of what we do when temptation, shame, or evil feels so oppressive that we no longer dare to look God in the face.

What are sins of omission?

Alongside the wrong we commit, there is the good we don't do: God's calls ignored because we are too busy or too comfortable. Judy cites the words of Jesus in Matthew 25: "I was hungry, and you didn't give me food to eat." It is not meant to make us feel guilty, but to realign the heart with the world of justice and peace that God desires.

How can we get out of the cycle of hiding for good?

In the Old Testament, all deliverances are temporary. In Jesus, the deliverer has come: his forgiveness is lasting and he gives a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26). We no longer hide far from God, we hide in him: "your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3). Every moment spent in his presence brings the compass of the heart back toward true north.