TEARING DOWN BAAL’S ALTAR – Judges 6:25-32

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on May 6, 2015 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group; May 6, 2015 from Judges 6:25-32

Theme: Returning to the worship of the one true God requires that we tear down what is false.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

There is an important and inviolable principle in the spiritual life: God will not allow Himself to be worshiped alongside idols. Period!

Do you remember how, when the Philistines once captured the Ark of God and tried to place it next to their false god Dagon, that they arose the next day to find Dagon fallen and broken (1 Samuel 5:1-4)? When God told Jacob to go to Bethal and build an alter there to Him, Jacob told everyone in his household, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you . . .” (Genesis 35:2). God is holy; and he will not tolerate being placed as Lord in our hearts alongside that which is an abomination to Him. If we will hold on tightly to our false gods, then He will leave us to them. But if we want Him in our lives, then that which is false and vile absolutely must go.

This principle is illustrated for us vividly in the story of Gideon. The people of Israel had turned away from God and had turned to the false gods of the people around them. So, God allowed them to suffer oppression from the Midianite peoples for seven years. In mercy, God raised up Gideon to be their deliverer. God presented himself to Gideon, and Gideon had begun to worship Him. But now, Gideon had to establish his devotion to God by destroying that which is false.

Notice . . .

I. THE COMMAND THAT WAS GIVEN BY GOD (vv. 25-26).

A. On the same night on which the Lord had appeared to him (see vv. 11-24), God commanded him to take decisive action. He was, you’ll remember, the least of his brethren in the family of Joash the Abiezrite (vv. 11, 15). Yet, he was to (1) take his father’s two bulls—a young one and one that is seven years old, (2) tear down the community altar to the false god Baal that was under the custodianship of his father, (3) cut down the Asherah pole—a vile wooden image built to honor the supposed consort of the false god Baal—both of which were images that celebrated sexual immorality, (4) build and altar—properly arranged—on the rock at which Baal was being worshiped, (5), build a fire on the altar with the wood of the Asherah pole, and (6) offer the second bull—the seven year old bull—as a burnt sacrifice.

B. What exactly was done with the first bull isn’t told to us; but some suggest that it was simply taken away because it was intended to be sacrificed to Baal. Perhaps the seven-year-old bull was offered in order to make atonement for the seven years the people had suffered under Midian (v. 1). But in any case, notice that God called Gideon—as a first step of devotion before he could be used by God—to completely destroy the false worship of false gods, and to set up the exclusive worship of the one true God instead. Nothing of the false worship was left. Only the altar to the one true God remained. As God Himself has established forever: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:2-3).

II. THE CHALLENGE THAT CAME THROUGH FEAR (v. 27).

A. Because Gideon considered himself the least of his father’s house (v. 15), this must have been an intimidating command to obey. But three times in God’s original call, Gideon was told, “The LORD is with you” (v. 12), and “Have I not sent you?” (v. 14), and “Surely I will be with you” (v. 16). “So Gideon”—whose name, by the way, means ‘Warrior’—“took ten men from among his servants and did as the LORD had said to him.” It must have been that those ten men were also convinced of the Lord’s call of Gideon as well.

B. But we also read that Gideon performed this act of obedience under the cover of night, “because he feared his father’s household and the men of the city too much to do it by day . . .” We shouldn’t fault Gideon too much for this. As someone has once pointed out, God does not call us to be fearless—just obedient. But it’s important to note that Gideon’s manifest fear of men didn’t prevent him from obeying God. The challenge of fear is not one of emotion, but of action. The true opposite of courage is not ‘fear’; but rather ‘inaction’. True courage means obeying God as the one and only true God—in spite of our fear of men.

III. THE RAGE THAT AROSE FROM THE WICKED (vv. 28-30).

A. Gideon had good reason, as it turned out, to be cautious of men. When the men woke up the next day to begin their daily rituals of worship of the false god Baal, they found their false altar and all the objects of their worship had been destroyed, and an altar to the one true God set up in its place—with the smoke of the offering of the second bull still rising upward from the altar. Perhaps they also saw the first bull—if it had been intended to be offered to Baal— standing beside it all as if to emphasize how Baal’s altar had been completely destroyed, as if to testify that the false worship of Baal had been completely defeated.

B. Now; remember that these were Jewish men!—men of the tribe of Manasseh (v. 15). The had no business worshiping the vile false gods of the pagan nations around them. And yet, with their false god taken away, they were enraged. They looked into the matter, and found that it was Gideon the son of Joash who had done this. They demanded of Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, because he has torn down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the wooden image that was beside it” (v. 30). We should remember that devotion to the one true God always means the destruction of that which is false—and the immorality that goes along with it. That’s why the world hates devotion to the one true God! It shines a light on their sin. “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19).

IV. THE FAITH THAT WAS INSPIRED BY OBEDIENCE (v. 31).

A. The men of Ophrah couldn’t see the irony of this—that they were mad at mere man for having destroyed the worship of their “god”. But the irony didn’t escape Joash. It might have been that he was also, at first, outraged at Gideon for destroying the community altar. But then, he began to think: “If Baal is truly a mighty god, then why would men have to defend him? Why couldn’t he defend himself? Could it be that—just as I suspected all along—Baal is no real god at all? That’s when he stopped the men from killing Gideon. He told them, “Would you plead for Baal? Would you save him? Let the one who would plead for him be put to death by morning! If he is a god, let him plead for himself, because his altar has been torn down.”

B. What a great answer! If the many false systems of belief of this world—including, as it is fair to point out, certain divisions of Christendom at certain point of its history—had followed this policy, a lot less people would have been killed in the name of religion. But more—notice how Gideon’s act of obedience awoke his own father from out of the stupor of false worship. Apparently, it began to do the same for all the others as well. Later on, Gideon was able to call forces behind him from many tribes—including Manasseh (v. 35). Bold obedience to God often angers the wicked; but it also sometimes awakens and inspires those who are marginal in the faith to a renewal of obedience and devotion.

V. THE NAME THAT WAS GIVEN TO GIDEON (v. 32).

A. Gideon’s name meant “Warrior”. But now, his father gave him a new name—Jerubbaal— which means “Let Baal Plead”; saying “Let Baal plead against him, because he has torn down his altar.” Gideon became ‘The Baal Fighter’; and he came to be known by the name Jerubbaal name often (Judges 7:1; 8:29, 35; 9:1, 2, 5, 16, 19, 24, 28, 57; 1 Samuel 12:11).

B. When we set the one true God in his proper place, and His Son as Lord in our hearts, then all that is false shows itself for what it is—and gets torn down!

* * * * * * * * * * *

What Gideon was led by God do to needs to be a regular practice in our own lives—that is, to repeatedly ‘tear down the altars to Baal’ that we have set up in our lives. God will not share His rightful throne in our hearts with another! Let’s regularly ask, “God, what stands in the way of Your having my total devotion? What false altar do You find in my heart that You want torn down?”