An atheist turns up on a Rabbi’s doorstep one morning with a dead parrot and says, “Good morning, Rabbi. My parrot died yesterday and I’m looking for someone to do the funeral. Do you think you could do the ceremony and bury him in your Jewish cemetery?” So the rabbi scratches his head and sys, “In thirty years at this synagogue that is the most outrageous request I have ever received. There is no way on earth I would desecrate holy ground with your dead bird. Now get off my land!” Seeing that the rabbi’s answer was pretty clear-cut the guy says, “O.K., I’m sorry for the offence. But do you think the Anglican vicar down the road would do the funeral for £2000?” So the Rabbi says, “£2,000? Why didn’t you say your parrot was Jewish?”
My grandmother was Jewish, and I loved her very much. It's the kind of joke she would have enjoyed. She would have found nothing offensive about it and I would suffer that kind of humour at my expense as a Christian without getting upset at all. But it is a bit close to the bone. And I told it because tension between religious factions is no laughing matter. In Pakistan and Indonesia and Sudan people have been killed for their faith in Christ this year by Islamist extremists. Churches are burnt down in Nigeria. Shiite mosques are targeted in Iraq. Hindu temples are destroyed in India.
On the 1st of March 2001 the Taliban blew up two enormous 1,500 year old statues of Buddha, carved in the cliffs of the Bamiyan valley in Afghanistan. The whole civilized world was shocked at this ignorant provocation. Our media showed us ‘before and after’ pictures of the event that was described as a crime against the cultural heritage of the world. A part of history has gone, lost forever, all because of a group of small-minded fanatics with anti tank grenades.
But, at first sight, what we had read to us from Judges chapter 6 - that is to say the vandalising of a religious artefact at a holy shrine - seems to come from the same mould. It’s just another radical group that can’t stop itself smashing up someone else’s sanctuary. In fact, you could even say that the Gideon story is worse than the Taliban one. At least the Taliban had the courage and conviction to destroy those statues in broad daylight and without apology. But Gideon did what he did under the cover of darkness so he didn’t have to face the music.
I live my life by the Bible. I believe that this book contains the words of God himself, that every page is God-breathed. (Well, maybe not the index. Or the maps...) But I believe that the Bible, all of it, is trustworthy and reliable. I believe that God will bless those who read it and live out its message. And, yes, I take passages like Gideon smashing up an altar to a foreign idol as the word of God for me. That is non-negotiable and has been ever since I gave my life to Christ when I was 17.
And yet the very idea of rounding up a gang of thugs to help me blow up a Hindu temple or flatten a synagogue or desecrate a mosque doesn’t enter my mind. Christians should respect the holy places of all other religions, whatever they are, however compatible or incompatible with our faith in Christ. Have I sold out?
These are really important questions for us because the conflict between religions is one of the biggest issues of our generation. And one of the greatest objections to the Christian faith in our day centres on a disgust for passages like this one. Some people can’t get over the seeming contradiction between what they read about God’s anger in the Old Testament and what they read about his love in the New. And it’s a real problem. And in order to try and resolve it, at least as far as this passage goes, with integrity, we need to answer two questions.
Firstly, we know that Gideon demolished an altar that was set up for the god that is called Baal, but what was Baal worship exactly? When we get to the bottom of that we’ll see Judges 6 in a new light. And secondly, in what ways was Gideon’s world different to ours? When we understand the differences in context we’ll have a better understanding of the issues. The answer to both questions will give us the key that unlocks the problem of Gideon’s attack and God’s authorization (indeed God’s commissioning) of it.
Baal Worship
In v25-26 God says to Gideon, “Tear down your father's altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this hill. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer a bull as a burnt offering.”
What was this altar? What did people do on it? What was the pole? What was it for? What was it about these objects that God found so offensive?
Baal worship at this time in Israel’s history was quite developed and certainly widespread. It had priestly leaders and sanctuaries on every hill that were (unimaginatively) called ‘high places.’ And the magnetic power of Baal was particularly strong in the time of the Judges. That’s why many of the stories in this book begin with an expression like, “The Lord’s people turned away from him and bowed down before the Baals and Asheras.” Notice that Baal and Asherah were often talked about in the plural. That’s because they both gathered together under one figurehead many cult gods and goddesses, from Babylon, Egypt and elsewhere. It was a kind of nebulous, unfocused, post-modern mishmash of a religion, a bit like the New Age movement in our day. Many different, and even contradictory, ideas, each promising happiness and wholeness, and none demanding any moral commitment.
Quite the opposite. One the features of Baal worship was its runaway eroticism. On each high place there were icons and sometimes sordid statues of Baal, sacred poles, which were phallic symbols, and incense altars. The Baal cult was excessively tawdry. Prostitutes, both male and female offered sexual favours - it was more like a Roman orgy than any worship service we’d recognise. So, there were confused, mixed-up gods, lustful, licentious ceremonies, and to top it all off - barbaric rituals. Baal worship promoted the abomination of human sacrifice.
God talks about this, in Jeremiah 19.5, in these terms; “They have built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal - something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind.” These macabre rituals became commonplace all over the land as people even burnt alive their own children to secure the blessings of fertility and prosperity from these idols.
That’s the truth about this cult and that’s why God got so upset about it. Can you understand now why his righteous anger burned so passionately against Baal worship? Can you see why it is not possible to talk in terms of tolerance or moderation or respect in this situation? Gideon’s demolition of Baal’s altar and his setting fire to the Asherah pole were not the reckless and ignorant lashing out by a fanatic but a responsible and prophetic stand for justice and decency.
God’s Warning
But there’s another reason why Gideon’s actions were right. Some years before the period of the Judges, perhaps 30 or 40 years before Gideon’s birth, the nation of Israel lived in the desert in tents. They were a nomadic, homeless nation, with no land and no inheritance. And it was at that moment that Moses gave a solemn warning to his compatriots who were about to enter Canaan, the Promised Land, where Baal worship was established. And this is what Moses said at that time, in Deuteronomy 11.16-17; “Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. Then the Lord's anger will burn against you, and he will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the Lord is giving you.”
In other words, mixing the Baal cult with worshiping the one true God will result in drought, in famine, in want, and in exile. It will bring a curse on the land and on the people. That’s what happened. Conversely, faithfulness to the Lord will mean abundance, rain, good harvests, peace and prosperity. This is the thing: Gideon’s sabotage of Baal’s altar brought Israel back on course for a blessed future. We shouldn’t be in any doubt about this. It wasn’t that Gideon insulted the respected religious communities of his day. No. The destruction of that pagan shrine redirected his rebellious generation towards the model that God had established for it.
And by the way, notice that God’s promise to bring his people into a land of milk and honey had a proviso. God’s promises always have conditions attached. I like claiming God’s promises. “I will be with you to the end of the age.” That’s nice isn’t it? But check out the small print before claiming it! “Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations.” If I’m not doing that I have no business claiming the promise that is attached to it. In Isaiah 41.10 God says this; “I am with you for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” But that promise is invalid without the disclaimer; “Do not fear, and do not be dismayed.”
Smashing Down Altars in Our Society
If we lived in a land that God had given to us, if our families were abandoning God for degrading practices, sacred prostitution and child sacrifices, the message for us would be clear. But we live in a secular and pluralist nation where there is a multiplicity of different faiths.
Our situation is not like Gideon’s. It’s more like that of the first Christians in the first century. In Acts 17, for example, Paul, even though he burned with irritation at seeing how Athens was full of idols, he didn’t go around smashing up the Acropolis at night. What did he do? He dialogued. He listened. He asked questions. And he spoke with conviction and consideration about the resurrection of Jesus in the most engaging and eloquent terms possible.
Our world isn’t Gideon’s world; it’s more like the one known by the young Christians in Colossae, to whom these words were written; “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” In other words, learn to speak about the Lord in a way that will be attractive to people around. No harshness, nothing judgmental or opinionated but gracious and appealing.
Our society isn’t like Gideon’s; it’s more like the one that the recipients of Peter’s first letter lived in; they were a Christian minority in an overwhelmingly pagan and superstitious world. And this is what the Apostle Peter wrote to them; “Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you're living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy. Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none of it will stick.” (1 Peter 3.15-16, the Message). In other words, work at defending your belief in Christ when it is attacked, but especially to do so courteously. People are more likely to agree if we are more agreeable.
So is there a word from God to us from Judges 6? What are the altars that God would have us demolish? And how must we demolish them? I believe the combat zones are the same as those in Gideon’s day; muddle and confusion about who God is, the temptations of the body and the devaluation of life. But our battle is not against flesh and blood. It’s not a physical conflict, it’s against principalities and powers. Our fight is spiritual; the theatre of our warfare is in prayer and fasting, in acting in obedience to God’s word. And it’s in the power of the Holy Spirit that God will bring down strongholds.
Smashing Down Altars in Our Lives
In a way, Baal still lives today and this passage is terribly modern. If Gideon’s generation had to smash the altars of confusion, of sex and of child sacrifice, so does ours.
Vast numbers of people in our land run after the shallowest ideas (look at the body, mind and spirit section in any bookshop and count the number of books offering a sane, biblical approach, then compare it with the number peddling occult practices and New Age muddle. It’s an altar to Baal.
Take a walk round any red light district or gay quarter in any of Europe’s cities and study the tortured faces of men addicted to every pleasure and perversion, the majority unable to sustain any kind of committed or meaningful relationship. These are altars to Baal.
In Britain, the most dangerous place to be is not a black spot on the A1 in fog or in Toxteth or Moss Side after dark – but in your mother’s womb. Look up on the Internet the statistics for pregnancy termination or child abuse in this country. The laws of our land side with the aspiration for a comfortable lifestyle more than they protect the chance of an unborn child to see the light of day. It’s an altar to Baal.
Ending
And when these values penetrate our own thoughts and ideas, always very subtly, we need to fight them with strength and conviction, like Gideon did. When Jesus said that the kingdom of God is forcefully advancing, and that only aggressive men lay hold of it (Matthew 11.12) He had this kind of spiritual battle in mind.
Because it’s not those who just weakly accept the values of this world who are going to go forward in Gideon’s commission and anointing. It’s those who resist against the spirit of Baal with all their strength. Are you one of them?
Are you going to oppose, with all your might, the compromise which corrupts true faith and weakens Christ’s lordship in your life and in the Church?
Are you going to be one of the militants who look Satan in the eye and say, “We will fight you in our minds, in our hearts, in our homes, in our churches, in the streets… We will never surrender one inch of ground to you.”
God calls you, like Gideon’s generation, to discover and pursue wholesome, passionate, biblical faith.
God calls you, like Gideon’s generation, to purity and faithfulness in sexual relationships, mirroring his brilliant holiness and his enduring faithfulness.
God calls you, like Gideon’s generation to love life, to nurture it, to protect the powerless, especially the young.
When we respond to that call, the altars to Baal will crumble, in our lives and in the Church - and altars of high praise to the Lord will spring up in their place.
Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 6th June 2010
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