God uses the winepress of affliction as His workshop. He is forging men and women who will break through into victory with blazing holiness.
Judges 6:11 Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.
Israel suffered oppression at the hands of the Midianites because they chose to turn aside from God and to follow evil (Judges 6:1). They worshipped Idols to their own harm. The winepress of affliction and adversity transforms us. It turns our hearts back to the Lord and it makes us realise our dependence upon Him. There was no other helper for the Israelites and in their affliction they realised this and called out to God.
It is in this winepress of affliction that God works to separate the wheat from the chaff in our lives. To divide the old nature from the new nature. In the place of pressing new wine is formed, from this place of affliction we will come out refined as gold.
Empowered in the winepress
“For in spiritual achievements a man is mighty in proportion to his capacity to receive Divine help, just as a steam-engine is mighty in proportion to its capacity to receive and utilise the largest possible amount of steam”
(J T Hamly Biblical illustrator).
God provides strength to those who depend on Him. The winepress of affliction and adversity teaches us that we are not enough, it sifts away pride. That low place is an opportunity for us to acknowledge our need for God get right with Him. God uses this place to sift us, separating us from other idols as we turn our hearts back to Him.
The Christian is a highly prized target for the kingdom of darkness to seek to destroy. God alone is the strength of His people. Samson lost it all his strength, his eyes, his freedom these were consequences of his lifestyle choices. But, God never left him and Samson’s prayer was answered when he cried out from his place of affliction.
Judges 16:19 She made him sleep on her knees. And she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him us.
Are you being tormented today, has strength left you? Take heart, no matter how deep your sin may be, no matter how far you may have wandered, God always has a redeeming plan. Although sin has its consequences, once we turn back to God and call out to Him, he will hear us. Just as God heard Samson and just as God heard Gideon’s intercession for his people.
Promotion comes from the winepress
The book of Job teaches us that not all affliction is because of our wandering away from God. Not all oppression and suffering is because of our poor choices. Job was a righteous and a God-fearing man who always sought to please God and yet he experienced trials and afflictions. He lost all but his life.
But Job’s story did not end there. No, after he had been sifted all was restored with interest and Job gained a much deeper understanding of the God he served.
Job 23:10 But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.
Jesus taught us that branches which bear fruit are pruned and God disciplines those He loves. We all fall short in one way or another, we all need cultivating. God is both the gardener and the shepherd of His people.
“Sometimes the trials in our flesh or the attacks we face are God’s tools to reawaken us spiritually. Because there is a common link between comfort of this flesh and dullness of the spirit.”
Brother Chris (God TV)
The winepress is a place where we are conformed into His image and where we are shaped for greater fruitfulness. Just like Gideon, God is forming a victorious warrior in us. No time is wasted in the winepress and once we have allowed patience to do its work we will come out as gold and God will reposition us. Just like the Israelites, we will be promoted from the place of victim to the place of victorious! Yes, in our sifting is a mighty shifting.
In the sifting is a mighty shifting – God sees us.
One of the names of God is ‘El Roi’ which means ‘The God who sees’. Gideon was hidden, working away in the winepress threshing grain. His hearts cry was for his people and for their deliverance from their oppressors. When Gideon heard God’s message his response was to intercede for his people. Gideon felt that God had abandoned him and his people. It is good to be honest with God. God sees all anyway but it is through prayer that we receive an answer.
We are never hidden from God’s sight. We may feel that our service our hearts cry is hidden but God sees and God can find us wherever we are. The enemy may have got you on the back foot, defeat may have put you in a winepress where you are hiding from the enemy. But God is going to bring you out!
Promotion comes from God – from the private place to the public place
David was well hidden tending sheep on the backside of a mountain (1 Samuel 17:34). What he was doing may have seemed so insignificant to the purposes of God and yet God would use David’s hidden experiences to kill a giant and to shepherd an entire nation as king.
What David had forged with God in the private place became useful in the public place. God uses the winepress to get us ready before He reveals us. The winepress is our training ground, everything we learn in the secret place will be brought out into the public place in God’s perfect timing.
God has not saved us to keep us hidden and locked away. Jesus did not overcome the world, sin, death and the devil so that we would remain cowering in a corner hiding from our enemy. No, God is bringing us out.
Joseph found himself in a prison cell for no fault of his own (Genesis 39:20). Like Job, he was a righteous and God fearing man and yet he suffered for a time. Whoever would have thought that a prisoner would rise in power to become second to Pharaoh? Yes, In that place of suffering Joseph had never been so close to his God given destiny. God sees us and God will bring us out.
God is the victory of His soldiers
“The soldiers did not know that they were determining their fate by how they drank”
Alexander MacLaren
In Judges 7 we read how God was at work sifting down the numbers of the Israelite army. Whoever would have thought that what we do in the private place, what we do when we think no one is watching, what we do in the day to day could have such a massive impact upon our final destination (Matthew 6:4; Luke 8:17).
It is in that secret place of the winepress, in that place of refinement that God builds His warriors. God uses that hidden time to forge men and women who will be a blessing to His people and to lead the way in blazing holiness.
In Judges 7 God found the soldiers to be too many and wanted to prevent Israel from thinking that it was due to their own strength in numbers that they had acquired victory. God uses the winepress of affliction to prevent us from claiming the glory for ourselves too. It is in that low place that we realise that truly He is our strength and all the glory belongs to Him alone.
Confidence in God alone is wisdom that banishes fear. Like David who ran towards Goliath without the armour of mens making, by faith we focus on God alone and find Him, even in our weakness, to be more than enough. It is in that place where we learn who God is, that we find who we are in Him too.
Prayer
Thank you father that you know your children long before they know themselves, long before they are known by others.
Thank you father that even now, you really know me. Forgive me, transform me and deliver me from anything that has led me away from you. I choose to follow after you with all of my heart and to look to you as my strength. Lead me into the destiny that you have for my life and cause me to honour you in the private place and the public place. Help me to know that even if I find myself in the winepress of affliction you will bring out of me new wine and always you are near. Never will you leave me, never will you forsake me. Thank you Jesus – Amen.