You can read in Judges 2:1-3 the account I mentioned yesterday, of how God warned the Israelites that He was going to leave some of their enemies unconquered and why. He also warns them that they will be "thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you." In Joshua, He adds the enemy will be "pricks in your eyes". So they had been fully warned of the consequences of messing with the false gods of their neighbors.
Now, leading up to the time of Gideon, there had already been at least 4 times of a falling away from God's law and way, to a following of false gods, to persecution from the enemy by God's hand, to calling on God and a deliverer being sent. The first deliverer was Caleb's nephew/son-in-law, Othniel. The 2nd was Ehud, the 3rd Shamgar - who had just one verse in Judges. Then Deborah.
Ohhhhh, Deborah! What a feisty little woman of God! And when the Bible refers to them as deliverers and judges, the word is used to mean as a leader in the sense of a president or king, just like Moses & Joshua had been. Israel's first woman leader...I love it!
So, Gideon becomes the 5th judge and deliverer, at least of those mentioned in the Book of Judges. Judges 6:1 says the people were doing evil in the sight of the Lord, so He delivered them up to the Midianites.
Ever feel like everything you do just slips through your fingers, you have nothing to show for all your hard work, and it looks like God has washed His hands of you? Might want to check your life, make sure you're not doing "evil in the site of the Lord." And evil can mean so many different things but basically is anything against the will, plan, and ways of God.
There is also a devil at work, so that's not always the reason, but here's one good way to tell which it is for you: check and see if you have peace. If there's peace in the middle of your storm, God's right there with you and you're exactly where you're meant to be. If you can't find any peace, no matter what you do, how hard you pray, then maybe He is withholding peace to get your attention.
So anyway, Gideon. For seven years the Midianites have been oppressing the Israelites and they start crying out to God for help. They didn't even get rid of their false gods first, so there goes the theory you have to clean yourself up before you approach God. They were in the middle of their sin, asking God for help, and He responded. But the first thing He had Gideon do as their deliverer was to tear down the altar of Baal in the middle of the city and rebuild HIS altar. Talk about a loud statement!
I've skipped ahead! First, though, where does God find this future hero? Hiding out in a whine press so he can secretly thrash wheat, to keep it from falling into the Midianites' hands. And when the Lord (or the Angel of the Lord) addresses him in his hiding place, He says to Gideon "The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour." (I really wish they used exclamation points in KJV!)
So Gideon is hiding from the enemy and God calls him a man of valour...a MIGHTY man of valour! He should have looked around and said, "Who, ME?!"
(The dictionary does not recognize that spelling of "valor" but that's how the KJV spells it - I'm going to switch to the current spelling because that red squiggly line messes with my English OCD!)
The first thing Gideon responds with is, Where is the Lord?! He has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of our enemies! (paraphrased☺) He conveniently leaves out the part where Israel forsook God first! What surprises me is the angel totally ignores that omission as well. He doesn't point out their sin, their serving false gods, thus negating God's promise of protection. He basically says, I am sending YOU to fix that!
Okay, I'm all fired up and can't wrap this up today, so come back again tomorrow for part 3! ☺
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