I'm in Judges 6, by the way, for those that want to follow along.
Okay, we left off with the Angel of the Lord (or the Lord, as He is henceforth referred as) calling Gideon a man of valor and telling him that HE is the next mighty deliverer...with the help of the Lord.
So, Gideon, being human like the rest of us, says...if it's really you talking to me (and not a figment of my imagination - give me a sign! He asked the Lord to remain while he runs to get a present for the Him. The Lord agrees to hang around while Gideon runs to prepare a meal. The Lord accepts the gift by touching the food with His staff and consuming it with fire that came out of the rock..then disappeared right in front of him! If that's not sign enough that you're not crazy and you're truly talking to an angel, I don't know what is! Then Gideon is all scared, cause he's just looked upon the Lord and lived to tell about it and the Lord has to reassure him he won't die for it! Sounds like he is STILL not convinced of the plan.
Now the incident I mentioned earlier: the Lord tells Gideon that his first act as deliverer is to tear down his father's altar to Baal and build an altar to the true God, then offer the wood from Baal's altar as a burnt sacrifice. And our little man of valor sneaks out with 10 servants and does so in the dead of night because he is SCARED of the men in the city. Gideon is STILL not convinced God is on his side and that he is ordained to win. What a patient God!
Of course, the men of the city woke up the next day and were all like, What happened to our altar!?! They find out it's Gideon and go after him but his dad stops them with this challenge: If Baal is truly a god, let him fight for himself! And from that day forward he called Gideon "Jerubbaal", meaning, let Baal plead.
This got me to thinking today about a question I hear a lot as a Christian: Why does God allow suffering? Why doesn't He....(fill in the blanks). For instance, when things like the hurricane last year or the year before that hit Haiti and did a number on the island, killing thousands, leaving thousands more homeless, parentless, jobless...Why did God let it happen?
Let me tell you my answer. Why did THEIR god allow it? The national religion of Haiti is Voodoo. The people of Haiti have very clearly stated, we do not serve the God of the Bible. I'd say they serve Satan, personally, since they practice dark magic & voodoo. But these people are praying to false gods. So, why does the rest of the world get mad at God? He isn't their protector. They don't want Him. They don't pray to Him. So He honors that and stays away (free will and all that).
The point is: who are you serving? Cause if you aren't feeling very protected, if you are full of strife and discontentment, if you can't see God anywhere...maybe you're not under HIS protection...maybe you're not actually serving Who you claim you serve.
Hmmm....gonna end on that note today☺
Looks like we'll have part 4 tomorrow...I love a good cliffhanger!
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