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!
Showing posts with label Gideon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gideon. Show all posts
Monday, April 23, 2012
Thursday, April 19, 2012
An Unlikely Hero - Part 2
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! ☺
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! ☺
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
An Unlikely Hero - Part 1
I decided to read my Bible through in one year again but this time chronologically. And of course I'm already two books behind! I like to stop and study things out and the next thing you know I somewhere in Galatians ☺
But I'm finally in the story telling books - my faves. Joshua, Judges, and so on. This week I started the story of Gideon, who just baffles me. He was SO not your hero type material. Hiding out in a whine press to thrash wheat, in order to hide it from the enemy. For seven years the Midianites had been coming in every harvest season and stealing the Israelites' crops and livestock. And for seven years they had gotten away with it because God allowed them to do so.
But I'm finally in the story telling books - my faves. Joshua, Judges, and so on. This week I started the story of Gideon, who just baffles me. He was SO not your hero type material. Hiding out in a whine press to thrash wheat, in order to hide it from the enemy. For seven years the Midianites had been coming in every harvest season and stealing the Israelites' crops and livestock. And for seven years they had gotten away with it because God allowed them to do so.
Why? Because they kept going back to the false gods and pagan worship of their neighbors. Also something God allowed. He told them, I'm not going to let you conquer and get rid of ALL your enemies. Instead, I'm going to leave some around to prove you, test you, see what's in your heart...whether you will follow Me or go whoring after pagan gods.
So, of course they chased after false gods, God got mad and quit protecting them from their enemies, their enemies beat the snot out of them, and they cried out to God. And every single time, He answered and sent a deliverer.
I get upset about this unending cycle, then I remember...we haven't changed much in 3,000 years, have we?! God is the ultimate parent, always forgiving, always allowing an amount of pain to teach His children an important lesson, but always ready with mercy, forgiveness, and deliverance. What a great Father!
I get upset about this unending cycle, then I remember...we haven't changed much in 3,000 years, have we?! God is the ultimate parent, always forgiving, always allowing an amount of pain to teach His children an important lesson, but always ready with mercy, forgiveness, and deliverance. What a great Father!
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