Judges 6 introduces us to Gideon who is only mentioned outside of Judges 6-8 in Hebrews 11 before Barak.\u00a0 However, his alias “Jerubbaal” is mentioned in 1 Samuel 12 along with Barak and this name is used in reference to the next judge, his son Abimelech.\u00a0 Gideon comes onto the scene after “the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the LORD” again.\u00a0 The phrase, in the NRSV, “was evil in the sight of the LORD” eight times in Judges, thirty-four times in the history of the kings (mostly in the northern kingdom), and once in Jeremiah.\u00a0 A common phrase that does not occur in the New Testament.\u00a0 I guess we will find out what that is when we get there.<\/p>\n
What was the evil?\u00a0 It seems they were worshiping the gods of the Amorites (verse 10).\u00a0 The Midianites and Amalekites were cruel people who would allow the Israelites hope for a season and then would crush that hope by removing from their hands all they had worked for during that season.\u00a0 God is a jealous God who does not allow people to replace Him with that which is not a god at all.\u00a0 His reply in verse 10 to the Israelite\u2019s plea in verse 7 is interesting.\u00a0 He basically tells them that they call to Him as God and yet worship other gods and, it is implied, that He will not listen to their pleading because they do not listen to His.\u00a0 However, they do repent and then He listens.\u00a0 This is something we need to understand as we go through the Scriptures.\u00a0 God hears our pleas\/prayers when we are in right fellowship with Him.\u00a0 In order to have fellowship with Him, we need to be in right relationship with Him too.\u00a0 We cannot have fellowship with someone we do not have a relationship with and we cannot have meaningful relationship with someone we are not getting to know on a personal level.\u00a0 This is why, I believe, Gideon went through the measures he did when God called him.\u00a0 If we are in fellowship with someone we know and are getting to know better, when they speak we will recognize their voice.\u00a0 Jesus tells us that His sheep know His voice.<\/p>\n
Gideon is wondering who is speaking to him.\u00a0 If you notice, in verse 11-18, he is asking about those things he remembers his ancestors doing.\u00a0 He wants to know where the God of those adventures is and why He is not present with the Israelites.\u00a0 He wants to create his own adventures to remember.\u00a0 God is gracious and gives Gideon a sign and a command to tear down the altar his father has to Baal.\u00a0 This is Gideon’s first test to see if he fears man more than God.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What area of our lives are we being tested to see whether we fear God or man?<\/p>\n
To his credit, he accomplishes the task (although under the cover of night).<\/p>\n
Gideon then tests God.\u00a0 This is an anomaly in the Scripture.\u00a0 It is not suggest we “throw out a fleece” to determine what God has called us to do.<\/p>\n
Judges 7-Throughout the book of Judges, God is intent on letting the people know that He is the one who delivers not the people.\u00a0 Zechariah tells us that it is not by might nor by power but by His Spirit that God produces much.\u00a0 In this section, God hones the army of Israel down from 32,000 to 300.\u00a0 He then commands Gideon to give them trumpets and lamps for battle.\u00a0 With these men and these tactics Gideon conquers and kills more than 100,000 men.<\/p>\n
Judges 8 is a strange chapter.\u00a0 People refused to help Gideon in fear of the men he was pursuing.\u00a0 He vows to destroy them for not caring for him and does so after he is victorious over the Midianites.\u00a0 He then asks his youngest son to kill the kings but he does not because he is too young.\u00a0 There is much taunting in this passage.<\/p>\n
Gideon is called to be the king.\u00a0 The people ask him and his sons and grandsons to rule over them.\u00a0 He refuses and gives credit to God.\u00a0 The next judge, his son, attempts to be king.\u00a0 Gideon then makes an altar that was not to God.\u00a0 He rules, dies, and the people turn to Baal once more.<\/p>\n
The cyclical pattern we see in these chapters is as follows:<\/p>\n
What do we make a stumbling block for ourselves?\u00a0 How do we prostitute ourselves?\u00a0 When we are gone from our sphere of influence, what legacy will we have left?\u00a0 Who will have drawn closer to God and who will walk away?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Judges 6 introduces us to Gideon who is only mentioned outside of Judges 6-8 in Hebrews 11 before Barak. However, his alias “Jerubbaal” is mentioned in 1 Samuel 12 along with Barak and this name is used in reference to the next judge, his son Abimelech.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[14,47,48,24,49,336,32,26,33,19],"class_list":["post-109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","hentry","category-daily-studies","category-judges","tag-barak","tag-command","tag-gideon","tag-god","tag-jerubbaal","tag-judges","tag-promises","tag-remember","tag-scripture","tag-syncretism","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teach4god.com\/OTS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teach4god.com\/OTS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teach4god.com\/OTS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teach4god.com\/OTS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teach4god.com\/OTS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/teach4god.com\/OTS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":607,"href":"https:\/\/teach4god.com\/OTS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions\/607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teach4god.com\/OTS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teach4god.com\/OTS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teach4god.com\/OTS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}