1 Again the Israelites did what was evil in the LORD's sight. So the LORD handed them over to the Midianites for seven years. 2 The Midianites were so cruel that the Israelites fled to the mountains, where they made hiding places for themselves in caves and dens.
3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, marauders from Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east would attack Israel, 4 camping in the land and destroying crops as far away as Gaza. They left the Israelites with nothing to eat, taking all the sheep, oxen, and donkeys. 5 These enemy hordes, coming with their cattle and tents as thick as locusts, arrived on droves of camels too numerous to count. And they stayed until the land was stripped bare. 6 So Israel was reduced to starvation by the Midianites.
Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD for help.
7 When they cried out to the LORD because of Midian, 8 the LORD sent a prophet to the Israelites. He said, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of slavery in Egypt 9 and rescued you from the Egyptians and from all who oppressed you. I drove out your enemies and gave you their land. 10 I told you, 'I am the LORD your God. You must not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you now live.' But you have not listened to me."
11 Then the angel of the LORD came and sat beneath the oak tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash had been threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. 12 The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, "Mighty hero, the LORD is with you!" 13 "Sir," Gideon replied, "if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn't they say, 'The LORD brought us up out of Egypt'? But now the LORD has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites." 14 Then the LORD turned to him and said, "Go with the strength you have and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!" 15 "But Lord," Gideon replied, "how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!" 16 The LORD said to him, "I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man." 17 Gideon replied, "If you are truly going to help me, show me a sign to prove that it is really the LORD speaking to me.
18 Don't go away until I come back and bring my offering to you."The LORD answered, "I will stay here until you return." 19 Gideon hurried home. He cooked a young goat, and with half a bushel F15 of flour he baked some bread without yeast. Then, carrying the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, he brought them out and presented them to the angel, who was under the oak tree. 20 The angel of God said to him, "Place the meat and the unleavened bread on this rock, and pour the broth over it." And Gideon did as he was told. 21 Then the angel of the LORD touched the meat and bread with the staff in his hand, and fire flamed up from the rock and consumed all he had brought. And the angel of the LORD disappeared.
22 When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the LORD, he cried out, "Sovereign LORD, I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!"
23 "It is all right," the LORD replied. "Do not be afraid. You will not die." 24 And Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and named it "The LORD Is Peace." F16 The altar remains in Ophrah in the land of the clan of Abiezer to this day.
25 That night the LORD said to Gideon, "Take the second best bull from your father's herd, the one that is seven years old. Pull down your father's altar to Baal, and cut down the Asherah pole standing beside it. 26 Then build an altar to the LORD your God here on this hill, laying the stones carefully. Sacrifice the bull as a burnt offering on the altar, using as fuel the wood of the Asherah pole you cut down."
27 So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the LORD had commanded. But he did it at night because he was afraid of the other members of his father's household and the people of the town. He knew what would happen if they found out who had done it. 28 Early the next morning, as the people of the town began to stir, someone discovered that the altar of Baal had been knocked down and that the Asherah pole beside it was gone.
In their place a new altar had been built, and it had the remains of a sacrifice on it. 29 The people said to each other, "Who did this?" And after asking around and making a careful search, they learned that it was Gideon, the son of Joash. 30 "Bring out your son," they shouted to Joash. "He must die for destroying the altar of Baal and for cutting down the Asherah pole." 31 But Joash shouted to the mob, "Why are you defending Baal? Will you argue his case? Whoever pleads his case will be put to death by morning! If Baal truly is a god, let him defend himself and destroy the one who knocked down his altar!" 32 From then on Gideon was called Jerubbaal, which means "Let Baal defend himself," because he knocked down Baal's altar.
33 Soon afterward the armies of Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east formed an alliance against Israel and crossed the Jordan, camping in the valley of Jezreel. 34 Then the Spirit of the LORD took possession of Gideon. He blew a ram's horn as a call to arms, and the men of the clan of Abiezer came to him. 35 He also sent messengers throughout Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, summoning their warriors, and all of them responded. 36 Then Gideon said to God, "If you are truly going to use me to rescue Israel as you promised, 37 prove it to me in this way. I will put some wool on the threshing floor tonight. If the fleece is wet with dew in the morning but the ground is dry, then I will know that you are going to help me rescue Israel as you promised." 38 And it happened just that way. When Gideon got up the next morning, he squeezed the fleece and wrung out a whole bowlful of water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, "Please don't be angry with me, but let me make one more request. This time let the fleece remain dry while the ground around it is wet with dew." 40 So that night God did as Gideon asked. The fleece was dry in the morning, but the ground was covered with dew.
FOOTNOTES:F15: Hebrew 1 ephah [18 liters]. F16: Hebrew Yahweh Shalom.
The New Living Translation
Lena's Journalin'
Being handed over to an enemy is an example of gracious judgement, by the Lord. If we are disobedient and open up doors to cursings, rather than choosing the One way to the the blessings of God, our enemy is allowed to have his way with us. Hopefully this will both wake us up and alert us to turn from disobediences to obediences and the way of cursings to blessings. God can and will even use our despised enemies to help teach us valuable life's lessons about direction and decisions.
One of the original mandates for each human being is to be fruitful and reproduce. That's what planting and harvesting are. It is a sign of being cursed (living the consequence of some disobedience) when you plant and do not enjoy the harvest of what is planted. Usually when someone plants a certain seed, they harvest that kind of fruit. If no fruit or a different fruit comes up, there is probably a curse involved. That is a great time to go stand before the Lord for evaluation being of a humble mind to repent. It would behoove us to open ourselves up to the dealings of God, before we are handed over to an eternal enemy and cannot be saved.
Also know even when someone is obedient to the Lord they become an enemy of the one who is not and he is after their faith, their value, and their eternal state of life. Be aware of the theif and robber, who is out to get what is beginning to resemble the Lord.
The NT clearly tells us God's enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy, and does it anyway he can with you. Don't allow this, either through wrong decisions or through sin and disobedience. Knowing this full well, our obedience alarms should be very sensitive alerting us to war against and win against his decietful devices.
They cried out to the Lord...THAT is/was an appropriate response! That is always an appropriate response!
When you cry out to Him be brave enough to hear the truth of what He has to say. He'll speak it, but we must be willing to hear it as instruction that is able to save our souls. Knowing the truth will bring us the freedom we desire. Truth is the person of Jesus Christ, and if we make Him Master and Lord we will be saved, that means what he tells us we do. Truth that frees us is listening to the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus means Savior, Christ is the Anointed One, the Lord of All. We must recieve Him as both. Many only recieve HIm as Savior and never forsake their habits and lifestyles to show that He is Lord.
We must become receptive to the ("God awful") truth. He told them that He was always there for them, but they chose to depend on others for whatever it was they felt they needed.
Here it says they served idols. In our American culture it is not real often we see anyone bow down to some statue, yet we do serve other gods. Do you know and are you willing to hear that even the subtlist action of having an addiction is an example of the serving of other gods?
The acciction could be food, cigarettes, alcohol, drugs (both prescribed and non -prescribed) or things like sex, TV, the drive to work work work for money..etc, etc...
These are what the American idols show up as. Not statues per se, but idols for sure.
All it ever takes to be freed from the enemy of our souls that so easily separates us from the Love of our Father God is faith. Not faith is self, like positive thinking and confession, but faith in God's words. If we believe what He says He will do and we act like it, putting actionto it, we will see Him manifest HImself in the miraculous. It amazes me how hard each of us try to change our worlds without His Divine help, which can only be obtained through faith. The Lord always challenges us beyond who we appear to be and who we think we are. Our acceptance of His challenges says, we trust in and believe in His words.
The messenger of God told Gideon to demonstrate that he was going to believe God, give to God what the whole society gives to the idols! Give your time, money, strength and faith to God rather than the addiction or whatever has enslaved you.
God called Him what He wanted him to become, a mighty man of valor. Gideon did not see himself that way, in fact he was acting quite cowherdly as he hid his harvesting from his enemies. God said over him the vision of what God wanted to do with and make of his life!
This is truely an amazing account of faith in progress from one generation to another. God told one man who was not the living head of his family line, to change his family history. Go and tear down strongholds that have caused curses to be alive in your nation. They are set up even over your own family line. Your father serves other gods, has set other gods avove Me. GO take down the gods of your father.
One way we do this in practice now, is to NOT serve what it is/was our parents have served in our family lines. If our parents dealt with addictions, nullify their power over you. Do not participate in their enslavement over the rest of the famil line that will come through you. If they deal with certain illnesses that are caused from the effect os sin and wrong choices in life, break up their power over you and your fathers, do not serve them. Recognize they are there, Take responsibility for your own participation by default in the sins passed down through your family line, repent of serving them, renounce your own service to them, replace their positions with God and offer HIm what used to be offered them, remove any trace of service to the enemy of God in your own life and that of those you influence, like your children. They live best by example, if you're new they'll believe and floow your example. Rejoice in the vicory you are about to have and keep through Christ Jesus. Keep on watch, resist any offers to return to a land your forfathers dwelt in just because we've always doemn it that way. The enemy will try to use your family to corece you to think it's not all bad, you can serve some of wickedness. NO you can't, take it all and destroy every trace of its power over you. Be influenced by your new walk in Christ only. Serve Him only. Do whatever it takes in faith to keep what God has given you. If it takes more Biblke study, more worship, more praying in the spirit, more fellowship with other believers and that leaves you no time for your own leisure, so be it. Make HIs leisure your leisure, giving NO place to the lies of the enemy to take you back to the hill of the Baal's of your past.
Be an ambassador of the kingdom of God andf rsscue others in your lineage and beyond.
