November 2nd - Gideon

This week we looked at Gideon and to start off, we looked at how he was also called Jerubbaal (Judges 7:1), which means ‘’Let Baal Plead’’. We then had a whip-round of what we could remember about Gideon and some of the things we could remember were:

He destroyed the alter of Baal
He fought the Midianites
He defeated Zeba and Zalmunna
The fleece and dew signs
He was sent to save Israel
He built an alter called Jehovah-Shalom (“The LORD is Peace”)

We also had a think back to when we discussed the cycle in Judges and how it goes:
Faithful => Wandering => Oppressed => Appealing to God => A judge is sent => God delivers
And with Gideon, we can see we are at the ‘’Judge Is Sent’’ stage as God sends Gideon to battle and this battle is successful and Israel are saved. This cycle could also be applicable to each of our lives – we are all faithful but we are also appealing to God to send Jesus back to the earth so that we may be saved and granted access to the Kingdom of God.
So after the quick recap of Gideon, we read through Judges 6 to refresh our minds of part of the story of Gideon. We were then able to see some points that we’d missed out – the trumpets in v34, ‘But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, and Abi-ezer was gathered after him.’, and that Gideon was from the tribe of Manasseh.
From reading this chapter, we were able to look at some learning points for us as individuals and a key point that we came across was that in Judges 6:6-8 we read, ‘And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; and the children of Israel cried unto the LORD. And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD…the LORD sent a prophet unto the children of Israel.’ Here, we see that God was ready to answer the children of Israel’s cries and from this we are able to take comfort in knowing that when we are in trouble, when we pray to God, He will answer us, and even if God doesn’t answer us straight away, we always have the Word of God to give us an answer. Another lesson that we were able to make was by linking Judges 6:8-9 to Jeremiah 16:14-15 where it says, ‘Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it will no more be said, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them…’. From this, we were able to see that God will send the Prophet back to save us, the children of Israel, from all the lands that He has driven us and with our faith, we can keep this hope alive by reading the Bible and reading of His promises to us.
Another point that we were able to make from chapter 6 of Judges was about the cakes in v19. We looked back to Cain and Abel’s sacrifices and how God torched the one that He found acceptable and with Gideon, we see that God makes Gideon’s sacrifice acceptable as it gets torched, ‘…and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes.’.
We also looked at the humility of Gideon in v15; ‘My family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.’ Gideon’s family had an altar dedicated to them which showed they were highly respected. They also had 2 bullocks and these animals were special in those times as they were able to breed to provide food. Gideon himself had 10 servants upon which he could call. The humility that Gideon shows is a big example to us to help us remember that we are a lot lower than God and that we need to humble ourselves before God when we pray to Him.
So in summary, this week we were able to look at the faithfulness of Gideon and we were able to take away benefits from God’s Word in that He is always there for us when we call on Him.

Your job – look through chapters 7,8 and 9 and come up with any point that you want to make about Gideon and say how you feel that there is a lesson for us in it.
My comment:
Chapter 7:3-8. Here it talks about how Gideon’s army was reduced in number from 22,000 to 300. I think the process of elimination could compare to our lives and that it’s a bit like God saying that those who are afraid are those who don’t listen to the Word of God and they return to the world but those who lapped the water are those who lap up the water are those who lap up the water are those who lap up the Word of God as He saves those people from the Midianites and helps them to defeat the Midianites. Melanie x