Gideon was the 5th judge of Israel. He
is listed in the men of faith in Hebrews 11: 32. Gideon saw himself
as unfit to be a leader in God’s service, but God saw Gideon differently. God
saw Gideon as a “mighty warrior” because God knows Gideon’s end from his
beginning and all in between. God had a job for Gideon to do, and He will
complete it through Gideon. Without God, we can do nothing. In type and shadow,
Gideon is a picture of Jesus, God’s Supreme Mighty Warrior, and Judge. As God
knew Gideon’s end from His beginning, He also sees our end from our beginning
as we walk with Christ. He has a job for us to do whether big or small and He
will prepare us for the task.
Gideon is chosen of God to lead His people out of the hands of
their enemies with God’s help. Gideon must first understand how God’s people
ended up in the dire condition they are in. The key to Gideon’s success was his
willingness to obey God. Gideon’s faith was weak at times, but God patiently
strengthened Gibeon’s faith in Him. Like all of us, Gideon had a fleshly nature,
like all humans, that made him make wrong moves, but God never deserted Gideon.
God is faithful even when we are not! God is patient with Gideon and the
weakness of his flesh. Eventually, Gideon will unite God’s people against their
common enemy and through his obedience and God’s power defeat them.
For seven years,
the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern nations invaded and oppressed
God’s people. God’s people had betrayed God by worshiping false idols. The
Midianites were so strong that God’s people made shelters for themselves in
mountain clefts, caves, and strongholds. In other words, they hid in the cleft
of a rock and rock caves. God hid Moses in the cleft of a rock as His glory
passed by on Mount Sinai. First Moses had to “stand on a rock.” (see
Exodus 33:21) as Christians are to stand on the Rock Jesus. We are
hidden in Him. When God’s glory passed by, God put Moses “in the cleft
in the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will
remove My hand and you will see My back; but My face must not be seen.”
33:22-23. God’s face will not be seen until Jesus Christ -- the
fullness of the Godhead and God’s glory in a flesh body -- comes down to earth.
Despite the sinfulness of those God created in His image, God had His precious
Son take on the flesh of man to pay the price for our sin. This is God’s love
and heart at work. Don’t ever underestimate how much God loves us despite us.
He also loves us enough to help us put away our sinful ways so we can walk in
His way which is the way of blessing.
For seven years,
the enemies of God’s people ruined the crops of God’s people and took their
flocks. These nations would let the Israelites plow, sow, reap and thresh, but
then they would steal their grain and livestock. Because God’s people were in
rebellion against God and His Word, they were disorganized, hiding, disunited,
and weakened. They hid in fear. They didn’t have the strength to resist the
enemy. Jesus warned that the devil and his demonic host would come to steal,
kill, and destroy life, but Jesus came to give us life and that more abundantly
as we walk the earth. The devil wants to divide and conquer, but the Godhead
wants to bring us to unity through His will, ways, and heart to bring peace and
victory. When we are in disobedience to God and His Word, we will be divided
and defeated. Jesus gave us the power of the Holy Spirit and Truth to resist the
devil and his evil ways and to help us to obey God’s Word and be fruitful and
blessed. Walking in our fleshly ways instead of God’s ways brings death to our
spirit and defeat. It is the Spirit that brings life. “The flesh
profits nothing.” (see John 6:63) There is no spiritual life in sin
and there is no victory in disobedient to God and His Word. Our fleshly ways
are the opposite of God’s ways. When we walk in God’s love, grace, truth, and
ways, we will be victorious.
Finally, God’s people become so
desperate and oppressed that they cry out to God for help. (see Judges
6:6) In answer to their cry, God sends them a prophet who reminds His
people that He had brought them out of Egypt and the bondage of their
oppressors. “I drove them from before you and gave you their land. I
said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites,
in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me.” Judges 6:7-10 In
other words, “I am faithful. I did it! Not you! And I did it My way.” God’s
people didn’t listen to the prophet He sent. There is no victory in doing
things our way. When God’s people didn’t listen and obey God’s Word, they were
taken into bondage and oppression. God wants the Israelites to know why they
are in the situation they are in. We must see and know how we got into the
position we are in. Then, if we obey God’s Word of instruction, He will turn
our situation around. Victory can only come through the ways of God, not
man.
Lesson: God had to let His people
experience the result of their disobedience, so they would see their need of
Him and His ways again. God’s ways are the opposite of our fleshly ways. God
wants His people to remember how He saved them from the bondage and oppression
of their enemies in the past when He set them free of bondage and oppression in
Egypt. When God’s people listened and obeyed God’s chosen leader, Moses, who
was hearing from God, they were set free and victorious.
The obedience of God’s people and
obeying God’s Word to Moses brought deliverance and freedom from bondage.
Despite the disobedience of His people, it was God’s love and grace that
motivated Him to set His people free. God’s ways don’t change! “I am
the Lord. I change not!” Malachi 3:6 God had the fullness
of love, grace, and truth in the Older Testament also. The two testaments must
agree, or they couldn’t walk side by side. Why? Because God, Jesus/the Word and
the Holy Spirit are the Godhead of agreement and unity. They will never
contradict one another but will always be in unity (agreement). They are One!
And, since the Word of God is the voice of God, it too will be in agreement and
unity.
God used the “natural” in the
Older Testament to reveal “spiritual” truth, just as Jesus did in the New
Testament. As I said, God’s ways don’t change! First the natural, then the
spiritual. The Godhead created all things; therefore, all things have a message
from the Godhead. 1 Corinthians 15:46: The spiritual is not first, but
the natural, and afterward the spiritual. In the Older Testament, God
parted the Red Sea to open an earthly way of escape from the earthly enemies of
His people. God’s people were suffering because of their disobedience to God.
When they turned back to God under the instruction of God’s chosen one Gideon,
they were victorious. Since the “natural” speaks to the
“supernatural/spiritual” in the New Testament, God parted the way between
heaven and earth spiritually so all who believe in Jesus can spiritually return
to God through the “red sea” of Christ’s shed, sinless blood on the cross of
suffering. Jesus took our suffering upon Himself on the cross and prepared the
way for us to be returned to God.
Because those who love and
follow Jesus have the Holy Spirit and the whole Truth, we are helped by the
power of God’s Holy Spirit to make decisions according to God’s Word, will and
heart. Christians have the whole Word of God to teach them. The Israelites only
had a portion of the Word of God. They saw in part, but we have fuller vision
through the life of Jesus until we see in fullness face-to-face. God gifted us
with the whole Truth -- Word of God -- and the Living Word of God Jesus
together with God’s Holy Spirit to teach, empower, correct, and fully reveal
the Truth/Word to us. Jesus came in the fullness of grace, truth, love, Holy
Spirit, and Word. The fullness of God’s grace and truth in Jesus is God’s gift
to us. What we do with it, is up to us. The power of the Holy Spirit
of God and the Word of God through Jesus will help us obey His Word. Two in
agreement in God’s love, will, ways and Word are powerful. Jesus wants us to
receive His fullness. For Him to do this, we must know the Truth.
John 1:16: “From the fullness of
His grace, we have all received one blessing after another. For the Law was
given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ,” the Only Begotten Son of
God. Moses was human just like you and me, but Jesus is God who took on the
flesh of man to save those of the flesh. He is the only One who could obey God
fully and completely because He is God who along with God the Father and the
Holy Spirit created all things. (see Genesis 1:1-3) Jesus is
and will forever be the voice of God as He was in the beginning at creation.
The Holy Spirit will forever be the Holy Spirit of God as it was in the
beginning at creation. The more we allow Jesus and the Holy Spirit to recreate
our sinful, fleshly ways into His ways, the fuller He resides in us. Victory
over our spiritual enemy can only come through the ways of God, not our fleshly
ways. God’s heart’s desire is that we know the pure Truth, so the Truth will
set us free.
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