March 1 - Judges 7-9
The story of Gideon's victory should always be inspiring to us as we think of 300 men routing 135,000 enemy soldiers. It should teach us that God can win the victory no matter what the odds. However, the main lesson is that God deserves all of the glory in all we accomplish. We could not do it without Him. Therefore, He had the army trimmed to the point where the glory had to go to Him. Also, we learn that God's power to confuse the enemy is very important. In many instances of life we need to pray for God to bring confusion to our enemies, so we can defeat them. This especially applies to Satan and his demonic forces. The forces of evil are smart, but they are no match for the power of God. Sometimes God defeats them by confusing them, and causing them to self destruct. That is what happened in this case.
There are a couple of sad notes in this story, too. The fact that the people began to worship the ephod Gideon made with the earrings of the Ishmaelites is very disturbing. After winning such a great victory, they broke God's Law in such a clear way. Also, there was the desire of the people to have Gideon reign over them as a king, but Gideon said no, "The Lord shall rule over you." They should have recognized the need to allow God to rule them from the results of the battle, but they did not understand because of their sin. This is seen further in that as soon as Gideon died they returned to worshiping Baal, and they made Abimelech, Gideon's illegitimate son, the king over them. This is the sad state of affairs during this point in the history of God's people. It is even seen by the fact that in chapter 9 Gideon is referred to by his pagan name, Jerubaal, instead of Gideon. I am sure that would have made Gideon turn over in His grave.
The whole story of the life of Abimelech is a testimony to the disorientation of God's people. This one man killed his brothers to assume power, led an army against his own people to squash a civil war, and totally destroyed an entire city. Since the people would not rise up to stop him, God had a woman drop a mill stone on him from a tower to put an end to his misguided life. This is a horrible testimony for God's people, but it happened because of their sin and rebellion against God.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Judges 10-12.
There are a couple of sad notes in this story, too. The fact that the people began to worship the ephod Gideon made with the earrings of the Ishmaelites is very disturbing. After winning such a great victory, they broke God's Law in such a clear way. Also, there was the desire of the people to have Gideon reign over them as a king, but Gideon said no, "The Lord shall rule over you." They should have recognized the need to allow God to rule them from the results of the battle, but they did not understand because of their sin. This is seen further in that as soon as Gideon died they returned to worshiping Baal, and they made Abimelech, Gideon's illegitimate son, the king over them. This is the sad state of affairs during this point in the history of God's people. It is even seen by the fact that in chapter 9 Gideon is referred to by his pagan name, Jerubaal, instead of Gideon. I am sure that would have made Gideon turn over in His grave.
The whole story of the life of Abimelech is a testimony to the disorientation of God's people. This one man killed his brothers to assume power, led an army against his own people to squash a civil war, and totally destroyed an entire city. Since the people would not rise up to stop him, God had a woman drop a mill stone on him from a tower to put an end to his misguided life. This is a horrible testimony for God's people, but it happened because of their sin and rebellion against God.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Judges 10-12.