God is the hero! But God chooses to work through some weak people whom He teaches to trust in Him. And so, Gideon is not really the hero of this story. Gideon never would have done what he did if God had not taken the initiative. But the question is, do you know the Lord? Have you experienced the power of the gospel in your life? If you’re only a cultural Christian without a personal knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are susceptible to following the idols of our godless culture even as Israel was doing in Gideon’s day.īut the encouraging message of the book of Judges is that God is at work even in the darkest of times and even with the weakest, most mixed up people, to accomplish His sovereign purpose for His glory. If you grew up in a Christian home as I did, it is a great blessing, but there is also an inherent danger: Your parents knew the Lord and experienced the power of the gospel in their lives. But they also can apply directly to us today. Those verses describe the bleak condition of Israel 11 or 12 centuries before Christ. So they forsook the Lord and served Baal and the Ashtaroth. Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals, and they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves down to them thus they provoked the Lord to anger. 2:10-13):Īll that generation also were gathered to their fathers and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel. Under his leadership, Israel had conquered much of the land which God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses. Joshua had led Israel out of the wilderness and into the promised land. The book of Judges sketches one of the darkest spiritual times in Israel’s history. We live in spiritually dark times that can lead us to despair. Even the news about Christianity reports many stories of Christian leaders and churches falling into sin or defecting from the faith. In addition, I get daily emails that tell how the world is attacking our Christian faith from every angle imaginable. Every day brings stories of human suffering through war, terrorism, natural disasters, coronavirus or crime. If you keep up with the news, it’s difficult not to get depressed.
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