#079 Judges 6-8

Devoted to Scripture

Day 79 of the podcast, reading Judges 6-8 NET, read along at:
https://netbible.org/bible/Judges+6-8/

This is day 79 of our journey.

Today we read the story of Gideon. Israel is again being oppressed, this time by the Midianites. God appears to Gideon as he is threshing wheat in a winepress in order to hide the food from his oppressors. The Lord tells Gideon that he is going to deliver Israel through him...one of the lowliest members of the weakest clan in Israel. Gideon asks God for a sign 3 different times to confirm that God is speaking to him, then he rallies an army of 32000 men to attack Midian. As Gideon prepares the troops for battle, God tells him that he has too many fighting men and sends home all but 300 of them so that Israel will know that God is fighting for them. Even with only 300 men, the people of Israel are successful as God brings confusion on the Midianite camp and they begin to fight each other. God brings about a great deliverance, destroying the entire army and the kings of Midian. After the victory, Gideon does not continue to walk before God. He creates a golden ephod that the people begin to worship. Even after performing this great deed and speaking with the Lord himself, Gideon didn't fear or even understand the true nature of the God who had delivered him. This sinful idolatry would create more trouble in the years to come. We are much the same as Gideon...we can often fall victim to trying to worship God in our own way rather than striving to understand what it is that God truly wants so that we can worship him in the way that he demands.

Join me in Judges 6-8 to see another example of God using the weak to shame the strong.

Key verses:

Judges 6:16
The Lord said to him, “Ah, but I will be with you! You will strike down the whole Midianite army.”

Judges 7:2
The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men for me to hand Midian over to you. Israel might brag, ‘Our own strength has delivered us.’

Judges 8:27
Gideon used all this to make an ephod, which he put in his hometown of Ophrah. All the Israelites prostituted themselves to it by worshiping it there. It became a snare to Gideon and his family.

All Scriptures are from the NET.