Sat.’s Devo - The Red Threads

Read: Judges 7:1-8:17; Luke 23:13-43; Psalms 97:1-98:9; Proverbs 14:7-8
When reading about battles in the Old Testament you have to look at it like demonic forces fighting angelic forces. God had to whittle down Gideon’s forces because he didn’t want him to think he had won the battle by his own strength. God doesn’t need numbers, he needs faith. One hundred can put 10,000 to flight if they have the Spirit of the Lord (Leviticus 26:8). God was trying to show Gideon this.
He encouraged Gideon all the way. He even sent him down to the enemies camp to let the enemy encourage him. God knows we are weak and afraid but he lifts us up if we look to him.
God’s strategy was to surround the enemy at night with torches hidden in clay vessels and trumpets. The three hundred soldiers had no weapons! They got in position, blew their trumpets, smashed their jars and let out a shout of proclamation, “For the Lord and for Gideon.” Then they just watched as the enemy killed themselves. That is truly how ignorant demons are when they are stood up to by a group of people walking in the Spirit.
The clay jars stand for our our natural bodies (clay vessels) and the torches are the Holy Spirit burning in us. The trumpets are our mouths proclaiming the Word of the Lord. All we have to do is be broken and let the Holy Spirit speak out the Word.
Gideon faced some trouble with his own people when the Ephraimites felt left out. If Satan can’t get us head-on, he will try to stir up dissension in our ranks. It is like a counter attack from within. We have to watch out that we don’t get swept into entertaining the little foxes that want to weaken our troops and cause division.
Gideon had to discipline the men of Succoth and Peniel for not supplying his troops with bread. This reminds me of the competition that reigns in the Body of Christ. Everyone wants support for their ministry and their cause. We should all help each other because we are all on the same team fighting one enemy and it is not each other.
In Luke, we see the lamb being examined by the leaders and they proclaimed that he was spotless, without sin. In an attempt to set Jesus free, Pilate offered another man Barabbas in his place. Barabbas was in jail for killing apostates, people who taught heresy. He was believed by his followers to be the Messiah. His name means “son of my father.” His father was the devil and he was a false messiah. The blinded people chose him and wanted Jesus to die. This is the picture of the two goats on the Day of Atonement. One would die with the sin of the people in the wilderness, untoned for. The other would die outside the camp and his blood would be sprinkled on the mercy seat in the Holy Of Holies to atone for the sin of the whole nation or in Jesus’ case, the sin of the whole world.
On the day of Atonement the priests would put a red thread on the horn of the goat who would take their sins into the wilderness and one on the neck of the goat that would die for the nation and one on the temple door. When the goat was killed in the wilderness the red thread on the temple door would turn white. The goat in the wilderness stands for sin being done away with because of the blood of the other goat that was slain for the nation. Jesus was the goat who was slain for the nation and they placed a red robe around his neck as his red thread. He did away with sin once and for all.
On the hill there were three crosses. On one was the goat who carried sin into eternity. The other was the redeemed who went to Paradise with Jesus and the last was the Lamb of God who took away sin. They represented the three threads.
Lord, thank you for taking our sin from us and removing it as far as the east is from the west.