Sat.’s Devo - Gideon’s Call

Read: Judges 6:1-40; Luke 22:54-23:12; Psalm 95:1-96:13; Proverbs 14:5-6 The Israelites “did evil” which means they began worshipping false gods, so the Lord turned them over to the Midianites who oppressed the for 7 years. The motto of the Midianites was to steal, kill, and destroy. They would wait until it was almost harvest time then attack and destroy all their crops thus starving the Israelites. 
 *** Israel cried out to the Lord, and he sent them a prophet who reminded them of how God had brought them out of Egypt and given them the land but they had broken their covenant with him and had worshipped other gods. *** The angel of the Lord came and sat under a tree on the land of Gideon. He watched as Gideon was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress. To thresh wheat you need to be on a hill where the wind could blow the chaff away instead of in a pit, but he was so afraid of the Midianites stealing their food, he had to hide to thresh his wheat. The angel addressed Gideon as a mighty hero which was what God needed him to be. He told Gideon that God was with him. Gideon was not so sure about that since they were starving. He wondered where the miracles were that they had heard of. The angel told him that he was to go and rescue Israel from the Midianites and God would be with him. *** Gideon gave him the excuses everyone gives the Lord - his tribe was too small, too weak, too _____. (Fill in the blank.) God’s answer was still the same - “I will go with you.” What can we not do when God is on our side? *** Gideon asked for a sign and when he brought the angel food, the angel touched it with the tip of his staff and fire consumed it. That was when Gideon realized just who he was talking to and fell down in worship. God promised he would’t kill him so Gideon named the place Yahweh-Shalom which means “the Lord is peace.” *** That night, God told Gideon to take his father’s seven year old bull and use it to tear down his father’s altar to Baal and then build an altar with the wood and sacrifice the bull on the altar. (Keep in mind, they were starving and this bull was meat.) *** The next morning the people did an investigation to find out who had taken down their altar and built a new one. Gideon was discovered and they wanted to kill him, but Joash, Gideon’s father told the mob to let Baal defend himself. The crowd was pleased with this and left. God defended Gideon against the people and against Baal. *** It wasn’t bad enough that the Midianites were against them; they formed an alliance with the Amalekites and the people of the east to fight against Israel. They crossed the Jordan and camped in the valley of Jezreel, the same place that years from then Saul and Jonathan would be killed. Gideon blew a trumpet and sent out messengers throughout the tribes of Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali to gather their troops and join him. *** Then Gideon asked for two confirmations that God was going to use him to defeat their enemies and God answered both of them. *** In Luke, Peter denied Jesus three times then realized what he had done and left bitterly crying. Jesus was beat and mocked and in the morning, the religious leaders came and began their questioning. They wanted him to say he was the Messiah but Jesus would only say that they said he was. He wound’t be tricked by them. When Jesus said that from now on the Son of Man would be seated in the place of power at God’s right hand, they had had enough. They took him to Pilate. They told him that Jesus told the people not to pay taxes to Rome and that he claimed to be the Messiah. *** Pilate didn’t even ask him about the taxes, he went straight to the question about if he was the king of the Jews. Pilate cared more about power than the money. If you have the power, you have the money; but you can have money and not power. *** Jesus gave him the same answer, “you have said it.” Pilate found him “not guilty.” The religious leaders argued with Pilate and when Pilate found out Jesus was from Galilee, he sent him to Herod Antipas who was over Galilee. *** Herod was glad to finally meet Jesus who he had heard so much about. He wanted to see one of his miracles. Jesus refused to answer any of his questions. The religious leaders, the soldiers and Herod were all mocking and ridiculing Jesus. They put a robe on him and sent him back to Pilate. *** Lord, we are touched deeply by the suffering and humiliation you had to go through on our behalf. Words are not sufficient to express our gratitude. May we always remember what you did for us. You carried our shame to the cross so that we might live in freedom and joy. Thank you.