Judges 6:19-35.  If you read yesterday’s post, you know that many scholars think that the “angel of the Lord” was a pre-incarnate (before he became a flesh and blood person) appearance of Jesus.  What happens in verse 18 and the next paragraph would support that idea.  Gideon wants to make an offering to the angel.  The angel says he will stay.  Then in the next paragraph (Judges 6:19-24) Gideon prepares and presents the offering.  Which the angel takes in a very dramatic way by making fire come out of the rock and burn up the offering.  In Revelation 19:10; 22:9 we see another time an angel speaks to someone for God.  In this case John, the person being spoken to, falls down in front of the angel and the angel tells him to stop and get up because he (the angel) is a servant of God just like John is.  The angel in Revelation refused to be honored but the one in Judges accepted the honor.  Only fallen angels like Satan will accept worship (see Matthew 4:8-10 where Jesus refuses to worship Satan).  In fact the fact that Jesus accepts worship is one part of the proof for the fact that he is God.  So when the angel in Judges accepts the offering (an act of worship by Gideon) we can figure that the angel is either God or a demon.  Based on the story it is certainly God.

In the next part of the story God tells Gideon to tear down an altar that belongs to his father.  Sadly enough the altar is to Baal, one of the Canaanite gods, and has a statue of another Canaanite god, Asherah, next to it.  Even after the fire from the rock thing Gideon is afraid and so he tears down the altar at night.  He is also instructed to build another altar to God and make an offering to God. I don’t know what he thought doing it at night would accomplish.  I have done construction all my life and it’s kind of loud so I don’t know how you demolish one altar and use the wood for another one without making enough noise to wake up the whole neighborhood.  On top of that he has to kill a seven year old bull and burn it on the altar.  Big bull, big fire, dark quiet night.   Some how Gideon pulls all of this off and leaves.  By the way altars were usually built up high, more visibility.  The men of the city are furious that the altar of their god has been destroyed (even though it specifically belonged to Joash, Gideon’s father).  Obviously someone saw it all go down because they find out Gideon did it.

At this point Joash stands up for Gideon and tells the people that if Baal is mad about the altar let him come and deal with it.  He then changes Gideon’s name to Jerubbaal which means “let Baal fight for himself”.  The author of Judges then jumps back to where the story began.  Remember the Midianites kept raiding the land and the people were hiding out.  Here they come again.  Now Gideon, who up to this point has been quite fearful, blows the horn to call his people to battle.  These are the same people who just wanted to kill him.  We will see in tomorrows reading that it is not because Gideon is past his fears.  The answer is in the fact that “the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon”.   As we will see God will use Gideon to be the next deliverer of His people.  As we have been studying in Sunday Scripture Exploration every person who has put their eternity into Jesus’ hands has the Holy Spirit living in them, permanently. As someone once said, “Being used by God is not about ability but about availability.”  In reality it’s the Holy Spirit who works in and through us (see 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, Acts 1:8, Ephesians 2:10, Philippains 1:6). The question is are we going to be available in spite of our fears.

Lord, really be the lord of my life, the one who runs it.  Help me be a faithful and obedient servant.  Fill me up with your Spirit.  Like Jesus, let me use your word to know what to do.  Help me Lord and thank you.  Let my life be a living sacrifice to you.

Judges 6:1-18.  We have been through 4 deliverers so far.  Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, and Deborah.  Now we come to the fifth and this story is much longer.  In three of the four the people turn from God and he brings people in to oppress them.  They then cry out to God and He brings a savior to the rescue.  In the most recent story we were told that Deborah was a prophetess and that the people would come to her for leadership.  Now in this fifth story we get more details.  First we learn that the people were hiding in caves and making forts for themselves.  We also see that the invaders are destroying and/or stealing their crops.  Also the invaders are using up all of the pasture land to the point that the Israelites had no sheep (meat and milk), no ox (used to plow the fields), and no donkeys (used for transportation).  When verses 6 says that they were “brought very low” I think that is understated.  It was a disaster!  The second way we get more details is when the people cry out.  Always before in the story God sends a savior.  This time though he sends a prophet who reminds them that God has done great things in the past but also reminds them that they keep honoring the false gods around them.  It’s kind of like when you disobey a parent and wind up getting hurt.  You run to them for help and they say, “I told you so.”  I was very good at that.

Next the story returns to the more familiar pattern of God providing a savior.  Even here though there is more detail given.  Today we will just meet the guy.  An angel takes form and sits under a tree in Israel.  The angel is watching a guy named Gideon who is hiding in  a wine press, a pit carved out of rock in a hill side where grapes would be dumped and smashed up into juice.  The juice would run out of the carved hole into another one below it where it would be collected.  By the way in Judges 6:32 we see Gideon’s name changed to Jerubbaal.  Gideon means “hacker or hewer”  like chopping down trees and Jerubbaal means “let Baal contend” (You can learn more about this sort of name changing in “What’s in a Name?”).  Baal was a god of the Canaanite and Midianites. So we find Gideon, the next deliverer, hiding in this pit beating some wheat to separate the seeds from the rest of the plant.  The angel calls him a valiant warrior and tells him God is with him.  This is basically the angel’s way of saying, “Hear all that crying for help?  Tag, you’re it.”  Gideon’s response?  “Sure we used to have a big God but He’s gone now.”  So the angel of the Lord then said, “go in your strength I have sent you.”  Let’s stop here for a minute.  Some Bible scholars believe that the term “angel of the Lord” indicates an appearance of God in angelic form, usually they identify it as God the Son rather than the Father or Holy Spirit.  In other words Jesus taking on a temporary form during these Old Testament appearances before he took on a permanent human form in Mary.  Verses 14 and 16 would tend to support this idea when they say “the Lord looked at him…”  and “the Lord said to him…”  Back to the story.  Next Gideon indicates that his family is too small to fight and he is not the leader of his family.  God then says basically “I’m with you, you could do it alone”.  Gideon still doesn’t give in.  He then asks for a sign.  He tells his visitor that he’s going to go get an offering and then he expects some proof.  So the visitor says he will wait.

It will be interesting to see how this story plays out but already there is some good stuff here.  I like it that God didn’t deliver right away.  The bigger issue for the Israelites was their relationship with God.  Saving them here and now would keep them alive for a while but not for eternity.  Of course I don’t like it when God doesn’t fix my little world right away, but I need to remember that the important part of life relates to eternity.  I think God wants us to have a  good and pleasant life but eternity is much more important, Matthew 16:26; Matthew 6:25-30).  I also like how patient God is.  How many times can one guy say no?  How many times can I say no?

God thank you for your patience.  Thank you for using ordinary people.  God help me respond to you when you send me. Thank you for using me.  Thank you for your power.  Help me hear and do.