Judges 6

Judges 6

"And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel: and because of the Midianites the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and caves, and strong holds.

And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east, even they came up against them; And they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, till thou come unto Gaza, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass. For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for multitude; for both they and their camels were without number: and they entered into the land to destroy it. And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; and the children of Israel cried unto

the LORD." Judges 6:1-6

Here we see that once again the Israelites had sinned against the Lord and He had delivered them into the hands of one of their enemies; in this instance, the Midianites. The Lord obviously wanted to get the Israelites' attention this time, as the Midianites were a very destructful people.

It says in verse 5, that they and their camels were without number. In verse 6 it says that the Israelites were very impovershed because of the Midianites, and they cried to the Lord. So, the Lord sent a prophet to them, and he reminded them of all the great things that the Lord had done for His people. How He had brought them out of Egypt, and saved them again and again from their enemies. And He said that He would save them again. He sent an angel to a man named Gideon, who was threshing wheat underground in a winepress, so the Midianites wouldn't steal it from him and his family. The angel came and told Gideon to not be afraid, that the Lord had called him to be a leader for Israel and attack and drive the Midianites out of the land. The angel called him a mighty man of valor; but Gideon wasn't very high up on himself. He certainly didn't think of himself as being very important, and he certainly didn't feel like a commanding an army. And he told the angel of the Lord so. He said that his family was poor, and that he was the least in his father's house. To his thinking, it couldn't get any worse than that. The Lord couldn't really use him, could He?

But the angel once again assured him that the Lord did want to use him. So, Gideon asked the angel if he could make him a gift. He cooked up a goat and made some cakes, and the angel told him to lay them out on the rock. He did so, and the angel touched the end of his staff to the rock, and fire rose up out of the rock by the power of the Lord and consumed the offering. The Lord then told him to destroy his father's altar to Baal, and set up an altar to the Lord there instead of the altar to Baal. So Gideon did as the Lord commanded, and it would not be long before the Lord gave him another mission: to drive the Midianites out of the land.

Am I faithful like Gideon to follow the Lord and obey Him explicitly?

Do I love Him with my whole heart, or are there altars to other things set up in my life?