JanSumi

We are citizens of Israel, which are God's people chosen by and set aside for Him. We have been grafted into the tree, which is Israel. The Israelites are God's holy, sacred people, set aside for Him and to serve Him. So when we are saved, we become part of His chosen people.

Access to the Father is important in order to truly have a relationship with Him (and with others in the Church). Without that relationship, we cannot be with God, in His presence. We have no salvation and forever are separated from Him. It is like having a diplomatic relationship because, I guess, we must "get along" with God, must have permission to come before Him, but this can't happen without dealing with our sin, which separates us from Him. Jesus provides this access for us, by having paid the price for our sins so we can approach God and dwell forever in His Presence. This fulfills the two greatest commandments because without Jesus and His payment for our sin and without the Holy Spirit indwelling us, we cannot possibly and truly love God with all our heart, soul, and mind and we could not possibly love our neighbors. This is only possible through God. And that is our purpose now and throughout eternity, to love God with everything that we are and to love everyone else with His love.

God's power is in the church as His Spirit dwells within us and we are seated with Him in heaven in victory. His power in us is immeasurable, "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine." In fact, it can't be quantitatively measured, but it is much more than we ever ask for or even could because I don't think our faith can comprehend how much power God can and is willing to work through us. Actually, I think for most of us, we don't imagine God working miracles through us. Yet, I'm beginning to believe that no matter the size of our faith, if we step out in obedience to whatever He is asking of us, He will do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine through us. Like with Gideon, He understands our weaknesses, but if we trust and obey Him, He will do more through us than we can presently imagine. We will see His power at work for His glory and renown. Exercising God's great power brings glory to God because His power, which resides in us, is to fulfill HIS purposes, which are to glorify Him and point people to Him and His great love.

Christ is "head over everything for the church." This means that God has given His Son for us. He is our "head," and yet He was given for us (our salvation from sin and so much more!) and given to us to be full of Christ. We don't represent and reflect ourselves. We represent and reflect Jesus. That is why Jesus had to die, to be victorious over sin, our sin, so that we, the church, could be full of Him, who is perfect and full of all power. If we are Jesus to the world because we are full of Him, then His power dwells in us, and He means us to access His power to accomplish His purposes. He is using us to bring others to Him!

I often pray for God to set my mind on things above, on heaven and eternity, on Jesus on His throne sitting at the right hand of the Father. Sometimes, I remind myself that the work Jesus came to do on earth is finished to lift my mind from the myriad problems of this world. He has been victorious over all. But this verse that says that "God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms" blows my mind. I think of myself as here on earth, and Jesus is "up there." I know His Spirit resides in me, but according to that verse, I am also "with Jesus Christ" where He sits in all authority and power over everyone and everything. Everything is under His feet! It's hard to grasp, I guess, a mystery, but this means that NOTHING holds power over me because I am in Christ. Everything is under my feet as well. Rather than cowering in a corner or feeling defeated, I am actually victorious already in every situation, problem, battle. I need only believe that and walk in trust and obedience to my Savior. I don't need to be afraid of anything. Not only that, but I can accomplish (in and through Him) whatever He directs me to do - truly!

If Christ's Spirit and power is in the Ephesian believers and Jesus is ruler over all, including other spirits, then these spirits have no control or power over the Ephesians believers because Christ lives in them. They had no reason to fear these spirits or certainly to submit to them. They were Gentiles, so they may have truly believed these spirits existed and had power over them. Also, Jesus cast out demons. I'm not sure that even we - not just the Ephesians - realize the power and authority of God that resides in us. We are to do as Jesus did, because He lives within us and desires to work through us. I just wonder if we acted in obedience and faith what kingdom miracles God would work through us, not only in our lives but of those around us.

Paul prays that God would open their eyes because only the Holy Spirit can do this. In our carnal nature, we cannot see God's truth. We cannot see as He sees. Our sight is darkened by sin and the world. We must see His truth through the eyes and understanding of His Spirit. This comes through prayer (and others' prayers for us) and meditating on His Word. I believe that His power is directed to us and in us according to verse 19. We will see His power operate in our lives but also in and through us in others' lives. The example Paul uses of the level and type of this power is the power God used in the resurrection of Jesus, to raise Him to life from death! This is why Jesus said we would do as He did and greater things.

Gideon influences the Israelites by being the instrument God uses to deliver them from the Midianites so that the latter are so weakened that they never bother Israel again. He delivers them from that oppression. He also tears down the altars to Baal and returns Israel to worship of their true God though he takes a misstep by creating the ephod. Still, the Israelites' worship is directed towards God even if obliquely. That is positive. However, I wonder if the ephod made it easier for Israelites to turn back to worshipping idols after Gideon dies.

A "snare" is something that traps people unknowingly either because people are unaware that it is a trap or they pridefully believe they can't be trapped by it. The ephod is a snare because the Israelites probably saw themselves as worshipping God since the ephod was made from gold taken from the conquered Midianites. God's Word says not to worship any created image, and this shows why. Even if the image is meant to remind us of God, we end up putting faith in the image itself, even believing it to have powers that it doesn't, believing it will provide hope that it can't. We go to that object rather than God Himself. It is merely an object. It can't give us anything. It can't love us. It can't give us eternal hope and salvation. In this life, we can't see the Lord, and yet we are called to have faith in what we can't see, in Who we can't see, faith beyond what this world presents to us, faith in eternity and eternal life with Jesus. When we put our eyes on anything or anyone here, we are taking our eyes off of the one who sits on the throne in heaven at the right hand of God. That is the Israelites' sin, placing their faith in something or someone besides God. Gideon's sin was creating that snare that would lead them astray. Something can be a sin even if we don't see it as such because sin is sin. Whether something goes against God's will for us is not relative. It doesn't depend on what we see or understand or desire or even believe as "right or wrong." It depends on what God says is truth. I remember an analogy someone once used (for something else). If you go over the speed limit, you're still breaking the law even if you didn't correctly know the speed limit. Your ignorance doesn't give you a free pass. Likewise, whether we're aware of God's law or not, when we break His commands, we are still guilty of sin, but thanks be to God for His Son Jesus Christ because every one of us is guilty of sin.

Spiritual unfaithfulness is looked at as adultery or prostitution because our devotion is meant to be wholly to God, which is why we are thought of as the bride of Christ, and the Israelites were Yahweh's betrothed. Just as we/they desire to lift up an individual in near worship or to place our faith in, likewise, the Israelites were looking for something to worship and place their faith in besides God, or they were looking for something to replace Him. This brings back memories of the golden calf. Whether Gideon meant for this to happen or not, I think it's dangerous to create anything (or anyone) that we could end up misplacing our faith in. Gideon was only the instrument. The Israelites eyes and hope and faith should have been on God, not Gideon or any "symbol" like the ephod. Today, spiritual unfaithfulness is when we put anything or anyone before our commitment and devotion to the Lord, when we place our hopes and desires in anyone or anything but God Himself. It could be something or someone we turn to to provide hope for us, or to fill that emptiness or longing within us, whether that is food, entertainment, money, work, or a leader or loved one. The Lord desires to fill that longing and meet our needs - not just material needs, but spiritual and emotional as well. He wants to be our all and our faith to be in Him alone.

Gideon asked for one gold earring from each of them. As this was the way soldiers were paid back then, I don't think what he did was wrong. I could see him asking for nothing in return as he was simply obeying God and serving Him.

Gideon does not accept the kingship over Israel because Israel already has a king, God Himself. This relationship of King and His vassal was established in the initial covenant between God and Israel after He delivered them from Egypt. As an Israelite, accepting the kingship would be treason against God, who is King over Israel and Gideon's king. The Israelites failed to see this as treason maybe because they couldn't physically see God, and thus, it was harder to put their faith entirely in Him and too easy to forget Him and their covenant with Him. In the same way, they failed to see that the One who won the battle against the Midianites was not Gideon, but God. Gideon was just God's instrument. I guess, to understand this, we would need to understand and be honest with ourselves about why we constantly lift people up as great, almost to the point of worship. We want to do this. It is all over society. Does it come back to Adam and Eve's first sin, that of pride and desiring to lift up ourselves rather than give all the glory to God? Also, for some reason, we want to, almost have a need to put our faith in a person rather than in God. Maybe it all comes down to the possibility that our faith in God isn't as strong as we would like to believe. And if we're not putting our trust in God, well, we have to put our trust in someone, either ourselves or someone else. I've realized something though. It's that we don't fully realize how complete and fulfilling God's love is for us. We're looking for love and don't really realize how completely and without condition He loves us. He loves each of us for who we are. This can be one reason why we lift others up, usually believing them to be more than they really are. Even from afar we see that person as someone who could love and value us when the only One who can completely and truly is God. He fills that need for love, our desire to be recognized, loved, and valued for who we are. And that's what He wants us to know.

Gideon slays the Midianite leaders because they killed Gideon's own brothers and back then, it was expected that one should seek vengeance for the deaths of family members. In those times, he was just in his actions. The Law itself states that if someone murders another on purpose, that person should be put to death and by the person avenging the murdered individual's death. However, today, Romans 12:19 prohibits us from taking vengeance because it is God who will do so as He sees fit. Romans 12:19 says that God will repay for the wrong. Instead, we are to get rid of our anger and do the very opposite of vengeance: feed and give drink to our enemy if that's what is needed, to meet our enemies' need ... just as our Lord, Jesus, did.

I actually am not sure why they refused to aid Gideon and his army. It doesn't seem like providing bread is too great of a sacrifice, and aiding Gideon in completely defeating the Midianites would seem to benefit them as well. All I can think of is that they were hedging their bets, afraid of helping Gideon in case he failed and the Midianites returned to exact retribution. It could also be pride, though I don't understand how pride would lead to such a decision. Yet in life, we see many instances of people having a chance to aid others, but they don't. I think that's usually because of some personal agenda. Gideon punishes them because they are going against what's expected of fellow Israelites. I don't know if it's in the Law, but I would expect God desires them to be hospitable and charitable to each other. I think Gideon is just in exacting punishment, but his punishment seems rather harsh, especially destroying the tower that protects the people. Whenever a Christian is met with another's need, but refuses to help, that is the same sin.

Gideon must vanquish the entire army, I'm assuming, because, otherwise, they will have enough soldiers to build up into another army and return. Also, by conquering the entire army, Gideon instills such fear in them that they're unlikely to return and attack again. If we only deal with problems halfway, the problem is not solved and can cause further problems in the future.