mairead

5. How does Gideon influence Israel during his life? (8:28-35) What is the positive continuing effect of his leadership as judge? He keeps Israel strong enough both spiritually and militarily tah they are not troubled by invaders during his lifetime.

4. Why is spiritual unfaithfulness looked at as prostitution or adultery? (8:24-27) What is the concept of God's relationship to his people, which underlies this analogy? What kinds of temptations to spiritual adultery do you face today? (This is not a place to dump on denominations or sects, but to examine your own personal temptations to spiritual adultery.) In the bible Israel is spoken of as Gods wife, like the church is pictured as the bride of Christ. When Gods people worship another god this amounts to spiritual adultery. I face many temptations today, to be like the world and buy into the you must stay young looking, the need for money and the need for a job can draw my focus away from god and allow the devil to pull me down. Of course I need a job but I need to stay careful and not let the worry of it cloud my mind and take my focus off God.

3. What is a snare? In what way does Gideon's ephod ensnare his family and the people of Israel? (8:24-27) How can something be a sin if we don't see it as a sin? What was the essence of the sin the Israelites committed? What is the essence of Gideon's sin? A snare is a trap. The people started to worship the ephod as an idol. His family who used to serve God after Gideon had helped them to chose were now taking care of this golden ephod instead of concentrating on God. The love or need for money or any other thing that takes our mind from the will of God can be a hidden sin. Many cathedrals in Europe have been built from the offerings of worshippers who came to view and pray before the bones and relics of the saints. In the same way as Gideon's ephod, they became the focus of worship rather than the invisible God himself. Maintaining and beautifying a church building has become the focus of many a church's energy rather than real worship and obedience to the Great Commission. Holy things need not be evil in and of themselves. But they can become snares unless we guard against this very real possibility.

2. What is an ephod? (8:24-27) What might the gold ephod have looked like? An ephod was a garment worn by priests over their chests. It was considered holy.

1. What does Gideon ask for his reward? (8:24-27) Was Gideon wrong to take a reward? Where did the sin begin? That each of them gives an earring from their share of the plunder. Gideon should have waited for God to reward and not work out his own worth. The sin began then, right at the very minute that he uttered the words, God would have rewarded him in a way that would have not caused such trouble later on.

1. Why does Gideon refuse to be king over Israel? (8:22-23) In what sense would becoming king be treason? Why didn't the Israelites see bestowing kingship as treason? The people wanted to make Gideon their king but Gideon refused as he said that the Lord was to rule over them. The Israelites said that Gideon had saved them but Gideon put them back on the right track. The people had made God their king at the base of Mt. Sinai and it would be treason for anyone else to take over. However the Israelites had forgotten this and wanted a great man as their leader

Gideon kills Zebah and Zalmunna because they killed his brothers prior to this. He is fulfilling his obligation of the times when murderers were put to death. However this no longer applies as God says we do not take revenge. It is Gods to take revenge on our behalf and dispense judgement.

The cities refuse him aid because they were afraid of the revenge that the Midianites would put on them when Gideon failed. Gideon punishes them later because he needs to concentrate on the problem in hand and kill all the Midianites first. Their sin is to commit a terrible breach of hospitality to their own kinsman and a grave sin against god of the covenant. They showed no faith or respect for God or the man that god had chosen to save them. We need to brave and help others because it is right not because it will benefit us personally. How many times do we walk away and say its up to other people to help. We can do something very powerful we can pray for the situation even if we cannot help financially.

Gideon destroys the Midianite force at Karkor in order to protect his people from future incursions. We must deal with problems 100% to completely defeat them or they will come back against us stronger than ever. We need to be single minded and not be distracted. I am afraid I am very easily distracted and it is one of my huge weaknesses.

Gideon asked the Ephraimites to block waters of Jordan so the Midianites could not get across and to capture any of the left over enemies. They are angry because they have felt left out that Gideon did not ask them to join in all the battle but expected them to do his clean up operation. Gideon is very diplomatic with them and assures them that their contribution was even greater that his own. He smoothes their feathers with praise. Not every job that is important has to be in the front line or highly visible.

Gideon divided his army into three companies in order to trick the army into thinking that they were surrounded on all sides. The trumpets were used in battle to sound different orders. There would be one trumpet per company. When the enemy hears 300 trumpets they think that there is a huge army attacking. The empty jars were to hide the light of the torches until the right time and when they were broken the caused a huge noise that further confused the enemy. When the torches suddenly appeared all around their camp they increased the enemies fear that they were surrounded and caused further panic. The Midianites panicked and killed each other in the dark and the confusion. The rest fled. God was with Gideon and his men.

The rolling barley loaf meant (1) barley was not as valuable as wheat and was considered as inferior, in the same way Israel

none

God felt Gideons army was too large in that if they won the fight with all these men they would take all the credit but if they won with only a handful of men they would have to give God the credit as it would not have been humanly possible. This brought their faith wholly on god and have them committed just to Him. Gideon would have been afraid and embarrassed to have to carry out this command. The men would laugh at him and maybe even leave him and treat him as a mad man. He is new to all this and has not had time to prove himself to the men. His pride in wanting to be the main man and march out with a huge army ready to serve him, what a sense of power this must create. Gideon obeyed God fully by learning the two lessons from God (1) God is directing him- the fleeces (2) Gideon obeys even when he does not understand.

Fear often makes us wait until we can make sense out of the plan that God is planning for us. We can start to become self-sufficient and can cause us to believe that we Cn do things for ourselves and that we don