maria gonzalez

An ephod is a garment worn by priests. Part of it was a breastplate that had stones representing each of the 12 tribes of Israel, if I do not recall wrong about the stones, each stone was different. The garment was made out of white linen. The ephod was held by onyx stones on each shoulder (or one shoulder), if I do not recall wrong; the onyx stone detail may be a more modern part of an ephod, though. The part where the stones were was woven by scarlet and other threads; I am not sure if this is a detail of the high priest ephod, if all the ephods were like this or if a more modern version of the ephod. High priests and priests used to wear this garment. I believe it separated them from the rest of the crowd. The garment was a symbol of holiness. Not everyone could wear one. The bible mentions that David wore an ephod, if I do not recall wrong. I am not sure however why would he wear one being that he was the king of Israel. I would assume it would be because of the lineage he came from, the tribe he came from. I have to study more about this topic. The ephod that Gideon made was too heavy to be worn. I really do not think that the other wearable ephods were as heavy. I find it very interesting that he made such a heavy ephod. I would assume that Gideon had the ephod made for reasons other than to be worn. I would assume it would have been to be put up for everyone to see. Probably his intentions were not idolatry, I do not think his intentions were to make a garment of that weight to be worn either. The people of Israel used the garment for the purpose of taking the place of an idol and adored it as such, becoming idolatrous. It became a snare for them.

I am not sure if asking for the gold altogether was such a good idea. I am not sure if Gideon had in his mind already to do what he did, an ephod made out of gold. I am not even sure if the Israelites started to worship on their own of if Gideon's family started it out. It became a trap of idolatry. It was the perfect trap, use something that is used to be worn to worship God, to use as an idol. It is a trap we sometimes as Christians fall into. Am I really doing this for God or for a ministry or the church or people? Recently I have been thinking about that issue, why do I do the things I do? What takes me to do what I do? The ephod was supposed to be worn, were Gideon's intentions for anyone to wear it? I am a bit unsure about Gideons intentions altogether.

A judge is someone who lets God be the king. Gideon knew what was his purpose, a judge and not a king. Israel's king was God and not Gideon and it was Gideon who reminded the Israelites who was the king of Israel. Becoming the king of Israel is treason because it's to try to steal God's ruling over the people of Israel. Only if God had approved of a king then it wouldn't be treason. It is lack of obedience toward God more than anything else. The people of Israel wanted to have a king because they had forgotten all about God and his will over them. They needed to come back, to remember about obedience.

A snare is a trap, something we do not see, the ephod was a snare because he and his family fell for it, why? it was not viewed as sin, is was viewed as something to worship God. An ephod is not supposed to be used for the purpose of worship, but to be worn with a purpose. It was given the wrong purpose. It was worshipped, the perfect trap for people who were starting to come back to God. Not seeing a sin as a sin does not make it right. It is still a sin. In essence the sin was adultery, the Israelites were led by Gideon to practice idolatry.

Spiritual unfaithfuness is looked at as prostitution because our relationship with God is compared to marriage. Spiritual concepts are compared to material ones in order for us to have a better understanding of the spiritual world. If our relationship with God is compared to marriage, then affairs out of it is compared with adultery and prostitution. Leaving God for other things makes us have relationships out of our "marriage" or relationship with God. The analogy depicted here is the one of marriage, a contract of respect and love. It is a life contract. Adultery is any type of thing we have more love or respect than God, it could be a person, a job, even a ministry or even our own selves and what we think of ourselves. Spiritual adultery is not believing what God has for us because we think our own opinion is better than God or because we just doubt God could do something with us. We worship more our opinion than God's own plan I firmly believe that is a type of adultery. One that many of us face today. Another type of adultery is to put a job or a person in the first place. My time, my work, my thoughts, my best goes toward a person or a job, God receives very little or nothing. That is another type of spiritual adultery.

The land enjoyed peace for forty years as Gideon was the judge of Israel. On verse 27 of chapter 8 tells us how Gideon did not always help out the Israelites in serving God. It tells about Gideon making an ephod that the Israelites adored. This tells about how the Israelites looked up to Gideon and followed him even when he did not make a right decision.

The soldiers were not helped or fed because the Israelites living in these cities were not sure that God would deliver them from the Midianites through these soldiers and Gideon. These cities, Succoth and Peniel were afraid of what the Midianites would do to them if they learned that they had helped Gideon and his soldiers to fight against them. They doubted God's power. As Christians today we can compare ourselves to these cities when we doubt the purpose of God in someone's life. People who have a definite purpose in God request our help: offering, help, etc..., sometimes we do not listen to them, usually because we doubt what God could do through them. I do not think it was necessary for Gideon to punish the people who did not help the army. I think he needed to help them understand God's main purpose was for the Israelites to renew their faith in God.

It was not unjust to kill the two men that Gideon killed because he had an obligation. Today we need to let God take care of vengeance himself. I try to remember Christ's dead on the cross, he died forgiving unjust people, he even forgave the people who put him to death, he sees all of our weakness and yet gives opportunities for repentance. There is a time for judgment, and when that time arrives, it is Gode's time for vengeance and not ours. I believe that unjust people bring to themselves many consequences and think they will never face those consequences. My concern is to know I need to walk in love and forgiveness and that God will take care of my enemies.

There are times where making an important decision could affect our entire lives, in those times we need to ask for direction of God. I myself ask God to lead all my ways because life brings so many things and I haven't always made the right decisions. Guidance is important all the time. Signs is a very delicate matter. We should not over do it. I ask for confirmation of God but I do not ask for specific signs like Gideon did. I think we should rather ask for confirmation. I think God can confirm in his own time when is best for us.

God made it very irrational for them,300 men is quite a ludicrous idea for us to believe would destroy such a big army. When we doubt ourselves it brings us to think of something higher that will help us. 300 hundred men couldn't do it, there is doubt, God will do it, that is faith. Even if the Israelites doubted Gideon, even if part of the army had doubts, at the end it showed how God did it and not men. The purpose of such a small army and such tactics was to have faith that God does things his way, in this case a small army and tactics that for humans were not rational. There was no reason for the Israelites or Gideon to doubt God had delivered them from the Medianites. The main purpose of the small amount of men was for the Israelites to have faith.

I have thought about obedience vs what people think of us. There have been times where I have prayed and received confirmation to do something that in my opinion makes no sense, and in other people's opinion is just not a well thought made decision. I have seen God's blessings, there are times where patience is a key, I need to wait, at times a very long time and endure comments, at the end I "see"/feel how God has blessed me in a great way. Obedience does not come from rationality. It does not make sense to us at times. It just means we believe to do God's will over our own rationality, our own self, what we know and what we think is best for us. It is to listen to God over our own self, to forget about us and think of God. We demand from God to be rational because we are afraid of what people may think of us, we are afraid of rejection.

It is very interesting to analyze why would God only select the ones that lapped and not the ones that knelt to drink the water. It was a decision made from God to choose the ones who "licked" the water, I often wonder if there was a matter of "heart" issue in it, something God knew about them that the human eye could not see. I sometimes think God touched these men to drink the water the way they did. I know that 300 did lick the water and fought against the Midianites; Did God really touch them to drink water in this way? Did some who were touched by God disobey? I am only sure about the number, the Israelites needed to be outnumbered because God wanted to show the Israelites it was not their own strength that saved them but God himself who had mercy on them.

A loaf of bread cannot destroy the Midianite camp; God's power could, the power of God over the loaf of bread -Gideon and his army- could defeat the Midianites. God showed the meaning of this dream so Gideon would have more reassurance of how God was going to fulfill his plan in him, to free the Israelites from the Midianites.

I believe the first sign God answered was more than enough for Gideon to believe. Sometimes we need reassurance and ask God for more signs to be answered because we just cannot believe God's purpose in our lives. There was doubt in Gideon. It was a great task to be done, he had to help the Israelites be free, he had to do it under God's intervention and not by his own strength, that made him doubt. Gideon was not trying to satisfy his own selfish needs, he needed to be reassured of his task. When Gideon turned to God for reassurance it demonstrated he trusted in God but when he asked a second time he showed lack of faith of what God could do through him. His intentions were not to test God but to be reassured. On verse 36 of chapter 6, Gideon days: "If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said," (King James Version) I truly believe he had doubts, he just needed to be assured of what God could do through him, he knew and believed God could do great things, he knew and believed God had spoken to him but he had doubts about himself.

Sometimes, we set for ourselves all the wrong priorities. God is first. The first commandment calls us to obey and love God above all things. Honoring our parents comes after commandment number one. Respect to our parents is taught primarily from God's Word. The family values come as a result God's intervention with humanity. The first priority in our lives is to honor God. There are times that we are confronted with making decisions in order for us to determine what is the most important thing in our lives. Trials are a hard time for us at times. I could imagine Gideon, probably thinking about his circumstances, probably about if I do .....then ........, what if ..........then....., and then I just see him remembering God's intervention in his own life; Gideon would actually decide to obey God. God showed to Gideon who he was, he was still trying to save the Israelites despite their unfaithfulness.