Pamela Harms

1. God blessed Gideon and therefore Gideon's influence was positive. 2. The positive effect of Gideon's influence was that he kept Israel strong spiritually and military against invaders in his life time.

1. A snare could be anything that entraps us and takes our focus off worshipping the true God. 2. Israel starts to worship the ephod and Gideon and his family become caretakers of this worshipped object. 3. When we focus and place our attention on something or someone other that God. 4. They worshipped the ephod. 5. Gideon became reedy.

1. Gideon asks for an earring from the plunder. 2. No, Gideon was not wrong to take a reward, as this was the custom in those days to be paid. 3. The sin came in when Gideon made an idol of the gold. Money is not wrong, but when we love it above God then it becomes an idol in our lives.

1. Gideon refuses to be king over Israel because God was their King. 2. The Israelites would be rejecting the Sovereign King who is God, and Gideon would become King over Israel in place of God. 3. The Israelites did not follow God and His laws. They broke their covenant or relationship with God their King.

1. They refused aid to Gideon's army because they did not trust Gideon with his 300 men. They did not have faith in Gideon. They were on the Midianite's side against Gideon. 2. He punishes the cities to show the confidence he had in the success of the strength of God. 3. They did not fear God or recognize Gideon as a man God had raised up to fight the army to save them. 4. Yes Gideon was being just. 5. When God speaks and we do not listen, we will have to bear the consequences of our actions. If we repent, humble ourselves and do what God tells us to do He will forgive.

1. Because they were the kings of the Midianites and would come back to attack Gideon and his men. 2. We leave a door open for the enemy to attack us again. When God instructs us to do something, we are to do it to the best of our ability knowing that God is with us and will help us.

1. Gideon divides his army into three companies so that the enemy will feel as if they are being attacked from all sides. 2. The strategy is that the empty jars hid the torches inside them until the appropriate time to show their lights. When the trumpets sounded, the enemy would think that they are being attacked from all sides. 3. It sounded to the enemy that they were being attacked from all sides, were confused and turned on one another in the camp.

This was an army to fight. God was looking for people who was willing to put the flesh down, be hasty to do what God has called them to do. He wanted hardy people who would rely on Him for their refreshment. "Lappers" drink and go, not thinking of the next drink. Kneelers may tend to take their time, delay the process and procrastinate, being disobedient in the end.

1. Because we doubt that God will come through for us. We doubt that it is God's voice we are hearing. We also do not spend enough time in His presence to know His voice when He speaks, hence we doubt when He does speak. 2. The spiritual danger is that we are being disobedient to God the first time when He speaks. 3. We're afraid of looking foolish and stupid - pride comes in the way. 4. By spending more time in God's presence listening to His voice knowing what we need to do, and then we can seek advice from people whose discernment we can trust as to when and how to go about doing what God has requested us to do.

1. If all of them fought the Midianites, they would boast that they saved themselves instead of God fighting for them. If we try to fight the enemy in our own strength and make our own plans then we do not need to rely on the Lord to help us. Our faith with actions do not need to be tapped into. We need to be in a position that we completely rely and depend on the Lord to bring us through a situation. 2. So that Israel could once again put their trust in God to deliver them, and not in Gideon. It had to look totally impossible for victory when looking at the number of men in Gideon's army to the number if Midianites they had to fight. 3. Gideon could have looked in the natural at the numbers and doubted. He could have been fearful of the Midianites. 4. Because Gideon heard the Midianites speaking of God's triumph, God assured Gideon of help and obeyed God fully after that.

1.If all of them fought the Midianites, they wouldboast that they saved themselves instead of God fighting for them.

1. Gideon puts out a fleece before the Lord for divine assurance that it is God's will. 2. This is a sign of wanting to anchor his faith in the Lord. 3. The sinful testing is trying to manipulate the Lord into doing what we want and not His will. 4. When we are not sure if it is the Lord instructing us to do something or our own minds telling us. 5. The danger of demanding a sign is that we could want to manipulate the Lord into doing our will and not His will.