bjcollin

Howdy, My name is Brian Collins. I live with my wife and 10 yo son in Plano Texas which is NE of Dallas. I was originally part of the very first JesusWalk online studies many years ago, but have been absent due to life and ministry happenings these last few years. It is good to be back in another JesusWalk online Bible study. Thank you Dr. Ralph Wilson for all you do in behalf of the online community for Jesus Christ. I look forward to a great study. in Christ, Brian Collins http://www.restorationoffaith.com/

Gideon showed God's power in action taking a stand for God against both baal and against the Midianites. Gideon influenced Israel in his life by turning them back towards God and away from other influences. The positive continuing effect of his leadership as judge is that the people stay with God until his death. (8:33)

Spiritual unfaithfulness is prostitution or adultery because as Jews/Christians we are joined with God as His bride and to leave Him for another is sin. The concept is that God created us and desires to have a relationship with us, but we all like sheep have gone astray. The spiritual adultery that I have faced in the past is idolizing pastors and other gifted leaders in the church and looking to them for access to God instead of looking to God in my own relationship with Him.

A snare is a trap. It shares them into the sin of idolotary which is breaking the first commandment. The essence of the sin for the Israelites was that they were worshiping something other than God whether it be the baals or the new ephod idol that Gideon set up. The essence of Gideon's sin is that he creates the graven image and allows it to be worshiped. He could have at any time just retired off of his spoils of war and destroyed the image, but he chose to leave it to be worshiped instead of God.

The Strongs Meaning of the word: 646 'ephowd {ay-fode'} rarely 'ephod {ay-fode'} probably of foreign derivation; TWOT - 142.1a; n m AV - ephod 49; 49 1) ephod 1a) priestly garment, shoulder-cape or mantle, outer garment 1a1) worn by an ordinary priest and made of white stuff 1a2) worn by the high priest - more costly, woven of gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and linen threads provided with shoulder-pieces and a breast piece of like material, ornamented with gems and gold As was pointed out in the post that references the Jewish dictionary, there is some debate as the word clearly has more than one meaning as reference to an object. In some places it refered to the gold breastplate with stones on it that the high priest wore to help communicate with God. At any rate, it is an item made of gold, and it was something that he Israelites bowed down and worshiped to instead of God.

Gideon asks for gold earings which was a small portion of each man's spoils of war. Gold today is trading around $355/toz which Gideon's 19.5 kg (1kg = 32.15toz) would be worth about $222,558 today. I don't think that Gideon was wrong to take a portion of the spoils of war, but he was wrong in what he did with it. The sin begain when he decided to make what turned out to be an idol with the gold.

Gideon refuses to be king over Israel because the Lord will rule over Israel. Becoming a king would be treason because it would be exaulting himself over others and instead of the Lord as the rightful ruler. The Israelites didn't see it as treason because they didn't recognize any other ruler over them except for the Midianites and they had been vanquished at the hand of Gideon. This in their mind set Gideon as their ruler, not the Lord who was the real ruler. How blind they were.

Gideon slays Zebah and Zalmunna because they killed his brothers. In one sense Gideon is just in that God had given the whole Midianite camp in to his hand and here were the two Midianite kings finally in Gideon's hand. Also, these two kings had also killed his brothers which was a crime deserving of death. Gideon first orders his oldest son Jether to slay Zebah and Zalmunna, but he can't do it. The two Midianite kings then say 'As is the man, so is his strength.' Which means that as men we are only as strong as what we will do ourselves. Gideon then carries out the killing of Zebah and Zalmunna. In Romans 12:19, Christians are prohibited from taking vengeance because vengeance belongs solely to the Lord and it is not a loving attitude as Christ would have us portrait.

The cities of Succoth and Peniel refuse to aid Gideon's army because they know that he had already defeated the 120,000 army which were the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna the Midianite leaders. What more could Midian possibly do now? Why not let the two kings Zebah and Zalmunna and their measly remant 15,000 army live? Because Gideon had been given all of them. Succoth and Peniel were in essence protecting the enemy Midianite kings by refusing to render aid to their own brothers. The sin of Succoth and Peniel is refusal to give aid to their own brethern and refusal to assist in removing evil. I don't see the fear factor here in Succoth and Peniel as was presented in the exposition and in other posts here. I think the motivation is more of a "we don't want to get involved" active omission attitude and also an attitude of "haven't they had enough?" so we are going to punish you and control you by not rendering aid. Gideon is just under the Law to punish these cities. We as Christians are guilty of this sin every time we refuse to render needed aid to other Christians in need just because we don't agree with what they are doing or how they are doing it. I can also think of a few countries in this last Gulf War which carried these same attitudes, but I won't get into that here.

God had given the whole camp (7:14) into Gideon's hand, not just the 120,000 that had fallen so far. The whole 135,000 were to be vanquished, which left 15,000 to go. The danger we face is that when not dealing with the total problem is that it could come back to bite us again and again.

(See the maps at http://www.biblestudy.org/maps/12-tribes-i...israel-map.html and http://www.biblestudy.org/maps/paljudge.html ) Gideon had only called his neighbors to the north of the Jezreel valley and his own tribe which was around the Jezreel valley. In other words, he only called the closest neighbors. The tribes he called were Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali (6:34). Ephraim was his neighbors to the south in the hill country which is just north of Jerusalem. The fleeing Midianite army went south out of the Jezreel valley following the river Jordan and then turned east crossing the river Jordan and headed through the river valley toward Succoth and Peniel. This makes perfect sense if you are fleeing and want to meet up with the armies of the eastern peoples (8:10). Gideon asks the Ephraimites to hold their southern lands up to a certain point on the river Jordan, which forces the fleeing army to cross the river Jordan and turn east. The Ephraimites are angry because Gideon didn't call them in the first place to help him defeat the Midianites. Gideon tells the Ephraimites that their weakest harvest is better than his tribes best harvest which calms them down. In other words, you are so blessed so why be angry with me since I am not as blessed as you are. I learned that if we show God's blessings, the arrogance seems less desireable to hold on to.

Gideon divided the men into three companies of 100 men each to totally surround the Midianite camp. The strategy with the trumpets and empty jars and torches is a sudden surprise which puts the Midianites into a mass confusion and they begin slaying each other. The strategy worked because the Lord caused it to work (v22).

The eye, the hand, the foot, and the ear all serve very different functions in the body, but they should all love each other and work together because they are all parts of the same body. This kind of love will produce actions of giving up of ourselves for each other and feeding and careing for each other. We need to repent because we have been in sin and we need to start to do right actions.

The Holy Spirit washes us and clenses us through the Word to present us back to Jesus as radiant. This is an ongoing action, so it is both present and future when Christ comes back for His bride the church. I determine this because the language is in present tense. Christ sees us as His perfect bride both now and in the future, but we are still in the process of getting there in the present.

I think that God has used this "Vision for the Church" Bible study to help teach me more about Himself and about true compassion for the church which is His bride. Personally I need to work on compassion toward others and to see the church as God sees the church. This study has also helped me to more fully understand my position in Christ and where we stand in the heavenlies with Him.