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Q2. (John 5:28-29; Acts 24:15) Q. According to scripture, both the righteous and unrighteous will experience resurrection. What will be the result of resurrection for the righteous? A. The righteous will rise to life eternal as a reward.

I have realised that I have hitherto donr this lesson and feel I don't have repeat it

Q5. (Judges 8:28-31) How does Gideon influence Israel during his life? What is the positive continuing effect of his leadership as judge? A. God bless Israel with peace as their enemies did not rise against them during the period Gideon reigned as a judge

Q4. (Judges 8:24-27) Q. What is a snare? A. A trap Q. In what way does Gideon's ephod ensnare his family and the people of Israel? A. It attracted them away from the worship of the true unseen God Q. How can something be a sin if we don't see it as a sin? A. A sin is a sin whether we see it as such or not Q. What was the essence of the sin the Israelites committed? What is the essence of Gideon's sin? A. There is English grammar here that I am not sure I understand the meaning

Q3. (Judges 8:24-27) Q. Why is spiritual unfaithfulness looked at as prostitution or adultery? A. Idolatry is pictured as wife turning her love to another man which is sin just like adultery is is sin. Q. What is the concept of God's relationship to his people which underlies this analogy? A. God is the husband of His children- the Israelites in the old Testament just as Jesus is the husband of the church. Thus turning to idolatry is turning away from the actual husband of the church, Jesus Christ and is prostitution, thus a sin. Q. 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.) A. Any thing that take our attention away from God such as spending most or all our time looking for money, watching TV, etc are some of the present day idolatry that affects me too. Lord have mercy and deliver us.

Q2. (Judges 8:24-27) Q. What does Gideon ask for his reward? A. He asked for golden ear rings Q. Was Gideon wrong to take a reward? A. No. It depends on what he did wit it. Q. Where did the sin begin? A. When the gold was turned to an ehpod that was worshipped by Israel, a sin against God.

Q1. (Judges 8:22-23) Q. Why does Gideon refuse to be king over Israel? A. He rightly told his people that it was God that should be their King and Ruler over them. This was why he refused to accept their offer. Q. In what sense would becoming king be treason? A. The covenant terms expected to have only one king, the Lord God Almighty, thus any other mortal that takes the position does that in rebellion and treason which attracts sanctions. Q. Why didn't the Israelites see bestowing kingship as treason? A. I think they could only see Gideon and his physical acts of planning and executing the successful battle against the Medianites and thus could not see anything wrong making him king against the Divine covenant prohibition.

Q5. (Judges 8:18-21) Q. Why does Gideon slay Zebah and Zalmunna? A. As a revenge for killing his blood brothers at a previous incidence. Q. Is he unjust or fulfilling his just obligation? (Numbers 35:16) Why does Romans 12:19 prohibit Christians from taking vengeance? A. As an Old Testament person, Gideon was not unjust as he was just fulfilling the legal injunction of that time. The Lord Jesus Christ came and instructed that there would be no longer an eye for an eye because God is the One who would revenge all atrocities for the Christian.

Q4. (Judges 8:4-17) Q. Why do the cities of Succoth and Peniel refuse aid to Gideon's army? A. They played it safe so that they did risk being punished by the Midianites if Gideon failed to capture the fleeing kings and their soldiers. Q. Why does Gideon punish these cities later? Q. What is their sin? A. Not giving hospitality to their hungry brothers and sinning against the Lord God Who spearheaded the battle. Q. Is Gideon just? A. Yes though the punishment was hash. Q. Can you think of a circumstance when a Christian might be guilty of the sin of Succoth and Peniel? A. When one fails support cause for mission/ evangelism or the needy when having the ability to do so

Q3. (Judges 8:10-12) Q. Why must Gideon vanquish the Midianite force of 15,000 men in Karkor? A. So as to ensure total victory that will stop the Midianites from attacking the Israelites. Q. What danger do we face when we deal with problems only half-way? A. The problems will reoccur/resurface in full force.

Q2. (Judges 7:24-8:3) Q. What does Gideon ask the Ephraimites to do? A. To come and join him route the fleeing Midianites soldiers at strategic points of the Jordan river. Q. Why are they so angry? A. Because Gideon did not involve them at the initial stages of the war. Q. What do you learn from Gideon's approach to the Ephraimites' arrogance? A. Wisdom and humility is the answer and way to peace

Q1. (Judges 7:16-22) Q. Why does Gideon divide his army into three companies? A. For strategy so that 300 (three hundred) soldiers will spread round the huge army of the enemy given the enemy of a large military surrounding them. Q. What is the strategy with the trumpets, the empty jars, and the torches? A. This is another strategy to cause fear to the enemy because of the combination of the different sounds and lightening wil create an impression that they were surrounded by a huge army. Q. Why did this strategy work? A. It worked because it was destined to work as ordained by God for the desired victory.

Q6. (Judges 7:13-14) Q. What does the rolling barley loaf mean in the Midianite's dream? A. It means the mighty arm of God through Gideon inflicting a mighty defeat of the enemy forces. Q. Why does the Lord show Gideon this dream? A. To encourage him.

Q5. (Judges 7:5-6) Q. What significance, if any, do you see in selecting the "lappers" from the "kneelers"? A. Selecting lappers from kneelers might have not made sense to the human mind yet, it was the directive given by God and it served to achieve the purpose of trimming down the number of the soldiers to a smaller number.

Q4. Q. Why do we demand that God's directions make sense to us before we'll follow them? A. Because humanly, we can’t see clearly the paths He want us to follow and our faith is not strong enough to take His instructions by faith Q. What's the spiritual danger here? A. Our weak faith. We need to pray to God to increase our faith. Q. We're afraid of being -- or being perceived as -- religious kooks. How can we balance blind obedience with getting confirmation through spiritual people whose discernment we trust? A. By seeking the leadership of the Holy Spirit, our counsellor and source of wisdom. We can also pray for God to increase our faith even as we seek the counsel of experienced members of the church.

Q3. (Judges 7:1-3) Q. Why did God feel Gideon's army was too large? A. So that the Israelites will not attribute their victory to their number Q. Why was shrinking the army's size to a tiny band essential in restoring Israel's faith and allegiance? A. To know that victory was God’s enablement and thus the need to trust and obey such a God. Q. What kinds of pressures would Gideon be feeling not to obey God in shrinking his army? A. The thought of what the people would think, having been mobilized just to be ditched before the battle could tempt him not to obey God. Q. How was Gideon able to obey God fully in this? A. He obeyed God’s instruction exactly as directed.

Q2. (Judges 6:36-39) Q. Why does Gideon put out a fleece before the Lord -- twice? A. To seek confirmation from God that He had actually sent him to fight and deliver Israel from their enemies. Q. Is this a sign of unbelief or of belief? A. Not really. Gideon needed to be sure he heard God clearly. Q. Does this constitute "testing" God? How does it differ from the sinful testings of God the scripture warns against? A. No. A testing done like that by Satan in the desert is an attempt to make God do a miracle to for a selfish reason. Q. When, if ever, should we ask God to confirm his direction with a sign? A. when we need to be double certain we have really heard Him clearly. Q. What is the danger of demanding a sign A. It can be as a result of lack faith.

Q1. (Judges 6:33-35) What inspires Gideon to blow the battle horn and summon an army against the Midianites? What does Gideon have in common with other judges and leaders of his era? (Hint: see Deuteronomy 34:9; Judges 3:10; 11:9; 13:25; 14:6, 19; 15:14; 1 Samuel 11:6.) http://www.joyfulheart.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=22 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Q1. (Judges 6:33-35) Q. What inspires Gideon to blow the battle horn and summon an army against the Midianites? A. The Spirit of the Lord God Almighty came upon him to fill him with wisdom of what to do and boldness to take such action. He remembered what God had told him to go in the strength of God’s presence to battle Q. What does Gideon have in common with other judges and leaders of his era? (Hint: see Deuteronomy 34:9; Judges 3:10; 11:9; 13:25; 14:6, 19; 15:14; 1 Samuel 11:6.) A. In all the references quoted, the Spirit of God came upon the various leaders and they excelled in their endeavours.

Q5. (Judges 6:25-31) Q. What kind of leader has Gideon's father Joash been up to this point? A. A leader who had been torn between allegiance to baal and the true God, leading people to worship both the Amarites gods and God, the Maker of heaven and earth and all that is in it. Q. How does Gideon's action affect his father? A. Gideon's action made him to take a decision as to where his loyalty will be. He chose to serve the Living God that his son has made up his mind to follow. Q. Shouldn't Gideon have considered the impact on his father? How should this have affected Gideon's action? (See Matthew 10:34-38) In what sense is Joash a follower of Yahweh now? A. I think Gideon fully knew the impact that his action would have on his father. He nevertheless was determined to obey God rather than his father. This action of Gideon paid up positively in favour of the Living God as even his father turned in favour of the living God

Q4. (Judges 6:25-27) Q. What is the strategic significance of God's command for Gideon to tear down the Baal altar and Asherah pole? A. The strategic significance of tearing down the alter of Baal and Asherah pole was that it would eliminate the sites where sin of worship of the gods took place, a sin that God had commended His children not to do. Q. What positive thing is he to erect in their place ? A. An Alter for the worship of the true God Q. What risks are involved in this action? A. The people's wrath on Gideon for destroying their gods. Q. Why does Gideon do this at night? A. To avoid the people seeing him and killing him. Q. Is this night mission a sign of weakness or of faith? A. It is an act of wisdom. It is not good to have blind faith that temps God by walking right into danger in order to test whether God will deliver you or not..

Please refer to previous post. As a third post of this study on Gideon, think either the second or this third was not rewarded the usual one point mark/ count. Please check and correct.

Q3. (Judges 6:12-16) Q. How did God see Gideon? How did Gideon see himself? A. God saw Gideon as a mighty warrior while Gideon saw himself as the smallest in his family whose clan is the weakest. Q.Whose self-perception is most accurate? How can our own self-perception prevent us from becoming what God has made us to be? A. God's perception about us is always the most accurate. As in the case of the ten out of the twelve spies that went to spy the promised land, they saw themselves like grasshoppers that would be trampled by the giants they saw and were thus not among those who God used to to take over the promised land- only Caleb and Joshua who saw the same giants but saw God helping them to overcome the giants. And He did. Q. What is God's answer to Gideon's self-image? A. God promised to be with him and to empower him to defeat the midianites A. What might be an appropriate prayer to pray in light of what God has taught you from this passage? A. Lord God, help me to see myself the way you see me, able to conquer my challenges/ enemies in Jesus Name.

Q2. (Judges 6:13) Q. In what way does Gideon blame God for his troubles in verse 13? A. He felt that if God was with him ( and his People Israel) He would not have abandoned them to the Midianites to torment them and cause him to be hiding and threshing grain in a wine press. Q. Is Gideon's assessment accurate? Why or why not? A. No. God was concerned about their plight, that was why He was there to encourage and empower him to lead the Israelites to defeat their enemy. Q. Why do we blame God? A. Because we are usually too blind to see that the fault is our as we are the ones that usually abandon God and not He that abandons us. Q. What's the danger and how can we stop short of this in the future? A. The danger is that we may be stupid enough continue to be angry with God and runaway from Him thinking that He had abandoned us for no fault of ours. We need to pause and see where we have fallen short of God's grace and repent and plead for mercy and and forgiveness.

. (Judges 6:7-10) Q. According to the prophet, what is the reason for Israel's oppressed state? What commandment did they break? In what way hadn't they "listened"? A. God delivered them from Egypt, gave them the land of the Canaanites but warned them not to worship the gods of the Canaanites. Yet, they refused to obey God and worshipped the very gods they were told not to worship. Q. In what way does this same sin affect Christians today? A. We also disobey God by flouting what His Word says.

Q4. (Ephesians 6:18a; Jude 20; Romans 8:26-27) Q. In the list of elements of the Full Armor of God, where does the Spirit show himself? A. The use of the Sword of the Spirit and Praying in the Spirit . Q. Why is Spirit-directed prayer so important for the believer? A. It is important to be guided by the Holy Spirit so as to pray right: as to when, for who and what to pray for. Q. How have you experienced this is your life? A. I am afraid not so much that I can recall. I need to seek more of the leadership of the Holy Spirit to empower, lead/ guide me in all areas of my prayer life so that I can pray right by knowing when to pray, what/ who to pray for and what to pray specifically for. So help me Lord God Almighty. Amen.