Deborah's Song and Gideon (April 3)

So may all your enemies perish, O Lord!  But may they who love you be like the sun when it rises in its strength.  Then the land had peace for forty years.

Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites...Midian so impoverishe the Israelties that they cried out to the Lord for help.

When the angel of the Lord appeard to Gideon, he said, "The Lord is with you mighty warrior. 

But Lord, Gideon asked, "how can I save Israel?  My clan is the weakest in Israel and I am the least in my family."

"look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor.  If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand as you have said."

Then Gideon said to God, "Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request.  Allow me one more test with the fleece.  This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew."

When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the Lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords."
                                         From Judges 5-7 NIV

How often do you sing a song to the Lord?  We are told to make a joyful, not necessarally beautiful, noise.  With this, hopefully there is encouragement to sing hymns in worship.

Again, after suffering, Israel asks the Lord for help.  The Lord responds by advising the least of the weakest of being a great warrior.  Here the Lord is patient with Gideon's inquiries regarding dew on or off a fleece.  God pruned the army to 300, to bring God the glory, so that Israel would know that it was God and not man that would save them from the Mideanites oppression. 

We read that this event occured in the Jezreel valley.  There is a town Meggido also located in the Jezreel valley.  Napolean, upon gazing onto the valley commented that the valley is the best natural battlefield in the world.  The valley could certainly hold millions of warriors.

two pictures of the Jezreel Valley

What does it take for you to turn to the Lord for help in your challenges?

What do you think about Gideon's testing the Lord? 

Have you ever negotiated with or tested the Lord?

How do you realize that it is what God has done through Jesus death and resurrection, not what man has done, that saves you?

Pray for unity, peace and spiritual growth on the jouney of Lent.

In Christ,

David P