Daryl Pint – Page 250

How Easy

“I will forsake them and hide my face from them”

Judges 10:6
The people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. And they forsook the Lord and did not serve him. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the Ammonites, and they crushed and oppressed the people of Israel that year. For eighteen years they oppressed all the people of Israel who were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead. And the Ammonites crossed the Jordan to fight also against Judah and against Benjamin and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was severely distressed.
And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, saying, “We have sinned against you, because we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals.” And the Lord said to the people of Israel, “Did I not save you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines? The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you, and you cried out to me, and I saved you out of their hand. Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will save you no more. Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.” And the people of Israel said to the Lord, “We have sinned; do to us whatever seems good to you. Only please deliver us this day.” So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord, and he became impatient over the misery of Israel.

1 Kings 11:5
For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.

Deuteronomy 31:16
Then this people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them. Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?

Can you imagine falling way from God and being subjected to oppression for 18 years. This is just what happened. Do we think for a minute that this will not or could not happen to us corporately as a nation or individually as a person? Think about he last time you heard anyone speaking about God and what He is doing in their life – just in normal daily conversation. When is the last time you did outside of church? How are current and future generations to hear about what God has done, is doing, and will do if we are not speaking what we believe. Is our belief so shallow that we won’t even speak about it? How fast will a culture or nation fall when people will not speak about God, His love, His mercy, His grace, His judgement? I wonder how many people were only one conversation about God away from serving Him and we were that conversation but did not speak about Him. How many people are following the rest of this culture away from God because they have not seen or heard who God is and what He is doing in our lives. I agree that our lives have to have more than just words – they need to reflect actions in line with God’s word. Both words and actions should be present in our lives everyday.

Seems Right

“During Gideon’s lifetime, the land had peace forty years”

Judges 8:33
No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals. They set up Baal- Berith as their god and did not remember the Lord their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side. They also failed to show any loyalty to the family of Jerub- Baal (that is, Gideon) in spite of all the good things he had done for them.
Abimelek son of Gideon went to his mother’s brothers in Shechem and said to them and to all his mother’s clan, “Ask all the citizens of Shechem, ‘Which is better for you:to have all seventy of Jerub- Baal’s sons rule over you, or just one man? ’ Remember, I am your flesh and blood.”
When the brothers repeated all this to the citizens of Shechem, they were inclined to follow Abimelek, for they said, “He is related to us.” They gave him seventy shekels of silver from the temple of Baal- Berith, and Abimelek used it to hire reckless scoundrels, who became his followers. He went to his father’s home in Ophrah and on one stone murdered his seventy brothers, the sons of Gideon.

Proverbs 12:15
The way of fools seems right to them,
but the wise listen to advice.

Proverbs 14:12
There is a way that seems right to a man,
but its end is the way to death.
Even in laughter the heart may ache,
and the end of joy may be grief.
The backslider in heart will be filled with the fruit of his ways,
and a good man will be filled with the fruit of his ways.
The simple believes everything,
but the prudent gives thought to his steps

A good lesson to learn from today. Following God will give purpose and peace to you life. I can only imagine what transpired to cause such a quick falling away from following God. Gideon dies and soon after people forget God and start following idols. What is in the heart of man that it so easily can disregard God. For 40 years they had peace. Can it be that in peace we lose sight of our need for God? In peace do we no longer seek Him? Is our heart prone to distance ourselves away from God in times of peace? Is it possible that those who have a very shallow desire and love for God are just one moment of peace away from disregarding Him from their lives? Paul instructed us to guard our heart and mind in and through our knowledge of Jesus Christ. He instructed us to put on the full amour of God for this purpose. Peter said it very well too “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. “Being lukewarm in our walk with God is not going to end well. It is so easy to say “tomorrow I will set my desire for Him and live for Him – but in reality tomorrow never comes. Today is the day, not tomorrow, next week, or when you find time. Scriptures throughout the bible are there to teach us. We should understand from history how easy it is to follow others and let that determine our expectation of what it means to follow God. Read God’s word and let it speak to your heart on what His expectations are for you. Our purpose this side of eternity is to honor and glorify Him – How can this happen if are not fully committed? How can this happen if we do not spend time in His word?

What is your snare

All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family.

Judges 8:23
But Gideon told them, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you.” And he said, “I do have one request, that each of you give me an earring from your share of the plunder.” (It was the custom of the Ishmaelites to wear gold earrings.)
They answered, “We’ll be glad to give them.” So they spread out a garment, and each of them threw a ring from his plunder onto it. The weight of the gold rings he asked for came to seventeen hundred shekels, not counting the ornaments, the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian or the chains that were on their camels’ necks. Gideon made the gold into an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his town. All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family.

1 Samuel 12:12
And when you saw that Nahash the king of the Ammonites came against you, you said to me, ‘No, but a king shall reign over us,’ when the Lord your God was your king. And now behold the king whom you have chosen, for whom you have asked; behold, the Lord has set a king over you. If you will fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well. But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king.

Exodus 32:7
And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt

I keep reading these accounts of God’s greatness and how He allowed people to see it. I sit back and wonder how could these people so easily fall away from what God truly expected of them. Look at Exodus where the people saw God perform great power and wonders in their exodus from Egypt. When Moses went to the mountain to be with God and be instructed for 40 days the people immediately made an idol to worship. Again in Samuel we see where the people had God present with them and they asked God for a king when He was clearly their King. There are numerous examples throughout scripture of God’s people choosing something other than God to worship and give honor to. Is this still true today? Do we give honor, glory, worth to something other than God? Do our lives reflect humble submission and service to Him? Is there both and outward and inward difference to our lives compared to those who regard God as a fairy tale? The only way to answer these questions is to reflect on what God’s word says and speaks into your heart. If there is no regular time spent in His word how are we able to (as instructed) “write it on our heart”, “write it on our door posts”, “meditate on it day and night”, “take it with us on our coming and going”. The biggest error in any life is to disregard His word and having a deep heart desire to humbly serve Him.

Out numbered

“Truly the Lord has given all the land into our hands”

Judges 7:9
Now the camp of Midian lay below him in the valley. During that night the Lord said to Gideon, “Get up, go down against the camp, because I am going to give it into your hands. If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah and listen to what they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp.” So he and Purah his servant went down to the outposts of the camp. The Midianites, the Amalekites and all the other eastern peoples had settled in the valley, thick as locusts. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore.
Gideon arrived just as a man was telling a friend his dream. “I had a dream,” he was saying. “A round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed.”
His friend responded, “This can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands.”
When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed down and worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel and called out, “Get up! The Lord has given the Midianite camp into your hands.” Dividing the three hundred men into three companies, he placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them, with torches inside.
“Watch me,” he told them. “Follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do. When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp blow yours and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon. ’”
Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guard. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands. The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars. Grasping the torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpets they were to blow, they shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out as they fled.
When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the Lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords

Joshua 2:24
And they said to Joshua, “Truly the Lord has given all the land into our hands”

Deuteronomy 28:42
The cricket shall possess all your trees and the fruit of your ground.The sojourner who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him. He shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.
“All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you”

300 men were outnumbered by more than they could count. Yet God fought their battle even before they arrived. He had put fear and confusion into the hearts and minds of their enemy. I love how God encouraged Gideon – if you are afraid take take your servant with you and listen to how they are speaking. As soon as Gideon heard the fear in their conversation he bowed down and worshiped God for he heard and realized God’s hand was with him. Remember Gideon had said that he was least in his fathers house and his father house was least in their clan. Listening to God and being encouraged by what He has done, will do, and is doing it is good for us to bow down and worship Him. This is God’s battle not Gideon’s. Sometimes we are in battles that are our own doing because we do not spend time in His word and have abandoned listening to His voice. These battles are only overcome by bowing down and seeking forgiveness before God. Other times God stirs our heart and leads us into areas we, like Gideon, do not feel at all equipped to face. These too are times we need to bow down and seek Him. I keep being reminded of this questions “how are we to know Him and his power, strength, love, and mercy if we spend no time reading His word?” “How are we to obey His leading if there is nothing from His word speaking into our heart?” How are we to know His purpose for our life without seeking the source through His word?”

Overcoming the overwhelming

“Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. ’ “

Judges 7:1
Early in the morning, Jerub- Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me. ’ Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead. ’” So twenty- two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.
But the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”
So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.” Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.
The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.” So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others

Deuteronomy 8:17
Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. ’ You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish

2 Corinthians 4:7
But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed

Deuteronomy 9:4
“Do not say in your heart, after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you. Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you

God knows our heart all so clear. He did not want to leave any doubt in the Israelites minds. They went out with 31,000 men to fight. God knew the heart of man and that they would think it was in there power and might – not in the power of God. God took this number not to 10% but rather down to less than 1% – 300 men. Imagine if you were one of the 300. Many times in our life we come up against something and we want to throw tons of effort, people and resources at it when in fact we should fall on our knees and seek His divine intervention. It seems natural to try to do it on our own and in our own power doesn’t it? Just think back at how many times have you heard people say “there goes a self made man or woman”? or “It is because of how hard they worked” or “It is because of how smart they are” or “It is because of luck”…… I have no clue what you are facing but I do know that our God is more than able to take on whatever it is your are trying to face alone. Humbly take it to Him and leave it in His hands. There are issues that only He alone can change. There are others that He will speak to your heart and guide you on what to do. Either way the the first move for you is to bow before Him. Trust in His power, strength, and love. With it in His hands all things are possible.

Fleece – 2 I see some of what I sent this morning was cut short

Judges 6:35
Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised— 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 said.” And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water.
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, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.” That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.

Genesis 24:14
And he said, “O Lord, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham. Behold, I am standing by the spring of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. Let the young woman to whom I shall say, ‘Please let down your jar that I may drink,’ and who shall say, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels’—let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I shall know that you have shown steadfast love to my master

Isaiah 38:7
“This shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that he has promised: Behold, I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps.” So the sun turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it had declined.

Asking God for a sign is something that has helped men of God who wanted to follow Him know it was from God. Their heart desire was to do what He wanted (which by the way was more than likely something deemed impossible). As we learn to hear His voice speak to our heart – asking for a sign is less frequent. However there are times when the obstacle or burden is so great and the path so unclear that we need a sign from God to build our faith back and give us courage for what we are facing. It is a very good idea to know God’s word. This gives us confidence in our rock, our strength when we are weak, our power when all hope is gone, our peace when all around us seems in chaos, our ability to love and forgive when those around us seem determined on causing havoc in our life. God’s word is a place of hope, for in it we see His love and power. Stay in His word.

Spirit of God – Lead

“You, therefore, have no excuse”

Judges 6:34
Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him.

Numbers 11:25
Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. And as soon as the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied. But they did not continue doing it

Haggai 1:14
And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people

Acts 1:6
Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
He said to them:“It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Acts 2:15
These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
“‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below

I doubt we can imagine what it was like to only have moments of having the Holy Spirit dwell within us. In the gospel of John, Jesus told the disciples that He had to go away and that He would then send the Holy Spirit to fill not only them but all who believe. This indwelling was recorded in Acts. This indwelling is permanent and is givin so that we have constant leading, joy, love, peace, understanding, wisdom, strength, patience….. However it is possible to grieve the Holy Spirit and hinder any outward manifestation in our lives. This is what I think happens (more from personal experience than observation of others), 1. being complacent to staying in God’s word, 2. which in turn leads to turning our mind and ears away from what God would have us do and how to live, 3. which in turn leads us to accept what the culture deems appropriate, 4. which leads to leading our families with a severe dilution of what christian lives should be, 5. which leads to a generation further away from God. Nothing good comes from being complacent to God’s word. Do you want to experience a spirit filled life – stay in His word, learn to hear His voice, obey God’s leading, be a humble servant with a deep desire and purpose to honor and glorify God above all else.

god or God

“and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it”

Judges 6:28
When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. And they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And after they had searched and inquired, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.” Then the men of the town said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it.” But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down.

Psalms 43:1
Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause
against an ungodly people,
from the deceitful and unjust man
deliver me!
For you are the God in whom I take refuge

Jeremiah 30:13
“For thus says the Lord:
Your hurt is incurable,
and your wound is grievous.
There is none to uphold your cause,
no medicine for your wound,
no healing for you.
All your lovers have forgotten you;
they care nothing for you;
for I have dealt you the blow of an enemy,
the punishment of a merciless foe,
because your guilt is great,
because your sins are flagrant.
Why do you cry out over your hurt.

There are couple of points today the interest me. The first is the response of the people -” Who broke down our altar and Asherah pole – they must be put to death”. These Israelites had fallen so far that they no longer served God. Remember the commandment “Thou shall have no other god but Me”. When God’s word is left idle in our lives other thoughts from the culture we live in will most likely plant themselves as truth and at the very least we follow them blindly. We need to know God’s word so that we are not blind to the ways that seem right by the culture are adopted into our everyday lives. The second thing that stood out to me was how Gideon’s father responded to the accusers. “Will you contend for Baal? If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down.” I have to think Gideon’s father knew following after this false worship was wrong but did not do a thing about it. He or his wife had to have brought up Gideon with knowledge of God because Gideon talked of all the stories he had been told about how God had delivered His people and done great and wondrous acts on their behalf. It is one thing to know of God and another to live with a deep heart desire to humbly serve Him so that all you do is a reflection of His love, mercy, and grace. We can only do this with knowledge of His word abiding in our hearts and minds.

Who – Me?

Judges 6:25
That night the Lord said to him, “Take your father’s bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it and build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night

Exodus 34:13
You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.

More than 500 years prior to Gideon God gave the Israelites a command and warning. Tear down these false idols for they worship a false god. Tear them down because it will be very easy for you to join them and follow the ways of those who do not worship Me the true God. As I look at our culture it seems this is still true for us today. Easy to adopt the ways of the culture. I wonder if this is due to our lack of spending time in His word.

Gideon was from the weakest clan and least in his fathers house. God chose him. Gideon was willing yet he still had that human part of doubt when he asked – how can “I “save Israel. It is natural for us to look at our weaknesses and automatically assume God can not use us. Moses said something similar – I cannot speak to pharaoh or lead the Israelites as I am weak in speech and stutter. We may have weaknesses but it is not in our strength that God will use us. More than likely it will be in our weaknesses. I think we turn our ears off to hearing God speak into our lives because what we hear is telling us to do something we have no strength or ability in our own power to accomplish. It is in His strength, power and might not ours. It is though faith in His strength, power and might that we are able to say yes Lord I will do it. We do need to take that step forward even with all of the questions pounding around in our head. Like one of the old hymns put it “listen and obey for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus, listen and obey”

Why is this Happening?

“If they listen and serve him,
they complete their days in prosperity,”

Judges 6:7
Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” And Gideon said to him, “Please, sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? ’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” And the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” And the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” And he said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.”
So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” And he did so. Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight. Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord. And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.” But the Lord said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, The Lord Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites

Job 36:10
He opens their ears to instruction
and commands that they return from iniquity.
If they listen and serve him,
they complete their days in prosperity,
and their years in pleasantness.
But if they do not listen, they perish by the sword
and die without knowledge

Can you relate to Gideon asking the question “Please, sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? ’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” Imagine the thoughts Gideon had running through his mind on multiple times. He has heard about all of the wonderful deeds of God to past generations and wonders why God has forsaken them? We to hear about what God has done for others. We as well know what He has done for personally for ourselves. And we ask why has God forsaken us – Why am I not blessed – Why am I in this time of trial …… There are a host of questions we can ask but the most important question we should ask is: “God will you search my heart and see if there is anything offensive hindering serving you. Lead me in paths of righteousness and doing what brings you honor and glory to you alone?” Asking the right question first opens our heart, mind and soul to hearing God speak purpose into our lives.