May 5, 2019
Scripture:
Hymn 231 - Jesus, that name is love,
Prayer
The other day Judah gave me a lesson on bees. There are 20,000 kinds of bees; but only a handful of them make honey. In the Bible there are many different “be’s and “be Not”.
Be
All these are important and needful.
Be NOT
The bees in the world today have been dying and diminishing. Like that people today aren’t listening or obeying the “be’s” of the Bible. We see them less and less everyday.
When on a train in England we were politely waiting for our turn to get off the train. The guy behind me tapped on my shoulder and said that there was no time for politeness. The doors would close in a minute and a half and people still needed to get on.
Judges 6: 1,4,6-16,24-27,36-40
The Israelites had this pattern of falling into evil, getting delivered to their enemy, crying out to God for forgiveness, being saved by a leader or prophet that would rise up and then repeat. This time God delivered them to the Midianites. The Midianites destroyed everything and left pretty much nothing. The world has nothing to offer us as Christians. The pleasures of sin are only for a season.
God brought Israel a leader to help them out of their mess. God sends an angel to Gideon to tell him that the Lord is with him. Gideon asks him if the Lord is with them why is this all happening. You see he missed an important part. God said that He was with HIM, Gideon; He wasn’t with the Israelites at that time. Then Gideon says I can’t save Israel. How would I do that? Gideon missed it again. The Lord was with him. He wasn’t going to do it alone.
Now when Gideon finally understood everything the angel was telling him, he built an alter to God. It was a personal commitment and a private testimony.
The first thing God wanted him to do was to take down the alter and grove his father made for Baal and build another alter for Him. God wanted Gideon not only to have a private testimony but also a public one. Gideon was scared but he did it. It’s got to be hard to stand up against your father and his house.
We all remember the signs Gideon wanted with the wet and dry fleece. Gideon’s faith was weak but he did have faith.
Judges 7:2-8,10-15
Now God is preparing Gideon and his army to go up against the Midianites. He has to make sure their army is the right size so that they wouldn’t take credit to themselves. He started by telling the ones who were scared to go home. 22,000 people left leaving them at 10,000. Then he brought them to a river and whoever drank like a dog lapping the water went with Gideon. 9,700 went home leaving them at 300 men. 300 men fighting against thousands and thousands of men sounds pretty hopeless but they had God with them.
God knew the heart of Gideon and that he had some fear. He told him to sneak down to the enemy camp and listen in. What he heard really encouraged him. Gideon wasn’t going to turn away from the battle because he was scared but he needed that encouragement.
They were to bring a trumpet, pitcher and a lamp within the pitcher to the battle. The trumpet was used to communicate when Israel was traveling to Canaan and during wars. The Bible is our trumpet today. It tells us what to do. The lamp gave off light. We are to be the light of the world. The pitcher was covering the light though. It had to be broken for the light to shine. Our old nature has to be broken for us to shine.
2 Cor. 4:6,7
It’s only when the new life has replaced the old life that we can really shine.
Hymn 341 - Jesus bids us shine
Prayed