You Were With Us Through It All! Part 4

“Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ‘ “I will never leave you nor forsake you” ‘ ” (Hebrews 13:5).

God of our fathers, Rock of our salvation, here we are in Your Presence seeking Your face, and listening for a word from You. Please keep us close to Your side, and help us to remain in the path of righteousness for Your name sake; we pray this in the holy name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen,

The story of Gideon begins with these words “[A]nd the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains” (Judges 6:2). The children of Israel were fugitives in their own land.

That is what sin does to an individual or a nation. It makes captives of us. These things had befallen Israel because, “the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord” (1). Therefore God delivered His people into the hands of their enemies.

Notice also, that as soon as God’s children cried to Him, He came down to rescue them from their oppressors. Jesus comes and meets His oppressed people where they are; and even though they are to be blamed for their suffering, divine love and mercy takes over and begins the rescue process!

The cause of their situation must be made clear to the people before God reveals His rescue plan. In our first devotional of this series, the prophet of the Lord makes known to Israel her sin, and assures the chosen vessel that he will  use to take them from captivity to victory, that he will be successful because God will be with him!

But first God must reveal the root cause of their suffering. To Gideon’s surprise, their suffering did not begin with the enemy; the problem began right within his borders; of all places, in Gideon’s clan, and their suffering is the effect of sin that has not been dealt with. There must be no delay. His first assignment came to him immediately:

“Now it came to pass the same night that the Lord said to him, “Take your father’s young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the wooden image that is beside It” (25, emphasis provided). Repentance oftentimes leads to victory!

We will continue this conversation.