“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).
Our Father, today we come to You, mindful of Your eternal love and watchcare over us! We are fully aware that we do not deserve Your mercy and grace, but we thank You very much for not giving up on us. Therefore, please be merciful unto us, and save us for Your name’s sake. We ask this upon the merits of Jesus Christ Your Son. Amen.
As we continue with the story of Gideon, we will go back, perhaps a day or two before God gave him his first assignment. After he realized that he had seen God, and had received assurance that he would not die, Gideon worshipped God,
“So Gideon built an altar there to the Lord, and called it The-Lord–Is-Peace. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites” (Judges 6:24).
An altar usually represents worship. Oftentimes pledges to faithfully serve God are made at an altar. It can also represent consecration or re-consecration. It is noteworthy, that even before God had asked Gideon to take down his father’s altar that was used for Baal worship, Gideon had already erected an altar to worship the Lord [Who]-is-Peace! The Lord in Whom he would find peace! The Lord Who had become his Peace in the midst of his captivity!
It was now time for his second assignment: “[A]nd build an altar to the Lord your God on top of this rock in the proper arrangement, and take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down.”
Everything that had been reserved for Baal worship was now to be used for the worship of the true God! That was a tall order for a young man (I am not sure how old Gideon was at the time). But any order is a tall order, at any age, when you are working against your father!
But Gideon knew that his Heavenly Father was to be honored above his earthly Father. If he was the one who would lead the people to reform, then reform must begin at his house! So he worked wisely. In order not to be confronted, and to be able to work diligently and expeditiously, he gathered a faithful few and they did their work at night!
At daybreak there was a frantic outcry! The altar and image of Baal had been destroyed! When they realized that Gideon was the one who had desecrated and destroyed Baal’s altar and image, they cried out, ” ‘ “Bring out your son, that he may die” ‘ ” (Judges 6:30). Little did they know, that what Gideon was doing would put an end to the captivity they had endured for seven long years!
That reminds me of a scene on a hill called Mount Calvary. When God’s Son came to earth to save humankind and defeated the “prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2), who had held the people of the world captive, the people He had come to save cried out, “Crucify Him” (Mark 15:13)!
It is not easy to stand for the right in the midst of of a people who are bent on doing wrong. But God is faithful, and “When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him” (Proverbs 16:7).
It was Gideon’s father, Joash, who had set up the altar to Baal, and yet it was Joash who stood in defense of his son. His argument was a wise one, if Baal is a god, let him defend himself (Judges 6:31)!
God had defended His child. He was preparing him for a great task that would bring much glory to God. No one can prevent you from finishing the work God has planned for you to do, unless, for reasons that He chooses not to reveal, God allows it!
The conversation continues.