maria gonzalez

An ephod is a garment worn by priests. Part of it was a breastplate that had stones representing each of the 12 tribes of Israel, if I do not recall wrong about the stones, each stone was different. The garment was made out of white linen. The ephod was held by onyx stones on each shoulder (or one shoulder), if I do not recall wrong; the onyx stone detail may be a more modern part of an ephod, though. The part where the stones were was woven by scarlet and other threads; I am not sure if this is a detail of the high priest ephod, if all the ephods were like this or if a more modern version of the ephod. High priests and priests used to wear this garment. I believe it separated them from the rest of the crowd. The garment was a symbol of holiness. Not everyone could wear one. The bible mentions that David wore an ephod, if I do not recall wrong. I am not sure however why would he wear one being that he was the king of Israel. I would assume it would be because of the lineage he came from, the tribe he came from. I have to study more about this topic. The ephod that Gideon made was too heavy to be worn. I really do not think that the other wearable ephods were as heavy. I find it very interesting that he made such a heavy ephod. I would assume that Gideon had the ephod made for reasons other than to be worn. I would assume it would have been to be put up for everyone to see. Probably his intentions were not idolatry, I do not think his intentions were to make a garment of that weight to be worn either. The people of Israel used the garment for the purpose of taking the place of an idol and adored it as such, becoming idolatrous. It became a snare for them.

I am not sure if asking for the gold altogether was such a good idea. I am not sure if Gideon had in his mind already to do what he did, an ephod made out of gold. I am not even sure if the Israelites started to worship on their own of if Gideon's family started it out. It became a trap of idolatry. It was the perfect trap, use something that is used to be worn to worship God, to use as an idol. It is a trap we sometimes as Christians fall into. Am I really doing this for God or for a ministry or the church or people? Recently I have been thinking about that issue, why do I do the things I do? What takes me to do what I do? The ephod was supposed to be worn, were Gideon's intentions for anyone to wear it? I am a bit unsure about Gideons intentions altogether.

A judge is someone who lets God be the king. Gideon knew what was his purpose, a judge and not a king. Israel's king was God and not Gideon and it was Gideon who reminded the Israelites who was the king of Israel. Becoming the king of Israel is treason because it's to try to steal God's ruling over the people of Israel. Only if God had approved of a king then it wouldn't be treason. It is lack of obedience toward God more than anything else. The people of Israel wanted to have a king because they had forgotten all about God and his will over them. They needed to come back, to remember about obedience.

A snare is a trap, something we do not see, the ephod was a snare because he and his family fell for it, why? it was not viewed as sin, is was viewed as something to worship God. An ephod is not supposed to be used for the purpose of worship, but to be worn with a purpose. It was given the wrong purpose. It was worshipped, the perfect trap for people who were starting to come back to God. Not seeing a sin as a sin does not make it right. It is still a sin. In essence the sin was adultery, the Israelites were led by Gideon to practice idolatry.

Spiritual unfaithfuness is looked at as prostitution because our relationship with God is compared to marriage. Spiritual concepts are compared to material ones in order for us to have a better understanding of the spiritual world. If our relationship with God is compared to marriage, then affairs out of it is compared with adultery and prostitution. Leaving God for other things makes us have relationships out of our "marriage" or relationship with God. The analogy depicted here is the one of marriage, a contract of respect and love. It is a life contract. Adultery is any type of thing we have more love or respect than God, it could be a person, a job, even a ministry or even our own selves and what we think of ourselves. Spiritual adultery is not believing what God has for us because we think our own opinion is better than God or because we just doubt God could do something with us. We worship more our opinion than God's own plan I firmly believe that is a type of adultery. One that many of us face today. Another type of adultery is to put a job or a person in the first place. My time, my work, my thoughts, my best goes toward a person or a job, God receives very little or nothing. That is another type of spiritual adultery.

The land enjoyed peace for forty years as Gideon was the judge of Israel. On verse 27 of chapter 8 tells us how Gideon did not always help out the Israelites in serving God. It tells about Gideon making an ephod that the Israelites adored. This tells about how the Israelites looked up to Gideon and followed him even when he did not make a right decision.

The soldiers were not helped or fed because the Israelites living in these cities were not sure that God would deliver them from the Midianites through these soldiers and Gideon. These cities, Succoth and Peniel were afraid of what the Midianites would do to them if they learned that they had helped Gideon and his soldiers to fight against them. They doubted God's power. As Christians today we can compare ourselves to these cities when we doubt the purpose of God in someone's life. People who have a definite purpose in God request our help: offering, help, etc..., sometimes we do not listen to them, usually because we doubt what God could do through them. I do not think it was necessary for Gideon to punish the people who did not help the army. I think he needed to help them understand God's main purpose was for the Israelites to renew their faith in God.

It was not unjust to kill the two men that Gideon killed because he had an obligation. Today we need to let God take care of vengeance himself. I try to remember Christ's dead on the cross, he died forgiving unjust people, he even forgave the people who put him to death, he sees all of our weakness and yet gives opportunities for repentance. There is a time for judgment, and when that time arrives, it is Gode's time for vengeance and not ours. I believe that unjust people bring to themselves many consequences and think they will never face those consequences. My concern is to know I need to walk in love and forgiveness and that God will take care of my enemies.

There are times where making an important decision could affect our entire lives, in those times we need to ask for direction of God. I myself ask God to lead all my ways because life brings so many things and I haven't always made the right decisions. Guidance is important all the time. Signs is a very delicate matter. We should not over do it. I ask for confirmation of God but I do not ask for specific signs like Gideon did. I think we should rather ask for confirmation. I think God can confirm in his own time when is best for us.

God made it very irrational for them,300 men is quite a ludicrous idea for us to believe would destroy such a big army. When we doubt ourselves it brings us to think of something higher that will help us. 300 hundred men couldn't do it, there is doubt, God will do it, that is faith. Even if the Israelites doubted Gideon, even if part of the army had doubts, at the end it showed how God did it and not men. The purpose of such a small army and such tactics was to have faith that God does things his way, in this case a small army and tactics that for humans were not rational. There was no reason for the Israelites or Gideon to doubt God had delivered them from the Medianites. The main purpose of the small amount of men was for the Israelites to have faith.

I have thought about obedience vs what people think of us. There have been times where I have prayed and received confirmation to do something that in my opinion makes no sense, and in other people's opinion is just not a well thought made decision. I have seen God's blessings, there are times where patience is a key, I need to wait, at times a very long time and endure comments, at the end I "see"/feel how God has blessed me in a great way. Obedience does not come from rationality. It does not make sense to us at times. It just means we believe to do God's will over our own rationality, our own self, what we know and what we think is best for us. It is to listen to God over our own self, to forget about us and think of God. We demand from God to be rational because we are afraid of what people may think of us, we are afraid of rejection.

It is very interesting to analyze why would God only select the ones that lapped and not the ones that knelt to drink the water. It was a decision made from God to choose the ones who "licked" the water, I often wonder if there was a matter of "heart" issue in it, something God knew about them that the human eye could not see. I sometimes think God touched these men to drink the water the way they did. I know that 300 did lick the water and fought against the Midianites; Did God really touch them to drink water in this way? Did some who were touched by God disobey? I am only sure about the number, the Israelites needed to be outnumbered because God wanted to show the Israelites it was not their own strength that saved them but God himself who had mercy on them.

A loaf of bread cannot destroy the Midianite camp; God's power could, the power of God over the loaf of bread -Gideon and his army- could defeat the Midianites. God showed the meaning of this dream so Gideon would have more reassurance of how God was going to fulfill his plan in him, to free the Israelites from the Midianites.

I believe the first sign God answered was more than enough for Gideon to believe. Sometimes we need reassurance and ask God for more signs to be answered because we just cannot believe God's purpose in our lives. There was doubt in Gideon. It was a great task to be done, he had to help the Israelites be free, he had to do it under God's intervention and not by his own strength, that made him doubt. Gideon was not trying to satisfy his own selfish needs, he needed to be reassured of his task. When Gideon turned to God for reassurance it demonstrated he trusted in God but when he asked a second time he showed lack of faith of what God could do through him. His intentions were not to test God but to be reassured. On verse 36 of chapter 6, Gideon days: "If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said," (King James Version) I truly believe he had doubts, he just needed to be assured of what God could do through him, he knew and believed God could do great things, he knew and believed God had spoken to him but he had doubts about himself.

Sometimes, we set for ourselves all the wrong priorities. God is first. The first commandment calls us to obey and love God above all things. Honoring our parents comes after commandment number one. Respect to our parents is taught primarily from God's Word. The family values come as a result God's intervention with humanity. The first priority in our lives is to honor God. There are times that we are confronted with making decisions in order for us to determine what is the most important thing in our lives. Trials are a hard time for us at times. I could imagine Gideon, probably thinking about his circumstances, probably about if I do .....then ........, what if ..........then....., and then I just see him remembering God's intervention in his own life; Gideon would actually decide to obey God. God showed to Gideon who he was, he was still trying to save the Israelites despite their unfaithfulness.

A disciple could be disobedient and still be a disciple; Gideon believed in God but he was told to destroy altars of other gods and construct an altar to God and offer a sacrifice to God. In this part is talking about following a calling from God, to destroy altars; I truly believe that deep in Gideon's heart he feared God, he believed in God. His choice was to do something and not to believe in God or other gods. He needed to help the Israelites to come back to God. Gideon had choices, destroy the altars or not to destroy the altars. We have choices as disciples, we either follow God in a determined calling we have or we do not. Sometimes God calls us in the midst of our circumstances and asks us to do something, be something, help someone; our choice, do it or not to do it, but our heart is already set in God. Disobedience would be not listening to God's voice, we are still his disciples though.

Joash was not a true leader of God because he was not worshipping God, he needed to go back to God. He was an influence for his family not to obey God. Gideon did not need to consider the impact it would have on his father. God had told him to destroy the altar of Baal and Asherah; he needed to obey. Considering the impact was not exactly wrong but allowing doubt to overcome over Gideon's decision would have made him disobedient to God. He could have considered the impact on his father and known that God could deliver the entire family from the hands of the Medianites. Joash became a true follower of God only when he started to worship God; defending his son does not nescessarily make him a worshipper of God.

The Spirit of God "took over the judges" in order for them to be able to accomplish what God had told them to do. When Gideon blew the horn to summon the army he did it under the Spirit's guidance. The Spirit of God guided Gideon to make decisions before, during the war.

The altars needed to be destroyed in order for the altar of God to be built. It took away the Israelites distraction and redirected their worship to God. It would help the Israelites to focus in God. Destroying the altars would help the Israelites to think about the miracles God had done with the Israelites when God freed them from the Egyptians and when they were in the dessert, the purpose of the miracles, the Israelites would believe in God. There were many risks involved, Gideon and his family could have been killed or perhaps even his own father could have killed him for destroying the altars. Many people turned against Gideon and his family for Gideon destroying the altar; Gideon was rejected and "kicked out from the group/clique" for not believing in Baal and Asherah. Gideon went under a lot of psychological pressure. Destroying the altars altogether is a sign of strength, doing it at night meant fear, it shows a sign of fear.

Hi, my name is Maria, I am from White Plains, NY. I am looking forward to learn more about different topics of the Bible.

How did God see Gideon? (6:12) How did Gideon see himself? (6:15). Whose self-perception is most accurate? How can our own self-perception prevent us from becoming what God has made us to be? God saw Gideon as a man of strength as Gideon saw himself as being weak. God's perception is the most accurate, God's sees us just as we are, he sees our weaknesses and our strengths. What we think of ourselves guide us to act in ways that are not most appropriate at times. A self-perception that is incorrect help us see ourselves as what we aren't, we may see ourselves as more than what we are or we could see ourselves as lesser than what we are. Both perceptions are wrong and misleads us. We need to ask God to lead us the right way, we need to ask God to lead us to be who he wants us to be and to do the things he wants us to do. We also need to pray to God to help us not to have a wrong image of ourselves. Having a wrong image of ourselves lead us to try out doing many incorrect ministries that lead us to feel uncomfortable, discouraged and that bring our self esteem down.

What is God's answer to Gideon's self-image? (6:16) Does this spiritual principle apply to our lives as Christians? Can you recall any New Testament passages that teach the same principle? What is an appropriate prayer to pray in light of what God has taught you from this passage? Gideon could not see past what he saw in himself. We do this all the time. We cannot see who we are in God. In God we are mighty. There are times when we only see what is against us and are unable to see God is right next to us. Then, we need God to touch our lives in very touching ways in order for us to realize God's got us in his hands. Recently I have been studying about the mind and positive thinking that stems in the truths of the Bible. Many verses tell how we are mighty in God. As we make these verses part of our thinking we believe in them and act accordingly. One of those verses is I could do all things through Christ who strengthens me. An appropriate prayer when we just think we are not capable of surviving our circumstances is: Lord, today I cannot face my situation, I feel helpless, I cannot see you though I know you are there, help me to believe you will help me to overcome in your name, give me the strength to face and overcome this situation, help me to do right and according to your will. In Christ's name I pray.

In what way does Gideon blame God for his troubles in 6:13? (see exposition). Is Gideon's assessment accurate? Why or why not? Why do we blame God? What's the danger and how can we stop short of this in the future? While going through fear and emotional stress Gideon blames God for all the consequences brought upon Israel by other nations. When facing the consequences: lack of freedom -Gideon had to hide to work with the wheat- the cattle were being killed, Gideon blamed God for allowing all these consequences to happen to the people of Israel. In Gideon's eyes, he and the Israelites were left by themselves with no help of God, in the eyes of God, the Israelites were facing the consequences of what they had chosen for themselves due to adopting customs of nations that served other gods. Gideon's assessment was not right. He blamed God under fear and emotional stress. I am quite sure that deep inside he knew they had brought these consequences to themselves. The danger of this is the one of never admitting being wrong, never to acknowledging being wrong and bringing ourselves painful consequences, and never repenting. The only way of stopping something like this from happening to us is by not adopting customs and habits that compromise our spiritual lives with God. Also, upon going through negative consequences brought by wrong choices, we need to repent and change our actions into actions that are approved by God.

According to the prophet in 6:7-10, what is the reason for Israel's oppressed state? What commandment did they break? In what way hadn't they "listened"? (see exposition). How does this affect Christians today? Israel's oppressed state was mainly due to their disobedience to God. They turned to gods of nations that were oppressing them. They were not supposed to turn to other gods. They adopted cultural/religious/customs from other nations that compromised their lives with God. They traded rightousness for unrightousness. They traded freedom for unrightousness. The way this affects us today is as follows, many times we compromise ourselves, we bring to ourselves things, like the Jews brought to themselves oppression from their enemies, we cannot free ourselves from oppression so like the people of Israel we cry for freedom from God. Oppression that we bring to ourselves is due to disobedience and can only be forgiven by God himself upon our repentance. For whatever reason, we sometimes bring upon ourselves so many things, it affects us as individuals it affects us as being the church. It affects us in so many ways, but as a church, it affects us as giving the wrong example to the world who watches us. As a church we give the world negative issues to be talked about. We interfere with God's plan in our lives when we do not obey God, we compromise our spiritual lives, we also interfere with God's plan for us to witness to the church and the world.