Mario Angel

Q6. How does Gideon influence Israel during his life? (8:28-35) What is the positive continuing effect of his leadership as judge? Even though Gideon's ephod leads people into idolatry, yet God blesses Gideon's influence in Israel as a judge. His leadership keeps Israel strong enough both spiritually and militarily that they are not troubled by invaders during his lifetime.

Q5. Why is spiritual unfaithfulness looked at as prostitution or adultery? (8:24-27) What is the concept of God's relationship to his people which underlies this analogy? What kinds of temptations to spiritual adultery do you face today. For God's people to worship another god amounts to spiritual adultery -- a concept found throughout the Old and New Testaments. Spiritual unfaithfulness is to betray the truly God by going after false gods as money, material things (car, house, clothes, jewelery). The entrapments today many not be literal idol worship. The New Testament identifies greed with idolatry (Colossians 3:5). Mammon or Money with a capital "M" can function in the same way to lure people away from pure devotion to God. I believe that the concept of God's relationship to us is that "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money" (Matthew 6:24). Today we face a lot of temptations as TV, radio, music, media in general, movies, including their messages about riches, ***********, sex, alcohol, drugs, violence, we must confront all these temptations by studying God's word, praying and standing firm in our beliefs.

Q4. What is a snare? In what way does Gideon's ephod ensnare his family and the people of Israel? (8:24-27) How can something be a sin if we don't see it as a sin? What was the essence of the sin the Israelites committed? What is the essence of Gideon's sin? "Snare" is the Hebrew noun moqesh, "trap." The noun and verb both refer to setting a trap or noose to catch some prey, but more frequently in a metaphorical sense of entrapping people. Now Gideon and his family become caretakers of a new object of worship. We should seek for God's guidance to avoid committing sin even if we don't think that is a sin what we are doing, we always should pray and talk to God when taking decisions that can affect our life. The sin of Israel is idolatry, Israel begins to worship Gideon's ephod as an idol. Rather than serving the invisible God, they focus their attentions on caring for the golden ephod which draws many pilgrim worshippers -- with their money -- into the town. Gideon's sin was that he forgot to ask God for guidance about what to do with his reward, he contribuyed to Israel's sin by providing them with an idol, no matter that it was not his intention.

Q3 What is an ephod? (8:24-27) What might the gold ephod have looked like? Ephod" is a transliteration of the Hebrew noun 'ephod, and seems to refer to a sacred garment, though there is a lot of scholarly speculation. The ephod might have looked like some kind of clothing.

Q2. What does Gideon ask for his reward? (8:24-27) Was Gideon wrong to take a reward? Where did the sin begin? He asked for a reward as compensation for his participation in the battle, sort of salary. He was not wrong when he took the reward, the problem comes with what Gideon does with the gold. Money is like that. Money is a neutral element, but in how we hoard or spend it comes the sin. Making an ephod with the gold, was like making an idol, like the Israelites did at Mt Sinai with the golden calf, Gideon mde a mistake and the Israelites again fell after the false idols.

Q1. Why does Gideon refuse to be king over Israel? (8:22-23) In what sense would becoming king be treason? Why didn't the Israelites see bestowing kingship as treason? Because he knew that only God has the authority to be King over Israel, he knew that what he had done, he did it because God helped him, also he knew that without God he couldn't defeat the Midianites. It would be a treason, because if Gideon accepted he would be taken upon himself the position that belonged to God and only God. The Israelites wanted to be like the other countries around them, they wanted a king that would lead them into battle. They forgot the covenant that they had with God, that was received by them at Mt Sinai, where they agreed to be servants of God and to have God as their King.

Gideon slained Zebah and Zalmunna because these two king had killed some of Gideon own brothers in the past. "According to the standards of the time, Gideon has a family obligation to exact vengeance for his brothers' unjust deaths. We cannot fault him for this, though we can tremble at the anger that motivates this primitive justice." Romans 12:19 prohibit Christians from taking vengeance, because God's word says that "my is the vengeance says the Lord I will repay", I think that we should let down any thoughts about vengeance and let the Lord handle all our problems.

They refused to help Gideon because they were afraid of the Midianites, they refused to help Gideon "but in doing so they are committing a terrible breach of hospitality to their own kinsmen and a grave sin against the God of the Covenant." Gideon punished these cities because they refused to help him by providing food and nurishment to his men when he was pursuing the Midianites. I think that he was just in desiring punishment for the evil that was done against him and his troops, but paying eye by eye and evil with evil is not the answer. I think that when we as Christians refuse to help others, when we refuse to offer hospitality to those in need, we are doing the same thing that those mentioned cities did.

If he didn't vanquish them, they would come back in the future as a thorn in his side to attack again the Israelites. We always must finish the tasks that God has asked to do, failure of doing that will bring chaos and toils in our journey.

Gideon asks the Ephraimites to help him in the capture and destruction of the remain of the Midianites' troops. The Ephraimites were angry with Gideon because he didn't call them before to join him against the Midianites. When we learn to humble ourselves and to give the glory to God we will be able to show to others that our merits belong to the Lord, by humbling himself in front of the Ephraimites Gideon was able to calm them and to convince them in helping him in the pursuit of the Midianites.

Gideon strategy was to create confusion in the Midianite's camp, dividing the troops into three companies gave the appearance that they were more than they really were, also attacking at night allowed them to surprise their enemies. As a result of this strategy the Midianites were confussed by the suddenly attack and they started in the middle of the night to attack each other. His strategy works, because he trusted in God to lead him into battle also he acted as a leader asking his followers to do as he was doing.

Like the commentary says in the Exposition: "People of that day didn't bake bread in loaf pans, but as round lumps of dough that might bake into perfect wheels. The Midianite guard has seen just one of these loaves in his dream, careening down hill into the camp. In his dream, the small loaf strikes and collapses a tent many times its size." I think that the rolling barley loaf was a picture of what was about to happen to the Midianites, that they would be defeated by the Israelites, they were about to be run over by the army of Gideon. I think that God choosed to show this dream to Gideon to strength Gideon's faith and trust in the Lord and also to prove Gideon that if he trusted the Lord he could do anything that God would require from him.

Before I answer this question I checked some of the comments of different authors, like these ones: David Guzik Study Guide Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown Commentary Matthew Henry Commentary Now it is hard to distinguis which was the real reason that God used to choose the 300 men, but seems like the ability of those who were choosed to stand quicker and be ready faster to attack the enemy, was the major reason for been choosed by God.

I think that we demand that God's directions make sense to us before we'll follow them, due to our narrow view of the big picture, we are beings who cannot see beyond our own scope, we many times want to trust our own instincts without seeing the bic picture, in our conditions many times we can only see a small fragment of the whole scenarium. The spiritual danger here is that we may disobey God by refusing to follow His commands when we can't confirm or see beyond our limited area of view. I don't think that we should be afraid of being -- or being perceived as -- religious kooks, because we all know that the world has rejected our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and any thing that comes from God. I think that we can balance blind obedience with getting confirmation through spiritual people whose discernment we trust by always checking our bibles and asking for guidance through prayer and fasting. The Bible teaches that we should confirm everything with the word of God.

I think that if God had allowed Gideon to attack the Midianites with such a big army (22,000 men), the people of Israel would believe that they defeated the Midianites by their own strength and not by God's help. Shrinking the army's size to a tiny band was essential in restoring Israel's faith and allegiance, because will show them that God could defeat any army in the world, no mattere how big this army could be, God wanted for the people of Israell to trust, obey and have faith in Him. God had delivered Israel in the past and He was about to prove them that He could deliver them again. By human standars what Gideon was doing in shrinking his army, wasa mistake a tactical error, but those who thought that way didn't take in consideration that God already told Gideon that the Midianites were on his hands, and also that Gideon was choosed by God to deliver Israel from the Midianites. God showed Gideon once again that he would be able to defeat the Midianites, God ordered Gideon to sneak into the Midianites' camp and listen with his own ears what was about to happen to the Midianites. I believe that Gideon learned to have faith in the Lord without any doubts.

I believe that when we are trying to determine that if the task ahead of us is from God, would be prudent to ask God if He wish to confirm that it is coming from Him through a sign. Now I believe that demanding a sign from God must be done in extreme cases where the outcome of the task could represent a victory for God's cause or a defeat. I don't think that we should ask God for signs just to confirm that He exists or for our own selfish desire to see miracles and signs and believe that God has to answer us any kind of foolish desire that our heart may request. We have to be very carefull about demamnding signs, this could also be interpreted as tempting God, we should remember how the devil tried to tempt Jesus in the desert and what Jesus replied him: Matthew 4:7

I don't think that Gideon was testing God, but rather he was looking for reassurance that he was indeed following God's orders and not his own desires. Gideon wanted to please God and was asking for God to confirm that he (Gideon) was doing God's will. I believe that the warnings issued by the scriptures talk about those who try to test God to prove that He is who He says He is. People who are trying to prove the existence of God. I agree with what is written in the exposition

When I wrote that what I meant is that Jesus is the head of the Church, I see Him as the temple where one day all of the believers will come to inhabit inside (The New Jerusalem), I understand the reference in Revelation about the 3rd Temple and the Spiritual temple, I think that maybe I should rewrite my thoughts. Thanks for your input in fixing my mistake. I hope that we canexchange more ideas as the sudy continues. May God richly bless you.

The Spirit of the Lord inspires Gideon to blow the battle horn because the time had come for the Israelites to be set free from the Midianites. He was obeying God's instructions and guidance. Gideon have a lot in common with other judges and leaders of his era that obeyed God and acted under God's direction. All of them were inspired by the Spirit of the Lord and follow His lead.

According with the Scriptures seems like Gideon's father was a wealthy man and with some kind of leadership position among the Israelites (the father had an altar to Baal)but he has failed to this point to worship the true God, he has failed as a leader of his house and of his people. The actions by Gideon affected his father and cause the men of the town to come to his father's house and demand Gideon's death. I don't think that Gideon did anything wrong by not taking on consideration how his actions would affect his father because he was obeying a higher authority, God himself. The father of Gideon realizes that what his son did it prove that Baal was a false god and helped him to understand his mistake of worshipping a false god, his open challenge to Baal to defend himself against the actions of Gideon proves that a transformation had taken place on his heart.

I think that we have the choice to be obedient disciples, now do we choose to be or not? I think that many times our flesh make the decisions for ourselves. I think that we should take control of our actions, I think that we must strive for being obedient disciples and no disobedient ones, of course we would fail, but we have God's grace to help us to get back in the right track. God knows our hearts and also He knows our strengths and weaknesses. I think that Gideon had only one choice and that was to obey God, if he disobeyed it would mean destruction not only for his family but for him also and his countrymen.

We must obey this commandment, because it is given to us by God. But at the same time we need to understand that God comes first, because He is our Creator, because without Him we wouldn't have eternal life. It is written that we must love God first and then our father and mother, if we check the 10 commandments we find that the first one is telling us that He is the Lord our God, He is our heavenly Father, without Him we would not exist today. I think that Gideon was in a very delicated spot, but he knew that his first duty was towards God and then his family, he also knew that by obeying God he would bring salvation for his family.

God ask Gideon to tear down the Baal altar because in first place was an offense against God, this was one of the reason why the Israelites were falling away from God (the worshipping of false gods), at the same time was the reason why they were being oppressed by the Midianites. God cannot cohabit with false Gods, we can't worship God and false gods at the same time. Gideon was order by God to destroy this false god's altar and in its place to build an altar to the true God. Gideon was afraid that his family and the men of the town will kill him for destroying the altar of Baal, so he did it at night. He was taking a big risk by obeying God. I believe that by doing this task by night he again trusted in his own strength and saw himself weak and unable to face those who worshipped Baal. He again failed to see that God was with him and God will not allow any evil come upon him. No matter this weakness he obeyed God and fullfilled the task ordered by God.

God tells Gideon that he didn't nead to fear because God was with him and will empower him to strike down all the Midianites and will help him set his people free. This principle applies to our lives every day, we need to learn to lean in the Lord and to trust him and not to trust our own strength. There are many passages in the New Testament that speak about this principle, I like Ephesians 6:11 "Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil". Because all our figths at the end can be enclosed in one big fight and that one is against the devil. Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you Lord for given your eternal hope to me and the power that lives within you to me, I ask you Lord to give me the strength to face the daily tempations and obstacles that the evil one put in my journey towards you and I ask you Lord to be with me always, empowering me with your might that I can face any danger and distress without fear of the outcome. be with me always Lord and forgive my sins. In the name of your Son Jesus Christ I ask, amen.

God saw in Gideon as a mighty warrior that could bring freedom to Israel, God knew Gideon's potential and strength, also he knew his weakness. But Gideon saw himself from the humanistic point of view, he saw himself weak in his own strength, the least in his family according with his own words, he failed to notice that God can transform the weakest man into a mighty warrior. Many times we failed to trust the Lord when we are thinking about our own strength, we failed to see that we have the power of God within us to accomplish any task that God put in front of us. many times we need to learn to trust in God and not in our own human strength.