Helen Williams

Spiritual unfaithfulness is looked at as prostitution or adultery because it is the breaking of a vow or covenant. It is showing love or favor to something other than God. We have allowed it to be first in our lives. We should love God with our WHOLE soul, mind and body. Let us stay true to God, He is our first love. We are called the BRIDE of CHRIST and if we are unfaithful we are committing spiritual adultery. In daily living we are faced with so many temptations to spiritual adultery. There is materialism, sex, money, self gratification and anything that takes our focus away from God. Whatever our temptations are there is a way out; TRY JESUS

WHAT IS A SNARE? A snare is a trap. The wicked entraps people and so does idoatry as in the case of Gideon. It lured them away from the true worship of the true God. IN WHAT WAY DOES GIDEON'S EPHOD ENSNARES HIS FAMILY AND THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL? Gideon's father was a caretaker of Baal's altar in Ophrah, now a caretaker of a new object of worship. The focus was on a golden ephod which draws pilgrim worshippers and their money. This was no longer an invisible object of worship. HOW CAN SOMETHING BE A SIN IF WE DON'T SEE IT AS A SIN? SIN IS SIN whether we see it as sin or not.God should be our focus of worship. We need to guard against other things in our lives becoming entrapments. WE CANNOT SERVE TWO MASTERS! WHAT IS THE ESSENCE OF GIDEON SIN? It was not the taking of the gold, it was what he did with it. Not only did his family, his people get caught in the trap but Gideon himself. Let's keep our worship for real because God is a jealous God

What is an ephod? An ephod is refered to as a scared garment. In the Old Testament it was worn by the high priest. It has been mention as a graven image. What might the gold ephod looked like? It looked like the form of a statue because it was used by the high priest and the ephod hung on a wall or placed on a stand, possibly of a rough human shape.

Gideon asked for an earring from their share of the plunder. Gideon was not wrong to take a reward because it was appropriate to reward him for his courageousness as a successful military commander. The sin began when Gideon made the gold into an ephod and all the Israelites prostitued themselves by worshiping it in Ophrah. For God's people to worship another god other than God himself is spiritual adultery.

Why does Gideon refuse to be king over Israel? Gideon refuse because God was King and God would rule over them. In what sense becoming king be treason? Becoming king in a sense would be treason in that it would an attempt to overthrow the kingship of God. Gideon was not a savior. The Israelites did not see bestowing kingship as treason because they needed him, had been leaderless for years. They saw Gideon as a savior and he was only an instrutment of God's Salvation.

WHY GIDEON SLAYED ZEBAH AND ZALMUNNA? He slayed them because they had killed his brothers. According to the standards of the times, Gideon had a family obligation to exact vengeance for his brothers' unjust deaths and Gideon was just in his action. Roman 12:19 prohibit christian from taking vengeance: Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.

The cities of Succoth and Peniel refused to aid Gideon because they wanted to make sure that the Midianites were thoroughly trouned. They were taking no chances. Gideon would punish them later due to their lack of support in not giving food. Their sin is against the God of the covenant and a terrible breach of hospitality. Gideon is just in his action because at the time the punishment was well deserved. When we refuse to help our fellowman especially those of the faith, we can be guilty of not showing hospitality. I feel we should treat others as we wish to be treated as long as it does not violate the word of God. When we do it to the least of them we are also doing it to the Father. Just because we are refuse by others, we shouldn't take matters into our hand this belong to the Lord.

Gideon was letting nothing stop him from staying focus-destroying the remnants of the midianites army. This had to be done to protect them from future attacks. We see a change taking place in Gideon-a darker and vindictive side. He wasn't letting anything get in his way not even his own people. When we only deal with problems half way, we will forever be looking over our shoulders for them to return. If we are to run this race we have to run with faith and to finish it.

Gideon ask the Ephraimites to seize the waters of the Jordan ahead of them as far as Beth-Barah. In which they did. They were angry because Gideon didn't call for their assistance earlier. I learn a lot from Gideon's approach to the Ephramites' arrogance. Gideon could have has a bragging party, but he was gracious. He didn't get angry because the Ephraimites were angry. Instead of focusing on his acheivement. he turn the focus on what the Ephramites had acheived. Gideon knew that it was God who was in conrol and not he alone who defeated the Midanites. All the praise, honor and glory to God almighty.......

Gideon divides into three companies: To make the enemy feel like they were being attack from all sides with more than 300 men. The strategy with the trupmpets: This sounds like a hugh army attacking when only 300 trumpets are heard by the enemy. The empty jars: 2 purposes. (1) To hide the light of the torches until the right time. (2) To create a great deal of noise upon shattering in order to confuse the enemy. Torches: This much light around the enemy camp paints a picture of being surronded, inducing panic. The result of this strategy was a total panic by the enemy. Unable to see in the dark, running into their own men, killing each other and those that were not killed fleed as fast as they could. The worked because it was of God and Gideon was careful to obey God in every respect. Gideon was faithful and courageous.

Rolling Barley Loaf: This shows that the small loaf strikes and callapses a tent many times it size. God would give the larger army(midianites) to the smaller(Gideon). God shows Gideon this to calm his fears and give him encouragement. This is a lesson for us today. The impossible, not so clear task, the fears, and the lack of encouragement can be conquered through God. WE CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST THAT STRENGHTEN US. GOD GRANT US THE POWER TO MOVE INSPITE OF ALL THAT STAND BEFORE US. IN JESUS NAME AMEN

Lappers----Aware of our surrondings. We are in a spiritual warfare. Even though we are about our daily duties, we should always stay spiritual focus. Satan is out to deceive and destroy. Let us stay alert. Kneelers---God doesn't want us to be so busy with things of this world that we are not aware of our spiritual welfare. We are soliders on the battle field for the Lord.

We demand that God's directions make sense to us before we'll follow them could be for several reasons. The main one is faith. Things we cannot see or understand cause us to fear. We like to know we are standing on solid ground. God want us to trust Him at His word, yet and still we should be sure the directions are fron God. Not all of God's directions are going to make sense. We can be in spiritual danger of not obeying and miss our spiritual blessings. We do not like being different or being considered a spiritual nut. We all need the spiritual discernment of our spiritual brothers and sisters that we trust. We will encounter situation that are not clear or we do not understand and the spiritual insight of others may shed some light.

God felt Gideon's army was to big that Israel may boast that her own strength had saved her. He was to reduce the size. We like to toot our own horn( I did it). Israel would have done this instead of giving the credit to God. Shrinking of the army size to a tiny band of 300 is essential in restoring Israel faith and allegiance. It seems to be an impossible situation. What is impossible with man is possible with God. Gideon is humble, obedient and trust God enough even when things don't make sense and appear impoissible from the human eye. GOD HAD TO BE IN CONTROL! HE STILL IS IN CONTROL! Gideon is afraid of attacking with a few men of 300 against a mighty army of 130,000. Gideon heard the dream(Judges 7:13-15) after he sneaked into the enemy camp. How encouraging! God always strengthen us for the job. As Jesus told Peter, "Satan's desire to sift you like wheat, but I prayed for you that your faith will not fail." How great it is to know that Jesus is praying for us in our downfalls. There is always hope in what seems like an impossible situation.

We should ask for a sign only when we really and truly need assurance as in the case of Gideon. The Bible tells us not to tempt the Lord thy God. God did not leave us helpless, we have the Holy Spirit that lead and guide us in all truth. 1 Corinthians 10:9 ----Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents.

Why does Gideon put out a fleece before the Lord--twice? Gideon puts out a fleece before the Lord twice because of the size of the test, he ask for divine assurance that this is really God's will he is pursuing. We have to be sure we are listening to THE SPIRIT instead of a spirit. We all need that assurance at one time or another. This is a sign of belief because he wanted to be sure the message he had was correct, that God will save Iseral by his hand. Gideon understood this to be a promise of God. Before the word of God fail heaven and earth will pass away. I don't believe this is a "testing" of God because Gideon only needed to establish his faith with a small miracle by the only true God. This testing is different from the sinful testing of God the scripture warns against. They were attempting to manipulate God into doing miracles to somehow prove Himself. God is God all by Himself. We can't trick Him, He sees, hears, and knows all. God knows our heart.

The spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon to take action and he blew the trumpet. The Holy spirit gives us the stregth to do that which we cannot do ourselves. The Spirit of God so dwells with Gideon that he is clothed in God's Spirit. In the Old Testament it is stated in the scriptures that the leaders and judges were full of the spirit of God just as Gideon . I pray that God gives me the courage and strength that Gideon had and when I feel I can't, the Spirit of God will dwell with me. I will be moved to action. I am receiving so much from this study by reading the inspirational words of others.

It seems that Gideon's father Joash was not a very good father figure when it came to being the spiritual leader of his household. Joash had not made a true commitment to God. Gideon's action affected his father by putting him in the position of making a choice between baal and Yahweh. He also had to make a choice between his family or the townsmen. Gideon probadly did consider the impact this would have on his father. I know he loved his father but he had to obey God and do the right thing. Joash is a follower of Yahweh by taking the side of Gideon and Yahweh. He took a stand that day who he would serve.(Joshua 24:15)

Yes I believe we can be a disobedient disciples. We are growing spiritually everyday. We have not reached perfection. We all are sinners, but not a bondage to sin. The desciples that walk with Jesus daily had their inperfections but lived to be great in the work of the Lord. Gideon had a choice. God created us as free-will individuals and we are free to make choices whether they are good or bad. We have choices and trying to make the right ones can be difficult at times. Let's be the person God created us to be and make the right choice according to his word. God wants us to make a choice this day who we will serve. It would be great if we all would choose God!!!

We are to honor our fathers and mothers as long as it does not conflict with what God has told us to do. We have to choose whom we will serve man or God. The justification Gideon has for his action is stated in Matt. 10:37. He that loves his family more than God is not worthy of Him. There will be times when we will have to make a choice between God and family. We should always put God first in our life. Living our faith can be a testimony to others.

God told Gideon to tear down Baal and Asherah pole because they were his father's altars to Baal(false gods). He was to build a proper kind of altar to the Lord on top of this height using the wood of the Asherah pole that he had cut down and offer the second bull as a burnt offering. The risk was death, from his family and the community. Gideon did it at night because he was afraid of his family and community. His night mission might have been out of fear but not because lack of faith. As a great risk to him and putting in family in a difficult situation, Gideon was obedient. God did not give us the spirit of fear, this is satan tatic. On God's mission we will be afraid at times but we have to keep the faith abd obey. God told Gideon what to do and how but He did not say it could not be done at night.

I will be with you. We can have low self image and the same principle apply to our lives as christian today. New Testament Passage: "I will never leave nor forsake you."This is a comfort to know God is always there to strenghten us. Prayer: Lord I will trust aand depend on you for my strtength and be obedient to your word. You are my strength and refuge, my very present help in trouble.

God saw Gideon as a mighty warrior. Gideon saw himself as least in his family. God's self-perception of Gideon was most accurate because if God is with us we WILL be victorious. Our own self-perception prevent us from becoming what God has made us to be because we rely and trust on our own strength. We should have faith and trust in God who is our TRUE strength.

They did what was evil in the eyesight of God. They did not listen to God and worship the gods of the Amorites. God is a jealous God and we should have no other gods before Him. This affect us today if we put things before God such as our family, money, and anything that we value more than God. He want up to worship Him in spirit and truth.

Hi I'm Helen and I am excited about the study. This is my first time. Gideon blames God for all the trouble they were having because he said God did not care. He was not accurate in his assessment. Their problems were due to their disobedient to the word of God. We blame God when we fail to take responsibility for our actions. The danger is we damage our spiritual walk with God and we can stop short of this in the future by having faith and trusting God. He always knows what is best for His Children. I am going to enjoy this study