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1. What is the strategic significance of God's command for Gideon to tear down the Baal altar and Asherah pole? God ask Gideon to tear down the Baal altar and Asherah pole in order to test Gideon if truly He is faithful to him and to know if Gideon will abide on his instructions. It is a test for Gideon's obedience. 2. What positive thing is he to erect in their place? To build a proper kind of altar for the Lord Almighty. 3. What risks are involved in this action? It would stir up commotion and war against his family and the people. It would also stir up misunderstanding against Gideon and his father. 4.Why does Gideon do this at night? Is this night mission a sign of weakness or of faith? Gideon do this at night because he was afraid of his family and of the people....For me, No, I believe that it is a sign of faith. He was afraid not because his family or the people will do something bad to him but rather he was afraid in a sense that He will not fulfill what the Lord has commanded him if his family and the people will see it.

1, How did God see Gideon? How did Gideon see himself? Whose self-perception is most accurate? God sees Gideon as a mighty warrior while on the other hand Gideon sees himself as a weak person and to quote he said "my clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least in my family". God perception of Gideon's strength is the mot accurate. he is the one who created us so He know what we are capable of doing. 2.How can our own self-perception prevent us from becoming what God has made us to be? It hinders us to do things that we are intended to do...Just for example, in serving the Lord through the Music Ministry. Go called us for this ministry yet we refused because we view ourselves like " I don't have talent in singing", "I don't have a good voice", I can't play any musical instruments". 3. What is God's answer to Gideon's self-image? God answers Gideon indirectly by saying that "I know that you are capable of doing this. Why should I be sending you if you can't?" God lso said that He will be with Gideon. 4. What might be an appropriate prayer to pray in light of what God has taught you from this passage? Father God we praise and we worship you. We we're created perfectly in your own image and likeness. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. Help us Lord, to look at ourselves the way you look at us. Help us to see beyond our human eyes can see - that we are capable of doing great and mighty things through you. Let not our own self-perception hinders us to do things that we ought to do. You said in your word that "We can do all things through Christ who give us strength". We claim that promise...in Jesus Name we pray..AMEN

1. In what way does Gideon blame God for his troubles in verse 13? He was questioning the presence of God in their current situation. He is asking if God is with them, then why all those bad things re happening to them. 2. Is Gideon's assessment accurate? Why or why not? Why do we blame God? Nope. he's assessment is inaccurate because he didn't dig deeper as to why they are in that situation. He just based it on their current situation. We blame God because it is the easiest way for us to explain why certain things happen and most of the time we are to proud to admit that those bad things or situations we are experiencing are results of our own actions. 3. What's the danger and how can we stop short of this in the future? The danger is that instead of drawing ourselves near to God, we are making ourselves farther from Him. I believe that we can stop this by praying and reading His words and still believe in His promises...for me, when bad things happen, I try to keep silent first and assess myself what went wrong and ask God to give me strength to overcome the situation. And then read scriptures or listen to sermons that can divert my attention that instead on dwelling on the bad circumstances I'm in, find means to uplift my spirit and move on...

The reason for Israel's oppressed state is that they disobeyed God by also worshipping other gods-Baal and Asherah. The commandment that they broke is this - "You shall have no other god before me." They didn't listen o the commandment of God because they still continue to worship Baal and Asherah and even make altars or them. Similar things still happens to us today..we say that we only worship our god but sometimes unconsciously we take Him for granted and worship other things-work,pleasures,money,and the like...