Jacque

The reason for Israel's opressed state is because they worshiped the gods of the Amorites. In direct opposition to the first commandment, "You shall have no other gods before me." We Christians, just like the Israelites, should lsten to what God has to say, and follow His words. Otherwise we also, will be oppresssed just like the Israelites for our own sins.

Gideon blames God for not being with them (the Israelites) like He was when they came out of Egypt. His assessement was incorrect, it was not God who abandoned them, it was the Israelites. We are very much like the Israelites, when everything is going all right we love God and praise Him. We walk away from God the second that we feel secure in His love, and believe and expect that any and everything that we do will be all right with God.

Until the lesson, I just took it for granted the meaning of the statement "the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." Now, I realize that this is probably one of the most powerful statements in the Bible. I wonder if the people that heard John say those words and followed Jesus knew the power of what he said. Also, from my understandig of the Jewish understanding of the Messiah, if they just washed from their minds th words "takes aways the sins of the world". Because most or all of them believed that the Messiah would come and rescue them from their troubles with the Roman occupation.

Hello, My name is Jacque, I am a single mother and go to a non-demonminational evangelical church. I love studying the Bible, that does not mean I know a lot, but I do my best. But please be patient with me, because this is the first time that I have ever used one of these message board things. So, I will not be using those fancy little things called smilies, I don't even know what they mean.