Peggie

The lambs blood on the first passover protected God's people in that when the blood was on their door, the angel of death "passed over" and no harm came to their sons. After the first passover lamb, a spotless lamb free of blemish, the Children of Israel were set free from slavery. The death of Jesus, the spotless lamb of God who shed his own blood for us, sets us free from the worst slavery of all, our own sins. As with the first passover lamb, their doors were covered with the lamb's blood, even now our sins are covered by the blood of Christ.....I am washed in the blood of the Lamb!

Is. 42:1-4 says alot to me becuase it says, "Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight".....this shows to me how hard it was for God to send His own son for me, that he delighted in Him, and how He loved him! Any parent knows how hard it is to watch your child suffer, this passage reminds me of how God loves His son, and what a sacrifice sending Him was. And, it shows me how the victory will be His, and that the nations (the whole world) will put their hope in HIM!

Jesus took the punishment for my sins on the cross because He "was wounded for MY trangressions". Something I"m reminded of here is that the consequences for sin are always painful, and Jesus bore more pain than has ever been known to bear my sins.

The servant acts as a substitute to bear our sins because he took our sins that we "should" have paid for ourselves into His own precious sinless body, spilling His own blood instead of ours. The substitute always "fills in" for another and this is what Jesus did for us, He took our place on calvary.

Mark 9:12 tells me what Jesus saw in Himself. He tried to tell the world who is was, but they rejected him and He suffered because of it.

The Precious Lamb of God removed the sins of the entire WORLD!!! They are removed to whosoever believes on Him and has confessed Him as Lord of their life. It's sad that the greatest sacrifice ever shown the world in indeed wasted on some who don't believe, or maybe they "beleive" but not to the point of dedication to Him. Another way it is wasted is that God has given us all talents to be used for His glory. Those who have not accepted Christ as Lord and Savior are wasting those talents, in many cases using them for the "world".

Hello Everyone, I'm Peg and live in S. Arkansas. I've belonged to a wonderful non-denominational church for over 20 years. This is my second online Bible study here at Joyful Heart and I'm looking forward greatly to it I would like to thank Pastor Ralph for having these great online studies for all of us to learn, share and grow in Christ.

Animal sacrifice shows that sin has consequences, God cannot just look the other way and still be a God of justice. But it shows that God is a great God of mercy who is willing that no one should perish.

Animal sacrifice expresses God's mercy in that the payment for sin is death, but because of God's mercy an animal could be sacrificed instead of the person. No, animal sacrifices could not atone for sin. Othewise, there would have been no need for Jesus to suffer the cruel death that HE did.

Animal sacrifice nowdays repulses most people because it's an unknown thing to them. Many people like me, don't stop to think about where their meat really comes from, but more like what Pastor Ralph said about the way it comes in the supermarket. The animal rights activists of today's world would (and I'm sure DO) have a hey day in a court of law over such a thing. And, rightfully so since Jesus as paid the price for sin once and for all!

Anger is a response to sin because sin offends God....sin offends most PEOPLE as well, therefore making them angry. If we harm someone in a relationship whether it be family or friendship, they feel betrayed which in turn causes sorrow and anger. Controlled anger can be compared to a legal judge sitting on a bench. The one standing before him/her may have consequences to pay, but that does not mean the judge loses his/her temper at them, they just sadly enforce the consequences.

We know that John The Baptist's statement refers to sacrifice because lambs were used as sin offerings. Also, that John said, "which takes away the sins of the world" would involve tremendous sacrifice, not just for one person but for the whole world! An animal sacrifice would never suffice for the sins of the world to be forgiven, this required the precious blood of Christ, the only perfect human, the precious Son of God.

Gideon refused to be king over Israel because he never forgot that there was only one king....The Lord. Gideon becoming king would become treason in the sense that only God was suppose to be king over Israel. From the beginning of this study, we learn that although Gideon has fallen away from God as has Israel, Gideon comes back at God's calling. Gideon knows who it is that is leading the battle and who has won the victory for them. His countrymen don't seem to see that.

Gideon slayed Zibah and Zalmunna to avenge the deaths of his own brothers which was the way of doing things at the time. In reading over this lesson's scriptures, I would have not wanted to be on the receiving end of Gideon's wrath at the time! Later we are told that vengeance belongs to God and that He will repay evil. As hard as it is at times, if we don't give vengeance over to God, we run a high risk of not setting a Christ like example especially to the lost. Furthermore, it's outright disobedience to not do so. We have to watch our anger, giving it to God, even when it's justified, we cannot let it continue to build, adding fuel.

Penial and Succoth were afraid that the Midianites had not been forever wiped out. Gideon was right in what he did, they should have shown allegiance to God and to Israel. I'm sure we have all fallen short along the way of not being as charitable as we should have been. The Bible warns to entertain strangers, we never know when one of them is an angel unaware.

Gideon needed to destroy the other 15,000 enemies to keep them from coming back, risking the exact same problem all over again. This is similar to a surgeon who wants to make sure he/she has removed ALL the cancer if possible! When we only do a job halfway, it's the same thing as sweeping dirt under a rug, the problem still exists, it's just not as visible for awhile.

Gideon divides his small army into 3 parts to give the appreance of a much larger amry than what he really had. The jars hid the light of the torches until the right time, thus causing great confusion within the enemy camp. Which in turn, caused the enemy camp to fight w/one another, not knowing what was really happening. So often this happens to Christians when "the author of confusion", our enemy satan, sets traps for us. He has those of us who are likeminded in the gospel of Christ arguing amongst ourselves, giving him a temporary victory!

The rolling barely loaf represents Gideon's sword. God showed this to Gideon to once again give him the assurance needed.

The only answer I can come up with is that the lappers may have been those who would be more alert.

We see things in human terms, so we look for human answers. But God says "My ways are not your ways, and my thoughts are not your thoughts." The spiritual danger here is the lack of showing truth faith, like the faith of Abraham. We often are afraid of being considered religious kooks. That is showing that we still worry about what the "world" thinks instead of having our main focus on obeying God, regardless of what He asks of us. Confirmation regarding what God wills us to do should come from prayer. If we seek, we shall find....that includes finding God's will.

Too many troups would have made it look as though it was them instead of the hand of God who destroyed the Midianites. For God to receive the glory for this, they needed a smaller army, so small that by any other means could not have defeated the Midianites by themselves.

I believe when we are truly seeking God's will for us, it's ok to ask Him to point things out to us. God knows the heart/mind of us all. We can never hide our intentions from God. If our intentions are pure, I believe God will honor that in us and answer our requests as He did for Gideon.

Gideon wanted to make sure he was obeying what God wanted from him. Also, Gideon needed re-assurance as anyone in his position would! God is always through His Word willing to re-assure us, He just does not want us testing Him....there's a big difference. I agree that when we "test" God, it's for selfish reasons.....and almost like mocking Him. This reminds me of those who stood beneath the cross of Jesus and said, "If he be the Son of God, let Him come down from the cross now and we will believe Him". Those people were not trying to obey, they were truly testing God.

The Holy Spirit inspired Gideon to blow the trumpet and we don't see for a second that he hesitated. If we would all be so quick to obey!!!

Up to this point, Joash had been a leader in position and maybe title only. He had been sitting on the fence too much to be a real leader. I'm sure Gideon did think about how this would affect his father, but his priorities were in obeying his Heavenly Father.