Judges 6 – 7
Is there anyone who hasn’t heard of our next judge, Gideon? Or, maybe, the phrase “put out a fleece?”
Once again, Israel did evil in the Lord’s sight and were handed over to the Midianites. These guys were all kinds of cruel, so cruel in fact, that the Israelites stared hiding. They couldn’t grow crops without the Midianites would destroy their crops. Small wonder the starving people cried out to the Lord. The angel of the Lord seeks out Gideon who is threshing grain in a winepress to hide from the Midianites.
When told to rescue Israel from the Midianites, our reluctant hero asks how he can do it. Gideon is not convinced and the angel of the Lord performs a miracle by calling fire to consume the meat and bread Gideon had offered him. Gideon builds an altar. That night, the Lord tells Gideon to pull down his father’s altar to Baal and to cut down the Asherah pole standing beside it, then build an altar to the Lord and sacrifice his father’s second bull using the wood from the Asherah pole. Gideon does this at night because he was afraid of his father’s household and the people of the town. I’m sure Gideon was surprised when his father defended him to the mob that was calling for Gideon to be put to death.
When the armies begin gathering to attack Israel, the Spirit of the Lord takes possession of Gideon and he calls the Israelites to arms, but he still has doubts, still wants some proof. He puts out the fleece and God performs a miracle, causing the fleece to be wet when the ground is dry. Not enough, Gideon puts out another fleece and God performs another miracle, causing the fleece to be dry when the ground is wet.
God wants there to be no doubt about who will get credit when Israel defeats the assembled armies. The Lord reduces the Israelite army from 22,000 to only 300 warriors. Gideon divides the warriors into three groups and gives a ram’s horn and clay jar with a torch in it. Just after midnight, Gideon and 100 men glow the horns and break their clay jars and shout, “For the Lord and for Gideon.” The men are so confused that they fight each other with their swords. Those not killed, flee.
Did you ever “put out a fleece?” Was it to prove God was with you or was it to help you make a decision? Do you think this showed Gideon’s lack of faith or was it just so he would know he was not acting on his own?
Tomorrow, it’s Judges 8 – 9.
GREAT TRUTHS
1. In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress. - John Adams
2. If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed. - Mark Twain
3. Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But then I repeat myself. - Mark Twain
4. I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. - Winston Churchill
5. A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. - George Bernard Shaw
6. A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money. - G. Gordon Liddy
7. Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. - James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)
8. Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. - Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University.
9. Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. - P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian.
10. Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else. - Frederic Bastiat, French economist (1801-1850)
11. Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. - Ronald Reagan (1986)
12. I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts. - Will Rogers
13. If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free! - P.J. O'Rourke
14. In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other. - Voltaire (1764)
15. Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you! - Pericles (430 B.C.)
16. No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session. - Mark Twain (1866)
17. Talk is cheap...except when Congress does it. - Anonymous
18. The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. - Ronald Reagan
19. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. - Winston Churchill
20. The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. - Mark Twain
21. The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. - Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)
22. There is no distinctly Native American criminal class...save Congress. - Mark Twain
23. What this country needs are more unemployed politicians. - Edward Langley, Artist (1928-1995)
24. A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have. - Thomas Jefferson
25. We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. – Aesop
Until next time…
FIVE BEST SENTENCES:
1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity, by legislating the wealth out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for ... another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they worked for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation!
No comments:
Post a Comment