The mighty man of valor is afraid of his family and the men
of the town to take down the altar of Baal and the Asherah pole during the day
so he did it at night. Our writer is
certainly honest about the hero here.
His father supports him in what he has done and Gideon begins to gather
an army from the tribes of Israel.
Before he is willing to go into battle, he does something smart, he
makes certain the Lord is with him in this endeavor. He puts out the fleece and sets conditions
that only God could make happen, reversing his request the second night and the
Lord meets the conditions. It seems a
nonsensical way of determining the will of God, completely divorced from the
action he will take, but God honored his request. Gideon was willing to walk out in faith if
God were with him, he didn't need assurance of success in the venture, only the
knowledge that God was calling him and would be with him.
We who believe in the Name of Jesus, literally, the Lord
saves, have life. We have been born of
God and are therefore His children.
Unless we believe we are not children of God but creatures of God, made
in His image to be certain but still creatures because we have not received the
Holy Spirit. Belief in Him is proof that
we have the Holy Spirit, no other sign is necessary to prove we have the
Spirit, but belief is proven by obedience to His commands. We who have received the Spirit should have
lives that reflect that new birth, we should think differently, have different
concerns, and love differently. That
requires more of the Spirit and less of us, just as John said, "I must
decrease, He must increase." The
sign the Lord has given us is the resurrection, much more to the point than
Gideon's fleece wouldn't you say?
The immediate reaction of those who heard the first sermon
preached on the day of Pentecost was to ask a simple question, "What shall
we do?" Peter knew the answer,
repent and be baptized and you'll receive the Holy Spirit. They did and three thousand came to faith
that day. We are also told that there
continued to be demonstrations of power among them, signs and wonders through
the apostles, and these proved the presence of God in them and among them. The people couldn't get enough of the
teaching or the fellowship and were willing to share all they had with one
another. They surely believed they were
in the last days so nothing material mattered to them. In our day I see preparation being made for
the end of days that is exactly the opposite of this, hoarding and the plan to
secure all we have. The world needs to
see a different paradigm from Christians.
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