JU8-10: Gideon Was One Of The Few Who Obeyed God Fully And COMPLETELY Exterminated The Enemy

At this point in the Scriptures, there’s a new geopolitical reality forming you all need to be aware of.

Israel has now divided itself into a number of loyalties and the foundation for what will become the great southern and northern divide is now forming right before our eyes.

The tribe of Judah has become the leader of the coalition of tribes living in the southern region of Canaan.

And Ephraim has become the leader of the tribes clustered in the north.

Fast forward to today, the Hebrews who we call “the Jews” originate from this southern coalition that formed here in Judges and the 10 lost tribes of Israel was the coalition spearheaded by Ephraim.

Oh and I almost forgot to mention, we still have the division between the tribes residing on the east side of the Jordan River and those residing in the west.

So irrespective of whether a particular tribe was located in the north, south, east or west, they each sought to individually consolidate their power and gain influence.

And more often than not, they did this by forming coalitions with other tribes.

So with these geopolitical dynamics in mind, let’s rewind the tape for a sec and see where we’re at now in our study of Gideon.

Recall that Gideon was operating on the eastern side of the Jordan River.

He and his 300 men still had about 15,000 enemy soldiers left to conquer.

However, what’s interesting is that at this point in time Gideon and his men were no longer shaking and quaking in their boots.

Because recall that earlier Gideon and his vastly outnumbered army (again only 300 men folks), had successfully taken on 135,000 men and sent them scoundrels packing.

So even though by any reasonable standard they were still outnumbered, 15,000 enemy soldiers was obviously far less than the original 135,000.

And thus Gideon and his men were confident they’d kick some serious butt this time around too.

And kick some serious butt they did.

The Midianite nomads were caught completely off guard when Gideon and his men suddenly showed up at their doorstep.

They assumed they were in safe territory but they were wrong.

Gideon and his men who had traveled a good 50 miles to track them down made quick work of the remaining soldiers and captured the leaders Zevach and Tzalmuna.

So that’s where we’re at now.

What’s really fascinating is that up until the time of Gideon, the Midianites were mentioned quite frequently in the Scriptures.

But after Gideon, they’re hardly mentioned at all.

That’s right homies.

Pre-Gideon = Tons of Midianites.

Post-Gideon = Where the heck are the Midianites?

Which means Gideon did a darn good job in putting an end to the Midianite threat for all time and forever.

Which also means he was fully obedient to the Lord’s divine commands.

I know that goes against the gentile church’s maple syrupy notions of how God is only all about love doctrinal nonsense.

But that’s not the plain and simple Scriptural reality.

We’re gonna be discussing this some more later, but here’s the thing.

The only reason we have a crisis in the Middle East today is because Joshua and his men didn’t fully drive out the Canaanites from the land as he was commanded to.

And yes, that included EVERY man, woman and child.

Over and out.