JU8-22: Golden Nuggets From The Story Of Gideon (Part Two)

Alrighty, so we’re mining the text of Judges Chapter 8 to dig out the golden nuggets contained in the story of Gideon.

Yesterday we discussed the first nugget which was that when the Lord stands with Israel, no force in the universe can stand against them.

So let’s get into the second golden nugget.

It is this:

The biggest roadblocks to carrying out God’s Will for our lives will NEVER be other people and outside circumstances  .

It will always be our LACK OF FAITH.

Period.

Just as the Lord had to deal with a rebellious Israel who seemed hell bent on committing idolatry, so too does He have to deal with imperfect beings like us.

If you think about it, the very definition of the New Covenant church is a group of unworthy believers, both Jew and Gentile, who are redeemed through their faith in Yeshua.

Yet, more often than not, our behavior doesn’t reflect our saved status now, does it?

At the end of the day, we’re still folks struggling against the YETSER HARA (evil inclination) lying resident inside of us that wants to rear its ugly head, trip us up and make us fall flat on our faces.

Look at how the leaders of Succoth and Penuel behaved.

They were fellow Hebrews who were “saved”.

Yet they decided to stand against God’s army led by Gideon who was in pursuit of the enemy.

Or how about the arrogant behavior of the Ephraimites, the biggest and richest tribe in all of Israel?

After Gideon achieved his landslide victory, they became filled with jealousy because the Lord put Gideon and his men in charge of this Holy War instead of them.

So fueled by nothing but selfish envy and pride, they tried to take credit for Gideon’s success after the fact.

And don’t we see the same egotistic battles being fought everyday among us?

In fact, as I write this today, one of my Jewish friends here in Japan recently shared with me how he and a couple of members of a Messianic Congregation here in Tokyo decided to leave it for good.

He used to teach the Hebrew classes there and told me he and others decided to leave because they just couldn’t stand, as he put it, the one-sided, domineering, arrogant and egotistic attitude of the congregational leadership.

So for this year’s Passover, he and the other now former members decided to hold their own seder at a venue they rented.

Now I’m not pointing any fingers here and saying who’s right and who’s wrong.

I’m just saying this is part and parcel of what can happen when we don’t surrender to the Lord and His Commands in humility and instead let our pride and ego get in the way.