Bahan Alkitab: Judges 6-7
Tanggal: 30/08/2020
Ringkasan:
Israelite disobeyed God and worship idols.
God punish them and left them in the hands of the destructive Midianites for seven years. The Israelites called out to God for help. God would send aid through a man named Gideon.
Israelite blamed Midianites for the suffering but in reality, its because of their own sin that God punish them.
An angel appears before Gideon and then proceeds to tell Gideon that he will deliver the Israelites from the Midianites, to which point Gideon says the he is just a small, young boy. Gideon then asks the angel for a sign to prove that he is really speaking with God, leaves, and returns with an offering of food. The angel then spontaneously combusts the food. Gideon the realizes it is truly an angel of the Lord.
The same night the Lord tells Gideon to destroy one of his fathers altars to an idol, Baal, and replace it with an altar to God and sacrifice a bull on it. Gideon does so and at night so that he is not caught.
The townspeople find out Gideon did this and demand his execution. Gideon’s father, Joash, however, exclaimed that if Baal were truly a God he would be able to defend himself.
Gideon then calls to arms to fight against the Midianites several other peoples and they join him. Then Gideon asks for another sign that God is with them and asking God to make fleece the only wet thing on the ground the next morning, and then the only dry thing on the ground on the morning after that. God does both of these. and Gideon knows God is with them.
In the morning, the Lord tells Gideon he must cut down the size of his army because otherwise the Israelites won’t contribute their win to God, but rather to themselves. Gideon achieves this by asking that any person who is afraid to leave, and twenty-two thousand of the ten thousand people leave because of this. However, God said this is still too many people, so he tells Gideon to go down to a river and see how the men drink. God then instructed Gideon to only keep people who drank like a dog. Gideon complied, which brought his army size to
That night God instructs Gideon togo down to the valley to the Midianite valley to see what the Midianites were dreaming of. This was meant to relax and assure Gideon that God was on his side. In the valley, Gideon overhears a conversation between two Midianites in which one Midianite says he had a dream where a loaf of bread tumbling down the hill the Midianites’ tent. The other Midianite interprets this as the sword of Gideon laying wrath upon the Midianites. Gideon knew God has given Midianite into their hand.
Gideon tells his people to split up into three groups. Gideon then gives everyone trumpets and jars with torches in them. After marching to the Midianite camp, everyone blew their trumpets end broke the jars. All the Midianites fled in terror from hearing and this sight. Gideon then sent messengers to other Israelites about the Midianites, so the other Midianites captured the Midianites and killed their leaders.
Ayat Hafalan:
Psalm 107:8 English Standard Version (ESV)
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man