Scripture
Read: Judges 6:24-26 Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and named it The Lord
is Peace. To this day it is still in
Ophrah of the Abiezrites. Now on
the same night the
Lord said to him, “Take
your father’s bull and a second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal which belongs to your father, and cut down the
Asherah that is beside it; and build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of
this stronghold in an orderly manner, and take a second bull and offer a
burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down.”
Application: First
things first! This is a “task” oriented society
we live in today, and most of us are affected by it…I know I am. That’s why the
Scriptures are always quick to point out “the
need for balance”. Gideon has been told he will be used by God to
deliver the Israelites from the hand of the Midianites, after making sure “Who” he was talking to…it was God.
Great! So Gideon goes directly in and wipes out the bad Midianites. Right?
Wrong! First things first! Here is one of those principles that can shed a lot
of light on the reason for God’s timing in our lives. We see a task that needs
to be accomplished, ~ we focus on that and endeavor to press ahead. God, on the
other hand, has a completely different agenda that has more to do with our
personal good and growth than the task we’re endeavoring to focus on. God makes
it clear that the idolatry needs to stop first. Baal must be gone before God
was going to free the Israelites from Midian through Gideon. God’s alter will
not be shared with Baal, nor can God’s alter be built before Baal’s altar is
destroyed. It’s like putting on a shirt; if you do not get the top button right,
everything else is off! This is such an important principle. It is one of the
strongest and most consistently taught in the Scriptures. Time and time again
God makes us the issue first, then rewards us for our trust in Him. An example
that really sticks out to me is in Joshua. After the 40 years of wandering because of
their fathers disobedience and refusal to go in and conquer the land that God
had promised the Israelites, when
Rahab the harlot gave them refuge and hid the Israelite spies notice the
reputation of the Israelites to their enemies:
“For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea
before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings
of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you
utterly destroyed. “When we heard it, our hearts melted and no
courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above
and on earth beneath. Joshua 2:10–11
Now
it came about when all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to
the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard how
the Lord had dried up the waters
of the Jordan before the sons of Israel until they had crossed, that their
hearts melted, and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the sons
of Israel. Joshua 5:1
Consider: your one
of Joshua’s generals about to approach the fortified city of Jericho, it had
walls that were over 3.6 meters high and 1.8 meters wide at it’s base. There
was an internal staircase with 22 stone steps, a fortress intimidating to
behold, yet their enemies within were terrified from what they had heard from your
other conquests. You have the momentum...and your leader tells you…we have to
stop and circumcise all the men!? NOW? Yes, first things first!
At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make for yourself
flint knives and circumcise again the sons of Israel the second time.” Joshua 5:2
The land was to be
given to “the people of the covenant”,
but these folks had not entered into the covenant yet. They needed to prepare
their hearts first, before the battle. So, the entire army stopped and was
circumcised.
That is not why
they were yelling when they walked around the walls of Jericho!
God had them wait until they were completely
healed. We need to check our own hearts when we become fixated on a task and
become impatient with God’s timing. We very likely will miss the BIG picture.
Often, men who felt led to be in the Pastorate and go into the ministry, have
tried to skip the time it takes to mature and be educated learning the
disciplines that are so essential in the ministry. Choosing a short cut, they
are really unprepared and do not last in the ministry. Spiritual maturity is
the foundation to living out our lives for Him in any ministry God has called
us to.
Meditation Questions: When
God is moving in your life, how do you view it, tunnel vision or do you slow
down enough to consider all aspect? What does your answer show you? Have you
ever felt impatient toward the Lord, what did you do about that? When you
desire something to happen, but it does not, how do you deal with that? Do you
look inside to see if there are bigger issues that the Lord might be trying to
deal with? Do you have any “alters” that need to be torn down? What are you
doing about that?
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