Button the top button in the top button hole or the whole shirt will be off!

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?