THE LORD SPOKE (April 09)

Daily Reflections from Scripture:

Old Testament: Judges 7-8

Brave Gideon had three hundred men;
The Midianites had a host.
But Gideon had the Lord with him,
And so he had the most.

So went a little song taught in Vacation Bible School years ago. It celebrated how Gideon “won the fight with the Midianites, for Gideon had the Lord”.

Judges 7 begins with a great sifting (Judg. 7:2-3). With men's hearts already quaking, they watched over 2/3 of the “army” melt away in a day. By God’s judgment, the ten thousand remaining were still too many and the number is further reduced to ridiculous odds. In the end, there are only three hundred to go up against a plague of Midianites so numerous that even their camel herds were too big to be counted (Judg. 7:12).

So begins a gracious strengthening (Judg. 7:9-20) as God prepares Gideon and his little band for the task ahead. Never has there been a greater illustration of the truth that “the battle is the Lord’s” (I Sam. 17:47). Gideon himself is strengthened by the inspired interpretation of a piece of pita tumbling into the tents of the mighty Midianites (Judg. 7:13-14).

A glorious success (Judg. 7:21-25) concludes the story. The Midianites are thrown into a total rout. Quaking Israelites come out of the rocks and pursue them all along the way. They chase them the length of the Jordan Valley, picking up valuable military supplies as they go and capturing two of the Midianite generals. The host skedaddles and God’s people ____________.

The rest of that sentence should read something like, “lived happily ever after”. In fact, they still have some house-cleaning matters to care for. Judges 8 tells the story of Gideon’s necessary mop-up campaign. It concludes by telling us that Midian “did not raise its head again during the rest of Gideon’s lifetime, a total of forty years (Judg. 8:28).

Israel’s national memory was pitifully short. “No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites prostituted themselves” (Judg. 8:33). They forgot Jehovah and made one of their notoriously dumb choices. They decided to follow the Baals. We could almost laugh, if we weren’t reading this script in a mirror.


New Testament: Acts 10

It sounds so easy. We do it all the time. But not Peter! Nor any other orthodox Jew. When the visitors from Cornelius arrived, “Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests” (Acts 10:23).

It happened to me once while living in Jerusalem. An orthodox Jewish friend invited me over to his house. He did his best to make me feel comfortable but it was evident that he was stretching things a bit. His 14-year-old son shouted from around the corner, “Why are you bringing a goy into this house?

But Peter had been prepared for the occasion. Only moments before, he’d had a vision of unclean animals being let down to earth in a sheet. Three times! Then a voice, which Peter recognized to be the Lord’s (Acts 10:13-15), told him to eat of the non-kosher food. Peter’s answer was the expected Jewish response - “No way! I’ve never eaten non-kosher food.” He could have added, “nor had any non-Jews into my house” (Acts 10:28)

That was the point of the vision. God was preparing Peter for something new. The next day the little group returned to Caesarea and Peter met Cornelius. [By the way, what other pope ever said, “Don’t kneel before me. And stop kissing my toe!”] Peter found a “large gathering of people” waiting for him. And waiting expectantly! They believed they were in the very presence of God (Acts 10:33) and were longing to hear His voice through Peter.

The Lord spoke.

First He spoke to Peter.

Then He spoke through Peter.

And so the Gospel began to break out of its Jewish mold. As Peter explained the message that brings salvation, these Gentiles believed and were converted. Somewhat to their astonishment, the other Jewish believers present recognized that these Gentiles received the gift of the Holy Spirit “just as we have”.

How interesting that when Peter addresses the Jerusalem council in Acts 15, he changes that phrase to “we are saved just as they are” (Acts 15:11). It had finally come around full circle. Peter, and through him others, had finally come to understand that “God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation” (Acts 10:34-35).

THE LORD SPOKE (April 08)

Daily Reflections from Scripture:Old Testament: Judges 5-6Israel’s enemies fight against (1) the heavenly purpose of God, (2) against the hallowed property of God, and (3) against the holy people of God. And they will fail every time! Sometimes God used those enemies to arouse, to correct, or to draw His people back to Himself.

Today’s reading deals with two such occasions. Deborah was “a mother in Israel” (Judg. 5:7) at a time when male leadership was sadly lacking. “Not a shield or spear was seen among forty thousand in Israel (Judg. 5:8). Twice she praises the Lord “when the princes take the lead, when the people willingly offer themselves” (Judg. 5:2,9). Such was not happening regularly - that’s why such praises the Lord if and when it does. Instead, “the men who were left” came to her for help (Judg. 5:13). Jael, another faithful woman finally steps up to destroy the enemy.

The times of Gideon weren’t any better. The angel finds him threshing wheat in a winepress (!) and calls him a “mighty warrior” (Judg. 6:12). That’s laughable! The reason he was in a winepress was because he was hunkered down, hiding from the Midianites. Threshing wheat requires an elevated stone floor where the wind can drive the chaff away. When the angel of the Lord speaks to him, Gideon’s response is riddled with “ifs” and “buts” and whining questions (see Judg. 6:13-15). He finally asks for a sign to confirm the message and then does it all over again the next day. He probably would have tried it a third and fourth day had not God told him to get a move on.

When once “the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon” (Judg. 6:34), everything changed. He went from weasel to warrior in an instant. He went on to great victories in the strength of the Lord.

That’s the key. Gideon’s transformation and subsequent strength in leadership was the result of God’s power at work in him.

The world has yet to see what God will do with a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to the Holy Spirit. (Henry Varley - the man who led D.L. Moody to Christ)

New Testament: Acts 9Saul was converted somewhere in the middle of the phrase, “Who are you, Lord?” (Acts 9:5). A true believer can’t ask “who are you?” and an unbeliever can’t call Him “Lord”.

Saul delighted to retell this story. He became a powerful spokesman and immediately sought out the synagogues to deliver his message (Acts 9:20). His rabbinic training made him irrefutable. His conversion was an astonishment to all - believers and unbelievers alike.

Ananias had a hard time at first (Acts 9:13). The disciples in Jerusalem had a very hard time also (Acts 9:26). The Lord spoke directly to Ananias and He spoke to the apostles in Jerusalem through Barnabas (“the son of encouragement”). Paul “preached fearlessly” and “spoke boldly in the name of Jesus (Acts 9:27-28). Soon the persecutor became the persecuted and he was tucked away at Tarsus, his home town (Acts 9:30).

You may be sure he wasn’t quiet there. It wasn’t in his nature to be quiet but the book of Acts is going to take a different direction for the next couple of chapters. At this point, we’re told that the church “enjoyed a time of peace” (Acts 9:31). It was an important time of strengthening and encouragement for the task that lay ahead. That was the Holy Spirit’s doing and it resulted in yet more growth. They grew in numbers but they also grew in depth (“living in the fear of the Lord”).

Saul is brought back from Tarsus in Acts 11:25-26. Again, it’s Barnabas who goes after him. With the explosive growth of the church at Antioch, there was a desperate need for good teaching and who was better qualified than former rabbi Saul? “So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people” (Acts 11:26).Wouldn’t you like to have sat in on some of those classes? You can...if you keep reading! No doubt, a lot of Saul’s teaching notes are contained in his later epistles.