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by Katie Erickson

“In the morning when the people of the town got up, there was Baal’s altar, demolished, with the Asherah pole beside it cut down and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar!
They asked each other, 'Who did this?'
When they carefully investigated, they were told, 'Gideon son of Joash did it.'
The people of the town demanded of Joash, 'Bring out your son. He must die, because he has broken down Baal’s altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.'
But Joash replied to the hostile crowd around him, 'Are you going to plead Baal’s cause? Are you trying to save him? Whoever fights for him shall be put to death by morning! If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar.' So because Gideon broke down Baal’s altar, they gave him the name Jerub-Baal that day, saying, 'Let Baal contend with him.'
Now all the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples joined forces and crossed over the Jordan and camped in the Valley of Jezreel. Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him. He sent messengers throughout Manasseh, calling them to arms, and also into Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali, so that they too went up to meet them.
Gideon said to God, 'If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised—look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.' And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water.
Then Gideon said to God, 'Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.' That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.” (Judges 6:28-40)

If you remember the passage from Judges 6 that we read last week, at the end of that passage Gideon was commanded to tear down his community’s altar to Baal and the Asherah pole. This was a pretty big deal, because Gideon was sure the people would get mad at him for it - and at the start of today’s passage, we see that’s exactly what happened. Gideon had taken away what they considered to be sacred.

The people were mad at Joash, Gideon’s father, since Joash was the one responsible for the town’s Baal altar and Asherah pole. After their investigation and discovering that Gideon had torn down their “sacred” places, they asked Joash to get Gideon so they could properly punish him. But it’s interesting in verse 31 that even Joash doesn’t fully believe in Baal as a God. Notice how he says “IF Baal really is a god…” Even though Joash apparently doubted Baal’s status as a god, that didn’t stop him from being tolerant and having the altar anyway.

Fortunately, because of his dad’s help, Gideon does not receive the death penalty, but he does get a new nickname - Jerub-Baal. This was supposed to be a derogatory name meant to show the punishment that the people thought Gideon would face. But instead, it became a good reminder of God’s victory over Baal, and how God is the only one who should be worshipped.

The bigger picture here is what had happened to Israel as a people. Back in Deuteronomy 13:6-10, Moses commanded that even close relatives be stoned for idolatry. Obviously, idolatry was a pretty big deal, with it being deserving of death as a punishment! Yet, here was not just one or two people but an entire town practicing it. The people had started to believe the lies of the surrounding peoples and they had started worshipping their gods. The lies had crept in and become “truth” to the people of Israel, so much so that they no longer saw it as sin. They believed they could worship Baal and Asherah right along with God. Instead of putting someone to death for worshipping a god other than the one true God, the people were ready to put Gideon to death for not worshipping their gods!

All this local-level drama about the false god worship was then eclipsed by an invasion of the Midianites. Israel wasn’t going to go down without a fight, so Gideon gathered the troops. Verse 34 says how Gideon summoned the Abiezrites. They were like Gideon’s clan, his tribe or very extended family so to speak. For extra reinforcement, he also called in the Israelite tribes of Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali. But even with all that, Gideon lacked faith and confidence in God’s promises. He needed multiple signs of reassurance. That’s where the fleece comes in; Gideon tests God not once but twice to make sure that His promises are true. Both times God comes through and assures Gideon that He will take care of them, as promised.

Gideon appears to make arbitrary demands on God, simply to receive a sign. This is not necessarily recommended for Christ followers today, as it can be seen as testing God (which is forbidden in Deuteronomy 6:16 and reaffirmed by Jesus in Matthew 4:7, by the way). What we should do is to carefully observe what God is doing in our circumstances, pray, and read His Word to have the assurance and confidence that we need.

But in spite of Gideon’s apparent lack of faith, God still chose to prove himself to Gideon and to use him for His purposes. How are you doing with that? Are you allowing God to speak into your life and use you for whatever He needs to accomplish in His Kingdom? Or are you mad because someone tore down your “altars” and the things that distract you from God? Think about that this week.

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by Ami Samuels

One summer as I watered my geraniums, I noticed some differences in my flowers. The planters closest to the house had big, full blooms. These geraniums were beautiful and every bud was blooming.

However, there were a couple of flowerpots that sat further from the house. These flowers were only partially blooming. When I would go out to prune these flowers, I noticed that half of the flower was blooming and the other half looked dead. These planters weren’t as pretty as the ones closest to the house.

One day I sat and gazed out at my floral containers and wondered why some of my planters were blooming to their fullest potential and some weren’t. I realized that I soaked the flowers in the containers closest to the house every day, and the flowerpots that were further away weren’t getting watered as often. If I was in a hurry or didn’t give extra effort to get to them, they didn’t get watered that day.

Observing these flowers helped me to realize that we need to be in God’s presence daily if we want to bloom to our fullest potential in Christ.

In John 15:4 Jesus says, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” We need to saturate our lives in Bible study and prayer, quietly soaking up His word and presence so we can blossom into who God has created us to be, and bloom to our fullest potential.

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by Nathan Buck

Have you ever had to do something that you knew would be unpopular? You knew it was the RIGHT thing to do, but you also knew it would FEEL terrible when people reacted to what you had done. It's not a fun place to be, especially if your fear of people's opinions of you outweighs your determination and satisfaction in doing the right thing.

I have been in that situation several times in my life, and it takes guts to stand against people from your own family or tribe as they react to your decision. In some countries a decision like that can even lead to death, especially if the decision was to abandon a human religion to follow God.

Read Judges 6:19-27. Gideon finds himself in that same position – faced with doing something he knows his family and neighbors are going to hate, and they will want to kill him.

When he brings the "meal" to the messenger, Gideon is amazed to realize that this messenger is really the Angel of the Lord! The angel burns up the meal as a sacrificial offering to God and then gives Gideon instructions to tear down the alters of Baal and Asherah. These were false gods of sex and fertility.

Gideon has a choice. Obey God, or give into his fear of everyone's reaction to tearing down these religious altars to false gods. Gideon gathers ten of his servants and destroys the alters to the false gods, after he builds a new alter to Almighty God – whom he called the God of Peace.

We'll look at what happens to Gideon in our next blog posts on Judges. For now, just pause and consider – do YOU have the courage to do what is right, even when everyone else may disagree with you? Will you listen and take action for God's purposes in your life, for our nation, for your neighbors, and for the disenfranchised – even if your family, friends, or other believers in Christ may come against you?

Pray and ask God for His direction and courage for your daily choices, and the choices that impact our neighbors and our culture.

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by Charlie Wolcott

[This blog post is part of a series. The previous post is here, and the next post is here.]

How many times in our Christian walk do we feel like we are not moving anywhere? How often do we push and push and push and yet nothing is happening? I want to suggest two reasons for this. The first is due to lack of effort, lack of perseverance. We quit too easily and too soon. I am going to save that for another post in a few weeks. I am going to suggest another reason. I got this idea from Eric Ludy in his sermon “We Will Not Fear.” It is like our life is a car and it lacks an engine. Many, many of us live our Christian lives without an engine. Without any real source of power to move in it. Allow me to give the context of what Ludy is referencing and you can listen to the sermon (starts at 4 minutes in) to get the rest of the details.

Ludy had been in ministry for several years, but he would find himself coming into speaking events completely paralyzed with anxiety. He could not handle any form of stress or spiritual weights as a Christian leader. It was to the point where he could hardly carry his bag out from the airport without having to rest and catch his breath. Ludy then reveals that at age 28, he was diagnosed with a stress disorder, carrying the amount of stress as 60-year-old executives. He then declares this is what can happen when you try to do ministry without the power of God. “I needed an engine,” Ludy says.

As a rising speaker and author and possible youth minister (God has me going towards full time youth ministry is some shape or form), I look back at my life and I realize how often I have been doing things for God… without God. I grew up on the mission field and because of that experience, I have always sought to be involved in some kind of ministry. I did competitive fencing for 15 years and God opened the door for me to use the sport as a visual tool to describe spiritual warfare. I began writing and sought to use my writing in books, blogs, and such to glorify God. I have been involved with my church. I have run the computer for our services for 11-12 years (I’m losing count). I was involved with my church youth group for a couple years, and God is bringing me back into that right now. I have taught a Bible study at my church about apologetics and how to defend our faith and Biblical Worldviews for 1 ½ years. Worldview Warriors, my local Christian writers group, my books, speaking at multiple conferences, and more. Some of you may be thinking I am bragging about all I am doing that is all great ministry, but hear me out. How much of this is being done with my own strength? How much of this is really God-led?

I fully understand what happens when you are doing God’s call for your life, but you are doing it in your own strength. You get tired. You don’t seem to get a lot of fruit. Things get frustrating easily. And ultimately, it is very easy to burned out. In all I am doing, I truly believe that what I am involved with has been God-directed. I never would have dreamed about using my fencing equipment as a ministry tool unless God gave me a prompt to consider it. Writing was never a dream of mine. I stutter when I speak (I was much worse earlier), so speaking was not something I would dream of doing. God has given me many of these ministries, however, am I doing it with the power of God? Did God just get me started so I could run with it on my own?

There is another sermon that really got my attention as I reflected over this topic. Paris Reidhead gave a powerful sermon called “Ten Shekels and a Shirt.” At the tail end of the sermon, Reidhead described a pastor approaching him after a message. The pastor talked about his church, his radio program, his youth, but then he said he was lacking the “oomph.” He needed the Holy Spirit and asked Reidhead if he could help him. The response: “I don’t think I can help you… I don’t think you’re ready.” He used an analogy of driving up with a Cadillac and telling God to fill her up with the best stuff you got. He did a great thing admittedly without God and now wanted power for his programs to make it go further. Are we guilty of doing the same thing? Doing something we know God called us to do, but built our own program out of our own strength, and then seek God afterwards to power it up? The Bible is rather clear that unless the Lord builds it, it is done in vain. Are we willing to allow God to tear down what we have done so he can build it his way? Are we willing to let God take control of the wheel while we pack ourselves into the trunk and let him drive without any backseat driving from us?

I’m going to tell you now: that is convicting. I had listened to this sermon numerous times but as I’ve been preparing this series and this segment came to mind, I was convicted. I have lacked the Holy Spirit in my ministry efforts. Now there have been times where God has shown up mightily in my ministry. I’ll never forget three years ago speaking at my church on Wednesday evening to wrap up a summer series and I brought my swords to speak about the Israelite War Cry and spiritual warfare. I felt the anointing coming upon me leading into it and when I preached, I PREACHED. I repeatedly describe that time as me not even speaking, but just being a microphone for what God has to say. And I will state emphatically that it was not me that gave that message the power. It was the Holy Spirit speaking through me. That was having the engine, when it is God moving in and through you. But many times, I have not moved in the power of the Holy Spirit, where I have gone out in my own strength.

How do you get this engine? How do you live in this power? Prayer is one of the keys. If you examine the greatest missionaries or the greatest preachers, each of them had a life of prayer. William Booth and Charles Finney not only prayed, they had men who devoted themselves to prayer while they preached. If we want to truly live the Christian life, if we really want to be what God has called us to be, we need to be in a constant state of prayer.

A.W. Tozer said this: "No one has any Scriptural right to teach a Sunday school class who doesn't do it by prayer. If he isn't a praying man, he ought not be a teaching man. Because no man can teach anything that he isn't. He might try to teach some truth, but it won't do him any good, and it may not do any one else any good. The teacher ought to be a praying person." (In Everything By Prayer, 31:17-31:45)

I can say, I am convicted. How many workshops have I taught without really working them in prayer? How many blogs have I written without praying first? How much praying have I done in the writing of my books (I’ve written several, but only one published right now)? How many times I have entered the classroom without praying? How many Facebook posts have I made in prayer? Have I prayed leading into this? Sure I have at times. But not the way I should be, because if I was, God would not have needed to put his finger in this area in my life and drawn me to write this series. I need to have a working engine to make this life work. That engine is prayer.

Jesus only did what he saw his Father doing. He only said what he heard his Father saying. He walked in that power. He had the engine. The Apostles had that engine. The great preachers and missionaries had that engine. And one thing they all had in common: prayer. They all prayed. They prayed God’s prayers. They sought God’s will, God’s Kingdom, and God’s purposes. They put everything of themselves aside and leaned not on their own understanding. They did nothing of their own accord, in their own strength, in their own power. They were constantly in prayer and because of that close, intimate relationship with God, they were able to move and act in the power that Christianity is supposed to bear.

Next week, I will get into how to pray with expectations of answers. Will God turn down an honest seeker? How bold are we in what we ask of God?

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by Steve Risner

I hope you’ve enjoyed the last several posts I’ve written concerning cosmology and interesting things we see in the universe. It’s such a terrifying but beautiful and elegant place we find ourselves in. Mysteries abound. But that’s okay, it makes it far more interesting. My last post concerned redshift and the Oort Cloud. We discussed how no one really knows what redshift is and the Oort Cloud, well, is just hilarious. This week, I’d like to touch on redshift some more. It’s a really strange thing to be so universal and yet so little understood. It’s spoken about frequently because, if you interpret it with the proper assumptions, it supports the Big Bang Theory. However, if you don't believe those assumptions are correct (and they really just boil down to your worldview), the observations actually contradict fundamental principles of the Big Bang. There are so many issues with Big Bang cosmology it’s strange that few are looking to remedy these problems. Let’s take a closer look.

First, I’d like to explain a little about the Big Bang and address a very common problem many people have, including many scientists and even those who deal with the cosmos as part of their profession. This is the idea of what space is and what the Big Bang actually is alleged to be. Many believe, because of the name, that this was some three dimensional place in space that exploded or rapidly expanded and globbed together to make all the different galaxies, stars, and planets. This is not true at all. In fact, this sort of idea (which actually makes sense in terms of how we experience the world around us and matches what we observe) would turn the Big Bang upside down. It would send it crashing. Why? Because this would first of all tell us that space was eternal and it would also mean space had a boundary and that the universe would have a center. These ideas are, according to Edwin Hubble, “a horror” and are not to be tolerated. He said, “But the unwelcome supposition of a favoured location must be avoided at all costs… Such a favoured position, of course, is intolerable.” He indicates the “favoured location” meaning that, according to a variety of observations, we, the earth or at least the Milky Way galaxy, appear to be very near the center of the universe. This is extremely unlikely to have happened accidentally. Therefore, the conclusion must be that we were placed near the center of the universe and this “horror” cannot work with any type of atheistic/humanistic belief system. As a result, odd ideas that can be neither proved nor observed nor falsified are imagined to help support the humanists’ religion. What is this odd idea I’m talking about? It’s called the cosmological principle or Copernican Principle. This ideas simply states that the we (the earth or Milky Way galaxy) are not in any sort of favored position in the universe although observation tells us otherwise. We would observe the same findings regardless of where we were in the universe. This is where the famous balloon metaphor comes into play. Let me explain.

Rather than the universe having expanded rapidly from a central point outward, it has been suggested that space is actually expanding like the rubber sides of a balloon. This means that “hyperspace” is actually the hollow portion of the balloon that is filling with air, while the observable universe is only on the surface of the expanding material. The material in this case is the fabric of space. You cannot get to the middle of the balloon that is filling with air. You can't see it or go to it. So this means if you travel in one direction long enough in the universe, you’ll end up where you started—there is not center and no boundaries. Is there really observable evidence for such an invention? Not a bit. But this helps the secularist hand wave away all the observable data that suggests we are somewhere near the center of the universe. They will tell you that no matter where you are in the universe, all the observations would look the same. Hence, regardless of your point of origin, you will see the universe and believe the observations that suggest you’re near the center. This is extremely convenient for the atheist because it means they don’t have to explain anything concerning the data, and you cannot possibly confirm or falsify the idea unless you are on the USS Enterprise. Its entire reason for existence is to help support atheism over special creation. And here you thought astronomy was science. I kid… a little. If you think of it, though, we have people with degrees that get a great deal of publicity on shows like Cosmos and others that have actually never been anywhere near where their degree says they’re an authority. Isn’t that remarkable?

I’m a doctor. I take care of people for a living. Would you want me to put a hand on you if I had never actually seen human anatomy or studied it in my hands? I would bet not. And when you realize some of the foundational principles they operate on are completely unfalsifiable (meaning you can’t prove it’s false) and made up out of nowhere simply to uphold their beliefs, you begin to see that “science” isn’t what you thought it was. Not anymore, anyway. If fact, this scam is even eluded to by Stephen Hawking and George Ellis when they said, “We are not able to make cosmological models without some admixture of ideology.” Dr. Russell Humphreys responds to comments about cosmological principle by well-known cosmologists this way: “The ultimate motive behind the Copernican principle is atheistic naturalism… The big bang and Darwinism are two halves, physical and biological, of an atheistic origins myth.”

What’s this got to do with redshift, you ask? Redshift is the stretching of light waves from distant objects in space. This is understood by many to be like the change in pitch in sounds from a car as it is coming towards you and after it passes you. I discussed this in my last blog post. If redshift is to indicate the universe is expanding from a single point billions of years ago, this stretching would be fairly uniform. It’s not—not at all. It’s actually arranged in a sort of stair step fashion. This means the distribution of galaxies in our universe is “quantized.” This is like if all the cars on the highway were only able to do speeds in multiples of 10 mph. In other words, they could only drive 10, 20, 30, etc mph and could not drive 17 or 28 or 55 mph. This is exactly how the redshifts appear to be distributed. This was first discovered by a man named William Tifft. A couple of astronomers named Guthrie and Napier set out to prove Tifft was wrong, but they actually ended up confirming his basic findings. If the redshifts we see are quantized, this could quite easily mean that the galaxies we see are distributed in shells around us, meaning the Milky Way galaxy. The implications here are profound, and there has been a great deal of resistance to these findings. It implies that we are very near the center of the universe, which destroys the notion of the Big Bang. It also implies that there may be no expansion of the universe happening currently, as the motion of the galaxies should actually nullify the quantization. Russell Humphreys was bold enough to say that “Redshift quantization is evidence (1) against the big bang theory, and (2) for a galactocentric cosmology (our galaxy is near the center of the universe), such as one by Robert Gentry or the one in my book, Starlight and Time.”

Perhaps I'm making up the issues with quantization, right? Peebles, a cosmologist from Princeton, said this about it: “I’m not being dogmatic and saying it cannot happen, but if it does, it’s a real shocker.” Mike Disney said, concerning if redshifts were actually quantized, “It would mean abandoning a great deal of present research.” [Science Frontiers, No. 105, May-June 1996].

Next week we'll get into this a little more. I hope this was thought provoking and helped show just how biased and completely anti-science a great deal of “leading” scientists are, especially when talking about origins. We touched on that a little here, noting that cosmologists are “experts” on things they could never actually know. That's okay, but I think that truth needs to be made more clear especially to students. God bless you and thank you for reading.

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by Bill Seng

“So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.” ~Judges 6:23

My all-time favorite film franchise is Japan’s Godzilla series. In 2004, Toho, the company that produces the Godzilla movies, decided to make their last Godzilla movie of the decade and indefinitely, titled Godzilla: Final Wars. For those who might not know who Godzilla is, he is a giant dinosaur-like monster that breathes atomic breath. He destroys cities because he was awakened from a long slumber by an atomic explosion, which enraged him. In Final Wars, after Godzilla defeats the final alien menace that threatens to destroy the earth, he is confronted by a band of humans who had previously been battling with him. They poise themselves for battle, but he rears up, ready to wipe them out with a single breath. But then, Godzilla’s son runs between them and protects the humans from being harmed. What appeared to be a moment of sheer terror for these people ended up being a moment of peace and reconciliation.

When I see this scene, I remember the wrath that mankind deserves from God as a result of sin. We forget how terrible our sin is. We often live our day to day lives not only not thinking about sin, but embracing it. When you come to the realization of how severe the consequences for your sins are, it’s like standing at the feet of a 300 ft. tall monster that’s about to melt you with his breath.

Back in the days of the Old Testament, Gideon understood this. Many people understood that meeting God face-to-face was a horrible thing. The Greeks even have myths where people encountered the full glory of a god only to perish in its presence. Even Moses, when he requested to see God’s glory, was only allowed to see a small glance of it as he would not be able to endure its fullness. The author of Hebrews says, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (10:31). It is because of our sin that we cannot endure God’s full presence. God has every right to wipe us all off of the face of the earth and cast us into the pit of hell, if that were his desire.

l However, we can rejoice because that is not his desire. Just like Final Wars, God’s wrath had swelled up to the point where he could have destroyed us. It was only because of the intercession of God’s Son, Jesus, that God’s wrath was satisfied and that mankind could be at peace with God. The problem we have now is that not many people are aware that God has made peace with them!

Gideon set up an altar and named it “The Lord is Peace” (Judges 6:24). This is a testimony to God’s goodness that anybody who would pass by would recognize that God is good. God has been so horribly slandered today that people are under the impression that God only desires wrath and has no interest in mercy. Since we know better, we ought to be that reminder for those who are unaware.

Though there is much to be fearful of God about, we have peace with him through Jesus Christ. His wrath against us has been satisfied through the sacrifice of his Son and it was through this sacrifice that we are drawn to him. In Gideon’s day they built altars to receive sacrifices and to commemorate things that God did for them. In Romans 12, we learn that we are living sacrifices. Thus, we are the testimony and the reminder and the witness of God’s love to the world.

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by Katie Erickson

“Gideon went inside, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak.
The angel of God said to him, 'Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth.'
And Gideon did so. Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of the staff that was in his hand. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared. When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, 'Alas, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!'
But the Lord said to him, 'Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.'
So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord Is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
That same night the Lord said to him, 'Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering.'” (Judges 6:19-27)

We started to hear Gideon’s story a couple weeks ago, so I encourage you go to read that post to get some context for where we pick up the story this week.

God has told Gideon to do something crazy and outrageous, to save Israel from the Midianites who were badly oppressing them, and Gideon isn’t so sure about that, since he’s not a strong guy and he doesn’t have a strong background. Gideon wanted a sign, so the angel provided one by sending fire and burning up Gideon’s offering. The fire was a sign of acceptance of that offering.

But now, Gideon suspected that he would surely die, because he knew that he had seen the angel of the Lord. Seeing the actual face of God means certain death, and he knew that so he was afraid, and with good reason. The angel reassures him, telling him to have peace. That command of having peace can be taken not just for Gideon as an individual, but as a foreshadowing that peace would come to their nation once again.

We then get to God’s direct instructions to Gideon: tear down the altars to Baal and the Asherah poles. This was not a new thing, and any Israelite should have known better that they should only be worshipping the one true God. They had received similar commands previously in Exodus 32:12-13, Deuteronomy 7:5, and Judges 2:2, not to mention being told to not worship any other gods but Him in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:3-6).

Why was this a dangerous thing for Gideon to do? He was definitely going against mainstream society here. Baal worship was the popular thing to do, and everyone who was anyone worshipped Baal. The people also worshipped Asherah, the goddess of sexuality and fertility, and would be mad that the Asherah pole was torn down. Also, even though the Lord specified that this is Gideon’s father’s altar, it’s not just their own family’s personal place of worship. This altar and pole were used for their entire community, so it would be very obvious that they’d be destroyed, and a lot of people would be mad. The instruction Gideon receives is to totally destroy the Asherah pole; once it was burned, it could not be re-used.

Naturally, as any of us would be, Gideon wasn’t all gung ho to go out and do this right away. But did he do it? Tune in next week (or read ahead in Judges 6) to find out!

Why does this story matter to us today? We don’t have any altars to Baal around, or any Asherah poles. But even if the symbols of idol worship aren’t as prominent in a physical way, we still have idols and we all still worship them. Read this post for some more on that. It is important that we hear God’s voice and what He is telling is okay to do, or not to do. Even if it goes against what’s popular and seems right to society, we must always listen to God first. How are you doing that in your own life?

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.