The Old Testament was given as a type and warning
to us to learn from.
1 Corinthians 10:11 says, "These things happened
to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the
fulfillment of the ages has come.î
The Promise Land in the Old Testament was the land of
Canaan. It was not a place that
was perfect, but a place where Israel's enemies dwelt; a place of war and
struggle. Our Promise Land is not
Heaven, it is the here and now, inheriting God's promises in our lives as
Christians. Our enemies are still
here and can still take us prisoners, even in our promise land! Just because we are Christians we are
not immune from Satan's prisons.
In the Old Testament the Israelites were prisoners in
their Promise Land. Christians can
be, and are, prisoners to Satan and they do not know it. We can have strongholds that keep us
from fulfilling our God given purpose in life. A stronghold is a mindset that accepts as inevitable or unchangeable, something hat is
contrary to the revealed will of God.
"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling
down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts
itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to
the obedience of Christî (2 Corinthians 10:4).
Satan could no longer hold God's people in famine, so
he tried to hold them in Egyptian slavery. He tried, again, to wipe them out in the desert on their way
to the Promise Land, but he could not stop them at the Jordon River, nor at Jericho. But when they got into the Promise Land,
he got them at a little town called Ai.
Why? Because of their own
sin. It was an internal enemy, not
a visible military power (Joshua 7).
The Israelites were still prisoners after they had
reached their promise land!
"Then the children of Israel did evil
in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian
for seven years, and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children
of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds [1]
which are in the
mountains. So it was, whenever
Israel had sown, Midianites would come up; also Amalekites and the people of
the East would come up against them.
Then they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth
as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor
donkey. For they would come up
with their livestock and their tents, coming in as numerous as locusts; both
they and their camels were without number; and they would enter the land to
destroy it. So Israel was greatly
impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to
the LORDî (Judges 6:1-6).
For hundreds of years, the Israelites called out to
God and He delivered them in their pain.
Then they got into idolatry again and became prisoners to something
else. Why?
"And I said to you, I am the LORD your God. Do not fear the gods of the Amorites in
whose land you live. But you
have not obeyed My voice (Word)î (Judges 6:10).
In Judges 6 God came to Gideon in his situation. The Hebrews were in their Promise Land,
but every time they planted seed, the Midianites and the Amalekites would raid
the area and stomp out the crops.
They would steal the seed just as Satan steals the seed of the Word of
God. So these children of God were
actually prisoners to their enemy, even though they were in the Promise Land.
The Old Testament shows God's people living as
prisoners in the promise land.
This is how the enemy works to trap you.
He looks for those works of your flesh (your old
nature) that you will not forsake. He convinces you that you do not need to
live on the Word of God, but that you can make it for yourself. He convinces you that you do not need
to use God's Kingdom and His system of bearing fruit. Unforgiveness is a major invitation for the devil to operate
in your life.
After a while he latches on to those works and you
become deceived by this demon. You
are not demon possessed, but you are demon influenced. These become strongholds and you feel
hopeless. You are a Christian in
God's promise land, but you are a prisoner like the people in the Old
Testament. You are no longer a
candidate for waters to flow out of you to help others. Satan has stopped up the River, but you
have given him permission.
What are some Prisons that Satan can keep us in?
"Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you,
Whoever practices sin is the slave of sinî (John 8:34).
Sickness, disease.
Continual lack of finances.
Being unloved. If we have not received unconditional love from our
parents, we are in a prison.
Selfishness,
or self-love is the opposite of real love. This is thinking that you are the center of the world and
all things revolve around you.
Low self-esteem - a sense of unworthiness and defeat. We are not to receive our sense of who
we are from anywhere or anyone except God and His Word. Human nature and the world attempts to
paste a false sense of who we are onto us. Either we feel we are superior and prideful, or we feel
unworthy with shame and inferiority.
A good way to battle this is to know that God lives inside of you, and
everywhere you go is blessed because you are carrying God with you. You bless everyone you meet because you
are a clay vessel filled with the glory of God. What others think of you does not make you who you are. Your job or vocation does not identify
you. When you go to your job, you
are giving it dignity. When Jesus
washed the feet of His disciples, it was like cleaning toilets, but because God
was doing it, washing feet has become an honorable thing.
Widows and Orphans. James
1:27. God puts special emphasis on
the plight of widows (this definition includes divorced women) and orphans
(this definition includes children of divorce). It has to do with having no authority, no covering, and no
fathering figure. It involves
being left without defense, without an advocate in the ultimate sense. The Old Testament is full of warnings
to Israel to take care of the fatherless and to care for the widows. It should be no less for the Church
today.
We all need security, and being either a widow or an
orphan is the ultimate in the lack of security. I know people who have had a difficult time recovering from
becoming a widow or an orphan. As
believers, we are to represent the heart of God towards widows and
orphans. His heart is to look out
for them, to give them special comfort and to provide for them. He is their covering, He is their
security. If you have been this
type of a "prisoner,î you need to know that God says in James 1:27 that
true worship, true "religionî and the fear of God involves showing His
heart of love and care towards widows and orphans. This is a very serious statement by God, and you need to
know how much He is interested in and cares for you!
"In His holy dwelling God is the father of the fatherless, and the
judge of the widowsî (Psalms 68:5).
Mammon - trusting in the world,
other people, or anything else for your material needs, rather than God.
Abuse
- So many people have been abused, sexually and in other ways.
Self-righteousness is a
very big one.
Unforgiveness is a major one.
Other enemies are guilt, moral sins, sexual sin, bitterness, gossip, anger,
compromising integrity and truth, and the list goes on.
Addictions - There are too many to
name, but they are a substitute for God's love through the Holy Spirit.
Many are trapped in generational curses such as the inability to
express love and kindness, the slavery mindset, being a people pleaser, being a
perfectionist or performance oriented for self-esteem. Many of these areas manifest themselves
in broken or compromised relationships, the inability to live in peace, the
inability to be content.
Witchcraft or the control of others.
You may be the victim or the perpetrator.
Guilt and shame from your past. Jesus gives us a fresh start and wipes away our past.
However, I believe that one of the most widespread
issues is rejection.
I believe that rejection is the root of hundreds of
other problems. We need the
unconditional acceptance from our parents when we are young. Broken relationships with our fathers
is a widespread cause of bondages to drugs and other addictions.
We need acceptance from our peers, our spouses,
etc. In today's society, broken
people inflict damage on others through rejection and it spreads from
generation to generation. We are
not able to pass love on without having first received it. 1 John 4:19
says, "We love because he first loved us.î God's remedy for rejection is two fold:
1) He took our rejection and bore it for
us. Isaiah 53:3, says, "He
was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with
suffering. Like one from whom men
hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.î
2) He accepts us unconditionally with His
great love! Ephesians 1:6, says,
"To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted
in the beloved.î
Jesus is not condemning us for these areas. Jesus wants to set us free. This is His mission.
But we need to be honest with ourselves, drop our pride, and be prepared
to cooperate with the healing process of getting free.
Notice what was the bottom line and root cause
of the bondage of these people.
"And I said to you, I am the LORD your God. Do not fear the gods of the Amorites in
whose land you live. But you
have not obeyed My voice (Word)î (Judges 6:10).
Gideon is our example of a prisoner that became
free and even freed his people!
Gideon bore fruit for God. He
was working hard at making life work with his own power, but he ended up with
failure, low self-esteem and hopelessness. He was hiding in his wine vat underground in order to avoid
the Midianites who would come in hordes and wipe out the crops and steal the
livestock. No matter how hard he
and his people tried, they could not overcome the enemy. The Midianites were those enemies that
beat down God's pastures and robbed the seed. In the same way today's Midianites, demons, rob the Word of
God to keep us from being fruitful.
Notice that they waited until Israel had sown their crops, then they
swarmed down to destroy them. They
came as grasshoppers. Israel was
greatly impoverished.
What did God do? What did Gideon do?
The primary lesson that I want us to learn is
that God taught Gideon to hear His voice!
Watch and see how the relationship between God and
Gideon developed from glory to glory.
See how Gideon cooperated with God's leading, and how God provided the grace
and the power. Gideon learned to
obey His voice. That is really all
he had to do. That is really any
of us need to do. Notice, God did
not say, "You have not obeyed My laws or My precepts or principles.î He said, "You have not obeyed My
voice.î One's voice is personal
compared to laws, commands and precepts.
Voice is personal it is face to face. It is powerful to hear God's voice. It really does not matter what He says,
just as long as His voice can be heard.
The question is: How desperate are you to hear God's
voice? How desperate are you to
obey His voice.
The end of the story is that Gideon was used by God to
motivate a victory and freedom for people, not just for himself. As Isaiah 61 shows, he went from
prisoner to priest. He went from a
sufferer to a comforter. He turned
his junk into jewels. He took the
path of the cross to the grave to the resurrection.
In this study we are going to see how God worked, and still works to
turn our prisons into freedom. We
will also see how Gideon responded to God so that we may follow his steps for
our own lives.
Follow Gideon's path in Judges chapter 6.
6:1 He was a victim of his forefather's idol
worship. His people were in bondage to poverty
due to the past 200 years of idol worship. The first thing we need to do is to forgive those that put
us into these prisons. Without
this forgiveness, as an act of our will, the rest of the process will not
work. If we cannot find
forgiveness, then confess that as sin to the Lord and His forgiveness will work
through us.
6:1-11 He was hiding in his wine vat underground in order to avoid the Midianites who would come in
hordes and wipe out the crops and steal the livestock. No matter how hard he and his people
tried, they could not overcome the enemy. The Midianites were those enemies that beat down God's
pastures and robbed the seed.
In the same way today's Midianites, demons, rob
the Word of God to keep us from being fruitful. Notice
that they waited until Israel had sown their crops, and then they swarmed down
to destroy them. They came as
grasshoppers. Israel was greatly
impoverished.
6:8 God spoke to the Israelites. In God's mercy, He heard the cries of the Israelites
and sent a prophet. His mercy
endures forever. The prophet told
the Israelites that God was their God, He had delivered them from bondage once
and that the reason they were in bondage again (this time in their own Promise
Land) was that they did not obey the voice of God (The Word of God). If we do not LIVE on the Word of God daily,
we will surely become slaves and prisoners to our enemies. There is no way around it.
6:12 God spoke to Gideon personally. The angel of the Lord, the personal representative of
God, came to Gideon. The Amplified
Bible commentary says that this was an Old Testament appearance of Jesus. He called Gideon a "Mighty Man of
Valor.î Why did He use these words
to someone who was acting like a coward, who had no self-esteem and was
threshing wheat in hiding so that his enemies could not spot him? God always deals with us this way; He
sees what we will become. He calls
those things that are not as though they are (Romans 4:17). He looks not at what we are, but at what
we can be in Him. These are faith
words talking.
6:13 Gideon was honest with God. He told
Him just how he felt; "If God is with us, then why are we suffering so
much?î A lot of people ask these
questions. If God is love, why do
good people suffer? If I have been
serving God, then why am I going through this tough time now?î He asked God "where are all the
miracles that you performed with our forefathers in Egypt?î He felt forsaken by God.
6:18-21 God revealed Himself to Gideon as the
covenant making God. He showed Gideon Who He is, and He
showed Gideon his real position as a covenant partner with God. So often God answers our questions with
a revelation of Who He is!
Gideon brought his best to God. Gideon
took up his cross. The
price of the goat and home baked bread that Gideon brought was extreme for
someone in poverty circumstances.
Not only that, Gideon cooked soup!
Gideon saw the Cross of Jesus. It could have just been an expensive
meal, but God turned it into a covenant meal. In Leviticus 2:1 the meat or meal offering was to be burnt
on the altar by the priest. The
fact that the Angel of The Lord burned up Gideon's offering with the tip of His
staff was a sign of the covenant.
I believe that in Gideon's Hebrew mind, he saw a blood covenant that day
between himself and God. He saw
God exchange power, name and circumstances with him.
The Blood Covenant changes your family, your
name, and your inheritance. Gideon
received God's name, God took Gideon's name. Mighty Man of Valor: was the Lord's name, defeated weak one
was Gideon's name. They swapped.
6:22 Gideon could hear God speak even better now.
This was Gideon's main attribute.
He took the time to build a relationship and continued to hear God
speak. Notice that the Lord had departed in verse 21 yet in
verse 23 the Lord spoke. This
represents a progressive relationship between Gideon and the Lord.
6:23-24 He had the peace of God because of the
Cross (Jehovah-shalom). You can be in terrible circumstances
but if you have the peace of God you can overcome anything! "And let the
peace of God rule [as an umpire] in your hearts, to which also you were called
in one body; and be thankfulî ( 3:15 ñ comment from Amp. Bible).
6:25-32 Gideon had to tear down family idols. After experiencing the Cross of Jesus we need to tear
down the altars. Idolatry is based
upon one simple thing; SELF-LOVE.
This is more of taking up our cross. Idols are not as
obvious today as they were in Old Testament times. An idol is anything that makes you walk in the flesh and not
in the Spirit. The most accurate
test is what or who do you worship?
The most accurate test for worship is whom you obey: Your reasoning,
your flesh, another person, or the Spirit of God and the Word of God? Walking in the flesh is obeying your
flesh (natural desire) and walking in the Spirit is obeying the Holy Spirit and
the Word of God. To pull down
idols, one must be in contact with the Word of God and the Holy Spirit so one
can cease obeying his/her natural desires.
Like in Romans 12:1 after all of the mercy that God
had shown to our lost condition, after the giving of the Cross and all of the
grace in Romans chapters 1 through 11, He then says, "In view of all these
mercies, offer your own body a living sacrifice.î In other words, tear down your idols as Gideon did. Offer all of your faculties to God; give
Him your body to be an earthen vessel filled with God as Adam was supposed to
be. Be willing to be
"differentî for God; do not be conformed to this world system.
6:34 After tearing down the idols, Gideon was
clothed [possessed] with the Spirit of God. He had the power of God. Gideon had the sense, faith and
abandonment to obey God and stop obeying the reasoning and natural
circumstances in his life. When we
turn from idols we will find the result is always more of the Holy Spirit in
our lives. The first thing that
happened is that the enemy attacked.
When we tear down spiritual idols, we can expect a manifestation of the
battle in the natural.
6:36-40 He learned to fellowship with God at a
very strong level of trust in
spite of circumstances (perhaps even because of them).
Gideon bore fruit for the Kingdom of God. He became one of history's greatest
deliverers of God's people. Read
Judges 7 through 8:21 for the battle.
God turned a defeated man with hopeless circumstances into a great
historic victory because of two things: 1) The Cross, and 2) Gideon's
appreciation of the Cross to the extent that he would go all out for God and
make Him the focus of all of his life, not just first or second place, and
Gideon's cooperation to tear down idols and strongholds.
In spite of the fact that Gideon had been subject to
family sins, curses and the worshipping of idols, the Angel of the Lord brought
the Cross on the scene with the sacrifice, and was saying, "There is no
way out for you sonny boy, except that I take on the curse and sin that you
have coming to you. By virtue of
this covenant, I am taking your sin, your family curses, your generational sins
passed down and results of idol worship both by you and your ancestors. I will take your name (your identity)
which is 'cursed by God' and you will be called by My Name, O' Mighty Man of
Valor.î Actually Gideon means
"cutter down, hewer.î
God met Gideon where he was. God did not require him to be someone he was not. But God had faith in him. Gideon learned that you make it not in
your own strength but by
He learned about fruit. He learned that he was a Prisoner in the Promise Land. He learned how to be intimate with God,
The Flowing River, and he learned Who God is. He learned to Sit, Walk and Stand. The end result was fruit
for the Kingdom of God.
Be desperate to hear God's voice.
Do whatever is necessary to arrange you life to hear
God speak. Take time, more and
more time, in the Word. Listen to
tapes, read good authors, speak the Word, soak in the Word. Take time to be quite with God. Listen more and talk less. Study the Flowing River as a way to
hear God's voice more and more.
Change your surroundings from time to time, escape from the familiar.
Allow God to speak to your heart