1 00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:04,000 And and actually, we're going to try something different here 2 00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:06,880 tonight. So let me give you this, 3 00:00:06,880 --> 00:00:08,880 brother. Josh, are you already on? 4 00:00:12,120 --> 00:00:13,400 Oh, yeah. There you go. 5 00:00:14,760 --> 00:00:19,080 That's not what I'm looking for. Let's try this again. 6 00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:21,960 Very good. All right. 7 00:00:22,480 --> 00:00:24,120 I've got the control of it from up here. 8 00:00:24,120 --> 00:00:26,000 So we're going to try to do it that way just to make it a 9 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:27,480 little bit easier for them in the back. 10 00:00:27,480 --> 00:00:30,490 And and or at least I thought it was, I think it's actually 11 00:00:30,490 --> 00:00:32,610 making it more complicated for them because now they got to do 12 00:00:32,689 --> 00:00:34,610 more things, but it's going to give us more control with the 13 00:00:34,610 --> 00:00:38,490 live stream and everything else. So, all right, so let's get into 14 00:00:38,490 --> 00:00:41,330 this. Judges, Judges, Chapter 6 is 15 00:00:41,330 --> 00:00:43,410 where we're going to start. But let me let me give you 16 00:00:43,450 --> 00:00:46,530 inherited Spring is what we're going to talk about and maybe 17 00:00:46,530 --> 00:00:48,810 you don't recognize it by that name, but you will recognize 18 00:00:48,810 --> 00:00:54,240 that pretty soon here I think. But this is, in fact, let me 19 00:00:54,240 --> 00:00:56,440 just go ahead and get right into it. 20 00:00:56,680 --> 00:00:59,800 Harrods spring, It's also known as Gideon's Spring. 21 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:03,040 If you look at it on the map, it's known as Ayn Harrod. 22 00:01:03,040 --> 00:01:05,080 Does anybody remember what Ayn is? 23 00:01:05,080 --> 00:01:06,640 We talked about it with Ayn Getty. 24 00:01:07,480 --> 00:01:08,840 I think we had a couple other places. 25 00:01:08,840 --> 00:01:11,400 Do you remember what AYN means? Yes. 26 00:01:11,400 --> 00:01:14,080 Spring, good job. Spring or fountain is what it 27 00:01:14,080 --> 00:01:15,160 means. Let me make sure that. 28 00:01:15,160 --> 00:01:18,400 All right, we got some battery here, so let's, let's do a 29 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:20,280 little bit of a review. It's been a few weeks. 30 00:01:20,280 --> 00:01:23,440 All right, So let's start with this right here. 31 00:01:23,440 --> 00:01:28,720 What is that, Sea of Galilee? What's this at a training sea? 32 00:01:28,720 --> 00:01:30,640 We're going to go out of order and see how much you actually 33 00:01:30,640 --> 00:01:31,360 know it. All right. 34 00:01:31,360 --> 00:01:33,960 I don't want you to just memorize an order as if you're 35 00:01:33,960 --> 00:01:37,040 doing that. What is this, the Dead Sea? 36 00:01:37,040 --> 00:01:41,550 What is the river that goes from the Sea of Galilee to the Jordan 37 00:01:41,550 --> 00:01:42,430 River? Very good. 38 00:01:42,750 --> 00:01:45,910 What valley is this? Wow, very good. 39 00:01:45,910 --> 00:01:47,790 The are of a valley. What body of water? 40 00:01:48,910 --> 00:01:50,030 Red Sea. All right. 41 00:01:50,030 --> 00:01:53,310 Here's a question for you. What's the city down there at 42 00:01:53,310 --> 00:01:56,510 the tip of the Red Sea? A lot. 43 00:01:56,510 --> 00:01:57,350 Very good. He can see it. 44 00:01:57,350 --> 00:01:59,270 No, I'm kidding. It's a lot. 45 00:01:59,270 --> 00:02:00,950 Very good. What is it called on the other 46 00:02:00,950 --> 00:02:03,110 side? Do you remember anybody? 47 00:02:03,950 --> 00:02:04,870 Aquaba. Very good. 48 00:02:04,870 --> 00:02:07,230 So it's called the Gulf of Aquaba on the map. 49 00:02:07,230 --> 00:02:11,640 But that's the Jordanian side, essentially the Gulf of E lot on 50 00:02:11,640 --> 00:02:12,920 the Israel side. All right. 51 00:02:13,160 --> 00:02:18,320 What is this whole triangle called the negative, which means 52 00:02:19,440 --> 00:02:23,280 S very good. The top half is called the 53 00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:25,160 Wilderness of Zen and the bottom half. 54 00:02:26,720 --> 00:02:28,960 All right. What is this area right here 55 00:02:28,960 --> 00:02:32,160 around the Dead Sea? Judean Wilderness. 56 00:02:32,160 --> 00:02:33,800 Very good. Trying to think if there's 57 00:02:33,800 --> 00:02:37,360 anything else? That's probably it. 58 00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:40,200 All right. So what we're talking about 59 00:02:40,200 --> 00:02:44,760 today is Herod Spring or Gideon's Spring or also known as 60 00:02:44,760 --> 00:02:49,800 and Getty, by the way, Herod King Herod is HEROD. 61 00:02:50,200 --> 00:02:52,800 This is not the Herod as in King Herod Spring, All right. 62 00:02:52,800 --> 00:02:54,040 It's just called the Herod Spring. 63 00:02:54,040 --> 00:02:55,480 We're going to talk a little bit about that. 64 00:02:55,760 --> 00:02:58,040 But the Herod Spring, and it's actually very hard to see on 65 00:02:58,040 --> 00:03:00,040 this, very tiny, but it's right here, okay. 66 00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:04,120 So see if Galilee and all of this and this is what we're 67 00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:05,400 going to. I didn't want to get into all of 68 00:03:05,400 --> 00:03:07,560 this tonight because I knew it's going to take us a while. 69 00:03:08,070 --> 00:03:11,350 But Megitto, does Megitto ring any bells to you? 70 00:03:11,710 --> 00:03:13,070 What's going to happen in Megitto? 71 00:03:13,590 --> 00:03:15,950 It almost took me out again. What is it? 72 00:03:20,150 --> 00:03:21,590 Right. Which is called the Battle of 73 00:03:22,350 --> 00:03:23,790 Armageddon. And that's where it's going to 74 00:03:23,790 --> 00:03:25,310 take place, is right there. Very good. 75 00:03:25,310 --> 00:03:28,070 So all of this area, and I'm going to show you some maps 76 00:03:28,070 --> 00:03:29,550 actually here very, very shortly. 77 00:03:29,550 --> 00:03:32,510 But all of this area is the Jezreel Valley. 78 00:03:32,510 --> 00:03:37,300 It moves into actually the Herod Valley, but Mount Moray is 79 00:03:37,300 --> 00:03:40,820 there. Very significant to to Israel, 80 00:03:42,220 --> 00:03:43,300 but let's get into this. All right. 81 00:03:43,300 --> 00:03:45,580 So here at Spring, it's also known as Gideon Spring. 82 00:03:45,580 --> 00:03:48,460 It's located in the fertile Jezreel Valley and it is a very, 83 00:03:48,460 --> 00:03:50,140 very fertile valley. I'm going to show you some 84 00:03:50,140 --> 00:03:53,580 pictures, maybe not too many this week, but when we start 85 00:03:53,580 --> 00:03:55,100 talking about the Jezreel Valley. 86 00:03:55,380 --> 00:03:57,300 And by the way, that's something that you can look up a little 87 00:03:57,300 --> 00:03:59,420 bit this week as you study through your devotions or 88 00:03:59,420 --> 00:04:02,340 whatever thing and you think about it, see if you can figure 89 00:04:02,340 --> 00:04:03,900 out what happened. There's a lot of things that 90 00:04:03,900 --> 00:04:07,990 happened there that we're going to end up talking about, but the 91 00:04:08,110 --> 00:04:13,110 the period of the judges, so just to finish then the the 92 00:04:13,110 --> 00:04:16,790 Jezreel Valley, it's about 26 miles from Mediterranean Sea, 93 00:04:16,790 --> 00:04:19,790 about 17 miles from the sea of Galley, which remember I told 94 00:04:19,790 --> 00:04:22,029 you that the nation of Israel is not very big. 95 00:04:22,029 --> 00:04:28,510 So to find out that right here is is harried spring and from 96 00:04:28,510 --> 00:04:32,510 there to there is only 26 miles and from there to there is only 97 00:04:32,510 --> 00:04:34,630 17. So you're not talking about a 98 00:04:34,630 --> 00:04:36,870 big area at all. And that's one of the things 99 00:04:36,870 --> 00:04:38,670 that really is, you know, sometimes it's hard to 100 00:04:38,670 --> 00:04:41,630 comprehend because you think of all these places in the Bible 101 00:04:41,750 --> 00:04:43,790 and they're all crammed into this tiny little spot. 102 00:04:43,990 --> 00:04:49,190 But the topography and the, the geography, if you will, of 103 00:04:49,190 --> 00:04:54,830 Israel is so varied that you, I mean 5 miles you can be in in a 104 00:04:54,830 --> 00:04:56,510 different world. It feels like so. 105 00:04:57,230 --> 00:04:59,030 But anyway, let me show you on the map here. 106 00:04:59,030 --> 00:05:03,070 So some of these may be a little bit hard to see, but Mount 107 00:05:03,070 --> 00:05:05,590 Tabor, that's the one that I'd like you to look up. 108 00:05:05,590 --> 00:05:07,990 Cuz we're gonna talk about that, Find out what happened at Mount 109 00:05:07,990 --> 00:05:10,950 Tabor. A very, very significant thing 110 00:05:10,950 --> 00:05:13,790 happened, or at least during the time of the judges that you 111 00:05:13,790 --> 00:05:17,870 should remember. But then you see, Mcgitto is 112 00:05:17,870 --> 00:05:18,870 right there. You know what? 113 00:05:18,870 --> 00:05:20,910 Here I'm pointing. I got my little pointer tonight. 114 00:05:21,830 --> 00:05:24,540 All right. So right here, this is Mcgitto. 115 00:05:24,700 --> 00:05:26,420 All right. And that's where the, the battle 116 00:05:26,420 --> 00:05:27,860 of Armageddon is going to take place. 117 00:05:27,860 --> 00:05:29,220 We're going to talk about that next week. 118 00:05:29,220 --> 00:05:31,460 But this is all the Jesreel Valley. 119 00:05:31,620 --> 00:05:34,180 Here's the Harrod Valley. Okay, the Hill of Moray. 120 00:05:34,540 --> 00:05:37,140 Mount Tabor is up here. Beth Sheehan, hopefully you'll 121 00:05:37,140 --> 00:05:39,140 recognize that We talked about that last time. 122 00:05:39,980 --> 00:05:43,860 Tell Jesreel what happened at what is, what does it tell? 123 00:05:43,860 --> 00:05:46,820 Do you remember? It's a hill. 124 00:05:46,820 --> 00:05:48,700 It's a manmade hill, essentially, right. 125 00:05:48,940 --> 00:05:51,420 And layers and layers and layers of civilization. 126 00:05:51,580 --> 00:05:53,260 What? What happened at Tell Jesreel? 127 00:05:59,080 --> 00:06:02,240 Do you know what happened or what was there, I should say 128 00:06:03,520 --> 00:06:06,080 Ahab's palace. Ahab's palace. 129 00:06:06,080 --> 00:06:07,280 And we're going to talk about that too. 130 00:06:07,280 --> 00:06:09,800 But that's where Jezebel got thrown out of the palace and all 131 00:06:09,800 --> 00:06:11,160 that stuff. Remember those stories? 132 00:06:11,480 --> 00:06:14,560 And with Elijah, it, it brings it all together. 133 00:06:14,560 --> 00:06:16,720 That's what I'm saying. It's it's kind of hard sometimes 134 00:06:16,720 --> 00:06:19,440 to think about these things as being part of the Bible when 135 00:06:19,440 --> 00:06:21,960 you're looking at it here. We separate those things a lot. 136 00:06:21,960 --> 00:06:23,720 And they shouldn't be separated because they're part of it. 137 00:06:23,720 --> 00:06:25,240 They're part of the geography of Israel. 138 00:06:25,240 --> 00:06:30,170 So this year is the the Sea of Galley, all of this is the 139 00:06:30,170 --> 00:06:33,650 Jordan River and then basically right here if you could, if you 140 00:06:33,650 --> 00:06:37,330 could drop the TV down about one inch, you'd see the the Dead Sea 141 00:06:37,330 --> 00:06:38,810 right there. So that's how that's how close 142 00:06:38,810 --> 00:06:41,490 we are to that. So but to to kind of put this in 143 00:06:41,490 --> 00:06:45,370 perspective here, the period of the judges is, is what we're 144 00:06:45,370 --> 00:06:47,290 talking about. And of course the nation of 145 00:06:47,290 --> 00:06:50,810 Israel was experiencing really a national crisis because they 146 00:06:50,810 --> 00:06:54,570 were on this, they were on this cycle that they just seemed like 147 00:06:54,570 --> 00:06:58,320 they couldn't break. They would send, God would judge 148 00:06:58,320 --> 00:07:02,680 them, they would repent, God would send a deliverer, They 149 00:07:02,680 --> 00:07:06,040 would be freed, they would sin, God would judge it. 150 00:07:06,040 --> 00:07:08,960 And they just went in this never ending cycle, it seemed like. 151 00:07:08,960 --> 00:07:10,520 And that was the period of the judges. 152 00:07:10,920 --> 00:07:15,400 And so one, in fact, you know that one verse that that we see 153 00:07:15,400 --> 00:07:17,840 several different times we actually find in Judges chapter 154 00:07:17,840 --> 00:07:20,800 17 and verse number six. In those days there was no king 155 00:07:20,800 --> 00:07:23,800 in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own 156 00:07:23,800 --> 00:07:26,400 eyes. And we see that verse a couple 157 00:07:26,400 --> 00:07:28,440 different times. We see it again in in Judges 158 00:07:28,440 --> 00:07:31,320 chapter 21 of verse #25. And so in order to bring the 159 00:07:31,320 --> 00:07:34,120 nation of Israel back to himself, God would send them 160 00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:36,320 their oppressors, make their life difficult. 161 00:07:36,480 --> 00:07:38,240 They would say we can't handle this anymore. 162 00:07:38,240 --> 00:07:40,560 They would repent. God would send a deliverer. 163 00:07:40,800 --> 00:07:44,880 And Gideon was one of those delivers that God raised up and 164 00:07:48,480 --> 00:07:50,480 delivered Israel out of the hand of the Midianites that were 165 00:07:50,480 --> 00:07:52,120 pressing Israel at the time. We're going to talk about 166 00:07:52,120 --> 00:07:54,920 Midianites in just a little bit, but it was a total of Does 167 00:07:54,920 --> 00:07:56,440 anybody know how many judges there were? 168 00:08:00,760 --> 00:08:03,720 Gideon was #5. If that's any kind of hints. 169 00:08:03,720 --> 00:08:06,080 Probably not. There were 13 judges total. 170 00:08:06,600 --> 00:08:08,600 And who was the last judge in Israel? 171 00:08:10,400 --> 00:08:11,400 Samuel. Very good. 172 00:08:11,400 --> 00:08:14,960 Samuel was the last judge who was the first Athanil. 173 00:08:14,960 --> 00:08:16,880 Whoever somebody said it, it was Athanil. 174 00:08:16,880 --> 00:08:19,490 Very good. So get in was #5. 175 00:08:19,490 --> 00:08:21,690 Let me give you a little bit more of this. 176 00:08:21,690 --> 00:08:23,570 This kind of brings it in a little bit closer here. 177 00:08:23,970 --> 00:08:26,890 All right. So and and this, that whole area 178 00:08:26,890 --> 00:08:28,730 that we're looking at right here, See that little thumb 179 00:08:28,730 --> 00:08:30,210 right there? That's Haifa. 180 00:08:30,610 --> 00:08:33,090 That's right here. So this, this entire area, the 181 00:08:33,090 --> 00:08:35,370 Sea of Galley, this entire area that we're looking at is 182 00:08:35,370 --> 00:08:37,010 basically like this area right here. 183 00:08:37,010 --> 00:08:39,210 OK. So it's not it, It's there's 184 00:08:39,210 --> 00:08:40,890 just so many things packed into it. 185 00:08:41,130 --> 00:08:43,610 Mount Gilboa. Does anybody remember what 186 00:08:43,610 --> 00:08:47,680 happened at Mount Gilboa? You should, because we talked 187 00:08:47,680 --> 00:08:51,680 about it maybe 2 weeks ago or times ago. 188 00:08:52,560 --> 00:08:54,920 Been a couple weeks. Saul was killed right here. 189 00:08:54,920 --> 00:08:57,240 I'm using my pointer finger. Great job, very good. 190 00:08:58,280 --> 00:09:01,440 But yes, Saul was killed on Mount Gilboa and they hung his 191 00:09:01,440 --> 00:09:07,400 body and his son's bodies headless wear on the wall of 192 00:09:08,600 --> 00:09:09,920 Beth Sheehan. Very good. 193 00:09:10,200 --> 00:09:11,480 You're remembering. All right? 194 00:09:11,600 --> 00:09:14,520 Very good. And Beth Sheehan is right here. 195 00:09:14,850 --> 00:09:16,770 OK. So I mean, we're not far from 196 00:09:16,770 --> 00:09:17,930 there. There's Mount Gilboa. 197 00:09:17,930 --> 00:09:21,730 And if you remember, I showed you a picture of Mount Gilboa 198 00:09:21,970 --> 00:09:23,810 from Beth Sheehan. Remember that. 199 00:09:23,810 --> 00:09:25,970 So you're not talking about a big distance at all. 200 00:09:25,970 --> 00:09:28,130 And that's here to here. I mean, see that distance on 201 00:09:28,130 --> 00:09:30,850 this map. So right around the corner, in 202 00:09:30,850 --> 00:09:35,490 fact, basically part of Mount Gilboa is Ain Herod, which is 203 00:09:35,490 --> 00:09:37,850 right here. Here's the Harrod Valley, here's 204 00:09:37,850 --> 00:09:40,330 the Jezreel Valley. And and you can actually see, 205 00:09:40,490 --> 00:09:42,490 see the mountain, the mountain area is here. 206 00:09:42,690 --> 00:09:44,620 The mountain area is here, right? 207 00:09:44,660 --> 00:09:46,860 And then you have this big valley and it's a very, very, 208 00:09:46,860 --> 00:09:49,140 very fertile valley. Like I said, I'm going to show 209 00:09:49,140 --> 00:09:53,580 you some more pictures of that next week as we get into it a 210 00:09:53,580 --> 00:09:55,580 little bit more. But just to the South of the 211 00:09:55,580 --> 00:09:58,300 Herod Spring are the Guild Bowl Mountains, and you saw that 212 00:09:58,300 --> 00:10:01,100 there and that that gives you kind of a little bit of a 213 00:10:01,100 --> 00:10:04,340 picture of where those are at. This may help you a little bit. 214 00:10:04,500 --> 00:10:07,820 The Hill of Moray, the Midianite Camp Okay, this is. 215 00:10:07,860 --> 00:10:09,060 And I'm. I'm setting the table here 216 00:10:09,060 --> 00:10:10,700 because we're going to read this in the Bible here in just a 217 00:10:10,700 --> 00:10:13,370 minute. But then right there is getting 218 00:10:13,370 --> 00:10:15,610 in spring. So you have the Hill of Murray 219 00:10:15,730 --> 00:10:17,410 and and where the Midianites are camped out. 220 00:10:17,410 --> 00:10:20,050 You have the Jezreel Valley and then the area where the battle 221 00:10:20,050 --> 00:10:22,610 actually took place, you have getting in spring and then you 222 00:10:22,610 --> 00:10:25,610 have the Guilboa Mountains. And all of those are within just 223 00:10:25,610 --> 00:10:27,290 a very short distance of each other. 224 00:10:27,610 --> 00:10:30,490 OK. So what we've done is we started 225 00:10:30,490 --> 00:10:33,210 out here, then we moved in here a little bit and now we're very, 226 00:10:33,210 --> 00:10:35,730 very close. And so again, you can look at it 227 00:10:35,730 --> 00:10:38,840 after after we finish up tonight and I'll point it out to you, 228 00:10:38,840 --> 00:10:42,880 but but Hwy. 71 runs through there and right above Hwy. 71, 229 00:10:42,880 --> 00:10:45,560 if you're looking for it is aint herod okay. 230 00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:48,400 So that's they're all right in that same general area. 231 00:10:48,400 --> 00:10:52,320 So Gideon was one of the deliverers that got raised up to 232 00:10:52,320 --> 00:10:54,560 deliver Israel out of the hands of the Midianites. 233 00:10:54,800 --> 00:10:56,320 They were the ones that were pressing Israel. 234 00:10:56,320 --> 00:10:58,320 And there is Midian. All right. 235 00:10:59,120 --> 00:11:02,000 You see and this is, this is actually a pretty good map to 236 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:04,600 show you. I just found this online, but 237 00:11:04,600 --> 00:11:07,080 it's a pretty good map to kind of show you where everything is 238 00:11:07,080 --> 00:11:09,860 at. So obviously, you have Egypt, 239 00:11:09,860 --> 00:11:12,380 You have the Gulf of Suez. You have the Sinai Peninsula, 240 00:11:12,380 --> 00:11:14,260 the wilderness of Paran, the wilderness of Zen. 241 00:11:14,500 --> 00:11:16,820 That's where Israel wandered for those 40 years. 242 00:11:17,100 --> 00:11:20,620 And then they crossed the Red Sea, probably in the Gulf of 243 00:11:20,620 --> 00:11:23,340 Aqaba area, into the land of Midian. 244 00:11:23,540 --> 00:11:25,060 All right. And we'll see a little bit of 245 00:11:25,060 --> 00:11:29,860 that, I guess. I guess not too much, maybe as 246 00:11:29,860 --> 00:11:31,860 far as that goes. But God gave the Israelites into 247 00:11:31,860 --> 00:11:34,740 the hands of the Midianites because they they abandoned and 248 00:11:34,740 --> 00:11:36,780 they disobeyed him. So let's look at Judges chapter 249 00:11:36,780 --> 00:11:40,110 6 and we're going to read a good portion of this story tonight. 250 00:11:40,270 --> 00:11:42,870 Okay. The Bible explains it way better 251 00:11:42,870 --> 00:11:49,750 than I can, and and the Bible is its its best explainer. 252 00:11:49,790 --> 00:11:50,830 I don't know if that's the right word. 253 00:11:50,830 --> 00:11:54,070 But anyway, Judges chapter 6 and verse #1 and the children of 254 00:11:54,070 --> 00:11:55,870 Israel did evil. Okay here. 255 00:11:55,870 --> 00:11:58,830 We're back into that cycle again in the sight of the Lord. 256 00:11:58,830 --> 00:12:01,870 And the Lord delivered them into the hand of MIDI in seven years. 257 00:12:02,150 --> 00:12:04,870 That's short compared to some of the delivering, some of the 258 00:12:04,870 --> 00:12:06,590 times that he sent them into captivity. 259 00:12:07,120 --> 00:12:09,000 The hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. 260 00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:11,400 And because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made them 261 00:12:11,400 --> 00:12:14,600 the dens which are in the mountains and caves and 262 00:12:14,600 --> 00:12:17,040 strongholds. Now you think about this again. 263 00:12:17,040 --> 00:12:19,880 I want you to, I want you to to get this picture in your mind. 264 00:12:20,240 --> 00:12:24,680 OK. We saw the Kumran caves, right? 265 00:12:24,760 --> 00:12:26,680 Remember what those look like up there in the mountains? 266 00:12:26,880 --> 00:12:30,080 You saw the caves at and Getty where David was hiding and that 267 00:12:30,080 --> 00:12:34,600 whole area, all this mountainous area, which I guess I have to go 268 00:12:34,600 --> 00:12:35,960 back and and show it to you a little bit. 269 00:12:35,960 --> 00:12:38,900 Let me see here on the actual map itself. 270 00:12:39,140 --> 00:12:41,100 But you see I mean mountains everywhere around there. 271 00:12:41,340 --> 00:12:44,220 So they're being and and not just there but but Midian. 272 00:12:44,220 --> 00:12:47,180 The entire the entire nation of Israel was was being held 273 00:12:47,180 --> 00:12:49,740 captive by Midian. But mountains everywhere in 274 00:12:49,740 --> 00:12:51,580 Israel with caves and all those natural. 275 00:12:51,660 --> 00:12:56,300 Remember Wadi Kelt that was the one that went to Jericho and all 276 00:12:56,300 --> 00:12:59,100 the caves and everything they're just natural caves everywhere. 277 00:12:59,100 --> 00:13:02,260 Well, Israel is not free to just live their lives the way that 278 00:13:02,260 --> 00:13:03,900 they want to live because they're being. 279 00:13:03,980 --> 00:13:05,940 They're they're they're in captive to Midian. 280 00:13:06,470 --> 00:13:08,750 So they're being forced to live in caves, and they're being 281 00:13:08,750 --> 00:13:12,030 forced to go into the mountains and find strongholds and 282 00:13:12,030 --> 00:13:14,470 everything else. And so it was when Israel had 283 00:13:14,630 --> 00:13:19,470 shown that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites and the 284 00:13:19,470 --> 00:13:23,030 children of the east, even they came up against them and they 285 00:13:23,030 --> 00:13:25,750 camped against them and destroyed the increase of the 286 00:13:25,750 --> 00:13:26,790 earth. What does that mean? 287 00:13:28,310 --> 00:13:29,950 Destroyed the increase of the earth. 288 00:13:30,630 --> 00:13:32,350 Yeah. Burned all their crops. 289 00:13:32,390 --> 00:13:34,950 I mean, so they're really, really oppressing them. 290 00:13:35,300 --> 00:13:37,620 Well, what's an oppressor if you can live and eat and do 291 00:13:37,620 --> 00:13:38,940 everything you want to do? Right? 292 00:13:39,180 --> 00:13:42,020 But Midian took what they wanted and burned what they couldn't 293 00:13:42,020 --> 00:13:43,940 eat. And so now they're really 294 00:13:43,940 --> 00:13:46,820 getting to a point where Israel is what they're trying to do. 295 00:13:46,820 --> 00:13:49,100 And what you see this happening all all throughout, what they're 296 00:13:49,100 --> 00:13:51,500 trying to do is get them to the point where they have to crawl 297 00:13:51,500 --> 00:13:54,260 on their hands and knees and beg them for help, beg them for 298 00:13:54,260 --> 00:13:58,220 whatever they can get right. Midian came up. 299 00:13:58,220 --> 00:14:00,420 The Malachites, the children of the east, even they came up 300 00:14:00,420 --> 00:14:03,170 against them, and they camped against them, and destroyed the 301 00:14:03,170 --> 00:14:06,930 increase of the earth, till thou come unto Gaza, and left no 302 00:14:06,930 --> 00:14:10,330 sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass. 303 00:14:10,330 --> 00:14:13,130 For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they 304 00:14:13,130 --> 00:14:15,490 came as grasshoppers for multitude. 305 00:14:15,770 --> 00:14:19,210 For both they and their camels were without number, and they 306 00:14:19,210 --> 00:14:21,410 entered into the land to destroy it. 307 00:14:21,850 --> 00:14:25,130 That's why they came up there. Their job was literally just to 308 00:14:25,130 --> 00:14:27,890 destroy as much of the land of Israel as they can destroy. 309 00:14:28,330 --> 00:14:30,290 If that doesn't get your attention, I don't know what 310 00:14:30,290 --> 00:14:32,710 will, right? And Israel was greatly 311 00:14:32,710 --> 00:14:34,750 impoverished because of the Midianites. 312 00:14:34,750 --> 00:14:36,590 And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord. 313 00:14:36,750 --> 00:14:39,430 So here's the cycle coming back again, right? 314 00:14:39,870 --> 00:14:43,150 They they sin. God delivers them into captivity 315 00:14:43,150 --> 00:14:46,270 to the Midianites. 7 years. I don't think it would have 316 00:14:46,270 --> 00:14:48,670 taken me seven years. Maybe it would have maybe if my 317 00:14:48,670 --> 00:14:50,230 head was as hard as the Israelites. 318 00:14:50,230 --> 00:14:52,790 But seven years they're they're dealing with this. 319 00:14:52,790 --> 00:14:56,590 And finally they say, OK, OK, God forgive us, we're sorry. 320 00:14:57,160 --> 00:14:59,800 So God heard the prayer of the Israelites and decided to 321 00:14:59,800 --> 00:15:02,600 deliver them verse number 7. And it came to pass, when the 322 00:15:02,600 --> 00:15:05,240 children of Israel cried unto the Lord, because of the many 323 00:15:05,240 --> 00:15:08,440 Knights, that the Lord sent a prophet unto the children of 324 00:15:08,440 --> 00:15:11,640 Israel, which said unto them, Thus said the Lord God of 325 00:15:11,640 --> 00:15:15,400 Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out 326 00:15:15,400 --> 00:15:18,000 of the House of bondage. And I delivered you out of the 327 00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:20,690 hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that 328 00:15:20,690 --> 00:15:23,690 oppressed you, and drave them out from before you, and gave 329 00:15:23,690 --> 00:15:26,810 you their land. And I said unto you, I am the 330 00:15:26,810 --> 00:15:29,970 Lord your God, Fear not the gods of the Amorites, and whose land 331 00:15:29,970 --> 00:15:33,050 you dwell, but ye have not obeyed my voice. 332 00:15:33,650 --> 00:15:36,130 So. And by the way, I've got a lot 333 00:15:36,130 --> 00:15:37,930 of different angles, a lot of different pictures. 334 00:15:37,930 --> 00:15:41,890 This is Gideon Spring or Herod the Herod Spring. 335 00:15:42,190 --> 00:15:44,390 So as we go through there, just keep those in mind. 336 00:15:44,390 --> 00:15:47,350 We're going to get to it at the very end talking about the 337 00:15:47,350 --> 00:15:49,950 spring itself. But God visited get in through 338 00:15:49,950 --> 00:15:52,950 an Angel and chose to deliver Israel through him. 339 00:15:53,150 --> 00:15:55,950 That's a that's a painting that I found that somebody had done 340 00:15:55,950 --> 00:15:58,350 of that. But anyway, judges chapter 6 and 341 00:15:58,350 --> 00:16:01,710 verse #11. And there came an Angel of the 342 00:16:01,710 --> 00:16:06,140 Lord and sat under an oak which was in Ofra that pertained unto 343 00:16:06,140 --> 00:16:09,900 Joe Ash the Abiez, right? And his son Gideon threshed 344 00:16:09,900 --> 00:16:12,660 wheat by the wine press to hide it from the Midianites. 345 00:16:13,220 --> 00:16:14,460 And the Angel of the Lord appeared to. 346 00:16:14,460 --> 00:16:17,020 Now think about this. OK, you've heard the story many 347 00:16:17,020 --> 00:16:20,180 times. Why is Gideon hiding threshing 348 00:16:20,180 --> 00:16:22,820 wheat? If the Midianites found it, 349 00:16:22,820 --> 00:16:25,340 guess what they would have done? They weren't going to kill him 350 00:16:25,340 --> 00:16:26,740 and take it. They were just going to burn it. 351 00:16:26,740 --> 00:16:29,060 And now his family has nothing to eat, right? 352 00:16:29,220 --> 00:16:33,100 So he's hiding behind a wine press, threshing this wheat. 353 00:16:33,420 --> 00:16:37,980 So verse #12 and the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him and 354 00:16:37,980 --> 00:16:41,500 said the Lord is with the the almighty man of valor. 355 00:16:41,860 --> 00:16:43,900 Now I think that's pretty funny. I think it's. 356 00:16:45,020 --> 00:16:47,460 I think what the Angel is doing is kind of doing reverse 357 00:16:47,460 --> 00:16:51,020 psychology a little bit on Gideon because he didn't really 358 00:16:51,020 --> 00:16:52,700 come across as a mighty man of valor. 359 00:16:52,700 --> 00:16:58,380 When you see his answer, right, Verse #15, Gideon responded by 360 00:16:58,380 --> 00:17:02,140 saying that his family was the least in the tribe of Manassa 361 00:17:02,140 --> 00:17:03,820 and that he was the least in his family. 362 00:17:03,820 --> 00:17:06,700 Verse #15. And he said to them, Oh my Lord, 363 00:17:06,819 --> 00:17:10,220 where with shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in 364 00:17:10,220 --> 00:17:12,300 Manassa and I'm the least in my father's house. 365 00:17:12,579 --> 00:17:13,819 Now. I don't know if it's because he 366 00:17:13,819 --> 00:17:17,220 was afraid and he was trying to find an excuse or if or if he 367 00:17:17,220 --> 00:17:19,780 just felt like I'm not worthy. I don't know which one it is, 368 00:17:19,940 --> 00:17:24,500 but you think of that exact same response that Moses had, right? 369 00:17:25,020 --> 00:17:26,460 Wasn't all that long before that. 370 00:17:26,460 --> 00:17:28,460 And they probably had already heard the stories and everything 371 00:17:28,460 --> 00:17:33,080 else cuz they were not that far removed to getting into the land 372 00:17:33,080 --> 00:17:34,960 and getting out of Egypt and all of that stuff. 373 00:17:34,960 --> 00:17:37,160 And God's reminding them of all this too, right? 374 00:17:37,520 --> 00:17:40,840 But he gives the same response. I can't. 375 00:17:41,360 --> 00:17:44,560 I'm the least in my father's house and our tribe is the least 376 00:17:44,560 --> 00:17:46,520 in Israel. He's from the tribe of Manassa, 377 00:17:46,640 --> 00:17:48,600 which you can probably see it, but it's this big yellow one 378 00:17:48,600 --> 00:17:51,840 right there in the middle. So all of this, all of the tribe 379 00:17:51,840 --> 00:17:55,240 of Manassa crossed into both sides, which you know, the the 380 00:17:55,240 --> 00:17:59,440 eastern side of the Jordan River does not belong to Israel 381 00:17:59,440 --> 00:18:01,960 anymore. All of that is the nations that 382 00:18:01,960 --> 00:18:05,920 have come in and and taken over and and you know, assume that 383 00:18:05,920 --> 00:18:09,720 land for themselves. But then God respond. 384 00:18:09,800 --> 00:18:12,280 Gideon responded by saying that his family was the least. 385 00:18:12,360 --> 00:18:16,440 And God commanded Gideon to tear down the altars to bail that his 386 00:18:16,440 --> 00:18:19,840 father had erected into erect an altar to the Lord in its place. 387 00:18:20,120 --> 00:18:24,320 Now again, when Israel turns away from God and when when we 388 00:18:24,320 --> 00:18:27,680 get to talking about the Israel Museum, I'm going to show you 389 00:18:27,680 --> 00:18:33,920 some of these, some of these different little idols of bail, 390 00:18:33,960 --> 00:18:37,200 basically goofy looking little things, I mean tiny little 391 00:18:37,200 --> 00:18:38,360 things that they would have used. 392 00:18:38,400 --> 00:18:44,000 And you know, you remember the story of of Laban and Rachel and 393 00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:46,560 he was they were trying to move out and he said somebody stole 394 00:18:46,560 --> 00:18:48,960 my gods and where they at and everything else most of the time 395 00:18:48,960 --> 00:18:51,040 they were very, very small. It would have been hard to find 396 00:18:51,040 --> 00:18:52,830 them. They had these things setting up 397 00:18:52,830 --> 00:18:55,430 on, you know, in places in their homes and things like that. 398 00:18:55,430 --> 00:18:57,470 And bail was depicted by a lot of different things. 399 00:18:57,470 --> 00:19:01,630 He was picked, depicted as a man with like a staff with a spear 400 00:19:01,630 --> 00:19:03,390 on the end of it. He depicted as a bull. 401 00:19:03,390 --> 00:19:05,470 I mean there's a lot of different ways that bail was 402 00:19:05,470 --> 00:19:07,670 depicted, but they had altars to bail. 403 00:19:07,870 --> 00:19:10,550 And I'm going to show you, when we get to Dan, and talking about 404 00:19:10,550 --> 00:19:18,320 Dan the the altar that was erected to bail one was in Dan, 405 00:19:18,320 --> 00:19:21,160 one was in Beersheba. It was to keep them from having 406 00:19:21,160 --> 00:19:23,760 to go all the way to worship at the temple. 407 00:19:24,360 --> 00:19:27,640 And they they they erected these these gods, and essentially they 408 00:19:27,640 --> 00:19:32,560 worship them the same way that they worship bail by verse 21 it 409 00:19:32,560 --> 00:19:35,520 says. And the Angel of the Lord put 410 00:19:35,520 --> 00:19:38,760 forth the end of the staff that was in his hand and touched the 411 00:19:38,760 --> 00:19:42,240 flesh and the unleavened cakes, and there rose up fire out of 412 00:19:42,240 --> 00:19:46,040 the rock and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. 413 00:19:46,200 --> 00:19:48,160 Then the Angel of the Lord departed out of his sight. 414 00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:51,000 So God allowed the Angel to show giddy and a couple miracles to 415 00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:53,480 say, hey, this is not something that you need to be worrying 416 00:19:53,480 --> 00:19:54,920 about. This is not something that 417 00:19:54,920 --> 00:19:56,320 you're going to have to do on your own. 418 00:19:56,320 --> 00:19:58,040 This is something that I'm going to do for you. 419 00:19:58,600 --> 00:20:01,160 And here you you can read a little bit more into the story 420 00:20:01,160 --> 00:20:03,000 for the sake of time. I'm trying to make it a little 421 00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:05,480 bit quicker, but not reading every single verse in this 422 00:20:05,480 --> 00:20:09,560 passage. But the Angel, the fire comes up 423 00:20:09,560 --> 00:20:13,960 out of the rock and and and. Consume the the food and the 424 00:20:13,960 --> 00:20:15,160 unleavened cakes that were there. 425 00:20:15,160 --> 00:20:17,840 And so then the Angel disappears, and then God 426 00:20:17,840 --> 00:20:19,840 commands him to tear down those altars, and we find this in 427 00:20:19,840 --> 00:20:22,240 verse #28. And when the men of the city 428 00:20:22,240 --> 00:20:25,000 arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of bail was 429 00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:28,880 cast down, and the Grove was cast down that was by it. 430 00:20:29,240 --> 00:20:32,040 And the second bullet was offered upon the altar that was 431 00:20:32,040 --> 00:20:34,000 built. And they said one to another, 432 00:20:34,120 --> 00:20:37,680 who has done this thing? And they And when they inquired 433 00:20:37,680 --> 00:20:40,480 and asked, they said Giddy. And the son of Joe Ash hath done 434 00:20:40,480 --> 00:20:42,660 this thing. And the men of the city sent 435 00:20:42,660 --> 00:20:45,940 under Joe Ash bring out thy son, that he may die because he has 436 00:20:45,940 --> 00:20:48,420 cast down the altar of bail, and because he has cut down the 437 00:20:48,420 --> 00:20:52,300 Grove that was by it. And Joe Ash said all that stood 438 00:20:52,300 --> 00:20:54,300 against him. Will you plead for bail? 439 00:20:55,020 --> 00:20:58,140 Will you save him? He that will plead for him, let 440 00:20:58,140 --> 00:21:01,020 him be put to death, whilst it is yet mourning. 441 00:21:01,220 --> 00:21:04,500 If he be a God, let him plead for himself because one hath 442 00:21:04,500 --> 00:21:07,750 cast down his altar. Therefore, on that day he called 443 00:21:07,750 --> 00:21:11,270 him Jared Bale saying let Bale plead against him because he had 444 00:21:11,270 --> 00:21:14,390 thrown down his altar. I think that's very interesting. 445 00:21:16,150 --> 00:21:20,590 Joe Ash Gideon's father stands up for him, but obviously not 446 00:21:20,590 --> 00:21:24,150 everybody in Israel was was ready to repent, right? 447 00:21:24,310 --> 00:21:27,150 There was a good handful that work as God said and they so 448 00:21:27,150 --> 00:21:29,310 there was a good handful in Israel that were ready to pen, 449 00:21:29,470 --> 00:21:33,920 repent, but not all of them. And Joe Ash Gideon, obviously it 450 00:21:33,920 --> 00:21:37,000 was one of them that was. And he said you have to go to 451 00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:39,560 bat for bail. Bail's not strong enough to do 452 00:21:39,560 --> 00:21:41,520 it on his own. If bail can, if bail's strong, 453 00:21:41,520 --> 00:21:44,840 let him do it on his own. And so then shortly thereafter, 454 00:21:44,840 --> 00:21:47,000 the many nations gathered together to try to wipe out 455 00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:48,080 Israel. And this is something that 456 00:21:48,080 --> 00:21:50,800 Israel has been dealing with since the very beginning of the 457 00:21:50,800 --> 00:21:53,360 nation of Israel. All the nations around them just 458 00:21:53,360 --> 00:21:57,640 trying to destroy them. Verse 33 Then all the MIDI 459 00:21:57,640 --> 00:22:00,360 Knights and the Amalekites and the children of the east were 460 00:22:00,360 --> 00:22:03,360 gathered together, and went over and pitched in the valley of 461 00:22:03,360 --> 00:22:06,280 Jezreel. But the spirit of the Lord came 462 00:22:06,280 --> 00:22:08,280 upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet. 463 00:22:08,680 --> 00:22:11,600 And Albi Azar was gathered after him. 464 00:22:11,600 --> 00:22:14,720 And he sent messengers throughout all Manassa, who also 465 00:22:14,720 --> 00:22:16,880 was gathered after him. And he sent messengers under 466 00:22:16,880 --> 00:22:20,200 Asher and under Zebulon, and unto Naftaline, and they came up 467 00:22:20,200 --> 00:22:22,480 to meet him. So you can see all of those, all 468 00:22:22,480 --> 00:22:26,800 of those different, the tribes all the way around him, and he's 469 00:22:26,800 --> 00:22:29,960 just, he's sending out the word. We need people to help us fight 470 00:22:29,960 --> 00:22:33,080 against the Midianites. And so the Midianites were the 471 00:22:33,080 --> 00:22:36,840 descendants of Midian, and so they were, they were children of 472 00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:40,240 Abraham, but they, they settled in the land of the East, the 473 00:22:40,240 --> 00:22:43,560 Bible says. And so when Moses fled from the 474 00:22:43,560 --> 00:22:45,840 wrath of Pharaoh, he traveled to Midian. 475 00:22:46,160 --> 00:22:48,080 We find that in Exodus chapter 2. 476 00:22:48,920 --> 00:22:52,760 And Moses met, married his wife. What was Moses his wife's name? 477 00:22:52,760 --> 00:22:55,700 Do you remember Zapora? Very good. 478 00:22:55,940 --> 00:22:57,940 And so he served his fatherinlaw. 479 00:22:57,940 --> 00:23:02,460 What was his fatherinlaw's name? Jethro, as a shepherd for how 480 00:23:02,460 --> 00:23:04,300 many years on the backside of the desert? 481 00:23:04,940 --> 00:23:07,460 40 years. And I've said this before, but 482 00:23:07,460 --> 00:23:09,540 Moses grew up in Pharaoh's house, right? 483 00:23:09,860 --> 00:23:13,980 He spent 40 years learning how to be a somebody and then got 484 00:23:13,980 --> 00:23:16,500 sent him to the backside of the desert, spent 40 years learning 485 00:23:16,500 --> 00:23:19,260 how to be a nobody. And then the last 40 years of 486 00:23:19,260 --> 00:23:22,780 his life he spent learning how God can take somebody who thinks 487 00:23:22,780 --> 00:23:25,280 he's a nobody and use him to do his work. 488 00:23:25,280 --> 00:23:27,760 And that's exactly what God did with Moses, leave the children 489 00:23:27,800 --> 00:23:30,880 of Israel out of the wilderness. But that's that Midian where 490 00:23:30,880 --> 00:23:32,600 Moses was that for those 40 years. 491 00:23:32,600 --> 00:23:35,760 So the children of Midian were actually children of Abraham, 492 00:23:36,680 --> 00:23:38,760 Lord many years before that, obviously. 493 00:23:38,760 --> 00:23:41,960 And then the the Amalekites were the first ones to attack Israel 494 00:23:42,120 --> 00:23:45,720 when they when they crossed over the Red Sea from Egypt. 495 00:23:46,160 --> 00:23:50,120 Genesis 36 talked about the descendants of Amalek, the son 496 00:23:50,120 --> 00:23:54,910 of Elifas, the grandson of ESA, as a Malachites, and so they're 497 00:23:54,910 --> 00:23:57,230 the descendants on that side from from Esaw. 498 00:23:57,230 --> 00:24:01,750 But the Malachites were somehow related but but also distinct 499 00:24:01,750 --> 00:24:04,350 from the Edomites. What you remember was was also 500 00:24:04,350 --> 00:24:08,950 descendants of of Esaw. So anyway, as a result of all of 501 00:24:08,950 --> 00:24:12,950 these things, they gathered together and God commanded 502 00:24:12,950 --> 00:24:16,030 getting to choose 300 men for the battle so that God would get 503 00:24:16,030 --> 00:24:18,110 all the glory for the victory. And he says that we're going to 504 00:24:18,110 --> 00:24:19,310 look at that in Judges Chapter 7. 505 00:24:19,310 --> 00:24:25,020 So turn over to there next page, if I guess it is but God gave 506 00:24:26,220 --> 00:24:29,020 Gideon a sign. In fact, before we get to Judges 507 00:24:29,020 --> 00:24:31,340 chapter seven, we need to look at this in verse 36. 508 00:24:31,900 --> 00:24:35,740 Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mind hand, 509 00:24:35,740 --> 00:24:39,100 as thou has said, behold, I'll put a fleece of wool in the 510 00:24:39,100 --> 00:24:41,980 floor. And if the dew beyond the fleece 511 00:24:41,980 --> 00:24:45,260 only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know 512 00:24:45,260 --> 00:24:48,100 that thou wilt save Israel by mind hand as thou has said. 513 00:24:48,680 --> 00:24:51,360 And it was so For he rose up early on the Morrow, and thrust 514 00:24:51,360 --> 00:24:54,520 the fleece to get ringed, the dew out of the fleece a bowl 515 00:24:54,520 --> 00:24:57,760 full of water. That wasn't enough getting. 516 00:24:57,760 --> 00:25:01,000 And said unto God, Let not thine anger be hot against me, And 517 00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:03,560 I'll speak but this once, Let me prove. 518 00:25:03,560 --> 00:25:05,720 I pray thee, but this once with the fleece. 519 00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:09,440 Let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground 520 00:25:09,440 --> 00:25:13,000 Let there be do And God did so that night, For it was dry upon 521 00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:15,240 the fleece only, And there was dew on all the ground. 522 00:25:15,560 --> 00:25:18,400 And you can, you can imagine getting, you know what? 523 00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:21,040 That could have been a fluke. Maybe that maybe it was possible 524 00:25:21,040 --> 00:25:23,520 that somehow I dropped the bowl of water on that fleece or 525 00:25:23,520 --> 00:25:26,040 something. God, please don't get mad at me. 526 00:25:26,440 --> 00:25:27,880 I'm just going to ask you one more thing. 527 00:25:27,880 --> 00:25:31,000 Can you please reverse it tonight and make the ground be 528 00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:33,520 wet and that fleece be dry? And God was trying to prove to 529 00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:34,760 get in. I'm with you. 530 00:25:35,520 --> 00:25:38,440 I'm here to use you. And so he did it. 531 00:25:38,480 --> 00:25:40,840 He he gave him that what he asked. 532 00:25:40,840 --> 00:25:45,080 And so honestly, I think that the sad thing is though, is that 533 00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:48,510 it revealed the lack of faith and what God said he would do if 534 00:25:48,510 --> 00:25:50,390 God said he would do it. Gideon should have believed. 535 00:25:50,390 --> 00:25:54,150 And now it's easy for us to say hard, hard for us to do many 536 00:25:54,150 --> 00:25:56,670 times. But look what happens here in in 537 00:25:56,870 --> 00:25:59,870 Judges Chapter 7. Then Jared Bale, remember his 538 00:25:59,870 --> 00:26:03,990 name was changed. Let Bale, let Bale plead right. 539 00:26:04,630 --> 00:26:06,670 Who is Gideon? And all the people that were 540 00:26:06,670 --> 00:26:10,070 with him rose up early. And here we have it, And pitched 541 00:26:10,070 --> 00:26:14,440 beside the well of Herod, so that the host of the Midianites 542 00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:17,440 were on the north side of them by the hill of Moray in the 543 00:26:17,440 --> 00:26:20,040 valley. And there you have it again, the 544 00:26:20,040 --> 00:26:22,080 hill of Moray, the Midianite camp. 545 00:26:22,080 --> 00:26:24,440 You have the Jezreel Valley. And where the battle ends up 546 00:26:24,440 --> 00:26:27,600 taking place. And there is the Gideon spring, 547 00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:30,440 or the Harrods spring, or the Well of Herod, as the Bible 548 00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:32,880 calls it here. But the Lord said on the Gideon 549 00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:37,040 verse #2, the people that are with the are too many for me to 550 00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:39,810 give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt 551 00:26:39,810 --> 00:26:42,530 themselves against me. Saying mine own hand has saved 552 00:26:42,530 --> 00:26:44,210 me. Now think about that. 553 00:26:44,650 --> 00:26:49,010 Here's Israel begging for God to help them, begging for some 554 00:26:49,010 --> 00:26:52,250 relief from the MIDI nights. And God has to do something 555 00:26:52,250 --> 00:26:54,410 drastic because he knows that they're going to try to take the 556 00:26:54,410 --> 00:26:56,810 credit for it. But that's what happened. 557 00:26:56,810 --> 00:27:00,570 So verse #3, Now therefore go to proclaim in the ears of the 558 00:27:00,570 --> 00:27:03,330 people, saying whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him 559 00:27:03,330 --> 00:27:06,490 return and depart early from Mount Gilead and they return to 560 00:27:06,490 --> 00:27:10,230 the people 20 and 2000. And there remained 10,000. 561 00:27:10,310 --> 00:27:13,310 So out of all of the ones that he had, he only had 32,000 and 562 00:27:13,310 --> 00:27:16,710 22,000 of them leave. I'm scared. 563 00:27:16,910 --> 00:27:18,350 I don't want to go fight against Middian. 564 00:27:18,470 --> 00:27:23,310 Now we we get on these guys a lot, but we're going to look at 565 00:27:23,310 --> 00:27:25,670 it in just a little bit. But the middy night camp, the 566 00:27:25,670 --> 00:27:27,750 Bible says there were so many middy nights that it looked like 567 00:27:27,750 --> 00:27:30,230 grasshoppers, so many that you couldn't even count them. 568 00:27:30,950 --> 00:27:32,510 I think I'd probably be the same way. 569 00:27:33,110 --> 00:27:35,430 There's no chance that we have against these guys. 570 00:27:35,430 --> 00:27:38,270 I mean, I mean, what are they just going to keep sending wave 571 00:27:38,270 --> 00:27:40,550 after wave after wave, till there's none of us left? 572 00:27:40,950 --> 00:27:43,630 Again, a lack of faith in God, if you, if you think about it 573 00:27:43,630 --> 00:27:47,190 from that perspective. But verse #4 and and and the 574 00:27:47,190 --> 00:27:49,630 Lord said unto Gideon, the people are yet too many. 575 00:27:50,310 --> 00:27:54,110 Bring them down onto the water, and I will try them for thee 576 00:27:54,110 --> 00:27:56,270 there. And it shall be that of whom I 577 00:27:56,270 --> 00:27:58,230 say unto thee, this shall go with thee. 578 00:27:58,230 --> 00:28:00,430 The same shall go with thee. And of whomsoever I say unto 579 00:28:00,430 --> 00:28:02,430 thee, this shall not go with me. The same shall not go. 580 00:28:02,630 --> 00:28:04,470 And I can imagine that Gideon's probably thinking, all right, 581 00:28:04,470 --> 00:28:05,790 he's going to split my arm in half. 582 00:28:06,410 --> 00:28:09,250 He's going to say, you go this way, you go this way or line 583 00:28:09,250 --> 00:28:12,690 everybody up and 121212, all the twos go home ones. 584 00:28:12,690 --> 00:28:14,410 You're in the battle, right? I don't know. 585 00:28:14,410 --> 00:28:15,690 I don't know what Gideon thought. 586 00:28:15,930 --> 00:28:17,930 But either way, he just trusted God. 587 00:28:17,930 --> 00:28:21,770 So he brings all the people down to the Gideon spring. 588 00:28:22,090 --> 00:28:24,450 And God tested the men there at the herd. 589 00:28:24,450 --> 00:28:25,930 Spring. Now this is actually very 590 00:28:25,930 --> 00:28:30,410 interesting. Again, Ain means fountain and so 591 00:28:30,410 --> 00:28:32,610 Ain herd. So the spring or the fountain of 592 00:28:32,610 --> 00:28:34,560 herd. This is the Gideon Fountain 593 00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:38,000 between 1898 and 1914, somewhere in there. 594 00:28:38,360 --> 00:28:41,560 So I don't know exactly where they were camped out, but the 595 00:28:41,560 --> 00:28:45,600 Bible says that Gideon brought them down to this. 596 00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:48,000 The spring, to the well, to the well of Herod. 597 00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:49,720 So I don't know if they were camped in the mountain. 598 00:28:50,160 --> 00:28:55,080 Makes sense because naturally if you're if you're lining up in a 599 00:28:55,080 --> 00:28:57,520 battle, you're not going to be where the enemy can just rush 600 00:28:57,520 --> 00:28:59,160 you and you can't run back uphill. 601 00:28:59,160 --> 00:29:01,480 So more than likely they were up there in the hills somewhere. 602 00:29:01,910 --> 00:29:03,870 Now, it doesn't look anything like this today, and I'm going 603 00:29:03,870 --> 00:29:05,830 to show you some pictures of that in just a little bit. 604 00:29:06,670 --> 00:29:11,790 But do you know who Horatio Stafford is? 605 00:29:11,790 --> 00:29:13,270 Does that name sound familiar to you? 606 00:29:14,430 --> 00:29:16,790 Horatio Stafford is the one who wrote it is. 607 00:29:16,790 --> 00:29:21,630 Well, with my soul. And Horatio Stafford spent a lot 608 00:29:21,630 --> 00:29:24,710 of time in Israel after that whole tragedy happened and his 609 00:29:24,710 --> 00:29:27,870 wife and kids were killed and all or his children were killed 610 00:29:28,270 --> 00:29:30,710 and he wrote it as well and everything else. 611 00:29:30,710 --> 00:29:34,160 But he started a group, I guess, if you will. 612 00:29:34,920 --> 00:29:37,760 And actually if I zoom in or if I look at it, it's called the 613 00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:41,080 American colony Jerusalem. And so all of the ones that 614 00:29:41,080 --> 00:29:43,880 their group took are labeled with that in the bottom corner 615 00:29:43,880 --> 00:29:46,120 there. But they decided that they were 616 00:29:46,120 --> 00:29:51,640 going to try to preserve as much as they could preserve through 617 00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:55,930 pictures. And what ended up happening 618 00:29:55,930 --> 00:29:59,450 because they did that from about 1880 to about 1920. 619 00:29:59,650 --> 00:30:03,730 Well, what ended up happening is they preserved for us to be able 620 00:30:03,730 --> 00:30:06,890 to see what everything looked like before it got, you know, 621 00:30:06,890 --> 00:30:09,050 touristized, if you will. What's the word? 622 00:30:09,370 --> 00:30:11,330 That's not the right word. But before everything became a 623 00:30:11,330 --> 00:30:15,490 tourist destination in Israel, and actually a lot of the places 624 00:30:15,490 --> 00:30:19,170 that they took, I mean, really, a lot of the archaeological 625 00:30:19,170 --> 00:30:22,920 excavations and things like that did not happen until in the 60s 626 00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:24,600 and the 70s and even into the 80s. 627 00:30:24,600 --> 00:30:27,160 And and even today, they're still doing archaeological 628 00:30:27,160 --> 00:30:29,280 excavation. So they have a lot of these 629 00:30:29,280 --> 00:30:32,280 pristine places to let you see what it looked like before 630 00:30:32,800 --> 00:30:35,400 anybody touched it. But that's probably about what 631 00:30:35,400 --> 00:30:37,760 it would have looked like when Gideon and his men were there. 632 00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:39,920 Here's a few other pictures of that. 633 00:30:40,720 --> 00:30:43,240 Obviously a shepherd bringing his sheep down there. 634 00:30:43,440 --> 00:30:46,640 So you'll see this in the pictures, and I'm gonna point 635 00:30:46,640 --> 00:30:49,800 this out a little bit more. This little cave right here. 636 00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:51,880 OK. And if I go back one picture, 637 00:30:51,880 --> 00:30:53,320 you want to see it a little bit better. 638 00:30:54,080 --> 00:30:56,800 That little cave right there is actually. 639 00:30:56,840 --> 00:30:59,440 So these are the Guilboa Mountains, OK? 640 00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:02,360 Mount Gilboa is where where Saul was killed. 641 00:31:02,680 --> 00:31:06,480 But the Guilboa Mountains is actually the that's the base of 642 00:31:06,480 --> 00:31:08,560 it. And it is actually a bubbling 643 00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:11,440 spring that comes out from underneath the mountain right 644 00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:13,200 there. So you're going to see this in 645 00:31:13,200 --> 00:31:16,800 the pictures as we get closer. But there it is again from 646 00:31:16,800 --> 00:31:21,880 somewhere between 1900 and 1920. There it is again from 1900 to 647 00:31:21,880 --> 00:31:23,680 1920. And you can kind of see how it's 648 00:31:23,680 --> 00:31:26,800 all blocked off and everything like that, but very, very 649 00:31:26,800 --> 00:31:32,440 different than it looks today. But God, God said so let's see 650 00:31:32,440 --> 00:31:34,920 in verse #5. So he brought down the people 651 00:31:34,920 --> 00:31:37,430 unto the water, and the Lord sent him to Gideon. 652 00:31:37,430 --> 00:31:41,150 Everyone that lappeth of the water with his tongue as a dog 653 00:31:41,150 --> 00:31:43,430 lappeth him, shout thou set by himself. 654 00:31:43,670 --> 00:31:47,310 Likewise everyone that boweth down upon his knees to drink. 655 00:31:47,870 --> 00:31:50,390 And the number of them that lapped, putting their hands to 656 00:31:50,390 --> 00:31:54,110 their mouth, were 300 men. But all the rest of the people 657 00:31:54,110 --> 00:31:56,550 bowed down upon their knees to drink water. 658 00:31:57,030 --> 00:31:59,910 And the Lord said in the Guinea and by the 300 men that lapped 659 00:31:59,910 --> 00:32:04,150 will I save you and deliver the Midianites into thine hand and 660 00:32:04,150 --> 00:32:07,030 let all the other people go, every man into his place. 661 00:32:07,190 --> 00:32:11,590 He was down to 10,000 and 9700 of them stuck their head in the 662 00:32:11,590 --> 00:32:13,910 water to drink. And I probably would have done 663 00:32:13,910 --> 00:32:16,790 the same thing. But basically what God said is 664 00:32:16,790 --> 00:32:19,390 they're not prepared because they they were not ready with 665 00:32:19,390 --> 00:32:21,390 their sword, with their hand on their sword. 666 00:32:21,390 --> 00:32:23,430 So I had to try it when we were there. 667 00:32:23,830 --> 00:32:25,790 And I was telling my wife I was like that doesn't look like a 668 00:32:25,790 --> 00:32:28,510 very that looks like a pretty vulnerable position if you ask 669 00:32:28,510 --> 00:32:29,870 me. You know I'm. 670 00:32:29,910 --> 00:32:32,880 I'm not, you know, I'm. I got my head stuck in between 671 00:32:32,880 --> 00:32:34,520 two rocks. All someone has to do is push me 672 00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:38,440 from the back and I'm a goner. So But anyway, that's what 673 00:32:38,440 --> 00:32:40,040 lapping the water is talking about. 674 00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:43,400 One hand on your sword, one hand reaching down and sipping the 675 00:32:43,400 --> 00:32:44,880 water. But this is what it looks like 676 00:32:44,880 --> 00:32:47,240 today. In fact, I believe this is a 677 00:32:47,240 --> 00:32:49,000 video. Yeah. 678 00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:52,600 Here we go. We have no sound with this. 679 00:32:52,600 --> 00:32:54,780 Do it, brother. Josh we're working on that. 680 00:32:54,780 --> 00:32:56,380 But this is what this is. What the. 681 00:32:56,380 --> 00:32:59,060 I mean, look how beautiful and pristine and all that stuff is 682 00:32:59,060 --> 00:33:00,820 now. It wasn't like that when Gideon 683 00:33:00,820 --> 00:33:02,860 was there. They put these nice little rocks 684 00:33:02,860 --> 00:33:06,500 and everything else, I believe. Actually, I think this one's a 685 00:33:06,500 --> 00:33:08,020 video too. Let me see if I can get it to 686 00:33:08,020 --> 00:33:10,380 play for you. There we go. 687 00:33:10,860 --> 00:33:15,020 So this is so that little cave is, is is what I pointed out to 688 00:33:15,020 --> 00:33:16,700 you. That little cave right there is 689 00:33:16,700 --> 00:33:19,940 actually where all the water comes out from and it just flows 690 00:33:19,940 --> 00:33:22,180 down. If if we actually had some sound 691 00:33:22,180 --> 00:33:26,320 on it, you could hear it's just the way it bubbles and it looks 692 00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:28,960 like it's this deep. It's actually just such clear 693 00:33:28,960 --> 00:33:30,680 spring water. It's probably a bottle foot 694 00:33:30,680 --> 00:33:33,320 deep. It looks like it's an inch 695 00:33:33,320 --> 00:33:34,840 because of how clear the water is. 696 00:33:34,840 --> 00:33:39,360 But you can see there that's the base and that's where the spring 697 00:33:39,360 --> 00:33:41,520 comes out of. So that's where Gideon's men, 698 00:33:42,240 --> 00:33:44,320 probably right there in that same area. 699 00:33:44,320 --> 00:33:47,580 And of course, again, as I told you, all those rocks and 700 00:33:47,580 --> 00:33:48,860 everything like that, we're not there. 701 00:33:48,860 --> 00:33:50,740 They've made it nice and touristy and beautiful and 702 00:33:50,740 --> 00:33:52,940 there's a nice little park around it and everything else 703 00:33:52,940 --> 00:33:56,420 now. But that that very cave right 704 00:33:56,420 --> 00:34:00,660 there is probably where Gideon and his men, 10,000 of them, had 705 00:34:00,660 --> 00:34:03,940 an opportunity to be part of that little 300, that little 706 00:34:03,940 --> 00:34:07,540 band of 300 men. So, but the size of the opposing 707 00:34:07,540 --> 00:34:09,780 army was enormous. In fact, the Bible says in 708 00:34:09,780 --> 00:34:12,969 Judges Chapter 7, verse #12 and the MIDI Knights and the 709 00:34:12,969 --> 00:34:15,810 Malachites and all the children of the East lay along the valley 710 00:34:15,810 --> 00:34:19,650 like grasshoppers for multitude. And their camels were without 711 00:34:19,650 --> 00:34:23,409 number as the sand by the seaside for multitude. 712 00:34:24,530 --> 00:34:27,050 I mean, could you imagine? No wonder 22,000 of them went 713 00:34:27,050 --> 00:34:28,370 home. They're up on this mountain 714 00:34:28,370 --> 00:34:31,610 looking over there and seeing these camels, and it probably 715 00:34:31,610 --> 00:34:33,850 looked like a beach because there were so many of them. 716 00:34:34,320 --> 00:34:36,360 And he said there was so many and you couldn't even count. 717 00:34:36,360 --> 00:34:38,960 It was like, I mean you can't even wrap your your head around 718 00:34:38,960 --> 00:34:41,199 how many camels that is. And of course the men as well. 719 00:34:41,199 --> 00:34:45,440 So God allowed Gideon to visit the camp of the opposing army so 720 00:34:45,440 --> 00:34:46,800 that he would be assured of the victory. 721 00:34:46,800 --> 00:34:49,440 And we find that in verse #13. And when Gideon was come, 722 00:34:49,800 --> 00:34:52,679 behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow. 723 00:34:53,120 --> 00:34:55,480 And so Gideon, Gideon sneaks down into the camp. 724 00:34:55,480 --> 00:34:58,800 And here this this MIDI night is telling his MIDI night friend 725 00:34:58,920 --> 00:35:01,680 about a dream that he has. And Gideon overhears them. 726 00:35:02,650 --> 00:35:06,090 Behold, I dreamed a dream, and lo, a cake of barley bread 727 00:35:06,090 --> 00:35:09,170 tumbled into the host of Mideon, and came into a tent and smote 728 00:35:09,170 --> 00:35:12,370 it, that it fell and overturned it, that the tent lay along. 729 00:35:12,810 --> 00:35:15,410 And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing, nothing 730 00:35:15,410 --> 00:35:18,490 else save the sword of Gideon, the son of Joe Ash, a man of 731 00:35:18,490 --> 00:35:20,770 Israel. For into his hand hath God 732 00:35:20,770 --> 00:35:22,690 delivered Mideon and all the host. 733 00:35:22,890 --> 00:35:25,850 Amazing that that guy had sight, but that it was. 734 00:35:26,050 --> 00:35:28,730 And now God gave Gideon one more assurance. 735 00:35:28,970 --> 00:35:31,860 So he had the assurance that, you know of the Angel getting 736 00:35:31,860 --> 00:35:33,780 fire out of that rock. He had the assurance of the 737 00:35:33,780 --> 00:35:36,500 Fleece being dry and then being or being wet and then being. 738 00:35:37,100 --> 00:35:42,140 And now we hearing these over these men, overhearing these men 739 00:35:42,140 --> 00:35:44,980 talking about this dream and they all the guys saying that's 740 00:35:44,980 --> 00:35:49,860 nothing but God delivering the Midianites into the hand of 741 00:35:49,900 --> 00:35:52,580 Gideon. And so God delivered the nation 742 00:35:52,620 --> 00:35:54,980 into the victorious hands of the Israelites. 743 00:35:54,980 --> 00:35:58,100 And we find that, and this is a little bit of a lengthy passage, 744 00:35:58,100 --> 00:36:00,300 but this is the end here. So look what happens in verse 745 00:36:00,300 --> 00:36:04,520 15. And it was so when Gideon heard 746 00:36:04,520 --> 00:36:07,800 the telling of the dream and the interpretation thereof, that he 747 00:36:07,800 --> 00:36:11,960 worshiped and returned into the host of Israel and said Arise. 748 00:36:11,960 --> 00:36:15,320 For the Lord has delivered into your hand the host of Midian, 749 00:36:15,680 --> 00:36:18,080 and he divided the 300 men into three companies. 750 00:36:18,640 --> 00:36:19,960 How many would that be in each company? 751 00:36:20,960 --> 00:36:22,880 Good job. And he put a trumpet in every 752 00:36:22,880 --> 00:36:26,840 man's hand, with empty pictures, and lamps within the pictures. 753 00:36:27,190 --> 00:36:30,070 And they said it to them, Look on me, and do likewise. 754 00:36:30,070 --> 00:36:33,430 Behold, when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be 755 00:36:33,430 --> 00:36:38,110 that as I do, so shall ye do. When I blow with the trumpet I, 756 00:36:38,110 --> 00:36:41,230 and all that are with me, then blow ye the trumpets also on 757 00:36:41,230 --> 00:36:44,830 every side of all the camp, and say, the sword of the Lord and 758 00:36:44,830 --> 00:36:47,270 end of Gideon. So get in. 759 00:36:47,270 --> 00:36:51,030 And the the 100 men that were with him came into the outside 760 00:36:51,030 --> 00:36:52,830 of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch. 761 00:36:52,830 --> 00:36:56,980 And when they were but newly set the watch and they blew the 762 00:36:56,980 --> 00:36:59,380 trumpets and break the pictures that were in their hands. 763 00:36:59,660 --> 00:37:03,580 And the three companies blew the trumpets and break the pictures 764 00:37:03,740 --> 00:37:06,500 and held the lamps in their left hands and the trumpets in their 765 00:37:06,500 --> 00:37:09,420 right hands to blow with all. And they cried the sword of the 766 00:37:09,420 --> 00:37:12,360 Lord end up Gideon. And they stood every man in his 767 00:37:12,360 --> 00:37:15,440 place round about the camp. And all the hosts ran and cried 768 00:37:15,440 --> 00:37:18,080 and fled. And the 300 blew the trumpets. 769 00:37:18,080 --> 00:37:20,840 And the Lord said every man's sword against his fellow. 770 00:37:21,080 --> 00:37:25,200 Even throughout all the host and the host fled to Beth Shita in 0 771 00:37:25,200 --> 00:37:30,280 wrath, and to the border of Abo Mahola unto Tabath. 772 00:37:30,880 --> 00:37:33,760 And the men of Israel gathered themselves together out of 773 00:37:33,760 --> 00:37:36,760 naftaline and out of Asher, and out of all Manassa in pursuit 774 00:37:36,760 --> 00:37:39,440 after the MIDI nights. And Gideon sent Messengers 775 00:37:39,440 --> 00:37:44,900 throughout all come down nights and take before them the waters 776 00:37:44,900 --> 00:37:48,380 unto Beth, Barra, and Jordan. That all the men of Ethereum 777 00:37:48,380 --> 00:37:51,340 gathered themselves together and took the water waters into Beth, 778 00:37:51,340 --> 00:37:54,540 Barra, and Jordan. And they took 2 Princess of the 779 00:37:54,540 --> 00:37:58,020 Midianites, Orab and Zieb, and they slew Orab upon the rock, 780 00:37:58,020 --> 00:38:00,780 Orab and Zieb. They slew at the wine impressive 781 00:38:00,780 --> 00:38:04,020 Zieb and pursued Midian and brought the heads of Orab and 782 00:38:04,020 --> 00:38:05,740 Zieb to Gideon on the other side of Jordan. 783 00:38:06,020 --> 00:38:08,860 An amazing story. So basically what happens here 784 00:38:08,980 --> 00:38:11,860 and and and I think this is, I mean, this is nothing but God, 785 00:38:11,860 --> 00:38:14,780 obviously you're going against an army full of men that there's 786 00:38:14,780 --> 00:38:17,060 so many of them, there's no way they could ever be overrun. 787 00:38:17,620 --> 00:38:21,180 And there's no way that 300 men can slay all of these people, 788 00:38:21,540 --> 00:38:25,820 right? But a trumpet was a sound to run 789 00:38:25,820 --> 00:38:29,180 into battle, right? And if you think about 300 790 00:38:29,180 --> 00:38:32,060 trumpets being blown, they would think that there must be 791 00:38:32,060 --> 00:38:34,710 companies of people everywhere. Because you don't. 792 00:38:34,710 --> 00:38:36,830 I mean, you don't have a whole group of people trumpeting. 793 00:38:36,830 --> 00:38:39,230 You have one trumpeter that sounds the charge or whatever 794 00:38:39,230 --> 00:38:40,630 else. You have 300. 795 00:38:40,630 --> 00:38:43,390 It must have sounded like there was people everywhere. 796 00:38:43,630 --> 00:38:46,830 And you hear the sound of these pictures breaking and they think 797 00:38:46,830 --> 00:38:49,830 it's an army moving toward them. And then you see the lights and 798 00:38:49,870 --> 00:38:51,990 and and everywhere you look there's lights. 799 00:38:52,430 --> 00:38:54,710 And so they get up and hear there in the it's the middle of 800 00:38:54,710 --> 00:38:55,830 the night. It's the middle watch. 801 00:38:55,830 --> 00:38:58,270 So you have a new group of guards that just got out there. 802 00:38:58,270 --> 00:38:59,990 They're not expecting anything to happen. 803 00:39:00,580 --> 00:39:02,940 And now all of this noise in this pandemonium, when these 804 00:39:02,940 --> 00:39:05,780 guys jump up and they run out and they see somebody else 805 00:39:05,780 --> 00:39:07,500 running at them and they think it's the enemy. 806 00:39:07,820 --> 00:39:09,180 So they start stabbing each other. 807 00:39:09,180 --> 00:39:12,180 Now that guy just got stabbed, so he's going to fight back and 808 00:39:12,180 --> 00:39:14,820 next thing you know, the entire army of many and is fighting 809 00:39:14,820 --> 00:39:17,180 each other, get in. His men are just standing there 810 00:39:17,180 --> 00:39:19,340 watching everything take place. They didn't even have to do 811 00:39:19,340 --> 00:39:22,460 anything because again, God did that for them. 812 00:39:23,140 --> 00:39:25,700 And had they tried to do it on their own, had giddy and said, 813 00:39:25,700 --> 00:39:28,740 Nah, we need at least 32,000 men, this wouldn't happen. 814 00:39:29,390 --> 00:39:31,150 God did an amazing, amazing thing for them. 815 00:39:31,270 --> 00:39:33,150 And I think there's a couple lessons as we close here. 816 00:39:33,150 --> 00:39:36,350 Number one, God often puts us in difficult situations so that he 817 00:39:36,350 --> 00:39:39,870 gets all the glory when he helps us with our problems, right? 818 00:39:40,230 --> 00:39:43,270 How many times have you been in a situation where there was no 819 00:39:43,270 --> 00:39:46,710 way out unless God did it? And God puts us in those 820 00:39:46,710 --> 00:39:49,830 situations on purpose, to help us realize, and I've said this 821 00:39:49,830 --> 00:39:52,800 many times before, hit it somewhere, or maybe hurt it 822 00:39:52,800 --> 00:39:54,440 somewhere. Maybe I came up with it. 823 00:39:54,440 --> 00:39:57,440 I don't know, but I've I've said it so many times that I've lost 824 00:39:57,440 --> 00:39:59,440 the source. But sometimes God lets us hit 825 00:39:59,520 --> 00:40:02,200 rock bottom so we can realize that he's the rock at the 826 00:40:02,200 --> 00:40:04,320 bottom. And that's exactly what he did 827 00:40:04,320 --> 00:40:09,280 with Gideon. 300 men against an army that's too many to count is 828 00:40:09,280 --> 00:40:11,880 rock bottom. And God let him get there so he 829 00:40:11,880 --> 00:40:14,480 could realize that he was the only way that he could do it was 830 00:40:14,480 --> 00:40:17,120 with God helping him. Number two, we, like the 831 00:40:17,120 --> 00:40:19,080 Israelites, can also worship idols. 832 00:40:19,700 --> 00:40:22,580 And idol is anything that distracts us from our time and 833 00:40:22,580 --> 00:40:26,540 attention on God. So the question for us then is 834 00:40:26,540 --> 00:40:30,180 what's distracting you away from God at this time in your life? 835 00:40:30,860 --> 00:40:32,940 We don't mind we're going to have an idol sitting there on 836 00:40:32,940 --> 00:40:34,380 the shelf. You may not have something that 837 00:40:34,380 --> 00:40:37,620 you bow down and worship every day, but how often do we get 838 00:40:37,620 --> 00:40:40,260 distracted by things that keep our attention and our time away 839 00:40:40,260 --> 00:40:42,620 from God #3? We should look at the size of 840 00:40:42,620 --> 00:40:44,620 our God rather than the size of our difficulties. 841 00:40:46,620 --> 00:40:49,960 I think Gideon did that. I think when he got down to 300 842 00:40:49,960 --> 00:40:52,280 men, he realized that I've got to have a pretty big God if 843 00:40:52,280 --> 00:40:55,320 something's going to happen. But Gideon got excited. 844 00:40:56,080 --> 00:40:57,640 You see what happened after he went down there? 845 00:40:57,640 --> 00:40:59,400 That's all. That that last time when he 846 00:40:59,400 --> 00:41:02,200 heard those guys talking and he heard them say, God's giving us 847 00:41:02,200 --> 00:41:05,240 into the hand of Gideon, Gideon got excited and he said let's 848 00:41:05,360 --> 00:41:08,560 let's go watch what God can do. And they went out there and they 849 00:41:08,560 --> 00:41:11,920 they defeated those men with three God Delights in our faith, 850 00:41:11,920 --> 00:41:13,440 but he's grieved by our lack of it. 851 00:41:14,080 --> 00:41:16,320 And I think that's the way that he was with Gideon too. 852 00:41:16,360 --> 00:41:19,180 Can you Can you imagine God that wants to do some giddy? 853 00:41:19,180 --> 00:41:21,460 And I'll pick you. Oh, no, you don't want me. 854 00:41:21,660 --> 00:41:23,780 No, no, I do want you. Okay. 855 00:41:23,780 --> 00:41:25,980 Well, if you want me, then you got to prove that you want me. 856 00:41:26,260 --> 00:41:27,900 You got to prove that it's me that you want. 857 00:41:28,100 --> 00:41:30,060 Do this with the fleece. Okay. 858 00:41:30,500 --> 00:41:31,660 That was good. Now do this. 859 00:41:31,820 --> 00:41:33,940 Do this with the fleece. Oh, that was good. 860 00:41:33,940 --> 00:41:36,660 All right, Okay. Well, I guess I'll go then. 861 00:41:37,020 --> 00:41:38,740 Right. God, God. 862 00:41:38,860 --> 00:41:41,500 God delights in our faith, but sometimes he's grieved by our 863 00:41:41,500 --> 00:41:45,300 lack of it. #3 God chooses the weak things to show his glory. 864 00:41:45,930 --> 00:41:47,730 We find this in First Corinthians chapter one and 865 00:41:47,730 --> 00:41:50,010 verse 27. But God has chosen the foolish 866 00:41:50,050 --> 00:41:54,690 things of this world to confound the wise, and God has chosen the 867 00:41:54,690 --> 00:41:57,210 weak things of the world to confound the things which are 868 00:41:57,210 --> 00:42:00,330 mighty God. God chooses weak things to show 869 00:42:00,330 --> 00:42:02,410 his glory. I don't know if you've ever, you 870 00:42:02,410 --> 00:42:06,570 know, I've seen this from time to time where you see God using 871 00:42:06,570 --> 00:42:10,050 somebody in a great way and you look at the guy and you think, 872 00:42:10,050 --> 00:42:13,010 how in the world is God using him, right? 873 00:42:13,460 --> 00:42:15,940 You just wouldn't think that he'd be a guy that that God 874 00:42:15,940 --> 00:42:18,020 would be using in any kind of great way at all. 875 00:42:18,300 --> 00:42:21,660 But God chooses the weak things, and and weak doesn't mean that 876 00:42:21,660 --> 00:42:25,220 oh you have to be ugly or you have to be worthless or you have 877 00:42:25,220 --> 00:42:28,380 to be whatever, but you have to be willing to be made that way, 878 00:42:29,220 --> 00:42:31,340 right? The humility aspect of it is 879 00:42:31,340 --> 00:42:34,300 what God's looking at. I believe 100% of God uses your 880 00:42:34,300 --> 00:42:36,860 talents and your abilities, and God gave you those talents and 881 00:42:36,860 --> 00:42:38,500 those abilities. So you don't have to be 882 00:42:38,500 --> 00:42:41,660 worthless and talentless in order for God to use you, but 883 00:42:41,660 --> 00:42:44,980 you have to be willing to be used by God, and you have to be 884 00:42:44,980 --> 00:42:47,180 willing to be the bottom. You have to be willing to be the 885 00:42:47,180 --> 00:42:49,540 low man on the totem pole. You have to be willing to be 886 00:42:49,540 --> 00:42:51,620 humble if God's going to use us in any great way. 887 00:42:52,180 --> 00:42:55,580 And then the last thing is this. Even if we have weaknesses, God 888 00:42:55,580 --> 00:42:58,660 can use us if we trust and we follow, right? 889 00:42:59,060 --> 00:43:02,380 Gideon's weakness, at least According to him, was that he 890 00:43:02,380 --> 00:43:06,820 was from the least tribe and he was the least in his family and 891 00:43:06,820 --> 00:43:09,100 oh, you can't use me. And he had a lack of faith, 892 00:43:09,300 --> 00:43:12,840 honestly. But God can use us the same way 893 00:43:12,840 --> 00:43:14,640 that he used him if we trust and if we follow. 894 00:43:14,640 --> 00:43:16,040 Let me end with this picture then. 895 00:43:16,040 --> 00:43:17,200 This is what it looks like today. 896 00:43:18,360 --> 00:43:20,800 Far cry from what it looked like in the in the pictures from 897 00:43:20,800 --> 00:43:22,960 1900, right? It's beautiful. 898 00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:24,920 It's a nice little park and all of that kind of stuff. 899 00:43:24,920 --> 00:43:28,040 But just think about what happened right there in that 900 00:43:28,040 --> 00:43:30,080 place. As that water bubbled out from 901 00:43:30,080 --> 00:43:35,480 the bottom of Mount Gilboa, God whittled an army of 32,000 down 902 00:43:35,480 --> 00:43:40,100 to 300 and did an amazing, amazing thing with them to show 903 00:43:40,100 --> 00:43:43,180 that he's powerful and that he doesn't need us, but he does 904 00:43:43,180 --> 00:43:47,220 want to use us, right. God could have used one person. 905 00:43:47,220 --> 00:43:51,300 God could have used Gideon. Why he chose to have 300 and not 906 00:43:51,300 --> 00:43:55,940 3000 or 30, I don't know, but he just did it that way because he 907 00:43:55,940 --> 00:43:59,500 was trying to prove that he is all powerful and he wants to use 908 00:43:59,500 --> 00:44:01,660 us. Not that he has to, but he wants 909 00:44:01,660 --> 00:44:03,900 to. And what an amazing, amazing 910 00:44:03,900 --> 00:44:05,700 story that is. We're done. 911 00:44:05,820 --> 00:44:08,860 Let's pray we'll be finished. Father, we love you. 912 00:44:08,860 --> 00:44:10,020 Can we thank you for your goodness? 913 00:44:10,580 --> 00:44:13,740 Thank you for the stories that we find here in the word of God. 914 00:44:14,020 --> 00:44:15,620 And what a tremendous thing that is God. 915 00:44:15,620 --> 00:44:17,620 I pray that you'd help the Bible to come alive to us. 916 00:44:17,620 --> 00:44:21,100 Every time we read this passage here in Judges God, I pray that 917 00:44:21,100 --> 00:44:22,820 you'd help us not to be like the Israelites. 918 00:44:23,100 --> 00:44:26,380 I pray that you'd help us not to have idols in our lives, not to 919 00:44:26,380 --> 00:44:28,740 have things that come before you and God. 920 00:44:28,740 --> 00:44:31,620 May you use us because we have faith to believe that you can 921 00:44:31,940 --> 00:44:34,460 and that you will. Thank you again for all that you 922 00:44:34,460 --> 00:44:35,780 do for us. In Jesus name. 923 00:44:36,140 --> 00:44:38,720 Amen. Go and stand, if you will. 924 00:44:39,160 --> 00:44:42,760 We'll close with our song. There we go. 925 00:44:42,760 --> 00:44:51,640 This could be the day that the Lord returns in glory. 926 00:44:53,880 --> 00:44:59,160 This could be the day that all these children hold. 927 00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:06,320 So be faithful in service as you watch it. 928 00:45:12,120 --> 00:45:19,560 This could be the day you can come up here and look at the 929 00:45:19,560 --> 00:45:21,240 map. We've ordered those maps. 930 00:45:21,240 --> 00:45:23,800 The problem is, their website crashed and they're still trying 931 00:45:23,800 --> 00:45:26,600 to get everything figured out. So as soon as we get those maps 932 00:45:26,600 --> 00:45:27,760 in, we'll make sure we get them to you. 933 00:45:27,760 --> 00:45:29,280 All right. Very good.