ALL ABOUT
YOU:
GIDEON,
CHAPTER
2
THE CALL OF
GIDEON: THE PRE-CHRISTIAN
10-19-03
Review:
Lesson #1 delivered 10-12-03 – The Word of God, and a prophet.
(Judg 6:1-10).
1.
The land had rest forty years (Judg 5:31), which period is a type
of our personal wilderness trek (this life) prior to entering the
Promised Land. The children of Israel did evil (wickedness - sin) in the
sight of the LORD: and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the
Midianites, the Amalekites, and the children of the east seven years
(tribulation). The uppermost metaphor: the Midianite host (a composite
body - antichrist) entered into the land (the Body of Christ - the Word
of God made flesh – you in type) to destroy it, and the children of
Israel cried unto the LORD.
2.
And the LORD sent a prophet (a type of John the Baptist – you
in type preceding our Lord’s return) crying in the wilderness to
prepare the way of the LORD with a call for repentance and obedience.
Overview:
Lesson #2 delivered 10-19-03 – The Call of Gideon: The
Pre-Christian. (Judg 6:11-13).
1.
God called a humbled (repentant) man prepared by the prophet (Judg
6:7-10), from among the wheat that He had planted in the land, and rose
him up a Saviour, to save a people of no faith (belief), you.
2.
The people of no faith are personified by Gideon – weak in the
flesh (the present), and symbolize you.
3.
The Saviour is also personified by Gideon – power in the Spirit
(the future), and symbolizes you.
4.
“And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of
Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD'S.” (Oba 1:21). [Praise
God!!]
5.
We shall today witness the beginning of The Call of Gideon to the
LORD (your Call in type). Gideon must first believe God (justification
– on the brasen altar, on the cross: Rom 12:1) before he can be
entered into the transformation process (sanctification – the brasen
laver: Eph 5:26; Rom 12:2).
THE CALL OF GIDEON: THE PRE-CHRISTIAN - A HUMBLED MAN
PREPARED FOR THE LORD,
MENIALLY THRESHING WHEAT LIKE ONE OF HIS OWN SERVANTS
(Judg
6:11-13) And there came an
angel of the LORD [i.e. the
Word of God], and sat under an oak [tree]
which was in Ophrah [a
female fawn], that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite
[the highest ranking family of the tribe of Manasseh: Josh 17:2]:
and his son Gideon threshed [to knock or beat
(off, out), i.e. separate] wheat
by the winepress [a vat; for
holding the grapes; in the sense of treading out grapes], to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the LORD appeared
unto him [bodily, rather than
spoke to him as a disembodied voice. Why?], and said unto him, The
LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour [a
force; virtue, strength: power, worthy]. And Gideon said unto him,
Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this
befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told
us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now
the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands
of the Midianites.
1.
oak = Heb: an oak or other strong tree /// strength; hence
anything strong; spec. a chief (politically); also a ram (from his
strength); a pilaster (as a strong support): mighty (man), lintel, oak,
post, ram, tree.
2.
Gideon = Heb: feller (i.e. warrior) /// to fell a tree; gen. to
destroy anything: cut (asunder, in sunder, down, off), hew down. [
a type of Jesus Christ - also to cut down, to hew down the wheat and the
tares]
3.
(Mat 3:10-12) And
now also the ax [the cross:
2 Kings 6:1-7] is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every
tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast
into the fire. I indeed
baptize you with water unto
repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose
shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with
the Holy Ghost [i.e. the saved], and with
fire [i.e. the unsaved]:
Whose fan [winnowing-fork (i.e.
separating-fork: a type of the cross)] is in his hand [power], and he will thoroughly purge [to cleanse perfectly, winnow] his floor, and gather his wheat
into the garner [barn]; but he
will burn up the chaff with
unquenchable fire [Mat
13:30;42].
4.
“Gideon threshed [thoroughly
purged - separated] wheat” = The tidings of Christ’s birth were
brought to the shepherds while they were obediently keeping their
flocks (Gen 2:15). The work the shepherds were then about was a type or
shadow of that greater (elevated) work to which they were soon to be
called; just as the disciples’ occupation of fishing was a type or
shadow of their future greater (elevated) work. “Follow me [you
fishers of fish], and I will make you [“to
become” Mark 1:17] fishers of men” (Mat 4:19). From threshing
wheat in a low place (the winepress), Gideon is raised up to thresh the
Israelites, (to fish them, to separate them), and
thereafter to destroy (to hunt – in judgement: Joel 2:1-11) the
Midianite host that had “entered into the land to destroy it.”
5.
(Jer 16:16) Behold,
I will send for many fishers,
saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and
after will I send for many
hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and
from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks [as
exemplified in Judg 8:10,11; see also Isa 2:19; Rev 6:15-17].
THE CALL OF
GIDEON: THE PRE-CHRISTIAN - RELIGIOUS, BUT IN THE FLESH
AND NOT SAVED. GIDEON DID NOT BELIEVE GOD
(Judg 6:11-13) And
there came an angel of the LORD
[Jehovah, i.e. the Word of God],
and sat under an oak [tree]
which was in Ophrah [a
female fawn], that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite [the
highest ranking family of the tribe of Manasseh: Josh 17:2]: and his
son Gideon threshed [to knock or beat
(off, out), i.e. separate] wheat
by the winepress [a vat; for
holding the grapes; in the sense of treading out grapes], to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the LORD appeared
unto him [bodily, rather than
spoke to him as a disembodied voice. Why?], and said unto him, The
LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour [a
force; virtue, strength: power, worthy]. And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord
[Master], if the LORD be with us,
why then is all this befallen us? and where
be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the
LORD bring us up from Egypt? but
now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered
us into the hands of the Midianites [a
statement of belief contrary to the
then existing Scripture (Gen 28:15; Deut 4:30,31; 31:6,8; Josh
1:5), therefore, Gideon did not believe God].
1.
“Oh my Lord” = Heb: Master, one in authority.
2.
In a significant parallel event recorded in Luke 5:4-8,
“Master” is exactly Simon Peter’s disbelieving and disobedient
first response to the command of Jesus to “let down your nets for a
drought.” In verse 8, after Simon Peter’s spiritual eyes were
opened, he addressed Jesus as “O Lord” which has the meaning of supreme
in authority, God. Additionally, we may recall that “righteous”
Lot (2 Pet 2:7,8), whose spiritual eyes were opened, immediately
perceived the angelic nature of the two angels that came to Sodom (Gen
19:1), whereas the unsaved natural men of Sodom perceived only two
natural men – howbeit both presumably of great beauty.
3.
“where be all his miracles” = Matthew Henry’s Commentary:
We must not expect that the miracles which were wrought when a church
was in the forming, and some great truth in the settling,
should be continued and repeated when the formation and settlement are
completed.
4.
(1 Cor 13:8-10) Charity [love]
never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail;
whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge,
it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in
part. But when that which is perfect [complete] is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
5.
Hebrew Greek Key Study Bible by Zodhiates, Commentary: The phrase
“when that which is perfect is come” refers
to the written revelation of
Scripture [i.e. the inerrant
Word of God]. When this revelation was completed,
there was no need for the temporary gifts (e.g. tongues, prophecies, and
knowledge) which were given in order to substantiate the message that
the apostles were preaching.
6.
The New Testament was written from A.D. 46 (the book of James), through
A.D. 95 (The Revelation).
7.
(Deu 4:30,31) When thou art in tribulation,
and all these things are come upon thee, even
in the latter days, if thou turn
[repent, reverse, turn back]
to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient
unto his voice; (For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the
covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them [“I
will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Heb 13:5 and Gen 28:15; Deut
31:6,8; Josh 1:5; 1 Chr 28:20; Psa 37:25].
Amen
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