26 – Gideon

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NOTE: THE TRANSCRIPT IS NOT EXACTLY LIKE THE RECORDING.

We’re going to get an ancient look at today’s headlines and learn what it means to be an Israelite in the end of days. This part of Gideon’s account describes much of what is happening to the Westernized nations today, particularly Europe, the US and South Africa which is the bulk of where Israel is scattered although we know there are Israelites in every nation on earth because all the nations have believers in Yeshua, and when you are a believer in Yeshua, you are Abraham’s descendant, according to Galatians 3:7-8. We know this because YHVH promised Abraham:

Genesis 12:3  I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who treats you with contempt. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.” 

All the nations of the earth have people who are descendants of Abraham who have the right to call themselves “Israel” because Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, fulfilled YHVH’s promise to Abraham that he would become a nation. That nation is Israel. I make the distinction between Jacob’s Israel and the UN-created modern state of Israel by calling Jacob’s Israel, biblical Israel.

As Israelites, we have a responsibility to Yeshua, Israel’s King, to uphold His Father’s (and His) commandments. The Book of Judges shows us how Israel rebelled against YHVH time after time. Biblical Israel can’t count on Him letting us disobey Him over and over any longer without there being a final punishment. THIS generation must learn a different way. We must learn YHVH’s ways and stick to them even to the point of suffering for it.

Matthew 5:10  Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. 

What is YHVH’s definition of righteousness? First, that we know Yeshua is our God, King, Savior and Messiah. Second, that we keep YHVH’s commandments as given in the Law of Moses (Revelation 12:17 and 14:12). It is THIS which we must guard. Too many people say they believe in Yeshua but they discard the second part, the walking in His Law, and there are those who have a law which they follow (which isn’t YHVH’s Law) and they also reject Yeshua. IN the time of the end, neither of these situations will get you salvation. You must know Yeshua personally and be walking in HIS commandments, not your own or a law of religion.  

Now we come to another episode of our ancient ancestors and their wickedness in the time of Gideon. If we pay attention, we will see parallels to our own time and gain prophetic insights.

Judges 6:1  The children of Israel did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight: and Yahweh delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.

The scripture does not tell us how long the period between Deborah’s death (which is assumed because she judged Israel 40 years after the war with King Jabin and Sisera) and the rise of Gideon.

Gideon’s account happened during the wheat harvest (Judges 6:11). The Midianites probably came for the Fall harvests of grapes and olives, as well, to the invasions would have happened twice annually, once in the Spring and once in the Fall.

What the Midianites are doing now in this account comes about 200 years after the Midianites had tempted Israel to worship Baal Peor which caused Zimri, the Simeonite prince, to try to defile YHVH’s Tabernacle with Cosbi for which both were killed by Phineas.

After that incident, YHVH told Moses to destroy the Midianites in Numbers 31:1. Balaam was destroyed along with them, but now, 200 years later, Midian has regathered its strength from that prior war with Israel and is being used by YHVH to punish Israel for their treason of serving other gods. He has once again delivered Israel to the enemy.

This begs the question of when will Israel learn not to rebel against YHVH? And that is, indeed, a good question because 3500 years after Mount Sinai Israel is still rebelling.

What, exactly, was the evil that Israel did against YHVH? We will find out in verse 25 that Gideon’s father was serving Baal and Ashtoreth, and he was not the only one throughout all Israel who was doing this. It had become prevalent.

The Law of Moses teaches us to quickly remove people who tempt us to serve another god. So it wasn’t just the serving of other gods that was a problem, but the fact that Israelites refused to perform the capital punishment of those who brought the temptation. One crime leads to another, always. If we won’t put the evil away from us, it will consume us. We will fall to it and be destroyed. 

People rail against YHVH for the oppression He allows His own people to suffer. What they forget is that His chastisement shows us that He loves us and the oppression He makes us suffer is for the purpose of His grace and mercy making us repent and return to Him.

However, for 3500 years we have seen God struggle with Israel and yet there is only a remnant that is faithful to Him to this day. For hardened criminals, God’s love is meaningless. Yet, when all is said and done and they face Him at the Great White Throne judgement, no one will be able to say He did not give them A chance or ANY chances. There will be no excuse they can give for finding themselves lost for eternity.

Judges 6:2  The hand of Midian prevailed against Israel; and because of Midian the children of Israel made themselves the dens which are in the mountains, and the caves, and the strongholds.

This is how the Israelites survived the heavy hand of the Midianites by storing food, valuables and possibly dwelling places. The word for “dens” is:

H4492
מנהרה
minhârâh
min-haw-raw’

From H5102; properly a channel or fissure, that is, (by implication) a cavern: – den.

‘Minharah’ is only found this once in scripture. The NET Bible translates this as “secret storage places”. We will read that Gideon was threshing “wheat in the wine press to hide it from the Midianites” in verse 11. Hiding food and valuables from the Midianites had become a common practice.

The Geneva Bible says the Israelites had resorted to living in the ‘minharah’, dens. This may have been the case because Gideon could and did get his hands on an animal and grain to sacrifice to YHVH. If the Midianites had ravaged all of Gideon’s supplies, then the place from where he brought the animal and grain for the offering had to be from a hidden place and even perhaps where Gideon was living.

Judges 6:3  So it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the children of the east came up against them.

The Midianites were allies of the Amalekites and the Arabian tribes which were called collectively “the children of the East” Judges 6:3 and they may have allied also with the Ishmaelites Judges 8:24. The term “children of the east” refers to Arabs, generally, in scripture, where they lived east and even north of the Jordan river.

Judges 6:4  They encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, until you come to Gaza. They left no sustenance in Israel, and no sheep, ox, or donkey.

In other words, the Midianites did not destroy the crops of their Philistine allies in Gaza.

I have mentioned in the teaching, “Deborah’s Song”, how King Jabin took away Israel’s weapons. The next step in YHVH punishment of Israel is to use the enemy to take away their food, but not only food, the very means of making food – the crops. We have this today but, this time, the enemy has taken away people’s ability to regrow food from seeds.

Judges 6:5  For they came up with their livestock and their tents. They came in as locusts for multitude. Both they and their camels were without number; and they came into the land to destroy it.

Invasion by occupation. They came and set up their households. Interestingly, where Sisera and his fancy chariots failed, regular ‘ol camels succeeded. The Israelites did not keep camels to this extent because Israelites were not wanderers anymore and camels are unclean animals with large appetites. Their work animals were oxen and donkeys, one of which is a clean animal while the other is a hard worker and doesn’t eat as much as a camel. Sheep were their sacrifices, meat to eat and wool. So the Midianites invasion and the taking of all their livestock made it difficult to replace worn out clothing.

The story of what is happening to scattered Israel globally today is very much like this Midianite invasion during Gideon’s time. This kind of foreign invasion, the mass migration of foreigners into Europe and America looks very much like this Midianite invasion, does it not? The invaders in Judges chapter 6 had no intention of moving to Israel to become Israelites just like today the mass migratory invaders are not coming legally and to become part of the culture they are moving to. Rather, the idea for these invaders is that they will move in and will conquer their new host when there are enough of them just like a parasite conquers another living organism.

By the way, this has been done by Europe and the US for the last 500 years. So Europe and the US are now getting what they dished out.

Judges 6:6  Israel was brought very low because of Midian; and the children of Israel cried to Yahweh.

This is the first time in Judges that we read about Israel being brought “very low”. This is Israel’s lowest position since conquering the Promised Land. Israel rode on the heights as promised by YHVH when they served Him and they had peace, but it seems they got bored with the peace and decided to go for the excitement that serving other gods in sexy and murderous rituals bring, instead.

Here is some insight to compare from that time to this. Where is Israel today? Scattered in every nation on the earth but particularly in the West, or the Westernized nations, as they are called. They call themselves by religious names like Jew, Christian and Muslim. Each religious group relates to Abraham and Midian was a son of Abraham.

Who do the Midianites symbolize? Any religious group that rejects YHVH’s ways. The Christians reject YHVH’s Torah but believe Yeshua is the Messiah. Jews also reject His Torah in favor of their own law which they wrote so their people will not read what the prophets actually said about them, and they reject Yeshua as the Messiah of Israel. Muslims have a law similar to the Torah and they accept Yeshua as a prophet, and in some sort of way, A messiah, but they reject that He is God’s Son. Every one of these religions perverts God’s Kingdom, His ways, and each of the 3 religions is where God’s people are trapped until He lets them out of their captivity. This has happened because they have worshipped other gods and are still doing so.

Deuteronomy 8:19  It shall be, if you shall forget Yahweh your God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you today that you shall surely perish.

Deuteronomy 11:16  Be careful, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn away, and serve other gods, and worship them;

Deuteronomy 11:17  and Yahweh’s anger be kindled against you, and he shut up the sky, so that there is no rain, and the land doesn’t yield its fruit; and you perish quickly from off the good land which Yahweh gives you.

Deuteronomy 30:17  But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;

Deuteronomy 30:18  I denounce to you today, that you will surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you pass over the Jordan to go in to possess it.
Deuteronomy 30:19  I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your descendants;

Deuteronomy 30:20  to love Yahweh your God, to obey his voice, and to cling to him; for he is your life, and the length of your days; that you may dwell in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

These curses were brought on all the tribes of Israel already over the last 3500 years but they have refused to learn from their exiles. So YHVH has a greater curse to bring on them, not only when they live in Israel, but wherever they are in the latter days.

Deuteronomy 28:45  All these curses will come on you, and will pursue you, and overtake you, until you are destroyed; because you didn’t listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded you.

Deuteronomy 28:49  Yahweh will bring a nation against you from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies; a nation whose language you will not understand;

Deuteronomy 28:50  a nation of fierce facial expressions, that doesn’t respect the elderly, nor show favor to the young,

Deuteronomy 28:51  and they will eat the fruit of your livestock, and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed. They also won’t leave you grain, new wine, or oil, the increase of your livestock, or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.

Why does Midian symbolize today’s Abrahamic religions? Midian was a son of Abraham after Sarah died (Genesis 25:4). Moses’ father-in-law was Jethro, a Midianite priest (Exodus 18:1). Moses urged Jethro, AKA Reuel, to stay with Israel. He wanted his father-in-law to become an Israelite but Jethro refused and departed, according to Exodus 24:18 and Numbers 10:29.

This rejection of YHVH’s ways by religious Midian who still claimed to know YHVH through Abraham epitomizes the 3 Abrahamic religions who claim to know the God of Abraham. 

The Midianites had their own thing going. In fact, it was the Midianites that tempted Israel with Baal Peor. They were not willing to give up that debauchery. And in the day when they visited Israel in Gideon’s time, they epitomize a prophecy of how religious people will try to squash YHVH’s remnant which is scattered with Israel all over the world. The highest level of religious people worship Satan just as did the Midianites who worshiped Satan under the guise of Baal Peor.

Judges 6:7  When the children of Israel cried to Yahweh because of Midian,

Notice the Israelites didn’t repent. They cried because of their misery. It was their crying they expected YHVH to hear. They had cried to YHVH before in Judges 3:9 during the time of Othniel, Judges 3:15 during the time of Ehud and Judges 4:3 during Deborah’s time. By the way, crying is what babies do. YHVH’s people are expected to be spiritual adults like the patriarchs.

Each time they cried, YHVH answered them with a deliverer, but this time the response is different. You know why? Because crying or crying out doesn’t necessarily mean Israel wants to repent and return to YHVH. They might just want Him to remove the problem so they can continue in their religious ways do their own will rather than His will and His Kingdom ways. And that is where the world is today.

Judges 6:8  Yahweh sent a prophet to the children of Israel; and he said to them, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you out of the house of bondage.

Rather than send a new Judge, YHVH sent a prophet. Kind of informs us that we need to heed the prophets, right? This prophet did not tell them their future or give them a promise of deliverance from their trouble. Rather, the prophet reminded them of Israel’s past in order to remind them that they were Israelites who had an expectation upon them that they would be faithful to Him! And of course, the prophet would have called them to repentance.

Judges 6:9  I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out from before you, and gave you their land.
Judges 6:10  I said to you, “I am Yahweh your God. You shall not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.” But you have not listened to my voice.’”

Let’s stop here. The point we must understand is that Israel has always brought punishment on themselves and, each time they do that, the punishment is worse than before. YHVH’s end times Kingdom people must know what happened in the past so they can stop repeating it. We must obey the first of the commandments so that we don’t trap ourselves in worse errors.

What do I mean by that? Just like what the early Israelites did in not stopping, not preventing, sin (crimes against YHVH) from taking hold. Our job is to GUARD the Torah! That means at the first scent or whiff of sin, we must throw it out. Ancient Israel was still in the land and could perform capital punishment for those sins (crimes) that required it but they refused to do it! We know they refused to do it because, if they had killed those who brought other god worship into Israel, then there would have not been other god worship in Israel, right?

Israel is scattered all over the earth now and we gather in small groups, congregations and fellowships. We must keep the sin out. The minute we get a whiff of it, we have to ferret it out. We must not bury our heads in the sand because we want to avoid conflict or perhaps we really like the people involved and, oh, won’t we miss them if they can’t be among us anymore!

We, in this last generation, must make the tough decision between friends and family who are deliberately rebelling against YHVH and not upholding His Kingdom. Next week, we will learn what Gideon had to do, the choice he had to make, and we will be challenged to be modern day Gideons.