The Call of Gideon

International Sunday School October 16 2022 Fall Quarter #7

Judges 6:1-2 ESV  The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD gave them into the hand of Midian seven years.  (2)  And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds.

Judges 6:1-2 ESV

Judges 6:7-16 ESV  When the people of Israel cried out to the LORD on account of the Midianites,  (8)  the LORD sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery.  (9)  And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land.  (10)  And I said to you, ‘I am the LORD your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.’ But you have not obeyed my voice.”  (11)  Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.  (12)  And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.”  (13)  And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.”  (14)  And the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?”  (15)  And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”  (16)  And the LORD said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.”

Judges 6:7-16 ESV

Notes

Flaking Out — Judges 6:1

  • Keil & Delitzsch — Midian had shown hostility to Israel even in the time of Moses, and had been defeated in a war of retaliation on the part of the Israelites (Num 31). But they had afterwards recovered their strength, so that now, after an interval of 200 years, the Lord used them as a rod of chastisement for His rebellious people.

Hiding Out — Judges 6:2

  • Barnes — The word rendered “dens” is only found in this passage. It is best explained of ravines hollowed out by torrents, which the Israelites made into hiding-places.
  • Deuteronomy 28:47-48 ESV  Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things,  (48)  therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.

Crying Out — Judges 6:7

  • 2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV  if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Finding Out — Judges 6:8-9

  • John Gill — And the Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel,…. “A man, a prophet” (f), as in the Hebrew text, not an angel, but a man; and this not Phinehas, as say some Jewish writers (g); for it is not probable he should live so long as more than two hundred years; and had he been living, it is very much he should not have been heard of in the times of the preceding judges, and that he was not made use of before now to reprove the people for their sins; but who the prophet was we have no account now nor hereafter, here or elsewhere. Abarbinel supposes he was raised up for a short time:

Bringing Out — Judges 6:10

  • Barnes — A similar use of the name Amorite, instead of the more usual name Canaanite, occurs in Jos_24:15, Jos_24:18. Perhaps a special reason may be found for the use of Amorite, if the prophet was addressing those who dwelt in the mountains, where the Amorites chiefly dwelt. The idolatries of the Amorites seem, too, to have been preeminently abominable (see 2Ki_21:11; 1Ki_21:26).

Calling Out — Judges 6:11-12

  • Barnes — There was another Ophrah in Benjamin Jos_18:23. This Ophrah was in Manasseh, and was the village of Joash, the head, apparently, of the family of Abiezer, which was one of the families of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh Num_26:30.

Sound Out — Judges 6:13-14

  • Sound Out – seek someone’s opinions by asking questions
  • Gideon was strong and handsome — Judges 8:18 ESV  Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, “Where are the men whom you killed at Tabor?” They answered, “As you are, so were they. Every one of them resembled the son of a king.”

Punching Out — Judges 6:15-16

  • 1 Corinthians 15:9 ESV  For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.


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