9-4-2016 Weekly Message

This week’s meditation: Psalms 24:1-10

Text the word: Judges 7: 1-25

Subject word: A handful of elite troops of God in the spiritual warfare  

        The Israelites entered the land of Canaan led by Joshua. After the death of Joshua, it came to pass division among them continuously, and weaken.  Then the LORD God raised thirteen judges for them to raise them. Gideon was one of them.

        The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD delivered them into the hand of Median  seven years. And Israel was greatly in poverty because of Midianites; and the children of Israel cried unto the LORD because of Midianites.

         When Gideon was secretly threshing wheat by the wine press hiding from Midianites, the LORD God sent the angel of the LORD unto him. God chose Gideon as the sixth judge; and the angel of the LORD spoke unto him: ” The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.” (Jg 6:12)

          Then Gideon asked the angel of the LORD what is the reason why the children of Israel in miserable situation under Midianites: ”  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.”(Jg 6:13)

           The LORD God called Gideon to deliver the children of Israel when they cried unto the LORD with repentance. The LORD God spoke unto him with calling him:  ” Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee? (Jg 6:14)

          Then Gideon spoke unto the LORD, saying  Oh, my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house. But the LORD continued to say unto him:

” Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man..” (Jg 6:16)

            That’s right! God is still calling them in infirmity, and he is willing to give them his power strengthen them so that they may be able to do his work. Apostle Paul testified of  this unto the Corinthians church:

 “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence. “(1 Corinthians 1: 25-29)

            When t King Hezekiah of Judah was surrounded by the Assyrian army, Israel was in the brink of hunger unto death. The king cried unto the LORD God; the angel of the LORD killed 185,000 of Assyrian in the night(Isaiah 37: 36).  And is the days of king Jehoshaphat, the children of Moab, Ammon and  Esau attacked Israel; the LORD asked them to  praise the LORD with thanksgiving; and they defeated them all without any weapons making them kill one to another until they were dead without any one of them (2Chron. 20:20-24)  

         That’s right! The war belongs to the Lord God. God is mighty in battle. . Again, God has called Gideon to destroy  all the Midianites with his might when they obey the word of the LORD. The LORD God spoke unto Gideon knowing too many people with him:

” And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me.” (Jg 7: 2)

              22,000 of them  were sent out because they were fearful and afraid of the war. Another 7,700 were sent out because they knelt down to drink water without watching around leaving only 300 for Gideon. The LORD God wanted to use them to destroy 135,000 of Midianites. 20,000 of them were with sword.  

          God asked Gideon go down to the army of Midianites, and let him hear the conversations among them to convince him God with him:

” This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: for into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host.” (Jg 7:14)

            God did not give any weapons to the Israeli army of three hundred . But they were only given the word. Three hundred of  people divided into three units entered into a lamp inside the empty jars and the trumpets in their hands. The three units blew the trumpets breaking the jars in their hands, And they shouted saying,  “The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon” All the armies of Midianites ran away crying out.,  

           God  spoke the same word unto the children of God in his church through Apostle Paul:

” For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places..” (Ephesians 6:12).

       Therefore, we  need not  to have any weapons. We only have to wear the whole armor of God having the word of God that is the sword of the Spirit no more the sword of Gideon to win in the spiritual warfare.  We have not to forget, the wicked world is still surrounding the church of God to attack without ceasing. Even though we are chastened  by God because our sins, God will still be with us when we cry out with repentance so that we are able to defeat the devil to overcome the world. 

           After resurrection, Jesus appeared unto Apostle John to deliver the message praising them  because they have little strength, and they kept his word:

 “ I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.”(Revelation 3:08)

           The Apostle Paul encouraged the saints in Ephesians church to be in unity in the Spirit:

” I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love. Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4: 1-3)

          That’s right! The Church of God is to be one unity as the Gideon’s three hundred people veterans. God is waiting until the church of God in one unity so that they may be able to have victory in the spiritual warfare. If any one of the 300 of Gideon’s army had leaked the secrete, they must have been destroyed by 135,00 of Midianites. 

            God spoke through the prophet Isaiah, when Israelites repent their sin in the midst of the Great tribulation, he will destroy all the nations of people to give Israel as the day of Midian: ” Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest,and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian. For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire. “(Isaiah 9: 3 -5)

           The Apostle John testified of Lord Jesus Christ coming as the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords to deliver his people  destroying them with the sword coming out of his mouth that is the sword of the Lord :

” And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.15And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND Lord OF LORDS. And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. “(Revelation 19: 14-19)

           Until the sword of the Lord that is the Lord Jesus Christ, we are to overcome the world with the sword of the word of God looking forward the day when we judge the world with the Lord. Amen! Hallelujah!