Gideon's Strange Battle Plan

Actually it's more like God's Strange Battle Plan for Gideon...

Recap: In chapter 6, we saw Israel sin, Israel enslaved, Israel crises out to God, and God raises up a judge.

Read verse 1:  Remember what "Jeruabbaal" means and who it refers to? (He who contends with Baal... it's another name for Gideon.)

Read verse 2: Why does God say there are too many people? (There are still too many people for it to be clear that He delivered them from the Midianites and so they might boast.)
Read verse 3: Who leaves and why? (22,000 men, because they're scared)

"Positive morale is one of the most critical weapons in a soldier's arsenal... fear and insecurity can spread like wildfire in a group and [will hinder] success." -P. Shirer (Gideon p78)

Read verses 4-7: further whittled down by the way they drank water... 300 bringing water to their mouth would've been more alert to danger around them... may or may not be part of why
Read verse 8: so the 31,700 go home and the 300 prepare to fight
Read verse 9-11: God knew Gideon would want proof of what He said, so He gives him and option. Gideon takes the option because, of course, he's scared.

Read verses 12-15: huge camp and Gideon happens to come upon a man telling his friend about a dream. What was the dream? (bread tumbling into a tent) What did the dream mean? (Gideon's going to win) How did Gideon respond? (in worship to God)

Read verses 16-18:  What's the battle plan?

1. light a torch and cover it with a pitcher.
2. surround camp at night
3. break pitchers, blow trumpets, and shout "for the Lord and for Gideon"

"...the Lord's explicit aim in reducing the troops earlier was to ensure that the credit due Him would not be usurped by another..." (Baker Illustrated Bible Commentary, G. Wong p223)

Read verses 19-20: They carry out Gideon's instructions (blinding light and loud noise). Does it work?

Read verses 21-22: YES! The Midianites turn on each other in their confusion.
Read verse 23:  some fled and were pursued

Read verses 24-25: Tribe of Ephriam (who hadn't been involved in the fighting) capture then kill two Midianite leaders and bring Gideon their heads. More on Ephriam next week...

Application:

• Obey even when it doesn't make sense to you. (They went to battle with trumpets and torches, not swords and shields.)  
• God is working things together for good, like it says in Romans 8:28. (It wasn't just coincidence that Gideon happened to overhear the dream. There were thousands of men that he could have overheard.)
• God can handle your doubt. He even expects it. (He offered Gideon a test knowing he was going to be scared and want it.)

**All Scripture is quotes from the New American Standard.
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I'm currently teaching on the book of Judges for the youth group Sunday school class. We normally spend half our time playing a game and the other half studying the Bible. These are my lessons and some funny tidbits that happen during the course of the morning.

Gideon

Have you ever watched A Bug's Life? There's a colony of ants who are being oppressed by a swarm of grasshoppers. Every year the ants try to prepare as much food as possible for the winter so that they can give a share to the grasshoppers and still have some of their own leftover. The next couple of chapters are all telling the story of Gideon. This first chapter of his story reminds me of the oppression the ants experienced in the movie.

Deborah & Barak

This is my least favorite story so far in Judges. We've been talking about the major flaws the judges have and how God uses them in spite of this. God is their strength and He works through them and their weaknesses. As Priscilla Shirer says, "God handpicked people for the job who were terribly flawed, then empowered them to fulfill these roles in spite of their shortcomings."
Well, in chapters 4-5 the judges are Deborah and Barak. Her major flaw: she's a woman. It seriously pains me to say that... He's got his own flaws too, which we'll get to as well!

One of the most interesting Bible stories, ever!

We often play Balderdash as one of our games. Everyone is told some obscure word and has to write down a definition for it. We then read all the definitions, including the correct one, then everyone picks whichever they think it true. You get points if people guess your false definition or if you guess the correct one. We do the same this with a weird law too.

This week the word was: zufolo. Here are some possible definitions:

Caught Red-Handed!

Ever watch White Wolves? For those of you that haven't had the privilege, a group of teens and their leader go on a backpacking trip, very much like the wilderness trip, with less canoeing. Their goal is to get to the top of Eagle Rock. They eventually make it to the top and disaster strikes! Their trip turns into a rescue mission and they go through struggle after struggle on the way. Before they go, they trained for the trip. Some had prior knowledge on camping and hiking. There is also a ranger who gives them specific instructions, including that fires can only be made in designated areas. At one point, Benny has distanced himself from the group and makes a little fire on his own. Mr. B comes looking for him and catches him red-handed with this fire.

Last week we studied Judges 1, which is basically the political background of the book. This week we studied Judges 2, which we will see is basically the spiritual background of the book. An important thing to note, is the Judges is not chronological. So in chapter 1 we read that Joshua died and he's going to die again in chapter 2. Nothing funny is going on, we're just learning about the same events but with a different reason each time.

Inquire & Obey

I'm currently teaching on the book of Judges for the youth group Sunday school class. We normally spend half our time playing a game and the other half studying the Bible. The next few weeks, I will be posting my lessons and possibly a game or some funny tidbits that happen during the course of the morning.
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Before we take a look at the book of Judges, we need to get some background info so we know what's happening when we start reading chapter 1. In Numbers, the Israelites, God' chosen people, are wandering around in the wilderness waiting to enter the Promised Land. In Joshua, Moses dies and now Joshua leads the people into the Promised Land (Canaan). They fight many battles to acquire the land, yet there are many towns that are not completely taken over.

In Joshua 23-24, on his deathbed, Joshua challenges the people to remember all that God has done for them and their forefathers and to choose to serve the Lord. He reminds them that they cannot serve the Lord and foreign gods. Then he dies.

Now in Sunday School, we read a verse or two and then recap/discuss what's going on in those verses. So the rest of this won't make sense unless you open up your Bible to Judges 1 and read along with me.

I walk on the wild side, I laugh in the face of danger. Ha ha ha.

You ever play that movie game in the pool? you give the acronym for the movie title and every one else has to figure it out, race to you and make their guess? Well we did a Christmas song version of that for Sunday school. Without using any technological help, can you figure out the titles of these Christmas carols/songs?

1) OHN
2) ICUAMC
3) AIAM
4) COTB
5) H!THAS
6) OLTOB
7) TDOC
8) M,DYK?
9) JTTW
10) OCAYF
11) BOH
12) WCIT?
13) SN
14) AWHHOH
15) ICTD (Bonus points if you get this obscure one)
16) RATCT
17) WWYAMC
18) WC
19) FTS
20) JB
21) DTH
22) DTD