May 27, 2026

I love the story of Gideon. The Israelites are in bondage to the Midianites because of their wickedness, and eventually, as always, they cry to the Lord and He raises up a deliverer - Gideon.

In telling Gideon that he is to deliver Israel, Gideon's response is that he is the least in his father's house and it is a poor house. I love that this is pointed out. For one, it shows humility, but it also foreshadows the next chapter to come where the Lord reduces Gideon's army to 300 so that they know it was the Lord who saved them, but their own strength. I've heard it said that the Lord chose someone like Joseph Smith so that people would know it was definitely the Lord that did this work. We send young missionaries, barely graduated and educated in life, to peach the gospel so that we know it's the Lord doing the converting.

The first step here was humility.

Next, Gideon brings a gift, or sacrifice, to the Lord and it is accepted. By sacrificing an animal, the conversation and focus is oriented towards Christ.

The second step - focus on Christ.

Then Gideon feared he would die because he saw the angel face to face, but the Lord responded "Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die." After which Gideon called the Lord Jehovah-shalom, meaning God is peace.

The third step - trust in the Lord, find peace in Him.

Then the Lord commanded him to cast down the altar of Baal and cut down the grove around it, and he obeyed.

Forth and fifth steps go together - obey and cast down any false idols. Anything that takes too much time or focus away from the Lord.

After he cast down the alter, he built an altar unto the Lord and offered a sacrifice (notice the bill was 7 years old, symbolizing wholeness and completeness - a turning from the world and coming to God).

The sixth step - sacrifice. He obeyed in the previous step (law of obedience) which is always followed by the law of sacrifice.

Then when the people saw the altar was cast down the the grove cut, they were angry and asked Josh, his father, to bring him to be killed. But Joash responded saying let Baal content for himself and he gave the name Jerubbaal to Gideon, which means "let Baal contend", or the interpretation I like most "contender with Baal". He fought against idolatry.

Seventh step - an active opposition to the idols in our lives. Today, this looks like choosing "best" over "better" more frequently.

To be continued