Jdg 7:3 Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand.

Gideon’s army was originally thirty-two thousand strong. Then, the order came: Those who are fearful can go home. An astonishing twenty-two thousand took advantage of the offer and went home. Only ten thousand remained true to the cause. These faced the danger and stood firm.

Who would have thought that so many would walk away from the battle?  Even under such a leader as Gideon, they should be confident of victory. Yet, more than two out of three Israelites took advantage of this proclamation and walked away. Their hearts failed them. Why? Why were they so fearful?

1. They thought of their homes left unprotected. They were worried for their love ones.

2. They thought of the dreadful Midianites and Amalekites and children of the East, so numerous, so fierce, and so irresistible. They were outnumbered. It spelt suicide if they followed Gideon.

3. Their lack of faith. Common sense told them they couldn’t win this war.

Fear is contagious. Who is not afraid of death? No one! It just need to take one man to say, “O no, we are all going to die”, and the whole camp will tremble with fear. In the wilderness, we saw ten spies returned with this report that the enemies were too strong for them and the whole nation of Israel trembled with fear and unbelief (Numbers 13:31-33).

Faint-hearted people are not fit to be employed for God. God knew how fear would discourage a whole army and so gave the command to let them leave.

When we think of God calling out people to service we often think of those chosen as spiritual giants who were fearless. However, we almost always find upon studying the scriptures that these people were not super-human. They were not always so fearless. They had their fear. But they allowed God into their lives and that’s when they conquered their fear.

Was Gideon fearful? Yes he was. He had to see a few signs to be assured that God was with him (Judges 6:17, 36-40). Was Moses fearful? Yes, he was (Read Exodus chapter 3 & 4). Was Peter fearful? He was very fearful that he denied Christ not once but three times (Matthew 26:69-75).

Fear is a tool the devil uses against us to make us miserable and destroy our lives. His purpose is to cause us to lose faith in God. God wants us to walk by faith, but Satan wants us to walk by fear. Our Lord says: “Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?” (Mark 4:40). Jesus spoke these words to His disciples when they became fearful because of a storm that arose while they were with Him in a boat on the sea. Fear arises because of a lack of faith.

When we have faith as a grain of mustard seed, we can remove mountains (Matthew 17:20). But, how can we overcome fear and walk in faith? The answer is in Romans 10:17: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

If we are to grow in faith then we must meditate on the Word of God. It means studying the Bible. We need to feed our faith daily with the word of God (Psalm 1:2). A strong faith will remove all fear and doubt from our lives. People are fearful because they don’t know God. Gideon trusted in the words of God and his fear was removed.

You either surrender to your fear or live a victorious life of faith in God; what is your choice?

Jimmy Lau

Psa 119:97  Oh how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.

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Jdg 8:1 And the men of Ephraim said unto him, Why hast thou served us thus, that thou calledst us not, when thou wentest to fight with the Midianites? And they did chide with him sharply.

After Gideon had smitten the Midianites, the men of Ephraim came and chided him: “Why hast thou served us thus, that thou calledst us not, when thou wentest to fight with the Midianites?” (Judges 8:1).

Didn’t the men of Ephraim know Gideon was raising an army to fight the Midianites? Why didn’t they join him? I can suggest two reasons:

1. They didn’t want to get involved because they weren’t sure if Gideon could win the battle against the Midianites.

2. They were lazy and coward. They didn’t want to work but they wanted a share of the glory.

                   

It would set a stage for a nasty conflict between Gideon and the men of Ephraim if not for the very mild and gentle manner in which Gideon replied them. He said: “What have I done now in comparison of you? Is not the gleaning of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer?” (Judges 8:2).

Gideon’s character comes out splendidly in this answer. Humble and unassuming, he said what he had done was nothing in comparison to what the Ephraimites had done. He had killed a few common soldiers, but Ephraim, who came in at the end of the fight, like the gleaner when the vintage is finished, had got more glory by the capture of Oreb and Zeeb, the princes of the Midianites (Judges 7:24-25).

Solomon says: “A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger” (Proverbs 15:1).

A soft answer turns away wrath. Gideon could have chided them and scolded them for not joining him in the first place. But that would mean war with his own brethren. But he passed this by, and took a more excellent way. He abased himself and exalted the Ephraimites.

Unfortunately, not every man is like Gideon. Most under that circumstance would get angry and answer in an angry manner. Some might say: “You Ephraimites don’t be ridiculous. I called you but you didn’t come. Now you want the glory after the war is over. You can forget about it.”

Thankfully, Gideon had better self-control than most people. Gideon's answer was very calm and peaceable, and was intended not so much to justify himself as to please and pacify them. He answered them with a great deal of meekness and temper. He did not resent the way the Ephraimites approached and chided him, nor answer anger with anger, but mildly reasoned the case with them. With a great deal of modesty and humility, he magnified their performances above his own.

Paul wrote: “Let each esteem other better than themselves” (Philippians 2:3) and “in honour preferring one another” (Romans 12:10). Gideon was willing to give the greater honour to the Ephraimites.

God loves peacemakers (Matthew 5:9). And words can either promote peace or start a war. Therefore, “Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man” (Colossions 4:6). Our words need seasoning.

We see how a soft answer turned away wrath. This rule works with couples, family members, church members, in the workplace, on the road, and in the public places. Use it.

                                                                 

Jimmy Lau

Psa 119:97  Oh how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.

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GOBBLEDYGOOK

The word Gobbledygook, is a very strange word and not easy to understand and difficult to use.  Dictionaries gives explanatory on this word as follows: “ Wordy and generally unintelligible jargon, gobble, slang, talk or writing, especially of officialdom, that is government officials that is pompous, wordy, involved, and full of long, Latinized words.” As you can see this word is very hard to define.  I would just define this word as the blending and not understanding the mixture, and that it makes no sense. O yes, how about fake news to confuse more so.  Yes, all is gobbledygook. 

I am very confused due to reports about some of our governments concerning who said what and are they hiding something?  I am writing this in the middle of July 2017.  Our Government, is using in an open manner and appears that they would like to cause so much gobbledygook and thus to have many government leaders to step down or whatever.  The only thing we average people understand is that mass craftiness is the key to understand the why of gobbledygook.  Truth will be the producer of stability. 

CONFUSION IS THE RESULTS OF GOOBBLEDYGOOK:  Be aware that the tongue is the key that starts confusion. 

 “Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!
 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.
For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:
 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” (James 3: 5-8 KJV)

 

TRUTH WILL STOP GOOBBLEDYGOOK: With the mass of TV reports, News Papers and a host of unfair political folks such with negative problems will never end.  This is very sad, God Help Us!

“He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.”

(Ps 15:2 KJV)  “and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  (John 8:32 KJV)

Donald R. Fox