Sunday Sermonette: The beginning of a truly crazy story

Here begins the story of Gideon. It encompasses three chapters, and eventually it gets truly insane. Why did the guys who leave Bibles in hotel rooms name themselves after him? Evidently, it ' s because they haven ' t read the Bible. Anyhoo .  . . The first part of Gideon ' s story, Chapter 6 of Judges begins with a very surprising development -- the Israelites are being oppressed by the Midianites! In fact, the Midianites are like " swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count  them or their camels . . . " That ' s odd. If you ' ve been taking notes you ' ll remember that in Numbers 7 the Israelites kill every single male Midianite, including the little boys, and every woman who isn ' t a virgin. They take the virgins to enslave and presumably rape, and they burn all the Midianite cities to the ground and loot them. You don ' t believe me?You can read it here. Yet here the Midianites are, risen from the dead.Also rather odd is that Gideon requires not one, not two, but three miracles before he ' ll believe he really is talking to God. And God seems perfectly happy to indulge him.  As I say, it gets even crazier from here.6 The Israelites did evil in the eyes of theLord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.2 Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds.3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalek...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs