“Glory to the Precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ”

Galatians 5: 16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen

Hallelujah 

We, the bride, the church after our soul has been delivered once we should not be under the bondage of the flesh again and we must be careful.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in the portion of the Bible that we meditated upon in the past days, we meditated that our Lord Jesus Christ must rule us, the bride, the church.

Next, what we are meditating is that Judges 8: 23 – 25 But Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you; the Lord shall rule over you.” 

Then Gideon said to them, “I would like to make a request of you, that each of you would give me the earrings from his plunder.” For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.

So they answered, “We will gladly give them.” And they spread out a garment, and each man threw into it the earrings from his plunder.

When we meditate upon the above-mentioned verses, when the men of Israel said to Gideon that because you have delivered us from the hand of Midian, you and your son should rule over us, Gideon said I will not rule over you; the Lord shall rule over you. From then on, God is ruling over us.  That is, we are under the bondage of flesh, we are under the bondage of God. Also, what is explaining this is that Gideon said to the Israelites that each of you would give me the earrings from his plunder. For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites. The Israelites plundered that. When they heard that they said they will give that gladly and they spread out a garment, and each man threw into it the earrings from his plunder.

Also, in Judges 8: 26 – 28 Now the weight of the gold earrings that he requested was one thousand seven hundred shekels of gold, besides the crescent ornaments, pendants, and purple robes which were on the kings of Midian, and besides the chains that were around their camels’ necks. 

Then Gideon made it into an ephod and set it up in his city, Ophrah. And all Israel played the harlot with it there. It became a snare to Gideon and to his house.

Thus Midian was subdued before the children of Israel, so that they lifted their heads no more. And the country was quiet for forty years in the days of Gideon.

When we read these verses, the weight of the gold earrings that he requested was one thousand seven hundred shekels of gold, besides the crescent ornaments, pendants, and purple robes which were on the kings of Midian, and besides the chains that were around their camels’ necks. Then Gideon made it into an ephod and set it up in his city, Ophrah. And all Israel played the harlot with it there. It became a snare to Gideon and to his house. Thus Midian was subdued before the children of Israel, so that they lifted their heads no more. And the country was quiet for forty years.

My dear people, when we meditate upon these facts the Israelites were delivered from the Midianites, who were Ishmaelites signifies that the fleshly thoughts that were there in our soul is being removed. Also, because of the gold that they plundered from the Midianites they went away from God by harlotry. But so that Midianites could not lift their heads anymore, God killed their leaders, and their ornaments of gold are being plundered. The explanations regarding this is that once we have removed the fleshly thoughts from us again so that flesh does not lift its head in us anymore if we will remove completely the gold ornaments, the decorations that are there in us then we will be filled with the Spirit of God and to worship God it will be a blessing for us. Therefore, we must never be under the bondage of the flesh. We must be under the bondage of God only.

Also, Gideon had many wives. He had seventy sons who were his own offspring. And his concubine who was in Shechem had a son, whose name he called Abimelech. Now Gideon the son of Joash died and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. After he died, the children of Israel again played the harlot with the Baals, and made Baal-Berith their god. Not only that but they did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side; nor did they show kindness to the house of Jerubbaal (Gideon) in accordance with the good he had done for Israel.

Therefore, my dear people when we think regarding these things due to the gold that Gideon got from the Midianites and because he made the Ephod all the Israelites followed that and went into harlotry and that became a snare to the house of Gideon and because it is written in this manner, after Gideon died all the Israelites followed Baal-Berith and went into harlotry and they did not remember the God who delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side and then God willing we will meditate regarding what snare came to his household tomorrow. Therefore even if destroy the deeds of the flesh we must learn to always be careful. Let us all submit ourselves.

Let us pray. May the Lord bless you all abundantly. 

- To be continued