Gideon
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What Does Judges 6:13 Mean?
Judges 6:13
Invaders were infiltrating the country and destroying Israel's food. Notice the attention that God draws to this. What is the food of a Christian? The Word of God—the teaching, the doctrines, what we are fed from the pulpit. What God is showing is that, when the general character and spirituality of the people within the Body of Christ begins to deteriorate, the whole Body begins to weaken. with what? Instead of Midianites or Canaanites, the church begins to be invaded by false ministers who bring false doctrines—and a Christian cannot live on falsehoods. They will not strengthen or nourish him.
We are strengthened by the truth. We must have faith in the truth. It takes truth to keep a Christian headed in the right direction and strong enough to resist the wiles of Satan, who is invading—infiltrating—the church with deception and lies.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Unity (Part 1): God and HWA
Judges 6:13
Does this not sound modern? We have all probably heard someone say, "If there's a God, why doesn't He do something? Why does He allow all this violence on our streets? Why does He allow rapists to roam freely? Why does God allow people to be drug addicts? Why does He allow wars to rage? Why does He allow ships to be sunk?"
The same can be asked about almost any disaster. "Why does God allow earthquakes? Why does God allow massive forest fires? Why does God allow rainstorms to cause mudslides and flooding?" And about relationships: "Why is there so much divorce? Why can't the races get along? Why is there so much tension between people?"
When they ask such questions, people are really asking, "Where is God? Why doesn't He work miracles to clear all of this up? Why doesn't God act when we need him? If God is so kind and merciful, why doesn't He intervene to deliver us?"
Gideon's statement shows his expectations of how he thought his and the nation's problems should be resolved. It was essentially, "Let God do it!" Never mind that the Israelites were committing great evils. They were willing to sweep that under the rug.
When people say something similar today, they are doing just what Gideon did. They are putting evil, the nation's sins, to the side and questioning God. "Why doesn't He do something about it?" He could well ask in response, "Why are you not doing something to improve your lives?" The Israelites were indeed suffering at the hands of enemies, but they wanted God to remove the pain by working a miracle.
Almost every American newspaper once featured a page or even a section covering religion. In that part of the newspaper would appear advertisements for itinerant evangelists planning to visit the area. Such ads would say something to the effect that the evangelist would put on a revival. Sometimes the presenting organization would send out direct-mail flyers to individual homes.
These revival ads almost always pushed the same theme. They would proclaim miracle healings, miracle handkerchiefs, miracle meetings, and miracle messages. They will even proclaim miracle magazines and miracle publishing houses. The evangelist might even claim to have the gift of working miracles.
Simple people are hungry to seek out these frauds because of the pain they suffer. They have problems and want them resolved quickly. So they flock to evangelistic campaigns and revivals. Somebody lays hands on them, utters a prayer, and "Voila!" the problems are solved. The miracle-working magician—God, supposedly—has come to the rescue!
There is nothing unusual about this miraculous approach to solving life's problems. Satan preys on deceived people's expectations about God and His purpose; they have been deceived into believing that God should work miracles on demand. It may not be stated that way, but the idea is present. Phony preachers play on people's skewed expectations about God.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Is God a Magician?
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