FBC Daily Devotional – August 24, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, good morning to you. Hope you had a good night of rest and have gotten off to a good start on this particular

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Tuesday Well today we're reading in Judges chapters 8 and 9 and reading about Gideon and three thoughts that I want to point out in our reading today one of them is that it's critically important for a wise leader to know the limits of his

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Position and its authority and we see that illustrated in Gideon He he demonstrated some wisdom on this occasion when in verses 22 and 23.

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This is after Gideon has been effective at leading the people to overcome the the

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Midianites and so forth and They Respond with such elation over his leadership that they want to make him a ruler and so they say rule over us both you and your son, let's make you a king and Establish a royal dynasty here so that we just have you as our leader forever you and your offspring

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But Gideon realizes that's not his role. He's not he hasn't been called to be a king

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All he was called to do was to help deliver The Israelites from the

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Midianites and the Amalekite Raiders and that's all he did. That's what he did Accomplish that and so he said nope.

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I'm not gonna do that. It's the Lord who will rule over you that's wisdom on his part and Gideon was was a wise leader to be able to say no

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That's not my role and to point direct people to to God and To to worship him and to bow down before him and let him rule over them

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So that's one thought but then the next idea it comes up very quickly thereafter is

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It is a decision of folly on Gideon's part so a man can be very wise in one area, but have a blind spot in another

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And I'm talking here about this This efid that Gideon made he said no I'm not gonna do that instead do this in our victory we we were able to plunder our enemies

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So everybody take your gold stuff the gold trinkets that you account that you acquired and the in our victory over the

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Midianites bring them here and Give them to me and they did they did so gladly and so then

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Gideon Took that gold and he made an efid out of that that an efid is like a

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Breastplate kind of thing that is worn by the priest as he's serving in the tabernacle

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And so he makes this thing and That the we read though that this thing became a snare to Israel because what they did

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Was they came and they came and worshiped that that efid it became like something to bow down to Could Gideon foresee that no did

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Gideon instigate the worship of that thing? No, but that was the night the net result we read in verse 27.

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He made it into an efid He set it up. He set it up in his city of Ophrah and all

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Israel played the harlot with it there It was an act of spiritual adultery turning away from the

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Lord. So the very thing that Gideon wanted to do Turn people's attention to the Lord By this act he ended up turning people away from the

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Lord the third point I wanted to bring out here is To realize just how

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Just how fickle the masses can be So from the rest of chapter 8 after Gideon dies and he has these sons.

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He has all these sons, you know there's there's one of them a

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Bimelech that Ends up murdering all of Gideon's sons and Taking power to himself

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Setting himself up as okay. You wanted a king. I'll rule over you.

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I'll be I'll be the ruler over you and so forth and The masses went along with it they went along with it.

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Oh how astonishingly fickle the masses can be they so easily have forgotten the good things that Gideon did and they

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They countenance the evil of a Bimelech in murdering

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Gideon's sons, how can people turn so quickly? well

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You don't have to look far to see that. Do you look at look at how our nation has turned so rapidly in Several key areas, you know key areas of morality and I Think for example of some of the the gay rights stuff and Marriages and civil marriages and not only the nation but even religious institutions churches denominations that have abandoned biblical guidelines and God's cleared directives and will

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To to accommodate the culture Oh quickly the masses can change if if you could take something if you could do one of those back to the future things and take the

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DeLorean back to you know 1900 or let's say the late 1800s and and pick up Charles Spurgeon and Plop him in the seat next to you and then fast forward back to 2021 and plop

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Spurgeon down in the middle of this. I Don't think I don't think he'd survive a day

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I think he'd be so overwhelmed with and astonished with how quickly the world could change

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That it would kill him. You'd have heart attack. Yeah, the masses can be astonishingly fickle.

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Well These are some things to think about let's be wise leaders. Let's be careful to think about the future ramifications of today's decisions and and let's be

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Consistent let's be consistent in our thinking and in what we approve and what we endorse

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Consistent. We will be consistent as We are consistently grounded in the eternal truth of God's Word So father help us today to be

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Eternally grounded in your eternal word and that will help us to be faithful and consistent

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In all our way of thinking and in all our decisions so help us in that we pray in Jesus name

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All right. You have a good rest of your Tuesday. Trust the Lord will bless you in it.