Jr. Tree of Life
Fear and the Faith-Rest-Drill – Part 3
3/15/2020
Gideon rescues Israel
Judges 6:11-7:22
Promise from God
“Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.”
Before you begin this Bible study, If you have never believed in Jesus Christ as your Savior, John 3:16 tells us: “ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, shall not perish, but have eternal life.’ Simply have faith that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins and you will have eternal life and be saved. If you have believed in Jesus Christ as your Savior; then 1 John 1:9 tells us; “If you confess your sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Simply privately tell God the Father your sins to be filled with God the Holy Spirit and He will teach you Bible truth. (Rebound)
God Loves You so, it doesn’t matter to God whether you love doing back flips across your yard, participating in sports, creating art or playing the trumpet; He created you and loves you just the way you are. Everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior has a special job, called a mission that God wants them to do. In our story today, we are going to learn about Gideon, who lived a long time ago during the Age of Israel, and his personal mission that God wanted for him to achieve.
Our story takes place in a country called Israel. Many of the people in Israel, during that time period, disobeyed God and started to believe in fake or false gods, which are called idols. They quit trusting in God. The Midianites and other enemies started stealing most of their food and animals. It was getting harder and harder for them to find food, they were very hungry and their idols weren’t helping them because they were just hunks of stone and wood and not real. Trusting God was the only answer.
Finally, after seven years of never having enough to eat, the Israelites cried out to God for help. Even though they had forgotten about God; He saw (omniscience) what they were going though and decided to rescue them because He loved them and in His mercy and grace, forgave them.
God picked a young man by the name of Gideon to defeat the powerful enemies. Gideon didn’t think he was the right choice because he was afraid. God knew (omniscience) Gideon would end up a brave warrior; just like He knows how many hairs that each one of us has on our heads.
“Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear;
you are more valuable than many sparrows.” Luke 12:7
Gideon was given an important job, a mission, which was to knock over the false god Baal and other idols of false gods that his dad had put up. He obeyed Almighty God and even made an altar to worship Him, but Gideon was still scared about what everyone would do to him once they saw the idols were destroyed. Gideon didn’t have anything to worry about because God protected him. Just like when God even protects the sparrows from harm.
Gideon still didn’t think that God would use him to rescue Israel, so he put fleece outside and God did a miracle by letting the morning dew be on the fleece only, but not on the ground. Still Gideon was unsure, and again put out the fleece. This time God kept the fleece dry and the ground was wet with dew. God was patient with Gideon, showing him that God had an important job (mission) for him to do, which was to defeat those mean Midianites.
Thousands of Israelites decided to fight with Gideon. God told Gideon that there were too many people. Gideon told them if they were afraid that they didn’t have to help so twenty-two thousand men left, which left only ten thousand of them.
God told Gideon that there were still too many men. Once again, Gideon told them to go down to the water for a drink. Three hundred of the men who scooped up the water with their hands, keeping their eyes watching, were chosen to be soldiers. The rest were sent home. Gideon trusted that God would deliver them, so he divided the three hundred men into three groups with one hundred men each. He gave them each a trumpet and torches which they hid inside of empty pitchers. God would give them the victory even without guns.
Gideon and his three groups of soldiers surrounded their enemies and blew their trumpets and smashed the pitchers, so their torches were blazing. They yelled, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” Each man stood in his place around the camp; and all the thousands and thousands of Midian army of soldiers below were so confused and terrified, that they didn’t know who was on their side and who the enemy was. In confusion, they stated killing each other with their swords and running away. God used Gideon to save Israel! God gives us the faith-rest-drill today so that we can trust God once we have rebounded that we are afraid, so we can be happy and have His peace.
Faith-Rest-Drill
1.Remember a promise from God: In today’s lesson, the promise is: “Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.” Luke 12:7
2.Think of a reason to trust God with your problem: In today’s lesson, we remember that God saw (Omniscience) that the food was being stolen by the Midianites. Young Gideon was afraid and didn’t think he could do the job God asked him to do, but God knew that he was brave enough to do it.
3.Relax: We are all valuable to God. If He keeps little bitty sparrow’s safe outside during a terrible thunderstorm, He will protect you too. Go and enjoy your day.