Monday 1 Oct 2012

Monday Reading: Judges 6:27-31

Key Verse: Judges 6:31
31  And Joash said unto all that stood against him, Will ye plead for Baal? will ye save him? he that will plead for him, let him be put to death whilst it is yet morning: if he be a god, let him plead for himself, because one hath cast down his altar.

Devotion:
Gideon was a man who believed in God and through that belief he also listened to what God told him. When God said that he should pull down the altar to Baal and put a properly sanctioned altar to God, he had no issues with doing that. Yes he chose to do it at night because he was frightened of what the people would do to him – a wise choice – but he still went ahead and did what God wanted him to.

The people must have had a bit of a shock waking up in the morning and seeing all their own hard work broken down and this proper altar standing with an offering to God on it. I like to think that it was not just a bit of a shock but something that would chill them to the bone. Why? Because this was breaking down their own false beliefs, the one’s that they must have known to be false and that must have been more than a shock to the system. When we are faced with something that we know is false on the inside, nothing that can be done will change that feeling for us.

Joash knew that what his son was doing was absolutely right and he was not about to back down and allow people to run him down. So instead of going with the flow and allowing people to continue saying that this Baal god was something special, he turned it right back on the people and said “If this Baal is so special, then allow him to show us that he is by defending his own word”. God has always made sure that we are in no doubt about the fact that He is God. He has given us so many examples and situations that we should never be in any doubt – and yet we still doubt!

Joash now had no doubts that God was real and that Baal was a false god that had no right to be worshipped at all. He was so convinced that he turned this right back in Baal’s face by tempting him to retaliate knowing that nothing would happen; and now he no longer wished to tempt God at all because he knew that God was and is to be feared! God is our Creator and He is God! Joash was no longer going to trifle with God like his fellow men were doing…

Points to Ponder:
What does it take for you to listen?

Are you trifling with God’s ways still?