We are going to finish up our study on Gideon and the Aleph Tav. We were introduced to Gideon in week 1, and last week we started to dive into the interaction Gideon had with the angel of the LORD, aka Jesus.
Now let’s read more of the story to see how Jesus responded with Gideon’s requested sign as part of the covenant they were making together.
“So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. And the angel of God said to him, “Take the [aleph-tav] meat and the [vav-aleph-tav] unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the [vav-aleph-tav] broth over them.” And he did so.”
Notice there is the Hebrew letter vav added to a couple of the aleph tav in this verse. The Hebrew letter vav means like a nail or bridge or a connector. So the gift or the present that Giedon was giving was the meat and the unleavened cakes and the broth. They were all connected together. They were all part of the covenant. So the vav showing up there means that these three things are one in the same.
“Then the angel of the LORD [aleph-tav] reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the [aleph-tav] meat and the [vav-aleph-tav] unleavened cakes. And the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight. Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the LORD.
And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face.” But the LORD said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD and called it, The LORD Is Peace [Jehovah-Shalom]. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.” Judges 6:19-24 (ESV) (words in bracket mine)
Can you imagine what it would have been like to see the angel of the LORD disappear before your eyes? I imagine that was quite jarring for Gideon! When Jesus disappears from Gideon’s sight, probably similar to how Jesus disappeared in the New Testament after His resurrection when He visited a few people, Gideon freaked out!
Because Gideon knew and believed that if He saw God’s face, He would die.
You see this all throughout the Old Testament, that seeing God’s face meant certain death, and many people, like Gideon, thought they were going to die after seeing God in some physically manifested form.
One of the key verses in this belief is from Exodus, when God was speaking to Moses.
“But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” (Exodus 33:20 ESV)
On the other hand, Gideon did die in a sense. His old thought patterns and processes died that day after he encountered Jesus. His old, weak identity died. His previous way of seeing life died. So he did die, but it was a good death. It was all the dark and weak and evil things in his life that died. But the true Gideon, the True Mighty Man of Valor lived on. This is what Jesus gave life to in Gideon, and it literally changed his life and the whole trajectory of the nation of Israel.
And not only did Jesus give Gideon a new identity, but Gideon gave God a new name! Did you catch that?
Gideon built an altar to the Lord and called it The Lord is Peace, Jehovah-Shalom. The altar represents God, the place represents God, and the name represents God. Jehovah-Shalom is the altar we lay our lives down upon, and Jehovah-Shalom is the realm of peace we enter into when we give our covenant gift to him, which is our very lives.
The Apostle Paul echoes this in the 12th chapter of Romans:
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:1-2 (ESV)
We get to do what Gideon did. We present ourselves before God as a living sacrifice. That’s our offering to him, our entire lives. And this becomes an invitation to God Himself to redefine our lives, to help us think about ourselves in a new way. This is how we are transformed by the renewing of our minds. And this is how we know that God’s will is good, acceptable and perfect.
Directive #1
Back to Gideon.
God gives Gideon what I’m calling Directive #1. Let’s read about it.
“That night the LORD said to him, “Take [aleph-tav] your father’s bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down [aleph-tav] the altar of Baal that your father has, and [vav-aleph-tav] cut down the Asherah that is beside it and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order.
Then take the [alpeh-tav] second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the LORD had told him. But because he was too afraid [aleph-tav] of his family and [vav-aleph-tav] the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night.” Judges 6:25-27 (ESV) (words in bracket mine)
So, using the strength of the covenant, Gideon was supposed to tear down his father’s altar to the false god Baal as well as the Asherah pole, which was to the false god Ishtar or Asherah. These two entities go hand in hand. Wherever there’s Baal worship, there’s also Ishtar worship. (For more information about this, read Jonathan Cahn’s book called “The Return of the Gods.”)
But notice after Gideon makes a covenant with Jesus, the first directive is deliverance. It is: get rid of the false gods. I mean, this was really the whole reason the Israelites were in this mess to begin with.
Now Gideon had to decide: would he serve the One True God and obey Directive #1, or would he let it slide and try to do it some other way?
We see Gideon decide to obey: he gets some friends together, and they tear everything down and burn it at night.
In the next few verses that I’ll just paraphrase to you, the town wakes up and sees Gideon’s dad’s stuff broken down. When they discover it was Gideon who did it, they call for his execution.
Which is a good lesson for us. There will be spiritual resistance to seeking out deliverance with God, and in obeying the Lord’s directives.
But God oftentimes provides help for us in unexpected places. In Gideon’s case, it was the owner of the town’s idols who came to his aid, which was his own dad!
I imagine the Lord was already working in the heart of Gideon’s dad too.
Conclusion
I highly recommend reading the entire story of Gideon’s life, starting in Judges chapter 6 and ending in chapter 8.
God gave him Directive #2, which was basically, “Go deliver Israel from her enemies.” And Gideon did. Along the way he asked the Lord for more signs, if you remember the story of the wet and dry fleece. And the Lord asked Gideon to do a few illogical things, like weed out the men of the army from 32,000 down to 300 and fight the enemy with less than 1% manpower. And then use those 300 men to break pots and blow trumpets and hold up torches. Except God delivered that whole army into Gideon’s hands, and the Israelites had a major series of victories.
And we see Gideon living out his true identity of Might Man of Valor.
Let me ask you, what is your true Heavenly identity? Is it different than your current identity? Do you even know what it is?
Well, let’s pray and ask Jesus to show up in our lives and reveal our true identities. And then I’ll also pray through a prayer called “Freedom from Fallen Heavenly Powers,” and we’re going to separate ourselves from the false gods of Baal and Ishtar.
Recent Comments