Pull down your father’s altar to Baal, and cut down the Asherah pole standing beside it. Then build an altar to the Lord your God here on this hilltop sanctuary, laying the stones carefully. (Judges 6:25-26)
Read: Judges 6:1-40, Luke 22:54-23:12, Psalm 95:1-96:13, Proverbs 14:5-6
Relate: There is just so much good stuff in the story of Gideon that it was really hard for me to chose what to talk about. I wanted to talk about how Gideon, though a coward doing the wrong thing in the wrong place was called by God, “Mighty Warrior”. I wanted to write about how God said to Gideon, “Go with the strength you have.” I felt like it would be such a perfect follow up to yesterday’s devotion This Isn’t My War. The very next thing God says is, “I will be with you and you will be victorious.” Once again, there is so much to unpack in that truth. Midnight Obedience was a title that I could have used to talk about how Gideon obeyed in the dead of night even though he was terrified of the possible kickback. There is Gideon’s nickname, “Let Baal defend himself”. I would love to have a name like that: “Devil, watch out!” On the flip side, Gideon who was just commissioned by God to be a freedom fighter turns around and calls the place he met God, “The Lord is peace.” I would just love to talk about how shalom is oh so much more than just a lack of conflict. Of course, the most famous story most people know (and abuse) when it comes to Gideon is the fleece. I would have loved to spend a bit of time demonstrating how Gideon did not put out that fleece until after he had already obeyed God and called for the army to assemble. The fleece wasn’t about whether he should step out in faith but rather he was asking for confirmation regarding a step he had already taken.
No. Where I felt God was pointing was to the scripture shown above. There is a lot you could write and learn and say about justice and action in the book of Judges because over and over again the people are oppressed by one foreign power after another. I wrote about Ehud’s step into action two days ago in Enough Is Enough. He stepped forward for his people. Yesterday I wrote about Jael who did so for a people group she was not a part of. I wrote something in that concluding prayer that I want to look a little deeper into. I wrote:
Most of all help me to never forget that the most crucial human right is that everyone deserves to hear and adequate and relevant presentation of the gospel. This along with water, freedom, and equity are human rights that cannot be denied and which we all must be actively about. This is my war, God. Help me to fight it well.
The first command God gives Gideon when he sets the people on the path to freedom was to tear down the altar. The first and most crucial step towards freedom was repentance. Before he calls and then culls (and culls again) the army. Before everyone is given a torch, a trumpet and a shout, the altar had to come down. The greatest enemy Israel faced was not the Midianites. It was Baal.
React: The biggest enemy facing Nigeria today is not Boko Haram. it is Satan. The biggest enemy the Kurds face is not ISIS or Turkey. It is Satan. The biggest enemy those in the chains of sexual exploitation is not their pimp. It is Satan. Those facing extreme poverty in nations around the third world need functional governments, and infrastructure, and clean water, available and affordable medicine, and so much more. But the biggest need they have is an adequate presentation of the gospel. Yes we need to give more to end poverty, and to bring freedom, and do more to end oppression, and to open our doors to create safe homes for refugees. All this is vital and necessary and good and godly. None of these things will change the truth that someone who is clean and healthy and safe and comfortable is still just as hellbound if they do not have Jesus. The first step in any human justice endeavor is to fix our altars. I won’t say that nothing else matters because everything else most definitely does matter, but the gospel is our primary purpose.
Respond:
Dear God,
Help me to always keep the main thing the main thing. Give me a deeper heart and stretch my sacrifices of time and money when I am doing all I can to make this world a place that resonates with Your just peace. Let Your kingdom come here on earth just as it is in heaven. Most importantly let me never forget that the first and greatest need for humanity is the breaking of foreign altars and the fixing of broken altars. The greatest war for freedom is worship to You. Let me be always an active participant in that war.
Amen
THE RIVER WALK 
Amen love this story also. .but your exactly right before we come to God we must tear down our altars…whatever we are worshipping that prevents us from coming to God must be eliminated.. God bless you brother!
Repentance is the part most people are unwilling to accept, and it is unfortunate. God has always demanded it and that hasn’t changed!
Preach! Teach! Elevate! Beautiful and fervent prayer as well.♥
Indeed, we allow entities such as Satan to dictate our lives, allowing our carnal instincts to direct our footsteps. We begin to lose sight of our individual selves; thus, we become disconnected from the good and innocent world–people in our like dysfunctional mindstates feed off that negative energy, it gains power, and then we end up here, Hell on Earth. 😦
Namaste, and thank you for such a righteous post. May we all continue to uplift each other with sure hope, knowledge, faith, and pay-it-forward deeds for a better tomorrow. ♥ Jahla
Reblogged this on ChristianBlessings and commented:
Let Your kingdom come. … How often we prefer or unknowingly slip into the mode of let our kingdom come?
Lord forgive me when I have deprived Your of Your Lordship in my life and all things around.
Great article, and I am in agreement with your prayer. I am making it my own. Thanks!
Love your post, and you are so right! In all that is wrong in the would and no matter what we do to right those wrongs, we can not forget nor ignor who or what is ultamly responsible for them, and that is like you said Satan.
Wow. On point.
“The greatest war for freedom is worship to You. Let me be always an active participant in that war”.
Amen
Reblogged this on Joan Sanusi and commented:
“The first step in any human justice endeavor is to fix our altars. I won’t say that nothing else matters because everything else most definitely does matter, but the gospel is our primary purpose”
True! If we have strange altars standing we can not trully offer ourselves unto the Lord in genuine worship. May any altar standing against God’s will for His people be pulled down on Jesus name!
Thanks for this inspiring piece!
Hi there Beejai,
I have been so very delighted to find your article on how God instructed Gideon to build a “right altar”. You say, “The greatest enemy Israel faced was not the Midianites. It was Baal.” How true is that!!
The Lord showed me this too in a profound reading of Judges 6-8 back in March 2013 when the Lord emphasized the relevance of this aspect of the story (and lots of other aspects too). I can remember that when I shared my excitement about Gideon with someone else they asked me what did I think that the Lord wanted “tearing down today”? I knew some of the things then but I am gradually over the years learning more in response to that question.
I wrote on my blog just recently this October the following on my article, “My Bible Heroes 2 – Gideon”:
“I noticed that before God’s people could be freed from their enemies, the worship of false gods had to be dealt with, even when that was coming from a close member of his own family! Also a correct “alter to the Lord” had to be constructed in the way & place that the Lord instructed. He had to worship the Lord God in the way He wants to be worshiped.
So essentially God is still a jealous God and hates people worshiping in a way of their own choosing and NOT His choosing.”
This is a profound message for the “church” of today! “Christians” of the world today are being led into all kinds of “false worship” and those who want the Lord’s pleasure will need to humbly ask Him what needs to change, what needs to be “burnt up” and how does He want us to worship Him. This is essential if we are ever to hear Him call us “Mighty Man (or woman) of Valor” or “Well done good and faithful servant”.
I also noted that the bible tells us people’s good points and their bad points, their highs and their lows, and we can take encouragement from the faith and good deeds of believers who have gone before us whilst at the same time taking heed of the warnings where those people went astray, as Gideon did at the end of the story (as you point out on your other article). It is important for us all to start, continue and end our lives in a Godly fashion.
I have been blessed to find your site and will continue to read your articles. Just in case you want to see how the Lord led me with regards to this story, you can find it at:
https://grainofwheatblog.wordpress.com/2016/11/06/my-bible-heroes-2-gideon/
May the Lord bless you and your readers
as you seek His ways always,
God bless,
Helen