As In The Day of Midian......Part 1

 

 



Our Sunday School class has just started Beth Moore’s Breaking Free. “Free”…what in THIS world could that possibly look like?

Read Isaiah 61:1-3 and Luke 4:16-21. Notice Jesus quoted this same passage from Isaiah, but stopped short in the middle of 61:2. We are in the day of grace, "the acceptable year of the Lord". I know we are supposed to be "kingdom" minded and "seek first His kingdom" so sometimes I think He is not as concerned about what I am dealing with down here and all the promises He has for me are only meant for when we get to Heaven. But, He came HERE - if freedom were only for there (Heaven) - then why did He come HERE? He came to free us HERE!

I love what Beth says, "NO bondage can withstand His word!" - NO bondage - His arm has not been shortened that He can not reach you! (Numbers 11:23)

Ok, now look at Isaiah 9:4 - the yoke of his burden, the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor - You have broken as on the day of Midian.

Remember - His yoke is easy (Matthew 11:30) - His rod and staff comforts us (Psalm 23:4) - not the same connotations from Isaiah 9:4.

If you were praying this verse back to the Lord - crying out for deliverance; for freedom......"Lord, my yoke - my burden - it is so heavy, weighing me down. My staff for my shoulders? It is crippling me - pressing down - I think I'm about to fall and I don't know if I can get back up again. The rod of my oppressor - it's hard, it's brutal, it's tiring, but Lord, Your word says You can break all of this - as in the day of Midian".

If that's your prayer, you might want to know what He is talking about when referring to the day of Midian. You want to be set free and He is saying you can be - whatever is binding you and holding you back, causing you to live in defeat - can be broken as in the day of Midian.

Midian means "strife" and Beth shared he is first mentioned in Genesis 25 as being Abraham's son from his 2nd wife after Sarah died. In Exodus 2, Moses fled to the land of Midian (descendants) after fleeing from Egypt for killing an Egyptian - and in Numbers 25, it is the Midianites that try to seduce the Israelites into idolatry.

We also read about the Midianites in Judges 6-8; I hope you will follow along in your Bible as I share some notes from this lesson and some others I found.

vs 6:1 - 'the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord' - ok, this is Chapter 6 of Judges - look at 2:11, 3:7, 3:12, 4:1 - they REPEATEDLY did evil in the sight of the Lord. But our God is so good, look at 2:16, 3:9, 3:15, 4:23-24. They sinned again and again and again, and our Lord? He saved them again and again and again. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever - He has not stopped being your Saviour! Your eternal salvation is secure if you have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, but He is our personal Saviour day in, day out - saving us from ourselves, our enemies, our choices.

vs 6:1 - ‘the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years’ - seven represents completion - however long it takes to complete the process. (Philippians 1:6)

vs 6:2 - the Israelites rebelled AGAIN in verse 1 which opened the door to oppression in vs 2, so ‘they made shelters’ - which is fine when you are hiding in the right place. Jesus is our habitation - where we are to continually live (Psalms 71:3), He is our hiding place (Psalm 32:7), our shelter (Psalms 61:3), our refuge and fortress (Psalms 91:2).

vs 6:4 - the enemy ‘destroyed the increase…and left no sustenance’; he makes us unproductive and wants to destroy our fruit. He seeks to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10) - no wonder we have it rough sometimes - we have a very real enemy that WANTS TO UTTERLY DESTROY US! But God said we are to bear MUCH fruit (John 15:8).

vs 6:5 - the enemy ‘was without number…and entered to destroy’. We are weak on our own, the enemy is too much for us in our own strength, but the battle is His (2 Chronicles 20:15) and in our weakness, He is strong (2 Corinthians 12:10).

vs 6:6 - ‘Israel was greatly impoverished….and cried unto the Lord’. When will we be so impoverished that we will cry out to God? Look back over the notes for verse 1, they sinned again, they cried out again, and He saved again. A broken and contrite heart He will not despise (Psalms 51:17). He will never kick out of the way a prayer laid at His feet by one of His children - NEVER!

vs 6:8 - ‘the Lord sent’ - He acted on behalf of their crying out.

vs 6:8-10 - like any good parent, the Lord wants you to know why you are where you are; He wants you to learn from it and to know ‘I am the LORD your God’.

vs 6:11 - The Lord is going to call the sixth Judge, Gideon - and where do we find him? Threshing wheat in a winepress - he is hiding. Satan loves secrets and strongholds lead to isolation. The Israelites were hiding in the land the Lord had GIVEN them - from an enemy, He would have gladly defeated.

vs 6:12 - God calls Gideon a "mighty man of valor". Jump ahead to vs 15 and we see what Gideon thinks of himself and how scared he was in vs 27. God sees our potential and appoints the experiences necessary. God knows you can be faithful because you are His. He has plans for you - no matter how you feel. (Jeremiah 9:11)

vs 6:13 - ‘if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? And where be all His miracles which our fathers told us of’. How many times do we allow our circumstances to determine how much God loves us?

vs 6:14 - the Lord asked, "have I not sent thee?" - Who? I AM! I am, who? - I AM everything my word says I AM (Hebrews 11:6) - BELIEVE IT! BELIEVE HIM!

vs 6:17 - ‘If now I have found grace in thy sight, then shew me a sign’. How many times do we want a sign from the Lord? You have to be careful here - we walk by faith and not by sight and without faith it is impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:6). Jesus said in Matthew 12:39, a wicked and perverse generation asks for a sign - it was because of their unbelief that they were asking this in Matthew - they were making a mockery. In Judges 6:19-22, asking in faith becomes an act of worship - an altar of remembrance reminding us where we have been with our God.

vs 6:18 - ‘I will tarry until thou come again’ - the Lord waits for us!! Until we come again.....

vs 6:22 - You will see God (Job 42:5). We cry out for deliverance - for God to deliver us "from" - when His purpose is to deliver us "to" - to Himself. Just like the Israelites wandering in the wilderness, we cry out for the promised land and miss the journey - the here and now - with our God. Don't miss Him in the process, this is where you see Him work and get to know His heart and His ways.

vs 6:24 - "fear not - you are not going to die". You may feel like whatever you are going thru is going to kill you but our God is for us - if He leads you to it, He will lead you thru it - but you know what, even if He didn't lead you there, and you wandered off on your own - He will bring you back. He is the Way (the only way in - the only way out), He is the Truth (His word is powerful and will set you free), He is the Life (and He came to give it to you - ABUNDANTLY).

I have more to follow regarding the rest of Judges 6 and chapters 7-8........Victory is COMING!