Thursday, October 6, 2016
Fleece
Bible Questions Answered:
“Pastor I checked “View a list of
subjects,” but I don't find this question there. I' in a church
that believes its proper to put out a fleece when determining Gods
will for something, and I've heard people talk about this, Is this
what the bible teaches?”
Anthony/
Bible Answer:
Bible Text:
Judges 6:1-24 NLT (Gideon Becomes
Israel’s Judge)
1 The
Israelites did evil in The Lord’s sight. So The Lord handed them
over to the Midianites for seven years.
2 The
Midianites were so cruel that the Israelites made hiding places for
themselves in the mountains, caves, and strongholds.
3 Whenever the
Israelites planted their crops, marauders from Midian, Amalek, and
the people of the east would attack Israel,
4 camping in
the land and destroying crops as far away as Gaza. They left the
Israelites with nothing to eat, taking all the sheep, goats, cattle,
and donkeys.
5 These enemy
hordes, coming with their livestock and tents, were as thick as
locusts; they arrived on droves of camels too numerous to count. And
they stayed until the land was stripped bare.
6 So Israel was
reduced to starvation by the Midianites. Then the
Israelites cried out to The Lord for help.
7 When they
cried out to The Lord because of Midian,
8 the Lord sent
a prophet to the Israelites. He said, “This is what The Lord, The
God Of Israel, says: I brought you up out of slavery in Egypt.
9 I rescued you
from the Egyptians and from all who oppressed you. I drove out your
enemies and gave you their land.
10 I told you,
‘I am The Lord your God. You must not worship the gods of the
Amorites, in whose land you now live.’ But you have not listened to
Me.”
11 Then The
Angel Of The Lord came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah,
which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash
was threshing wheat at the bottom of a wine press to hide the grain
from the Midianites.
12 The Angel Of
The Lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, The Lord is
with you!”
13 “Sir,”
Gideon replied, “if The Lord is with us, why has all this happened
to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about?
Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now
The Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.”
14 Then The
Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have,
and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”
15 “But
Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the
weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my
entire family!”
16 The Lord
said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the
Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.”
The story is told of the 5th
judge of Israel in Judges 6-8. The Angel Of The Lord, (A theophany:
The appearance of The Pr-Incarnate Lord Jesus.), appeared before
Gideon.
The Lord called
Gideon to defeat the Midianites, because,
Verse 12 The
Lord said He would be with him.
Verse 14 The
Lord said, He was sending him.
Verse 15
Gideon, called the stranger, Lord.
And yet there were
doubts with Gideon.
17 Gideon
replied, “If you are truly going to help me, show me a
sign to prove that it is really The Lord speaking to me.
In his heart, Gideon thought this could be The Lord, He was going to
make an offering to Him, but he needed proof.
18 Don’t go
away until I come back and bring my offering to you.” He
answered, “I will stay here until you return.”
19
Gideon hurried home. He cooked a young goat, and with a basket of
flour he baked some bread
without yeast. Then, carrying the meat in a basket and the broth in a
pot, he brought them out and presented them to The Angel, who was
under the great tree.
20 The Angel Of
God said to him, “Place the meat and the unleavened bread on this
rock, and pour the broth over it.” And Gideon did as he was told.
21 Then The
Angel Of The Lord touched the meat and bread with the tip of the
staff in His hand, and fire flamed up from the rock and consumed all
he had brought. And The Angel Of The Lord disappeared.
22 When Gideon
realized that it was The Angel Of The Lord, he cried out, “Oh,
Sovereign Lord, I’m doomed! I have seen The Angel Of The Lord
face to face!”
23 “It is all
right,” The Lord replied. “Do not be afraid. You will not die.”
24 And Gideon
built an altar to The Lord there and named it Yahweh-Shalom (which
means “The Lord Is Peace”). The altar remains in Ophrah in the
land of the clan of Abiezer to this day.
A Man of doubt, will always be plagued with doubts, until he forsakes
his doubting and holds to
The Lord.
Judges 6:33-40 NLT
33 Soon
afterward the armies of Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east
formed an alliance against Israel and crossed the Jordan, camping in
the valley of Jezreel.
34 Then The
Spirit Of The Lord clothed Gideon with power. He blew a ram’s horn
as a call to arms, and the men of the clan of Abiezer came to him.
35 He also sent
messengers throughout Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali,
summoning their warriors, and all of them responded.
Gideon's heart had doubts:
36 Then Gideon
said to God, “If you are truly going to use me to
rescue Israel as you promised,
37 prove
it to me in this way.
I will put a
wool fleece on the threshing floor tonight. If the fleece is wet with
dew in the morning but the ground is dry, then I will know that
you are going to help me rescue Israel as you promised.”
38 And that is
just what happened. When Gideon got up early the next morning, he
squeezed the fleece and wrung out a whole bowlful of water.
Doubt continued:
39 Then Gideon
said to God, “Please don’t be angry with me, but let me make one
more request. Let me use the fleece for one more test.
This time let the fleece remain dry while the ground around it is wet
with dew.”
40 So that
night God did as Gideon asked. The fleece was dry in the morning, but
the ground was covered with dew.
Should Gideon have
questioned The Lord, and put out a fleece, to prove Him, and should
we?
Do you think that
the fleece would have been necessary if Gideon had faith in The Lord?
Luke 1:8-25;
57-65 NLT
8 One day Zechariah was serving God
in the Temple, for his order was on duty that week.
9 As was the custom of the priests,
he was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary of The Lord and burn
incense.
10 While the incense was being
burned, a great crowd stood outside, praying.
11 While Zechariah was in the
sanctuary, an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to
the right of the incense altar.
12 Zechariah was shaken and
overwhelmed with fear when he saw Him.
13 But the angel said, “Don’t be
afraid, Zechariah! God has heard your prayer. Your wife, Elizabeth,
will give you a son, and you are to name him John.
14 You will have great joy and
gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth,
15 for he will be great in the eyes
of The Lord. He must never touch wine or other alcoholic drinks. He
will be filled with The Holy Spirit, even before his birth.
16 And he will turn many Israelites
to The Lord their God.
17 He will be a man with The Spirit
and power of Elijah. He will prepare the people for the coming of The
Lord. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and
he will cause those who are rebellious to accept the wisdom of the
Godly.”
18 Zechariah said to the angel, “How
can I be sure this will happen? I’m an old man now, and my
wife is also well along in years.”
19 Then the angel said, “I am
Gabriel! I stand in the very presence of God. It was He who sent
me to bring you this good news!
20 But now, since you didn’t
believe what I said, you will be silent and unable to speak until
the child is born. For my words will certainly be fulfilled at the
proper time.”
21 Meanwhile, the people were
waiting for Zechariah to come out of the sanctuary, wondering why he
was taking so long.
22 When he finally did come out, he
couldn’t speak to them. Then they realized from his gestures and
his silence that he must have seen a vision in the sanctuary.
23 When Zechariah’s week of
service in the Temple was over, he returned home.
24 Soon afterward his wife,
Elizabeth, became pregnant and went into seclusion for five months.
25 “How kind The Lord is!” she
exclaimed. “He has taken away my disgrace of having no children.”
57 When it was time for Elizabeth’s
baby to be born, she gave birth to a son.
58 And when her neighbors and
relatives heard that The Lord had been very merciful to her, everyone
rejoiced with her.
59 When the baby was eight days old,
they all came for the circumcision ceremony. They wanted to name him
Zechariah, after his father.
60 But Elizabeth said, “No! His
name is John!”
61 “What?” they exclaimed.
“There is no one in all your family by that name.”
62 So they used gestures to ask the
baby’s father what he wanted to name him.
63 He motioned for a writing tablet,
and to everyone’s surprise he wrote, “His name is John.”
64 Instantly Zechariah could speak
again, and he began praising God.
65 Awe fell upon the whole
neighborhood, and the news of what had happened spread throughout the
Judean hills.
66 Everyone who heard about it
reflected on these events and asked, “What will this child turn out
to be?” For the hand of The Lord was surely upon him in a special
way.
Zechariah
questioned Gabriel, an angel of The Lord, Gabriel, and was struck
mute.
To Gideon it was
demonstrated that The Angel, was The Angel Of The Lord (Preincarnate
Lord Jesus), and yet he doubted.
Acts 17:30 KJV
And the times of this ignorance God
winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
Should we put out a
fleece before God, “If its cloudy tomorrow, we'll know we should
witness to some one.”
How blasphemous!
Matthew 13:58
KJV
And He did not many mighty works
there because of their unbelief.
Mark 6:5,6 KJV
5 And He could there do no mighty
work, save that He laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed
them.
6 And He marveled because of their
unbelief. And He went round about the villages, teaching.
Romans 3:3 KJV
For what if some did not believe?
shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
I Timothy 2:8
KJV
I will therefore that men pray every
where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.
Hebrews 3:7-19
NLT
7 That is why The Holy Spirit says,
“Today when you hear His voice,
8 don’t harden your hearts as
Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested Me in the wilderness.
9 There your ancestors tested and
tried My patience, even though they saw My miracles for forty years.
10 So I was angry with them, and I
said,‘Their hearts always turn away from Me. They refuse to do what
I tell them.’
11 So in My anger I took an
oath:‘They will never enter My place of rest.’”
12 Be careful then, dear
brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and
unbelieving, turning you away from The Living God.
13 You must warn each other every
day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be
deceived by sin and hardened against God.
14 For if we are faithful to the
end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will
share in all that belongs to Christ.
15 Remember what it says: “Today
when you hear His voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did
when they rebelled.”
16 And who was it who rebelled
against God, even though they heard His voice? Wasn’t it the people
Moses led out of Egypt?
17 And who made God angry for forty
years? Wasn’t it the people who sinned, whose corpses lay in the
wilderness?
18 And to whom was God speaking when
He took an oath that they would never enter His rest? Wasn’t
it the people who disobeyed Him?
19 So we see that because of
their unbelief they were not able to enter His rest.
Hebrews 4:11 KJV
Let us labor therefore to enter into
that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.