Gideon's Journey In The Odyssey

Although he knew what was his mission, Samson did not seem to cooperate with God in fulfilling it. Despite that promiscuous, rebellious, violent and arrogant life style, many verses will tell us that the “Spirit of the lord came upon him” and will win the battle to the expense of Samson’s integrity for the empowerment of God’s Spirit did not necessarily mean that God did endorse his

In addition to the Pentateuch, the Old Testament books of the Deuteronomistic history reveal the theme of God’s faithfulness to his followers. Initial examples are found in the conquest of the Promised Land depicted in the book of Joshua. Throughout the Israelite campaign to oust natives and settle the land, God’s actions demonstrate his faithfulness. In one instance God uses Rahab to hide Israelite spies, while in several other situations he allows the Israelites to defeat its foes. From these actions, it is clear that God remained faithful to his promise with Abraham (to provide his descendents with land). In addition to Joshua, the book of Judges provides an example of God’s faithfulness. Throughout the book, Israel repeatedly is unfaithful to God and is conquered by foreign powers. In response to Israelite cries for help, God repeatedly raises up

God came to Gideon the son of Joash the Abiezrite. God tells him that he is going to lead His people and defeat the Midianites. God also tells him that while he is leading the people he will not die during battle. Even though Gideon heard the from God, and had faith, he still was not convinced and positive that this was true. Multiple times Gideon asked God for sign. An angel of the Lord came to Gideon and told Gideon to bring him a present. Gideon brought a kid which is a young lamb. This kid was most likely cooked already for his own meal. He had the kid in a basket and also brought broth in a pot and brought it to the angel of God. The angel then told GIdeon the lay out the flesh and pour out the broth. The angel then touched the meal with His staff and a fire consumed it. GIdeon was still not satisfied. One night he asked God to have dew dampen a fleece only and the ground over night. When he woke up, he was able to wring out water from the fleece, enough to fill up a bowl. He still was not satisfied. This time he asked God to do the opposite. He asked that the fleece be dry and the ground wet with dew. He woke up the next morning and the ground was wet with dew and the fleece was dry. Now he finally believed that God would deliver them from the hands of the

"Do as I do when we come to the camp," Gideon told his men. "When I blow my trumpet, blow your trumpets loud and clear, and say, 'The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!'"Quietly down the mountain crept Gideon and his men. In the valley below, everything was still, as the enemy slept. It was time for God's plan. It was time for a surprise the Midianites would never forget. In the middle of that quiet, sleepy night came the thundering sound of trumpets. The men smashed the pitchers loudly. Bright flaming light from the torches surrounded the enemy. Quickly the Midianites woke up to hear the Israelites shouting, "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!"The Midianites were so surprised that they made a great mistake. They started to fight each other. Then they turned and ran in fear.God's surprise plan won. The Israelites were safe from the enemy just as God had promised. They did not even have to fight!The happy Israelites cheered Gideon. "Rule over us," they joyfully shouted. But Gideon knew it was God who won.God used Gideon, and a handful of men with trumpets, pitchers, and torches to chase away the people of Midian.Gideon answered the cheering people, "I shall not rule over you, but God

- According to the historians the role of Yahweh in the judges was the cause of problems Israelites had because they has abandoned Yahweh to worship Baal. Faithfulness and loyalty to Yahweh was rewarded with success for the Israelites, and forgetfulness o Yahweh was punished with failure. Yahweh was looked at as a god of the fathers during the period of Judges. In the eyes of Yahweh the Israelites acted wickedly, abandoning him, which angered him. Yahweh seems to be a part of Deuteronomy cycle, where the Israelites turn away from Yahweh an enemy oppresses Israel so that Israel cries for help and Yahweh sends a judge to deliver Israel.

Rachel stole some figurines from her father, and hides the under her skirt when Laban find them fleeing in the desert. Unable to produce the belongings, Laban settles his differences and erects a pillar of stone as a “witness” (GEN 31:48) to God of their peaceful resolution. Then Jacob continues forward where he fears an encounter with Esau. Jacob sends forward some men to send a letter to Esau telling him that he’s coming. When the men return they say that Esau is coming to meet him with four hundred men. Jacob prepares two even groups of people and livestock to separate in hopes that one will escape. Jacob then meets God, who is disguised as a man. He physical wrestles with Jacob until dawn, where Jacob demands a blessing from his opponent. The man then blesses Jacob by renaming him Israel, “because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome” (GEN 32:28). Jacob then names the place the fought Peniel because it is where he saw God “face to face, and yet my life was spared” (GEN

God made a covenant with the Israelites at Mt. Sinai and after being lead to the promise land, the Israelites started worshiping Canaanite God’s. God could have turned away from the Israelites but instead, he decides to renew the covenant. The consequence for Israel’s rebellion will be imminent defeat by other nations and exile but there I hope for future restoration. God will also bring a new Messianic King who will acknowledge all of God’s blessings. The next sections of the book describe the cause and effect of Israel’s unfaithfulness. Israel lakes all knowledge and understanding of God. God wants his people to understand him, have a relationship, and experience his love with him. Hosea is trying to reveal the hypocrisy of Israel’s worship. He keeps making a point to describe how the Israelites keep breaking the ten commandments, causing social injustice, and worshipping another God’s. Hosea also keeps calling the Israelites out for constantly trusting in political alliances with other nations, instead of trusting in God. They started trusting in their allies and relying only on military power. Soon, the Israelites will learn that this was not the right

The people of Israel began to worship idols; and as a punishment God allowed them once more to pass under the power of their enemies. The seventh oppression, which now fell upon Israel, was by far the hardest, the longest and the most widely spread of any, for it was over all the tribes. It came from the Philistines, a strong and warlike people who lived on the west of Israel upon the plain beside the Great Sea. They were blasphemy towards Yahweh Dagon, which was made in the form of a fish 's head on a man 's body. These people, the Philistines, sent their armies up from the plain beside the sea to the mountains of Israel and overran all the land. They took away from the Israelites all their swords and spears, so that they could not fight; and they robbed their land of all the crops, so that the people suffered for want of food. And as before, the Israelites in their trouble, cried out to the Lord, and the Lord heard their prayer. In the tribe-land of Dan, which was next to the country of the Philistines, there was living a man named Manoah.

God came with peace and good news, to Israel, saying “I will cleanse you from your sins, I will bring people into your cities and the ruins will be rebuilt” (Ezekiel, 36:33 NIV). Ezekiel’s oracles of spirituality, thus Israel was spiritual dead with no hope of vitality ( Ezekiel 37:5 NIV). Yet, God will restore life back into those dead bones, if Israel would turn from their sinful ways (Ezekiel 37:14). In chapter 40 of Ezekiel, God showed, the prophet a vision of God’s dwelling place, of those who are faithful thus, they will live with the Lord forever (NIV). Yahweh carried, out judgment on Jerusalem by the Babylonians (Hays, 2010). The “oracles against the nation” in (Ezekiel 28:17) This oracles were against king Tyre, whom were destroyed, the king’s content were evil, whereas it represent the same pattern as Satan. (Hays, 2010). Thus, God delivered, Egypt to Himself ,although Jerusalem were destroyed, God gave hope of restoring His people, the city was renamed,because of Yahweh’s present remain in the city. God will restore life back in the city if His people would repent of their sins, He will judge those who will not repent and save those who would repent (Ezekiel 33:11-21; 24:21; 33:22). God will Shepherd His flock

Three years into his reign, God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem (v. 22-23). They dealt treacherously with him so that the blood of Gideon’s sons might be avenged (v. 24). They set a trap for Abimelech in the top of the mountains so that they could rob him and kill him, but Abimelech found out

He gave each man a ram’s horn in the right hand and a clay jar with a torch inside in the left hand. They split into three groups surrounding the camp and as soon as Gideon started to blow into the horn, the rest of the army did so as well. The Midianites in the camp woke up to the loud noise of the horns and they started running all around their camp. Gideon’s army they threw their jars causing the fire to spread and they were shouting “For the LORD and for Gideon” and “A sword for the LORD and Gideon”. With all of the confusion in the camp, the Midianites started to kill each other thinking that the other was the enemy.

After some time, the Israelites reached the city of Jericho, only to see that it was surrounded by high, protective walls. The citizens of Jericho heard of the Israelites’ arrival, and closed the city gates to keep them out, giving them the feeling of relief and of comfort. Seeing this, God sent an Angel down to Joshua. The Angel tells Joshua his next task was to capture the promised land of Jericho. Joshua listened to, and obeyed the Angel. He then commanded the Priests to carry the Ark of the Covenant in front of the army, as they put their plan into action. The army marched around the walls of Jericho once a day, for six days in total. Seven Priests blew their horns, the other men did not dare make any noise. On the seventh day the Israelites’ army marched around Jericho seven times, Joshua told all the men to shout. Upon Joshua’s request, they not only shouted, but roared, causing the walls of Jericho to crumble to the ground, allowing Joshua to capture Jericho, and gift it to the Israelites, just as the Lord had promised. God had helped the Israelites claim the land that was rightfully theirs. All the people living on the land began hearing that the Israelites had captured Jericho, and knew God was helping Joshua and the Israelites win the

Israel's repeated disobedience to God had sent them down the same path of destruction and sin yet again. However, through God's sovereignty and mercy, He remained faithful to Israel and sent Samson to lead them away from the influence of the Philistines. Unfortunately, Samson had his own issues of immorality, sin and eventually abused the power and strength God had bestowed upon him for personal satisfaction and gain. This ineffective and destructive leadership would be Samson's demise as his lack of obedience to God left him weak in strength and spirit. Samson would ultimately return to God for the final victory before his death, and trusted in God's grace to deliver.

Gideon was an unknown man from a poor family and he was consider to be the least in his household; however, he was a man that believed, followed and obeyed God. It was not that God was not with Israel, they were not with God. God told Gideon to move ahead assuring him that he would be with him so he did not have any reason to fear. He asked God for a sign. He did not ask God for a sign in order to determine the Will of God through it, but to confirm what God had already told him which; therefore, was the Will of God. God gave him what he asked for. God told Gideon to throw down the altar of Baal and cut down the grove that was there. The people were angry when they saw them destroyed.

The Israelites were simply unable to follow the word of the Lord, were constantly disobeyed him, thus offending and angering the Lord. In order to control them, the Lord set, what would become, a long line of judges, or “chieftains.” The duties of these men were to follow the word of the Lord, and to entrust the word of G-d into their followers. Their first judge was Othniel the Kenizzite, and in the case of Othniel, “the spirit of the Lord descended upon him and he became Israel’s chieftain.” (Judges. 3:9-10). By the rule of this man, the Israelites went to war, won, and “the land had peace for forty years.” (Judges. 3:11). This man was loyal, strong, and proactive in his duties to protect and maintain peace in his land. The next judge was Ehud, who was sent by the Lord to kill King Eglon of Moab, who the Lord had let rule over the Israelites as their punishment for offending Him. This man was not only cynical in the casual murder of Eglon, but also proved extremely loyal to the Lord. He then went on to slay over 10,000 Moabites, which made his land “tranquil for eighty years.” (Judges. 3:30). After the death of Ehud, the Israelites again angered the Lord, and he made them suffer for twenty years at the hands of King Jabin of Canaan. Following their cries, the Lord appointed Deborah. She fearlessly led 10,000 men up Mount Tabor, in pursue of defeating Jabin’s army commander, and, much like Ehud, cynically murdered the man while he slept trusting next to her. While the list