Do Not Replace the Lord

Well, good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. We're going to continue on in Judges. Sorry we missed yesterday's Coffee and Devotions. I just was out of town, things got busy, and so I hope you'll show some forgiveness there. I'll try to repent. Maybe I need to have some penance for that. Should I pay them some money or something for it? I was thinking you'd like go to this website and I'll give you a free pen. Right. Okay.
Well, let's have some coffee. We'll pray and we'll talk about Gideon. What's happening with Gideon? It's kind of the epic rise and fall of this guy. So let's have some coffee. We'll pray. I'll get into God's word. Someday you're going to say, you know what dad? I want to be a man. You don't have to be a man to drink coffee. Or you don't have to drink coffee to be a man, that's what I meant. Okay.
Father, we thank you so much. Lord, we pray that even as we've kind of had some fun, silliness, and enjoyed just hanging out, Lord, we pray now that you would please turn our hearts to your Word Lord, we could read your word, but it's only by your Holy Spirit that we'll understand it, and definitely only by your Holy Spirit that we'll actually live it, so please help us. In Jesus' name, Amen. Alright, so we are at Judges chapter 8, 22 through 28. Judges chapter 8, beginning at verse 22. So we're just going to do like 6-7 verses, something like that. Alright, Judges chapter 8, beginning at verse 22. Right here. I'll read to 22 to 25. Okay, go for it.
Then the man of Israel said to Gideon, rule over us, both you and your son, your grandson also, for you have delivered us from the hand of the minion. But Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you. the Lord shall rule over you.
Then he said to them, I would like to make a request of you, that each of you would give me an earring from his plunder, for they have golden earrings, because they were ishmaelite. So they answered, We will gladly give them. And they spread out their garment, and each man threw into it the earrings from his plunder. Now the weight of the gold earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels of gold, beside the crescent ornaments, pendants, and purple robes which were on the kings of Midian, and besides the chains that were around their camels' necks.
Then Gideon made it into an ephod and set it up in his city, Ophrah. And all the Israelites played the harlot with it there. It became a snare to Gideon and to his house. This Midian was subdued before the children of Israel, so that they lifted their heads no more. And the country was quiet for four years in the days of Gideon. All right, so we have Gideon and he has rescued the people from the Midianites.
That's what's been going on and going on and now we get to this place and what happens here? You should be a king. Yeah, and what's he saying? Nope. That's king. That's how it works, guys. Well, interesting. So the Lord shall rule over you. So it's Jehovah. So it's the Lord who's supposed to rule over them. But he's got one thing he asks for them. And what's he ask for them? Give me all your earrings. Give me all your earrings from your plunder, right? So they had plundered the Ishmaelites, right? And so the Ishmaelites wore earrings. They also had pendant necklaces. They even had necklaces on their camels. Did you read that? Right? And so what's he do with all this gold and these purple robes and stuff like this? What's he do with all that neat stuff? He melts it. Yeah, he melts it. And what's he make out of it? An idol. Yeah, interesting.
What is an ephod? Right? He made an ephod. What's an ephod? Yeah, so if you went to the book of Exodus and Leviticus, you would have the sons of Aaron and the high priest himself, and they were to wear a linen ephod. It was a priestly garment. Oh, so it was almost like a ceremonial chestplate. Yeah. Yeah, right? So it's a ceremonial garb, right? But it's specifically religious.
And so, what did the people start doing? What did the people of Israel do? They set it up in the city of Ophrah. Yeah, Gideon's city, right? And what do they do with it there? And all Israel played the harlot with it there. What's that mean? I don't know. Yeah, so harlot's a prostitute.
Right, so the picture in the Old Testament and in the New Testament is that God's people, like he's the husband and they're the bride. And so the people are going and they're prostituting themselves, or going and having, they're committing spiritual adultery, going after other gods. And so even though Gideon told them, the Ishmaelites, like, no, no, no, or he told the people, like, no, no, no, I'm not gonna be your king, the Lord's your king. Then he goes and he makes an ephod, and the people's hearts are turned away from the Lord himself, right? Well, why not go to Gideon's house, right?
He's got an ephod, we can go worship there. And so this is just once again. And they had a heart of. Yeah, right. So they have this heart of what almost seems like sincerity and maybe even good intent. But was making himself a linen ephod, you know, interlaced with gold and stuff, was that ever prescribed in God's Word? Nope. The priest was supposed to wear stuff like that. Yeah, right?
And so this is actually one of those difficult things, right? There are many things that Christians even do today that are, I think, done in good sincerity, but because they're not in line with what we have revealed from God, ends up actually leading our hearts astray. You've never done that before though, right? You've never thought you were doing something good and found out what you were doing was wrong? Something like that. Yeah, right?
And so, God's the one who calls the shots. God's the one who's being worshipped. He's the one who tells us how to worship. But we need to test our own hearts. Is this the way I'm supposed to go? Is this the way I'm not supposed to go? And how do we know what way we should go or not? Yeah, right, we go to the Word. Right, so that's one of these tensions, right? Gideon's not like this perfect hero. He's a guy just like us. Here he makes a boneheaded mistake and ends up leading the people astray. But the Lord uses Gideon and at the end of the day, what's he got? How long does Israel have of rest?
40 years? Oh, I don't think 40. Yep. Was it 40 years? I was right. Oh, once again, you seem to always be right and I seem to always be wrong. Yeah, 40 years. Oh, you know what was next? I have a different note in my margin of my Bible. 70 sons. So I looked one line down. Okay, well anyways, I was wrong, you were right, again, again.
So what's this passage about? You got to tell your grandma and your mom what this passage was about. What is it about? It's kind of like the downfall of Gideon. The downfall of Gideon? Okay. So what would you underline as the best verse to summarize this? Let's see. I think I want to say 27. 27, okay. Yeah, so I actually like verse 23. Right, the Lord shall rule over you. Right, that's one of my favorite parts of this. Right, the true thing he said, rather than the thing where he fell. So, okay, let's go ahead and talk about, see, calling. Where does this show you Jesus Christ? What's this calling you to do?
Is there anything in there here of the covenant of grace unfolding? By the way, remember, the covenant of grace starts at Genesis chapter 3, right? The seed of the woman shall brush the head of the serpent, right? But he'll bruise his heel. And so, this unfolding of the different covenants we find, right? With Abraham, and Isaac, and Moses, and Noah, and David, right? And so, now we're at the period of the judges. And so, eventually it's all pointing us towards Christ. So how does this inform us of the covenant of grace or show us Jesus Christ?
I think Gideon was supposed to point us to Christ, but he's not the perfect guy. Yeah, right. Will we ever find a perfect type or shadow in the Old Testament? Nope. Oh, right, they were all pointing us to Jesus. And so yeah, but thanks be to God, right? Did Jesus fall into any of these temptations? Nope. You also didn't have to go to battle. Not that type of battle.
Do you know how the book of Revelation talks about Jesus when he comes back? More like he's in a battle. Yeah, with his robe dipped in blood, with a two-edged sword coming out of his mouth. He'll come to judge again the living and the dead. It's pretty pretty severe language that it has with Jesus coming back.
God, thank you so much again for the blessing it is to get to worship you. Thank you, Lord, that you finally sent us the perfect one, Jesus Christ. Gideon failed and we will fail. But Lord, we thank you for sending us our King, the Lord himself, Jesus Christ. And Father, we pray that you would please send us your Holy Spirit, that we would truly trust in you. Keep us from the foolish inventions of our own hearts. Let us worship you in spirit and in truth. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, may the Lord bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ, and we'll see you next time. Bye.