Verses 1-8: God works with Gideon to prepare an army for the defeat of the Midianites. God tells Gideon to go through some exercises to reduce the army lest they think that they, and not God, are responsible for the victory.

Verses 9-16: God tells Gideon to go down to the camp to defeat the Midianites, but in the same sentence God also makes a provision for Gideon’s apprehension and fear. If Gideon is too daunted at their numbers, he can take his servant down to the camp outpost, where he will receive a sign. Surely God knew Gideon through and through, for Gideon takes Purah and goes to the outpost to seek this sign. 

The numbers of the Midianites are so great they are compared to locusts and the sea. Nevertheless, Gideon overhears one recanting a dream that is interpreted as Israel defeating the Midianites. Gideon worships the Lord and returns to his camp to prepare for battle.

Verses 17-25: Gideon readily disperses the Midianites from their camp through creative tactics and of course, the providence of God. The effort is so successful that their water sources are captured, two Midianite princes are killed, and Gideon passes the word to others in the area to look out for and capture the enemy.

Let us think about how God worked with and through Gideon. Many men heeded the call to fight, but God, knowing their hearts, also knew how they would react once they defeated the Midianites. They trusted more in their own strength than in God’s, which would have caused them to think they had done it all on their own – so God had to reduce them. The fearful left first, then a seemingly arbitrary method of how water was drunk from the water further winnowed the fighters. After all was done, there remained just 300 from 32,000. 

Then, through Gideon going to the outpost and overhearing the dream, God didn’t chastise Gideon for his fear of the Midianites. Instead, God made allowance for it and offered Gideon a way out, a way to reduce his fear and strengthen his resolve that God would in fact lead him to victory.

God often does this same thing to us today by removing barriers or, adversely, comforts, from our lives. God reduces us through trials, taking away our sense of ease and comfort, a wake-up call that shows us how much we really do need Him – A death, an injury, a loss of something or someone that can’t be replaced.

Put a bookmark in your brain to remember to praise and lean on God when things are going great in your life. Then, when you need to seek God during a difficult time, the search for peace and confidence will be shorter and sweeter, whatever the problem.

God loved Gideon with patience and faith; God prepared him for service. Gideon was given grace by God with time to grow his faith. When he was shown God’s power, Gideon held fast and acted. So should we.

James 1:2-8: “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

— Cory Byrd

This post originally appeared on Monday Night Bible Study.

The relationship between followers of Christ and the governments of men has long been discussed.

One of the major lessons from the book of Daniel is that “the Most High rules in the kingdoms of men” (Daniel 4:25).

When Jesus was asked by the tax gatherers about paying a temple tax, He performed a miracle with a fish to pay the tax for Himself and Peter (Matthew 17:24-27).

In Mark 12:13-17, the Pharisees and the Herodians (normally at enmity with each other) joined forces as they attempted to trap Jesus in an inconsistency. Christ’s response to them was, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

We have, therefore, the responsibility to obey the laws of the land. And we must obey all of them, even  ones we don’t like, such as speed limits and paying taxes. The single exception is if a law would require us to be disobedient to God (see Acts 5:28-29, for an example). No human relationship has the authority to cause us to disobey the Father in heaven. The Lord must always be first in our lives.

Romans 13:1-7 tells us that God appointed civil government for the protection of citizens and that only wrong doers need to fear those in authority.

Verses 8-10 teach Christians that we are to love others.

Verses 11-14 reminds Christ’s disciples to “cast off the works of darkness” by removing all ungodliness from their lives and to “put on the Lord Jesus.”

--Roger Hillis

Romans 12 begins what many have referred to as “the practical part” of the letter. Some would define chapters 1-11 as “doctrinal,” while calling chapters 12-16 as “practical.” It would be more accurate to say that the first 11 chapters of Romans have laid the foundational principles upon which applications are then made in the final 5 chapters.

Romans 12 is one of the most challenging chapters in all of the New Testament. It presents us with one responsibility after another in discussing our relationship with God and with each other as disciples. It is entirely possible that a Christian could spend his entire life, just trying to obey the duties outlined in this chapter.

Paul begins by telling us to present our bodies as living sacrifices to God. We are not to allow the world to pressure us into conformity, but rather to be changed or transformed into the image of Christ.

He points out that we are not all the same. We all have different abilities and opportunities. But whatever our unique circumstance may be, we are to do all we can to serve God and our fellow man.

The apostle speaks of many of our personal obligations before God, including brotherly love, honoring one another, being hospitable, being a blessing to others, rejoicing and weeping with each other and remaining humble in our service to Him.

The chapter ends by reminding us that we are not to be vengeful, angry people. Rather we are to be at peace with others, in every way we possibly can. God will avenge all wrong doing. We have a responsibility to overcome evil with good, not to repay evil with evil. Two wrongs never make a right.

--Roger Hillis

The rejection of Christ by the Jews was never total. The majority of the Hebrew nation did not believe Jesus to be the Messiah. But some of them did accept and obey Him.

In Romans 11, Paul makes it clear that there was always a remnant of faithful Israelites, even in the dark days of the Old Testament monarchy (verses 1-4). And, in the first century, there were those in Israel who did understand the truth.

For those who did not accept Jesus as the Savior, it was not too late. If they heard the truth of the gospel and were obedient to it, they could still be saved.

Through the Jewish rejection of the Messiah, the Gentiles were given the opportunity to hear and obey the gospel (“for the Jew first and also for the Greek”).

But Jews who had initially refused to confess Christ could also still be saved if they would but turn and be converted through the preaching of the gospel. When Paul writes in verse 26, “And so all Israel will be saved,” he means through hearing and obeying, anyone could be accepted by God. That’s how any lost soul is made righteous before God, by obedience. All Israel and all Gentiles could be saved in this manner.

In verses 15-24, he compares obedience to God with branches from a wild olive tree (lost souls) being grafted into a cultivated olive tree (the saved).

And he reminds us of both the goodness and severity of God (verse 22). God will accept all who believe and obey and will punish all who reject and disobey.

--Roger Hillis

Having established in Chapter 9 that the Jews, for the most part, had rejected Jesus as the Messiah, this chapter shows that Paul still loved his people and wanted them to be saved. He prayed for the Jews; their salvation was his heart’s desire. The problem was that they were ignoring God’s plan for their righteousness and trying to make their own plan. God’s plan for the salvation of the Jews is the same as His plan for Gentiles. They must be obedient to the gospel, not the Law of Moses.

In verse 4, Paul shows that Jesus was the “end of the law for righteousness.” That doesn’t mean that He ended the Old Law, although He did. But, in this case, it means that Jesus was the end result, or the fulfillment, of the Law of Moses. The Law was described as a “tutor” (schoolmaster, KJV) to bring people to faith in Christ (Galatians 3:24-25).

Therefore, the greatest need of Israel was to recognize Jesus as the Savior and to obey His new covenant. That’s why the book of Romans begins with a reference to the gospel as “the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek (or Gentile, rh)” (Romans 1:16). And in the gospel is revealed “the righteousness of God,” that is, God’s plan for making both Jew and non-Jew righteous (Romans 1:17).

Jews needed to hear and believe and obey the Lord’s New Testament in order to be saved, as they called upon God for salvation (Romans 10:13). In general, Gentiles were more open to the gospel than were the Jews (verse 16).

Verse 20 describes the Gentiles as those who found God as they accepted Christ. Verse 21 describes the Jews as “a disobedient and contrary people.”

--Roger Hillis

Paul begins Chapter 9 by expressing his sorrow that his own people, the Jews, have rejected Jesus. He refers to “great sorrow and continual grief in my heart.” Of course, some Jews did not reject Jesus, but most of them did.

It was stated early in the ministry of Christ that His own people (don’t forget that Jesus was Jewish also) would not accept Him as the promised Messiah of the Old Testament. “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11). Jesus told several parables to show that the Jewish people, as a whole, did not accept Him. The parables of the Wicked Vinedressers and the Great Banquet are two examples of this.

And when the Jews decided not to believe in Jesus as the Christ, the gospel was taken to the Gentiles.

Some of the material in Romans 9 can be a little difficult, but only because we have been introduced to the Calvinistic concept of election which states that God determines ahead of time which individuals will be saved and which people will be lost, independent of their own choices and actions.

This chapter shows us that this election is for groups of people, not individuals. Those in the group who choose to obey and follow the Lord are elected for salvation (here, it is primarily the Gentiles). Those in the group who choose to deny and disobey Christ are elected for condemnation (here, mostly referring to the Jews).

A teacher in school can tell ahead of time who will get A’s, B’s, etc. in the class. It will be based on what their performance in classes, on assignments and papers, etc. determines. Everyone who does what is required can get an “A” in the class. That has been predetermined.

--Roger Hillis

Our daily battle, even for Christians, is between the spirit and the flesh.

Each person has a dual nature, the inward part (called the spirit or the soul) and the outer part (called the flesh). Paul reminds us that, as Christians, we are to walk according to the spirit and not according to the flesh. This is a never ending struggle.

There is some debate about whether the word, spirit, in Romans 8 should be capitalized or not. Some believe it refers to the Holy Spirit and, therefore, as the translators of the New King James Version and many other translations have decided, the word should be capitalized. Others believe it is simply a reference to the spiritual part of man (as contrasted in Romans 8 with the physical side or the flesh) and should be lower case, spirit. Either way, the spiritual side of our being is to be led by the teachings of the Holy Spirit as revealed in the Bible.

We are to focus on the things of God so that we will walk, live, set our minds on and be led by the Spirit of God. When we do that, Paul says, “you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit” (verse 9). This is what makes us “sons of God” (verse 14).

Struggles and trials will confront us on every side when we seek to live for God. But God has provided for us all things we need to survive this earthly existence and live with Him forever in heaven. And no matter how many trials or difficulties we may have, we can be “more than conquerors” through Jesus and His sacrifice on our behalf.

When we seek to live according to the spirit and to deny the flesh, nothing can separate us from God’s love. Nothing.

--Roger Hillis

One of the major points of Romans, chapters 3-8, is that we are no longer under the Law of Moses.

His illustration to make that point in Romans 7 is marriage.  Two people are bound by God’s law to one another “till death do us part.” If one puts away his or her spouse and remarries while that spouse is still living, that person is in a state of adultery.

(He doesn’t deal with the exception here of sexual immorality. His point is the marriage law itself, one man and one woman for life, not the exception. The exception doesn’t have to be mentioned every time the basic marriage law is given for the exception to be valid.)

But because the Old Law (of Moses) died or was nailed to the cross (Colossians 2:14), we are now under the Law of Christ, the gospel, or the New Testament.

The Law of Moses revealed to us what sin is and gives us many examples, as in the Ten Commandments. He specifically mentions covetousness, the tenth commandment. We learn that violating any part of God’s revealed will is sin.

But Paul, though no longer under the Old Law, still struggled with the weaknesses of the flesh. The final part of Romans 7, verses 15-25, describes his daily battles between what he wants to do and what he actually does. He wants (or wills) to do good, but his flesh is weak and so he often finds himself sinning.

We all face that battle, day by day. It is never easy to do only the right thing, because of the lure and power of temptation. But with the help of Jesus (verse 25), we can be victorious in this spiritual warfare, with its eternal consequences.

--Roger Hillis

Verses 1-10: The children of Israel are given up to the Midianites and the Amelakites. God does this because of their continued disobedience. These aggressors cause the children of Israel to make hideaways for themselves in the mountains. Their livestock and harvest were taken from them. A prophet informed them the reason of these hardships: God, who had led them out of Egypt and given them so much, told them not to pay heed to the false gods of the Amorites, but they had not listened. 

Verses 11-35: Gideon, the son of Joash is here chosen by God to save Israel from the Midianites. The Angel of the Lord came to deliver this message to Gideon. Gideon does not take this proclamation as truth at first. Instead, he tests the Angel of the Lord by bringing him an offering. When the Angel of the Lord consumes the offering with fire, Gideon believes.

Later that night, God instructs Gideon to tear down his father’s altar to Baal and build a proper one to God. Gideon does so, but by the cover of night because he is scared of the repercussions. 

When it is discovered that Gideon tore down the altar, other men want to punish him. However, Joash, his father, defends his actions and claims that if Baal was powerful as such, he could defend himself. Since Baal does not exist, and the logic is sound, no challenge is made to Gideon and his standing seems to improve among the people. 

In a menacing development, the Midianites gather closer, threatening. Gideon has enough charisma to draw the Abezrites, and members of the tribes of Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali to himself, in preparation to defend or war. 

Verses 35-41: Gideon, although strong and dedicated to God, still needs assurance that God will truly help him in the upcoming conflict with the Midianites. He asks God twice for a miracle to confirm: fleece on the threshing floor and the dispersion of the dew on either the floor only or the fleece only. God complies with both requests and gives Gideon the assurance he was seeking. Gideon’s requests aren’t depicted as being needy or flippant; they are presented as respectful and in some way necessary for Gideon.

Looking at Gideon, it is easy to judge him. He doesn’t believe the Angel of the Lord until he can confirm the truth in his own way. Then he seeks to further strengthen his own resolve by asking God himself to prove that He will help Gideon defeat the Midianites. In light of all the strong history of the work of God, and how He blessed Israel, Gideon had to have God prove his identity multiple times.

Gideon must have grown up with the knowledge of God, but the “presence” of Baal and the like would have been an influence all his life also. Was Gideon just being cautious? Maybe He had been witness to sorcery or tricks that were presented as works of Baal or other false gods and part of him believed they had power. Perhaps asking God to prove it was Gideon’s only way to assure himself that it was the one true God he was now serving. In any case, God chose Gideon and was patient with his requests, granting each of them in turn. 

Remember from verse 15, Gideon says that his clan is the weakest in Manasseh and that he is the least in his father’s house. So we know that God chose Gideon not because of his standing in the community or because of his strength as a warrior. No, God saw something in Gideon that neither Gideon not those around him could see. That quality of leadership, of strength, of confidence was kindled by God within Gideon. 

God, working in a person, making them something they could not be on their own, blessing them with grace, being patient and loving, providing a way out of quandary.

Has God done this for you? I can say with absolute confidence that God has done that for me!

— Cory Byrd

This post originally appeared on Monday Night Bible Study.

A proper understanding of God’s grace and mercy will lead people away from sin. There were, in the first century, and there are now, people who conclude that God’s grace is permission to sin. Romans 6 was written to early disciples to show them the error of that kind of logic.

Paul reminds them (and us) that, when we were baptized into the death of Christ, we were raised to walk “in newness of life” (verses 3-4). It is in baptism that we contact the blood of the Savior. Just as He died, was buried and rose again, so too we die to our sins in repentance, are buried with Him in baptism and are raised as new creatures.

In baptism, our old man of sin was crucified with Him, “that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin” (verse 6).

We are, therefore, as followers of Christ, “dead indeed to sin, but alive to God” (verse 11).

His conclusion, then, beginning in verse 12 and continuing through the remainder of Chapter Six, is that sin must not reign in our bodies. We must not present our bodies as slaves of sin, but as instruments of God for righteousness (verse 13).

We were formerly slaves of sin, but have obeyed God from our innermost being (our hearts) and have become His slaves, bondservants of righteousness (verse 17).

And, finally, he tells us that sin will result in eternal condemnation (“death,” verse 23), but that, through God’s free gift, we can enjoy “eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

--Roger Hillis