Judges 6:11-23 Man of Valor

And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” Judges 6:12

No one could say that George Smith didn’t have courage. A daring jet test pilot in the 1950’s, back when the sound barrier was first broken, he could face anything – until he had to bail out of a jet going 805 miles per hour. Though he survived, he was afraid of ever flying again. Then, during his hospital stay, a nurse gave him an antidote to fear. He took her word to heart: “Courage,” she said, “is knowing the worst – and discovering that, in God’s world, the very worst can’t really hurt you.”

This nurse taught a lesson that all the people of God of all ages need to learn: that with God by our side we cannot lose no matter what or who we face in life. This was true for the people of Israel, it is true for the church, and it is true for each of us. God wants to teach us today how to be mighty men/women of valor; people who have the courage to stand up for God, no matter what circumstances they find ourselves in.

In the book of Judges, chap. 6, we find that the people of Israel are not living as men/women of valor. In fact, we are living as a defeated people. They have fallen away from God and back into a sinful lifestyle of paganism & idol worship. In fact, Gideon, the hero of our story, had a father who had become a priest of a pagan God. Because of Israel’s sin, God allowed them to be delivered over to their old enemies of the desert, the Midianites and the Amalakites, who came up like “swarms of locusts” with their cattle & their tents, covering the whole breadth of the land & devouring its produce, so that the Israelites had no food left, or sheep, oxen, or other livestock. The people of Israel were forced to find refuge in dens, caves, & fortresses in the mountains. This went on for seven years, until finally the people cried out to God for help, and God sent them a prophet to rebuke them for their evil ways.

But God’s sending of this prophet was a prelude to His sending them aid. For God would once again teach the people of Israel, and teach us by their example, that those who follow God should fear no one or no thing, because God is on our side.

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Ephesians 1:10 Re-united

that … He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth … Ephesians 1:10

In verses 3 through 9 of this glorious doxology in the prologue of the epistle to the Ephesians, Paul is consumed with the matter of God’s grace as it is directed toward men in bestowing all Spiritual blessings upon them. He first describes the unseen and unfelt blessings of eternity past; then he moves on to express the realized blessings of our present condition in Christ – namely our redemption, forgiveness and the revelation of the mystery of the gospel. Now in verse 10, he discloses the summation: God’s grand, comprehensive and ultimate purpose – the reason for which all of this has been done for us – far bigger and greater than our own personal salvation – that … He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth. Here you have the bottom line of God’s heart, the central purpose of His decrees of grace; that for which He and all creation have groaned and travailed for – the re-unification of all things.

In the manifold wisdom of God, He created a variety of beings. In His goodness and love, He called out of that variety, some from every sort, to reconcile to Himself and to each other. God united a variety of persons under one head, namely Jesus Christ; who, in His person, is the sum of all of their natures and conditions (taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men - Phil 2:7), and yet He is distinct from them (yet without sin – Heb 4:15). So we describe Christ as being fully human, while never ceasing to be fully God. So Jesus could rightly and accurately say, “I and My Father are one” (Jn 10:30). The unity of the three persons of the Godhead is the pattern and perfection of God’s design for the ultimate unity of all creation. So much effort has been exercised through the ages to defame the unity that exists between the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit; but any explanation other than the unity of the Godhead, eternally existent in the persons of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, yet one in essence and nature, actually deprives the church of an accurate understanding of the purpose of God to gather together in one all things in Christ. In other words, if we fail to understand the word “echad” in the fundamental Hebrew declaration of Deut. 6:4: “Sh’ma Yisrael, Adonai, Eloheynu, Adonai echad” Hear O Israel, the Lord thy God, the Lord is ONE” we will misunderstand God’s ultimate purpose in uniting everything else. Even contained in the very name of God, “I AM THAT I AM,” God reveals the unity of His nature, and so His desire to reconcile all things in Himself. Jesus Christ made this desire quite clear in His high priestly prayer of John 17, … that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

The unification of which Paul writes in this verse includes that which are both in heaven and which are on earth. So the great divide that exists between God and man is bridged, as the blood of Christ appeases God’s wrath and reconciles Him to His creatures. But then, there also is reconciliation between man and man. The barriers that separate human beings from one another are torn down in Christ. He … has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, … so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross … (see Eph 2:14-17). To see what this ultimate unity looks like, read Revelation chapter 4. God is glorified as a diverse people, who we are told, are from every tribe and tongue and nation, worship and enjoy Him together forever (Rev 5:9,

In order to begin to gain an appreciation for the theme of the unification of all things in Christ, read and meditate upon the following: Jer 32:39, Ez 37:18-28, Zeph 3:9, 14:9, John 14:19-21, 15:3-5, Col 3:11, Eph 4:1-6, Gal 3:28-29, 1 Cor 12:25-27.

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