Building on the Foundation

  Throughout history, civilizations have esteemed courage as one of the highest manly virtues. And it’s true, part of being a man is being courageous. In 1 Cor. 16:13, Paul exhorted the congregation, “Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong.” In Greek, that word “brave” is andrizomai (Strong’s # G407), which means “to act manly, show oneself a man, be brave.” In the Old Testament, wherever we read the phrase “be of good courage” in our English Bibles, the Greek Septuagint uses that same word andrizomai . Be manly. Be brave. God commanded Joshua to “be strong and of good courage” and “be strong and very courageous” (Josh. 1:6-7). And again, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go” (Josh. 1:9). David’s general Joab exhorted his troops, “Be of good courage, and let us be strong for our people and for the cities of our God” (2 Sam. 10:12; 1 Chron. 19:13). On his deathbed,...

There are numerous lessons that we can learn from the story of Gideon, but one of my favorite pictures that is painted is about the resurrection.  No, Gideon was not brought back to life after meeting his demise, nor were any other people in this story. In fact, there is a lot of death and destruction contained in these pages.   Let's start in the book of Judges and in Chapter seven.   Gideon was leading an army of 32,000 Israelite men.  The enemy were the Midianites and the Amalekites, and were described in verse 12 as being "... as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude ." That's a lot more than 32,000 men. Now Gideon was a nobody that was recruited by our God for this task. He had no military history, nor was he a renowned general.  And even if he had been; it would still be akin to suicide to engage in such a lop-sided battle.   Then in verse 2 things really get interesting. ...