Today’s Devotion
Topic: When Quarantine Becomes Necessary, God Is Still Working Anyway! (Covid- 19)
Background: The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds.
Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.
When the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of Midian, He sent them a prophet, who said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land. I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me.” (Judges 6: 1-10).
Now does that mean Israel is doomed forever? And that there is no hope of deliverance for them at all? As all the above was going on, the Lord had visited one unsuspecting young lad and laid down His deliverance strategy to him, though none was aware. Please let’s study the text below, and study how God intervened in the crisis and restored the nation.
Text: Judges 6: 11- 16, 24
11 The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”
13 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
14 The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” 15 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”
16 The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.” 24 So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord Is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. Amen
Questions:
- From our background, we see that though Israel was quaratined in caves, shelters and strongholds because of their oppressors, verse 11 reveals from Gideon’s actions that they were still productive. What does this suggests to us in this period of lockdown or self quaratine? Couldn’t we still be effective and productive at least to some extent?
- Why do you agree that every believer should agree with, and be encouraged by verse 12 in these difficult times?
- Read verse 13 very well. Do you think Gideon had a case with how He felt about the situation they were in and how God had handled it? What would be your response to a fellow believer who laments just as Gideon is doing, regarding the covid-19 pandemic?
- Why do you agree that verse 14 should be the position of every believer now and not the complains of verse 13?
5a. Why are we always looking down on ourselves the very minute we are told we could do something right about a situation we often complain about (as Gideon did in verse 15)?
b. In the case of COVID-19, how do you think God can use each of us to help?
- Explain what the Lord means by “I WILL BE WITH YOU” in verse 16 to the believer who is really bothered about the pandemic, its effect on us all and the lockdown or self quarantine issues associated with it?
- Now Gideon after all these made an offering to God and when the angel touched with his staff, fire from the rock upon which the sacrifice lay consumed the offering and he vanished. Gideon made an altar and said, “THE LORD IS PEACE”. IN THESE TIMES OF CHAOS, WHY MUST THIS MINISTER TO ALL OF US?
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