Destroying the altar of baal

Judges 7.1-4
Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years, and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains. So it was, whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would come up; also Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. Then they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey.

After 40 years of peace (‘So the land had rest for forty years.’ Judges 5.32) the people went back to doing what was evil in God’s eyes and because of this the Lord delivered them in the hands of the Midianites.

It was not, it is not, and it will never be God’s will for His people to be oppressed by the Midianites (demons). They were oppressed because they CHOSE to do what was evil.

When they were living in sin they knew they could not count on God. So, what did they do? They applied their ‘strength’ to building caves and hiding from their enemies (problems) instead of fighting against them. This is exactly what sin does to us. It makes us come up with excuses for our failures (blaming others, blaming the economy, blaming our lack of opportunity, etc.).

Isn’t this what happened to Adam and Eve as well? They hid from God because they were AFRAID (Genesis 3.10).

How many don’t have the faith to sacrifice to God because they are of the opinion that they will not be answered anyway? They think this way because they know there is a Baal inside their houses (heart). Their consciences accuse them, just as they did the Israelites throughout those seven years. At the end of the day, they knew they had abandoned the Lord.

It’s interesting to note that the Midianites did not kill the Israelites. They would come and take everything the people of God had worked for. They did it for 7 years. They didn’t kill them because the Israelites were working for them. In the same way, the devil does not always want to kill us immediately, because he also came to steal and to destroy.

So, what did God do? He found a man who refused to hide, and who was revolted and ready to do whatever God asked him to do. Gideon was actually thinking about God and His wonders when the Angel of the Lord appeared to him.

What did God do? FIRST he was told to tear down the altar of Baal and cut down the wooden image beside it. This gave him strength to sacrifice the second bull on GOD’S ALTAR (the one he built).

In the exact same way, when a person decides to let go of sin and abandoning it once and for all, he IS FILLED WITH STRENGTH AND ASSURANCE that God is with him, because the accusations of the devil are no longer there. This gives him strength to do WHATEVER God asks of him. THERE’S NOTHING BETTER IN THIS WORLD THAN A CLEAN CONSCIENCE.

There are people who can make a physical sacrifice, but not a spiritual one. They may even be healed, or get a great job and achieve some other blessing, but they will never have PEACE and the ASSURANCE OF THEIR SALVATION that God gives. And that’s NOT what we want! We want a strong church that’s free of demons, blessed, prosperous, made up of fighters, converted and above all, BORN OF GOD.

We invite you to destroy the altars of Baal inside of you (grudges, hatred, hidden sins, doubt, evil thoughts, envy, jealousy… and any other thing that brings doubt).

This will give you the boldness to present your sacrifices on the altar of God next Sunday December 16, 2012.

10 Also I said to you, “I am the Lord your God; do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.” But you have not obeyed My voice.’” Judges 6.10

What about you? Are you going to obey the voice of God or not?