3 So it was, whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would come up; also Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. 4 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. 5 For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, coming in as numerous as locusts; both they and their camels were without number; and they would enter the land to destroy it. 6 So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites (Judges 6:3-6)
There are spirits that team up against you when you sow your seed, when you invest. There are spirits that don't want you to receive your harvest.
But I want you to see the entry point of this spirit. "The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord" (Judges 6:1)
The spirits of poverty have an assignment to keep you out of your inheritance.
And when they cried to the Lord because of Midian, 8 The Lord sent a prophet to the Israelites (Judges 6:7)
The Israelites had a problem, and God sent them a prophet.
The Power of an Offering
Do not leave here, I pray You, until I return to You and bring my offering and set it before You. And He said I will wait until you return. (Judges 6:18)
Bible scholars tell us that the Angel of the LORD was none other than Lord Jesus Christ Himself. In the New Testament, when John described Jesus as “the Word” of God, who is distinct from God the Father but also fully God (John 1:1–3), the apostle was likely drawing on the Old Testament figure of “the angel of the LORD” and “word of the LORD.”
Never underestimate the power of your offering. Gideon was moved with gratitude to present an offering to God in recognition of the favour bestowed upon him. God's response to that offering is spiritually insightful: "I will wait until you return." That is the power of a genuine offering to God. A genuine offering will cause God to make time and "wait" for you.
And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, 2, and He also saw a certain poor widow putting in two mites. 3 So He said, "Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; 4 for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had." (Luke 21:1-4)
The eyes of the Lord are too holy to behold evil. He would definitely not look at something that was insignificant. An offering made the Lord see the plight of the widow.
Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, The Lord is Peace. To this day, it still stands in Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites. (Judges 6:24)
Jehovah Shalom (Judges 6:24)
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