Welcome to the Daily Blade . The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit , the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil . Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson , and they stand ready to equip men for the fight . Let's sharpen up .
Speaker 2Hi guys , all week we've looked at different passages of Scripture that reveal to us , and remind us , christian men , that we were born for battle . So we looked at some Pauline letter , we looked at one Pauline letter , we looked at—actually it was a couple of Pauline letters . There you go . I'm trying to remember my own week , guys , we also looked at the Psalm of David , and today we're in the book of Judges , chapter 6 . So this is where we were introduced , or are introduced to a coward turned conqueror , and that's Gideon . So the story of Gideon starts in West Manasseh , near the Sea of Galilee , and during this period the Israelites had turned away from God and for that God delivered them into the hands of their enemies , the Midianites . So the Midianites ravaged the land , you know . They massively impoverished the Israelites and finally the Israelites turned away from the pagan gods that they had been worshiping and turned to the real God to help . So God's answer to them was well , it's going to come from an unlikely source , but here's Gideon . So we first meet Gideon while he is threshing wheat in a wine press . Now , if you just heard me say that , that part could be easily skipped over , okay , but here's why it's important Threshing wheat was a process that normally took place above ground , because the wind was actually used to help with the method of separation . However , gideon was so afraid of the Midianites and what they might do to him that he is actually performing this action in a wine press , which is underground . Okay , so , in other words , he's hiding like a little coward . And this is when you know all the things changed for Gideon . We go to Judges 6 , verse 12 . When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon , he said the Lord is with you , mighty warrior . Now , obviously , this is kind of ironic , because Gideon is actually hiding , right , he's scared , but God was calling him a mighty warrior . I mean , this is just so unbelievably important . I mean , another way you could say it is that God is giving him power by giving him a new descriptor for himself , a new name , if you will , and , guys , we know this descriptor for himself , a new name , if you will , and , guys , we know this . But there is power in new descriptors , there is power in a name .
Speaker 2Now there's actually a story from the Gospels that has just recently revolutionized how I read the Bible . The TV series , the Chosen , actually helped me with this by slowing it down , because I used to just read everything too fast or just skim the parts that I thought I already knew , but I no longer do that because of what I realized about the story of the woman with the issue of blood . So the story is found in all three of the synoptic gospels , but I'm going to read the account from Matthew 9 , verses 20 through 22 . Short account here . And behold , a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for 12 years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment . For she said to herself , if I only touch his garment , I will be made well . Jesus turned and , seeing her , said take heart , daughter , your faith has made you well . And instantly the woman was made well . So initially you might read a story like that and be like okay , wow , cool , just another person that Jesus healed . That's neat . But this story has so much more to it than that and I can't get into all the details here since we're on a time crunch .
Speaker 2But I just want to make sure that you guys key in on this one word daughter . You see , this woman was on her period for 12 straight years . I mean , the majority of our listeners here are men , so we can't even fathom most of that . But we at least all know enough to know that it would be terrible , right ? But it's , you know , it's way worse for this woman than what you're even thinking , because , aside from the fact that she did not have access to some of the , you know , modern products and conveniences that make that process a little bit more manageable for women , this woman would have been a complete , a little bit more manageable for women . This woman would have been a complete outcast in her day , because in the Old Testament , ceremonial law , women on their menstrual cycles were ritually unclean and anyone that touched her would have been ritually unclean , right ? So for this woman , she lost her ability to operate in society and she would have been excommunicated from her family . And she would have been excommunicated from her family , but here Jesus calls her daughter . A woman who would have been shunned by her earthly father was called daughter by the Son of God . I mean , there's so much power in that .
Speaker 2Now , back to Gideon . Eventually , through Gideon , god does exactly what he promised he helped the Israelites crush the Midianites . However , in order to show that it was not just the Israelites that accomplished this feat by themselves and with their own strength , god made Gideon whittle down his fighting force of over 22,000 men to only 300 warriors . And these 300 men routed thousands of enemy Midianites , chasing them from their lands .
Speaker 2And Gideon certainly didn't start out resilient , right , but he cultivated it along the way . However , he didn't cultivate it based on his own strength and you know kind of white-knuckled stick-to-itiveness . He cultivated it because God called him up into a new name , mighty Warrior , a name that he , god , would continue to work to help Gideon live up to . And , men , some of you have made some agreements with the names . You were called as a boy , wuss , worthless , runt , weakling , good for nothing , coward . But I'm here to tell you this you are a mighty warrior . Did you hear me ? You are a mighty warrior . So for the last time this week , men , we were born for battle . Thank you for your attention this week stay .
Speaker 1Thank you for listening to today's episode Before you go . If you want to help equip other men for the fight , share this podcast around and leave us a five-star rating and review . Stay sharp .