Speaker 1: 0:01

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 2: 0:20

Hi 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 2: 2:29

Now 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 2: 3:30

But 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 2: 4:45

Now, 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 2: 5:08

And 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 1: 6:06

Thank 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.