#68. Judges 7-9 | Good Friday + When The Power of God Meets the Obedience of Man

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This is the Dwelling Place from Entrusted Ministries.

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I'm Stephanie Hickox, and today

I'm thoughtfully reflecting on

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what Christ accomplished on the

cross and what this day means.

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We'll continue with our chronological

plan and read Judges seven through nine.

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As Gideon Obediently assembles, a

ragtag motley crew of men, and then his

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son in rebellion does the same thing.

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We can think about Jesus who selected

the most unlikely of followers and will

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rejoice that he included us at the end

of chapter six, Gideon had assembled

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a following to defeat the Midianites.

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We'll look at chapter seven

for our scripture today.

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Then Gerald Baal.

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That is Gideon and all the people who

are with him rose early and encamped

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beside the spring of Herod and the

camp of Midian was north of them

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by the hill of Mora in the valley.

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The Lord said to Gideon, the

people with you are too many.

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For me to give the Midianites into

their hand lust, Israel boast over

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me, saying My own hand has saved me.

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Now, therefore, proclaim in the ears

of the people saying whoever is fearful

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and troubling, let him return home

and hurry away from Mount Gilead.

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Then 22,000 of the people

returned and 10,000 remained.

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And the Lord said to Gideon,

the people are still too many.

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Take them down to the water and

I will test them for you there.

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And any one of whom I say to you, this

one shall go with you, shall go with you.

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And any one of whom I say to you, this

one shall not go with you, shall not go.

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So he brought the people down to the water

and the Lord said to Gideon, everyone

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who laps the water with his tongue as

a dog, laps you shall set by himself.

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Likewise, everyone who kneels

down to drink and the number of

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those who lapped putting their

hands to their mouths was 300 men.

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But all the rest of the people

knelt down to drink water.

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And the Lord said to Gideon, with the 300

men who lapped, I will save you and give

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the Midianites into your hand and let

all the others go, every man to his home.

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So the people took provisions in their

hands and their trumpets, and he sent

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all the rest of Israel, every man to

his tent, but retained the 300 men

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and the camp of Midian was

below him in the valley.

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That same night the Lord said to him,

arise, go down against the camp for,

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I've given it into your hand, but if

you are afraid to go down, go down

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to the camp with Prah, your servant,

and you shall hear what they say,

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and afterward your hand shall be

strengthened to go down against the camp.

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Then he went down with Prah, his

servant to the outposts of the

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armed men who were in the camp.

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And the Midianites and the Amalekites

and all the people of the east lay along

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the valley like locust in abundance and

their camels were without number as the

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sand that is on the seashore in abundance.

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When Gideon came, behold,

a man was telling a dream

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to his comrade and he said.

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Behold, I dreamed a dream and behold

a cake of barley bread tumbled into

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the camp of Midian and came to the

tent and struck it so that it fell

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and turned it upside down so that the

tent lay flat and is comrade answered.

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This is no other than the sort of

Gideon, the son of Joe, a man of Israel,

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god has given into his

hand Midn and all the camp.

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As soon as Gideon heard the telling of

the dream and its interpretation, he

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worshiped and he returned to the camp of

Israel and said, arise for the Lord has

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given the host of Midn into your hand.

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Speaker 8: When I think about 32,000

warriors and 22,000 of them trembling

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and afraid I imagine them walking next

to each other on the way saying, what are

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you gonna tell them when you get home?

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And it kind of made me laugh out

loud, but then thinking about

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these 10,000 men remaining.

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And only 300 were selected it seems

that men who were brave and ready

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for the battle are not selected.

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And reminds me of the times in my life

where God allowed me to be rejected but

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the whole purpose in this story is that

sometimes it has nothing to do with us.

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It's all about how God will

receive the most glory.

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He is creating the most unlikely

circumstance, so that it's undeniable

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that the Lord had the victory.

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I find it interesting that my

commentaries had a different perspective

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on these men lapping the water.

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John McMath writes that it's likely

each of the 300 men in the first group.

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Scooped the water in one hand and

held their weapon in the other.

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So they may have been

more alert for the battle.

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But Josephus, the infamous historian,

had long ago written that these

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were probably actually less watchful

and that God's power would be made

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more evident by selecting them.

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And another commentary says it was

just purely random and the Lord

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just wanted to select 300 men.

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So they would be absolutely outnumbered.

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In any case, I repeatedly see

the patience of the Lord as he

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understands that Gideon is afraid

and he provides him with reassurance.

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These men are told to take a few

items into battle, but no weapons.

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It was about 10:00 PM at night.

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And all of a sudden the Midianites

hear and see chaos all around them.

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It's dark.

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they think that these torches

are representative of a

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multitude of enemy fires.

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They hear the battle cry of these horns

blasting and the pictures breaking,

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and they are thrown into a panic.

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They even begin defeating each other.

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Just so you realize how

statistically incredible this is.

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The Midianites had about 135,000 soldiers

and only 15,000 of them survive This.

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That means that for each of the 300 of

the men, Gideon, brought into the battle,

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God used to defeat 450 Midianite soldiers.

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Who's the hero here?

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Clearly it's the Lord.

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In chapter eight and nine, the

Midianite, princes and kings are

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defeated, but Gideon faces some

reluctance different areas to help him.

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He promises I'll come back and defeat you.

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And he does, but not in

the most gracious way.

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And after all

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of these conquests, Gideon is

told they wanna make him king.

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Speaker 7: Gideon says to them

in 8 23, I will not rule over you

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and my son will not rule over you.

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The Lord will rule over you, but then

he asks for their earrings and makes an

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Speaker 8: E ad.

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Again, there's some disagreement on this.

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The EOD was something sacred that the

priest swove to communicate with God.

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Well, God has been so

present and near him.

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Why would he need that?

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One?

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Commentary suggests that the amount of

gold on the EFA indicates that there

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is an idol of some sort attached.

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Another says Gideon wasn't

doing anything wrong.

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This was just a piece of clothing, and

eventually David will make one too.

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They say the fact that the end of

chapter eight still praises Gideon

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for all the good he did for Israel.

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It points to the fact that Gideon

didn't have ill will in doing this.

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It's just that the Israelites absolutely

used it to do evil, and even though

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they have a time of peace under him,

immediately after he dies, it says

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that Israel plays the harlot again,

and it's certainly not figurative

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One thing that there is no disagreement

on is that Gideon's many wives and

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his 70 plus children cause absolute

chaos and destruction in every

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polygamous situation that we've

seen so far it does not go well.

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This is no different.

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one of Gideon's sons is named

Ab Bialek, which interestingly

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means my father is king.

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if Gideon was so set on the

Lord being king, that was an

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interesting name to give his son.

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Maybe his motives weren't completely pure.

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But AB Bialek rises up and kills 70

of his brothers on a stone, which

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would probably have been an altar,

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and it's likely that this is referring

to the amygdala or fortress Temple,

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and tell Balata an area that has been

thoroughly excavated and confirms

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much of biblical history in Shaham.

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It's especially heartbreaking that

such sin is occurring here because

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this is the location in Joshua

24 when the people promise that

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they would stay true to the Lord.

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The youngest brother Jotham

escapes and he yells a warning.

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To Sheko down below saying You

don't wanna make a bialek king.

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He delivers one of the clearest

fables in all of scripture.

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It's got a moral, and animals

and plants are even personified.

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It's fascinating that Jotham

yells this out on Mount Garrison.

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If you recall, at the end of

Deuteronomy, God had six of the

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tribes call out blessings, and those

were called out on Mount Garrison.

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And then on Mount Iba,

they called out the curses.

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These two mountains create an echo

tunnel over the town of Sheko, Aek

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does a bunch of awful things, and he

also assembles an unlikely group of

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men to help with his evil endeavors.

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But eventually, God provides judgment,

and right after he kills about a thousand

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people by burning them, a strong woman

shows up and throws a millstone out

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her window, hitting him in the head.

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Some might say he had it coming.

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as we read about all of this sin

and destruction, it makes me think

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back to the first day of our Bible

reading plan, when in the perfection

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of the Garden of Eden, sin entered the

world, but thousands of years later.

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Jesus would find himself in another

garden preparing to be the solution for

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this sin problem that mankind has proved

over and over, so powerless to defeat

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in Matthew 26 Then Jesus went with them

to a place called Gethsemane, and he

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said to his disciples, sit here while I

go over there and pray, and taking with

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them Peter and the two sons of Zebedee.

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He began to be sorrowful and troubled.

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Then he said to them, my soul is

very sorrowful, even to death.

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Remain here and watch with me.

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And going a little farther, he fell on

his face and prayed saying My father.

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If it be possible, let this

cup pass for me, nevertheless,

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not as I will, but as you will.

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And he came to the disciples and found

them sleeping and he said to Peter, so

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could you not watch with me one hour?

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Watch and pray that you may

not enter into temptation.

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The spirit indeed is willing,

but the flesh is weak again.

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For the second time, he went

away and prayed my father.

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If this cannot pass unless I

drink it, your will be done.

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And again, he came and found them sleeping

for their eyes were heavy, so leaving them

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again, he went away and prayed for the

third time saying the same words again.

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Then he came to the disciples and said to

them, sleep and take your rest later on.

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See the hours at hand.

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And the son of man is betrayed

into the hands of sinners.

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Rise, let us be going,

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as Jesus told Gideon to

arise and go into battle.

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Jesus, through prayer, found the

courage to surrender himself and arise.

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Regarding the Gideon story, I loved a

quote that said, this is the victory

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shown when the power of God meets the

obedience of man, and in Jesus Christ,

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we see those perfectly combined.

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That a perfect sinless God took on flesh

and did what you and I are powerless to

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do, and it just doesn't feel right to ask

any more for ourselves today than that.

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So Lord Jesus,

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we pray that you would be

glorified that this Easter.

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Your praise would be

sung around the world.

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You are worthy of all the glory

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in your victorious name, we pray Jesus.

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Amen.