Judges 6: 1 – 40
Why Me?
1 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, 2 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. 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, and the children of Israel cried out to the LORD. 7 And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried out to the LORD because of the Midianites, 8 that the LORD sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage; 9 and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. 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.’ 11 Now the Angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him, and said to him, “The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor!” 13 Gideon said to Him, “O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.” 14 Then the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” 15 So he said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” 16 And the LORD said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.” 17 Then he said to Him, “If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who talk with me. 18 Do not depart from here, I pray, until I come to You and bring out my offering and set it before You.” And He said, “I will wait until you come back.” 19 So Gideon went in and prepared a young goat, and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot; and he brought them out to Him under the terebinth tree and presented them. 20 The Angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And he did so. 21 Then the Angel of the LORD put out the end of the staff that was in His hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. And the Angel of the LORD departed out of his sight. 22 Now Gideon perceived that He was the Angel of the LORD. So Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord GOD! For I have seen the Angel of the LORD face to face.” 23 Then the LORD said to him, “Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die.” 24 So Gideon built an altar there to the LORD, and called it The-LORD-Is-Peace. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. 25 Now it came to pass the same night that the LORD said to him, “Take your father’s young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the wooden image that is beside it; 26 and build an altar to the LORD your God on top of this rock in the proper arrangement, and take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down.” 27 So Gideon took ten men from among his servants and did as the LORD had said to him. But because he feared his father’s household and the men of the city too much to do it by day, he did it by night. 28 And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, there was the altar of Baal, torn down; and the wooden image that was beside it was cut down, and the second bull was being offered on the altar which had been built. 29 So they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And when they had inquired and asked, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.” 30 Then the men of the city said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, because he has torn down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the wooden image that was beside it.” 31 But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Would you plead for Baal? Would you save him? Let the one who would plead for him be put to death by morning! If he is a god, let him plead for himself, because his altar has been torn down!” 32 Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal, saying, “Let Baal plead against him, because he has torn down his altar.” 33 Then all the Midianites and Amalekites, the people of the East, gathered together; and they crossed over and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. 34 But the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon; then he blew the trumpet, and the Abiezrites gathered behind him. 35 And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, who also gathered behind him. He also sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali; and they came up to meet them. 36 So Gideon said to God, “If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said— 37 look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said.” 38 And it was so. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew.” 40 And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground.
I had a young lady who works for me make a comment, ‘I was thinking how mean I am to you and my dad. I believe that the reason is because I know that you and him love me no matter what. I have to be on my good side for others.’ Well that is nice for her to come to an awareness of how she has been treating us, but that does not help you feel all warm and cuddly. Its tough when you extend good and get evil in return.
I share this life situation because this is what we do with the One Who loves us – we wind up taking Him for granted. We wind up pursuing other desires. These attitudes demonstrate the reality that we are not aware anymore that God’s Presence and Power has departed from our lives.
1 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
Just like we read here in the book of Judges, we as sinful people constantly have the tendency to return to sinful practices. In a way we know of the consequences that await our slide into things that God has made a point for us to stay away from – yet we go ahead and wind up doing the sinful things anyway.
Here we read of the Israelites failure to obey our Precious Holy Jehovah Elyon – The Lord Most High. They knew that the Lord would not look the other way and that Judgment would happen.
The Lord Yahweh delivered up His own people to the Midianites for seven years. In the bible numbers have specific meaning. For example the number 5 is related to God’s ‘Grace’. The number 7 refers to ‘completeness.’
In just these 7 years the Israelites felt the sting of God’s discipline. The Midianites who were related to the Israelites. If you remember back in the book of Genesis chapter 25 Abraham took another wife after Sarah died and the child born of this woman ultimately became this nation “1 Abraham again took a wife, and her name was Keturah. 2 And she bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. 3 Jokshan begot Sheba and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim. 4 And the sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abidah, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah.’
Although they were related there was nothing but hatred between them. For each of these 7 years the Midianites would join with the Amalekites and sweep through the land of Israel murdering, plundering, seizing the crops and live stock, and destroying everything else. All in all these years were so horrible that the memory of this time in history was always remembered. It was to the Jews almost as bad as the ‘Holocaust.’ The prophet Isaiah spoke about this awful time in chapter 9 of his book, ‘4 For You have broken the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.
In this case they did not know from where the problems would come from. We read in verse two the answer to this question?
2 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. 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.
If you have been studying with us since chapter 1 you should remember the fact of the tribal agreement. I’m drawing blanks from everyone. Remember that there are 12 tribes. When the Israelites came into the ‘Promised Land’ they were a unified army. Once they settled into their assigned territories the agreement was that if an enemy came against one specific area or tribe, the rest of the tribes throughout the land of Israel would muster together and send fighting men to battle any invading army.
What we see displayed in each chapter after chapter 1 is that they tribes started to ignore this agreement. They ignored the call to arms from their brother tribes.
As a result we see here how now everyone lived in constant fear and defeat. There were no leaders to rally the troops. So, the result was that the Israelites would run and hide in caves and holes in fear of the Midianites. Wow!
Sometimes if we just read the Bible and do not take our time we miss out on some great golden nuggets of truth. For example, take a look at verse one and we read about why all this heartache came upon the people of Israel – “1 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.”
Okay now let me share with you what our Lord had warned the Israelites of His curse if they disobeyed His laws. In the book of Deuteronomy chapter 28, we read in verse 31 this “31 Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it; your donkey shall be violently taken away from before you, and shall not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no one to rescue them.”
And we also read in verse 38 this warning from Jehovah Elyon – The Lord Most High –“38 “You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in, for the locust shall consume it.”
Now take a look at verse 5 again of chapter 7, “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.”
The Israelites were low in supplies, possessions, and in spirit. They were at the bottom. In this case the bottom of their hiding places in the caves quivering in fear. Then they yielded to their stubborn pride and humbly cried out to their God for Mercy.
6 So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the LORD. 7 And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried out to the LORD because of the Midianites
Some of you may have noticed who the Lord sends to the people – a prophet. Weren’t the prophets guys like Isaiah, Ezekiel, Elijah, etc. Then who is this guy. Is this the first time a ‘prophet’ is in the bible.
No, in fact our Precious Holy God has had prophets since Abraham. Here is a few mentions of prophets.
Genesis 20, “Now therefore, restore the man’s wife; for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you shall live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”
Exodus 7, “So the LORD said to Moses: “See, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet.”
Exodus 15, “Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took the timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.”
Numbers 11, “Then Moses said to him, “Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put His Spirit upon them!”
8 that the LORD sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage; 9 and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land.
Here Yahweh Elohe Yisrael – The Lord God of Israel - repeats His Words of His Covenant with the people of Israel back on Mount Sinai in Exodus chapter 20, “1 And God spoke all these words, saying: 2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”
God had been Faithful, the people of Israel had not been faithful. There was nothing of what Qedosh Yisreal – The Holy One of Israel – promised that He had not done for them.
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.’
The people had become blind and stupid. Instead of fearing the real God they now become prisoners of the very ones who hated them. Write this down and memorize these verses;
Proverbs 13: 13 “He who despises the word will be destroyed, But he who fears the commandment will be rewarded.”
Matthew 10: 28, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Now we see a very unique thing happen, we have our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ showing up personally. As we study this chapter it appears to me that our Holy Ruler had sent a prophet to convey His words to the Israelites. However, it appears that He takes on a new action. It is like He was saying to the prophet, ‘You know what, never mind telling the people my message, I AM Personally going to deal with this problem. So, look at what He does
11 Now the Angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites.
To thresh wheat you usually do it on a hill top where it is windy. You would take a threshing fork and throw the wheat into the wind. The chaff or covering of the wheat would blow down wind and the wheat itself would fall in a pile a little way from you. You can see the extent of fear that the invasion of the Midianites caused the Israelites for Gideon in effect was hiding while trying to do this work. I can just imagine the amount of dust this poor guy was inhaling.
12 And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him, and said to him, “The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor!”
Many teacher’s that I have read comment on this verse as a joke spoken by our Precious Master. At first you can possibly see this. Here is Gideon hiding out and the Lord shows up and calls him a brave man. Yet, I do not think that this is what is really going on. I think we can agree our Lord does not have that kind of attitude towards us. He wouldn’t mock Gideon and then say, ‘Hey, buddy I am going to use you to free My people from the Midianites. Would you agree with this point?
Now the bible says this about our Wonderful Holy Judge regarding how we even think;
Psalm 94, “The LORD knows the thoughts of man, That they are futile.”
Proverbs 12, “The thoughts of the righteous are right, But the counsels of the wicked are deceitful.”
Proverbs 16, “Commit your works to the LORD, And your thoughts will be established.”
Isaiah 55, “Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.”
I believe that in his miserable labor threshing the wheat in the wine press, Gideon must have been thinking of His people’s troubles and thinking about how they should be free from the Midianites. He may have also been thinking to himself that compared to the other Israelites, he remained a follower of Adoni Yahweh. I believe this point of view is accurate based on the dialogue between Gideon and our Holy Lord.
13 Gideon said to Him, “O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.” 14 Then the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?”
Gideon responded just as we do. We want an explanation from Him as to ‘why’. Why Lord are You allowing all this hurt to come my way? Why? Why? Don’t we all do the same.
The Lord said to Gideon that He was going to use this man to free the Israelites. Remember folks, you and the Lord as a team will never lose.
15 So he said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”
Now here is another point of view where I differ from most teachers. Many take the view that Gideon and his family were poor and the most unimportant family in all the land. In addition Gideon said that he was the worse of all his family - 15 So he said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”
No, this is not right. We are going to read shortly about how Gideon used his servants to destroy the idols and offer God a sacrifice, so he must have been pretty wealthy to have servants. In addition, Gideon’s father had set up the idols that the locals came to worship on his land. We are going to read about his authority in addressing the crowd. So then Gideon’s family was one of the leading families in the area if not the top family.
16 And the LORD said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.”
And the LORD said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man. The Lord assured him that He would be with him and even though there are hundreds of thousands of the enemy encamped against the Israelites, God will destroy them as though they were just one guy. Wow!
17 Then he said to Him, “If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who talk with me. 18 Do not depart from here, I pray, until I come to You and bring out my offering and set it before You.” And He said, “I will wait until you come back.” 19 So Gideon went in and prepared a young goat, and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot; and he brought them out to Him under the terebinth tree and presented them. 20 The Angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And he did so. 21 Then the Angel of the LORD put out the end of the staff that was in His hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. And the Angel of the LORD departed out of his sight. 22 Now Gideon perceived that He was the Angel of the LORD. So Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord GOD! For I have seen the Angel of the LORD face to face.” 23 Then the LORD said to him, “Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die.” 24 So Gideon built an altar there to the LORD, and called it The-LORD-Is-Peace. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
Gideon recognized that the One before Him was one sent from God. I do not believe at this time for sure he realized that he was talking to our Lord Jesus Christ. He wanted to do something nice for his visitor. To show Him some hospitality. But he was also afraid that if he went to prepare some food for his guest that it was possible that this Holy One would not be there when he got back with the food. So he asked permission and assurance from this Holy One to promise that He would remain until he came back.
The Lord instructed Gideon to put everything on a rock. He then touched the stuff and fire came up from the rock and consumed everything. Have you ever thought why didn’t the Lord eat the food prepared by Gideon? I believe it is because it was not prepared nor offered properly as instructed by El Shaddai – God Almighty – as to where and how sacrifices to Him should be done. Yet at the same time our Precious Holy Creator allowed fire to consume the gift as a point of its acceptance by Him.
When it was all over then Gideon stopped and realized that he had actually had been seeing and talking with Jehovah Shammah – the Ever Present God.
25 Now it came to pass the same night that the LORD said to him, “Take your father’s young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the wooden image that is beside it; 26 and build an altar to the LORD your God on top of this rock in the proper arrangement, and take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down.” 27 So Gideon took ten men from among his servants and did as the LORD had said to him. But because he feared his father’s household and the men of the city too much to do it by day, he did it by night.
Now that Gideon was committed our Lord tested his willingness to obey. The Lord first wanted to deal with the main cause that lead the people away from Him, that being the altar of Baal.
Look at the use of the two bullocks? I believe the directions were for Gideon to use the first ox to pull down the idols and then use the 7 year old ox as a sacrifice - not to use both as the sacrifice. Remember that the Midianites have been hurting the Israelites for how long? – 7 years. The bull to be sacrificed was how old? – 7 years. Hymm. Do you think there is a relationship to these two?
Also please note how Gideon took 10 men out of his servants. That meant there were plenty more servants available which points toward Gideon’s family financial standings.
Gideon’s night time action was not a fear of being a coward but fear that that his actions would be thwarted by his family. They would have put up a fight and perhaps prevented him from obeying the Lord’s direction.
28 And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, there was the altar of Baal, torn down; and the wooden image that was beside it was cut down, and the second bull was being offered on the altar which had been built. 29 So they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And when they had inquired and asked, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.” 30 Then the men of the city said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, because he has torn down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the wooden image that was beside it.” 31 But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Would you plead for Baal? Would you save him? Let the one who would plead for him be put to death by morning! If he is a god, let him plead for himself, because his altar has been torn down!” 32 Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal, saying, “Let Baal plead against him, because he has torn down his altar.”
Instead of pricking their conscious’s the people responded in fury as to Gideon’s action. They demanded his death. He had in their eyes committed a gross act of sacrilege. This points out to how the people had loss their spiritual minds because according to the book of Deuteronomy chapter 13, they themselves should be the ones to be put to death, “6 “If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, 7 of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, 8 you shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him; 9 but you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. 10 And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.”
Sometimes when you take a stand for the Lord your whole family can come around to following the Lord also. I believe this is what happened to Gideon’s father. Look at the wisdom God gave him. He answered the people cleverly. He turned the tables on them and smoothly charged the people with the same crime that they were accusing his son of – ‘will you plead for Baal? Or will you save him?’ If they believed that Baal was real then did he need the people to take vengeance for him. He needed them to act for him. They were in effect accusing Baal of not being able to deal with his own affairs. That in itself would be a sacrilege and deserved the death penalty. So, to let them off the hook he suggested that they let Baal take care of his own revenge.
33 Then all the Midianites and Amalekites, the people of the East, gathered together; and they crossed over and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. 34 But the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon; then he blew the trumpet, and the Abiezrites gathered behind him. 35 And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, who also gathered behind him. He also sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali; and they came up to meet them. 36 So Gideon said to God, “If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said— 37 look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said.” 38 And it was so. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew.” 40 And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground.
I just had a man who was troubled because he had a dream about how the Holy Spirit flew away from him. He was afraid of losing his salvation. When you read the Old Testament you will see the Holy Spirit coming upon and leaving people. In the Psalm of David he cries out this in 55:11, “ Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.”
We however are blessed to live after Pentecost. In the Gospel of John chapter 14 we find out the truth that our Precious Holy Spirit will never leave us, 15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”
Gideon’s relative members which are called Abiezer, responded right away to Gideon’s call to arms. Now seeing all the fighting men show up was a bit nerve wracking to him. He was riddled with doubts. God was patient with him though. For He knew that Gideon was not a hardened warrior. Why did Gideon ask for two signs with the fleece of wool. It was because he thought his first request was stupid. He thought he asked the wrong way, then he asked God’s forgiveness and asked the second time.
Our Precious Holy and Gracious God answered Gideon’s requests. I like the saying, ‘If God decides, God provides.’ If our Great God wants a man or woman to do something special He will do amazing things through and for that individual.
I do not know about you but some may be thinking like Gideon, ‘Hey, what about me? How come God doesn’t use me?’ Well, He will, if you really are willing. For He says this to all of us in the second book of Chronicles chapter 16, “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. In this you have done foolishly; therefore from now on you shall have wars.”
His Holy Eyes are scanning the whole earth looking for a man or woman with their hand raised like Isaiah and saying, ‘Lord, Here am I, use me!’
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