When Victory Becomes a Spiritual Trap - Judges 7:16 – 8:35 (Session9)

Judges 7 concludes with one of the most unlikely military victories in Scripture. Gideon’s three hundred men surround the Midianite camp at night carrying trumpets, clay pitchers, and torches. When they break the pitchers, reveal the torches, and sound the trumpets, confusion spreads through the enormous enemy camp. The Midianites turn their swords against one another and flee.

The strategy makes no sense from a human military perspective. That is precisely the point. God reduced Gideon’s army so dramatically that Israel could not claim the victory came through its own strength. Yahweh alone deserved the glory.

Yet this session also shows how quickly spiritual danger can follow success. The soldiers cry, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon,” perhaps revealing the first hint that Gideon’s name is beginning to share attention that belongs to God.

Judges 8 then records Gideon’s conflict with the tribe of Ephraim. They complain that they were not called into the battle earlier, even though they had years of opportunity to resist Midian. Gideon calms them through flattering language, exposing the danger of appealing to pride rather than dealing directly with truth.

As Gideon pursues the remaining Midianite kings, the Israelite towns of Succoth and Penuel refuse to provide food. Their fear reveals how comfortable they had become living under oppression. They are more afraid of Midian’s possible return than willing to support the deliverer God has raised up.

Gideon later returns and punishes these towns with extreme violence. His response goes beyond equal justice and reveals a troubling change in his character. Instead of asking God how to respond, Gideon acts according to what seems right in his own eyes.

The decline continues when Gideon takes valuable spoil from the defeated kings and accepts a large collection of gold earrings from Israel. Although he refuses the title of king and correctly says that the Lord should rule over Israel, he increasingly adopts the wealth and privileges associated with royalty.

Gideon then uses the gold to make an ephod. Whatever his original intentions may have been, the object becomes a center of false worship and a snare to Gideon, his household, and Israel.

The man who began by tearing down an idol ends by creating an object that becomes an idol.

This passage warns that victory, recognition, wealth, and influence can become dangerous when humility and obedience are lost.

Scripture: Judges 7:16–8:35
Series: The Book of Judges — An RTTB Study

 Questions discussed in this session:

• What happens when people go for a long time living around evil? 
• Why would tribes of Israel fight among themselves?
• How can Israel forget God so quickly?
• How many times should God need to remind us of His being worthy?  

Transcript

Gideon's Victory Over the Midianites

Speaker 2 0:21

Hello and welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible , our podcast , where we do , verse by verse , bible study and answering some of your questions and looking at some of the things that has to be reasoned through in the Bible . We've been working our way through the book of Judges . Just a reminder today we're picking up where we left off last time in chapter 7 of Judges . Just a little bit of review on where we are at this point in the book . The key verse to the book of Judges is the last verse in the book which says in those days there was no king in Israel . Everyone did what was right in his own eyes . And that verse at the end summarizes everything we see in the book of Judges , which is a lot of disobedience .

Speaker 2 1:04

The book of Joshua just prior to Judges , there's a lot of victory , a lot of faith , a lot of obeying God . Then , when we get to the Judges , they've forgotten God . They start to worship the idols of the people around them and they have a lot of pagan influence . And when that happened , god removes his power from them and the enemy comes in . Much of Judges are accounts of people disobeying God , getting into one mess after another , doing many horrible things .

Speaker 2 1:34

It gets very ugly before the book's over this point , where we are in Judges , we've encountered this man named Gideon and in Judges , chapter 6 , verse 33 , a large number of Midianites and Amalekites came together . Gideon had been harvesting grain down in a hole , a wine press hiding from the Midianites . When the angel of the Lord appears , declares him to be a mighty warrior , empowers him . Gideon tears down the altar of Baal , starts to follow God and become a deliverer . As of last time , gideon had gone down and learned that the enemy was more afraid of him than he was of them , which encouraged him , and we talked about how God is an encourager .

Speaker 1 2:17

Yeah , and in this cycle that you mentioned before is is . The positive part of this cycle is that God is always faithful to come when the people cry out . He's faithful to come in and bring up a deliverer . One other item before we move on to is back in chapter 6 , whenever Gideon went , the first duty that God had asked him to do , or told him to do , was to tear down the Baal , the altars of the Baal and the astra that his father and his fellow townsfolk were worshiping . And when he did that , all the townsfolk came out , wanted to kill him , and his father stepped forward and said if you kill him , you're going to be on the side of Baal and let Baal and astra , the two gods , let them contend for themselves . And it's when he actually renamed or gave Gideon another name called Yerubal , which means let Baal fight or let Baal argue .

Speaker 1 3:08

This is a theme that we see throughout scripture as well , in that God does contend for himself through people , the people that he calls to come and work on behalf of him . This is an example of Gideon has been called and has brought up , and God is contending for himself . Gideon's father's response was if this god or these gods are all powerful as what you think they are , because you're actually and we're actually worshiping them , then let them contend for themselves . So it's just curious thing that one we mentioned . The first act was for him to tear down all these altars and get realigned with God , but the second thing is that we actually see God Yahweh working to contend for himself through people , whereas these other gods you really don't see them doing that . We see Yahweh coming out the victor .

Speaker 2 4:02

And we see that recurring theme several places in the Old Testament where Israel had gone after these idols and the prophets of God say let the idol contend for himself . I remember when Elijah , when he goes up against the idols I believe it's Mount Carmel this theme happens several times . So here we are in Judges , chapter seven , and we're just about to see the battle that Gideon defeats the Midianites . And in chapter seven , verse 16 , we learn this strategy . It's a very unusual strategy and what has happened up to this point is he started out with 32,000 men and God whittles it down to 300 , which is a ridiculously low number . God says he does that so that everyone will know that God did the victory and it wasn't through the strength of Gideon and the soldiers .

Speaker 1 4:55

Today , we might refer to them as being special forces .

Speaker 2 4:58

Special forces . So Judges seven , 16 says he divided the 300 men into three companies and he put trumpets and empty pitchers into the hands of all of them , with torches inside the pitchers . So get the idea here he's got a clay pot with a torch inside it and they've got a trumpet , and there's 300 of them . They sneak into the enemy , at least close to the enemy , at the middle watch , it says , which is the middle of the night . So they come in when it's dark . Most everybody's asleep except for the watchers . They divide into three companies , they spread themselves out surrounding the camp , they get close on the command , they yell , they break the clay pots , which makes a noise , and then suddenly everybody can see all these torches all around them in the dark and it looks like there's a whole lot of people there , and then they blow the trumpets . The enemy thinks there's a large number of troops around them . That's the implication to the enemy tribe .

Speaker 1 6:05

And we also hearken back to Jericho . Similar type of tactics , although it was during the daytime , but the same thing . They had trumpets , they were walking around , they shouted , blew the trumpets and helped walls fall down . So again we see a tactic that God has given them to do that's similar .

Speaker 2 6:23

So verse 19, . They blew the trumpets and smashed the pitchers that were in their hand . When the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers , they held torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands and cried out a sword for the Lord and for Gideon . Each man stood in his place around the camp and all the army ran crying out as they fled . When they blew the trumpets , the Lord set a sword of one against the other , even throughout the whole army , and the army fled as far as Beth Shetah . So basically , what happened was the enemies got scared , they got frightened , they were routed .

Speaker 2 7:01

They were confused because they had just woken up . They started fighting each other and they were routed . So there was a huge number of people . It's said earlier in the book that the Midianites came with their tents and their camels and their soldiers . They were without numbers , so there was a huge number of them . But 300 men in a sneak surprise attack didn't even have to really draw their swords . The enemy killed each other and ran away . Who could have caused that ? That is kind of a military ridiculous strategy . Militarily , who is the only one who really could have caused a victory like that ?

Speaker 1 7:39

Oh God , Yahweh , who assured Gideon that he was going to be with him and going before him .

Speaker 2 7:44

In verse 22 , it tells us that the enemy fought against each other and fled . And then in verse 23 , Gideon asked for some of the men of Israel to come and help , but not all of them . And in verse 24 and 25 , Israel chases the enemy and kills them . So God is the only one who could have caused this victory . Who should get the credit ? God , God , Yahweh . Look at the end of verse 20 . When the men broke the pots and shouted , what was it ?

Speaker 1 8:14

they shouted A sword for the Lord and for Gideon .

Speaker 2 8:18

So here's a question we learned from the dream it was earlier in the book that the enemy was afraid of Gideon . So in one sense it could be that when they yelled the Lord and Gideon that they were trying to make the enemy afraid . It also could be that this is the first seed pride that has taken root in Gideon . Why not just say the sword of the Lord ? Why is Gideon's name in here when the Lord really ought to be the one that got the victory and we're going to see before it's over with . Gideon is a flawed human , just like the rest of us . I think this is just the first hint that there's going to be kind of a pride problem with this man , gideon .

Speaker 1 9:00

Yeah , again , the Midianites are routed and they're heading back across the Jordan River , going back east , where they come from . So these again Midianites , these are not people that are living in the land . They come in and they're marauding raiders . When Gideon , in this battle , has routed them , that's where they're headed . They're headed back east across the Jordan and it's gonna come into account here when we talk about Ephraim .

Speaker 2 9:22

And so then in chapter eight the people of Ephraim get angry at Gideon . Chapter eight , verse one the men of Ephraim said to him what is this thing you have done to us not calling us when you went to fight against Midian ? And they contended with him vigorously ? It says so . They were very angry that they didn't get a chance to fight the Midianites . So it kind of makes me smile just a little bit . How close were these Midianites for all these years ? Did they have opportunity to fight against them themselves ?

Speaker 1 9:53

Yeah , so the Ephraimites are presented here as being self-centered , facious , easily offended , and they have an inflated estimation of their own importance within the nation themselves . They're kind of acting like they're offended . Why didn't you call us what ?

Speaker 2 10:09

do you think Ephraim's motivation was for getting angry here at Gideon ? Were they mainly interested in driving these Midianites out and driving out the idol worship no glory , or was it glory and money possibly ?

Speaker 1 10:23

Yeah , they were coming late to the party .

Speaker 2 10:25

I think the answer is in the next verse , chapter eight , verse two . Gideon said to them what have I done now , in comparison to you , is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Ibiza ? Now , those of us that are not in the business of grape harvesting don't quite get that , but what he's basically saying is that the leftovers , the gleaning , the things that after you harvest the grapes , that are the few that's left over , that is better than the entire crop over here from the Midianites . That's basically what he's saying is that what you've got money-wise in your business is much better than the money from what we took from these enemies . That's really what they're saying and that seems to satisfy them . That satisfies them and they go away From that . I think we can build a pretty strong case . That in verse one , when Ephraim comes in and wants to be hey , how come you didn't call us to help fight ? They were really just interested in the spoils of the battle .

Speaker 1 11:27

Right , but they had captured two of the princes or two of the commanders there in verse 10 .

Speaker 2 11:33

Now the other thing I notice here

Greed in Gideon's Story

Speaker 2 11:35

and again . In chapter eight , verses one to three , these Ephraimites come up . They're angry with Gideon and he basically flatters them in verses two and three . Hey , you've got really good stuff over at your ear . God has given the leaders of Midian into your hands , and what was I able to do in comparison with you ? He's basically flattering them . What good does flattery do ? Does that really get us places ? Is that still used today ? Can we possibly be victim of flattery ?

Speaker 1 12:07

Yes , in this case it's also helping to diffuse the situation . It feeds into the Ephraim's how they think of themselves . But flattery doesn't always bring about the results that you might want in the long run .

Speaker 2 12:20

I've heard wise people in church settings say be careful of church members that come up to you with flattery , simply because the human ego really likes to be stroked , and when people stroke our ego we like it . Sometimes we can start to take sides based off of who has complimented me about what I do versus somebody that doesn't . It really should be what's the truth and what's falsehood , rather than who likes me and who I like complimenting me . So in chapter eight , verses five to nine , gideon and his man are chasing these enemy kings and they ask for food from two of the Israelite towns , sukkoth and Panool . He's going through , he asks for food , they both turn them down and I say , hey , you , you haven't captured these people yet .

Speaker 1 13:08

How do we know they're not going to come back against us ?

Speaker 2 13:11

Right , which is a very human thing . They're less concerned with the true God and the false God . They're more concerned with saving their neck , whereas , gideon , if you lose , these guys are going to come back and kill us .

Speaker 1 13:21

And they show that they always want to be on the side of whoever's in control . They're blowing with the wind , whichever way it might go .

Speaker 2 13:29

Remember , the enemy represents the evil things that Israel should have rejected out of their lives , but decided to live with them and eventually begin to worship their idols . That's what these enemy people represent , because they brought in the pagan idols . What happens when people go for a long time living around evil ?

Speaker 1 13:49

They get used to it , they get sucked into it , they get complacent with it , they forget who they should be worshiping and who's decided they should be on . They just . I guess complacence is probably a good word .

Speaker 2 14:02

I think that's what happened . These people here in these towns , sucoth and Panul . They were so attached to this evil that when somebody comes in for the Lord to drive it out , they're afraid of that . They're more attached to the evil than they are the good . Is it ever the case that people get so comfortable with sin that they're afraid to get rid of it ? And then , in verse seven , what does Gideon threaten to do to the people of Sucoth who don't help them ?

Speaker 1 14:32

And when he says he's going to come back , they're going to pay for it .

Speaker 2 14:35

And I think the same thing . In verse nine he makes another threat to the other town .

Speaker 1 14:40

He says when I return safely . So they're saying how do we know that you're going to be victorious ? I hear the Midianites are . They're being routed , they're coming through these cities and both of these cities , again , are on the east side of the Jordan River . So the Midianites have been driven out of the land proper on the west side over to the Mediterranean . They've been driven out there across the Jordan River , heading back east in a route , and yet these two cities don't want to help finally defeat them . Gideon saying is okay , whenever I come back safely , meaning I've defeated them , you're going to pay for it , not helping us .

Speaker 2 15:18

Don't forget these Midianites . These were the people that for years have been coming in stealing their food , stealing their cattle , forcing them to live in caves , and now this deliverer comes in to drive this out , and they're more attached to the enemy than they are the deliverer . So here's a question over in the New Testament . I think there's a parallel . What deliverer do we have ? In the New Testament that the Jewish leaders fought against the Lord Jesus ? Jesus right , he came in as a deliverer and the Jewish leaders fought against them . Jesus came to deliver Israel and they were so afraid of Rome that they rejected their Messiah . So similar things happened over in the New Testament . Verses 10 and 12 , gideon and his 300 men defeat the entire army of the enemy with just 300 men . That was on low rations .

Speaker 2 16:07

Verses 13 to 17 , gideon returns to Succoff and Panuol . He then humiliates and tortures the leaders of Succoff . He threatened to take briars and thorns and beat them , and he does that in public . At Panuol , he tears down a tower which is like a main structure in the town and kills the men there . So here we have a problem . He came back and was rightfully angry . These people had not helped him . And he wins . He comes back and does a couple of things here that I think are a problem . Was he justified in publicly humiliating these leaders in this town ?

Speaker 1 16:49

Well , he had given them a warning that this is what was gonna happen . Is that the way that a leader acts ? I don't know , but he had told them that he was going to for their refusal .

Speaker 2 16:59

He had told them he was going to , Especially in Panuol .

Speaker 1 17:02

he burns down this tower with people inside and you get a sense here of this is actually what the Israelites were supposed to be doing to the Canaanites and to their enemy . They were supposed to be driving them out and destroying them altogether , but yet we see once again Israel fighting amongst themselves and doing to their own cities what they were supposed to be doing to the enemies as far as total destruction .

Speaker 2 17:30

What's happening here is the sin and the evil are multiplying . Even in a person like Gideon , who's representative of a deliverer , who's driving the evil enemy out , we're still seeing these things that are evil here and the evil's multiplying . But I think we can make an application here . The Mosaic law , which they are under at this point , required equal punishment for wrong . Remember , there's a passage in Deuteronomy 19 that says an eye for an eye , a tooth for a tooth . That's Deuteronomy 19 . And a lot of people misunderstand what that means . It's actually a very fair thing . What the eye for an eye , tooth for a tooth part supposed to represent is equal punishment . If you kill my bull , then I'm not supposed to say , okay , I'm going to go and wipe out your whole family and burn down your barns and well , no , if you kill my bull , then you owe me a bull . It's an eye for an eye , it's an equal punishment . So here Gideon violates that principle . It's a direct violation of the Mosaic law . They had not fed him when he needed food , so he comes and burns down their town and kills people and humiliates them in public . It was an unequal punishment and I think Gideon here is in the wrong . It was a direct violation of the Mosaic law . It should have been , at the very most hey , you're going to now pay me for the food that you owe me here , gideon , I think we've already started to see some rot in the person of Gideon .

Speaker 2 19:00

So the last verse of Judges everyone did what was right in his own eyes . We're showing that here . Gideon did what was right in his eyes . There's no sign here that he asked God on what to do . No sign of God . How should we treat these people ? No gathering together of the leaders to make a decision . He just takes it upon himself .

Speaker 1 19:20

It's a spur of the moment threat that he gives to them as he's coming through because they don't support him . But then he comes back afterwards and he could have done something different , but he decides to go ahead and follow through with that threat .

Speaker 2 19:35

And we can make an application just in our day . I mean , we're no better than Gideon . If we don't have , or any society doesn't have , a moral code that is larger than all of the societies , then there's no justification for one society going over and taking out vengeance on the other . There has to be a moral code that is larger than all the societies in humanity , and that , of course , is the Lord , god , so down in verse 21, . At the end of verse 21 , gideon kills the enemy kings , takes their valuables , and now he's getting greedy . He takes their things . Does greed tempt all people ?

Speaker 1 20:14

Yes , it is a great temptation , the love of money is the root of all evil .

Speaker 2 20:18

It's not money , it's the love of money , it's the greed , and I think that made the top 10 list Not mistaken coveting . So look down at chapter 8 , verse 22 . I'm going to start reading at verse 22 . Then the men of Israel said to Gideon rule over us , both you and your son , also your son's son , for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian . But Gideon said to them I will not rule over you , nor shall my son rule over you . The Lord shall rule over you .

Speaker 2 20:49

Yet Gideon said to them I would request of you that each of you give me an earring from his spoil , for they had gold earrings because they were Ishmaelites . They said we will surely give them . So they spread out a garment and every one of them threw an earring there from the spoil . The weight of the gold earrings that he requested was 1700 shekels of gold , besides the crescent ornaments and the pendants and the purple robes which are on the kings of Midian and besides the neck bands that were on their camels necks . Gideon made it into an ephid and placed it in his city , ophrah , and all Israel played the harlot with it there , so that it became a snare to Gideon and his household . So what was going on here ? What's happening here ?

Speaker 1 21:36

So naturally , the people have seen Gideon as the leader and their response is you be our king . So we're starting now to see a little bit of creep in here of where the people are wanting a king . They're wanting to be like the other people that are around them that have king . So we're seeing a little bit of that creeping in . God's not dealing with them in the way of a king . He's bringing deliverers , he's bringing individual people and raising them up , but the people are clamoring hey , why don't you become king over us ? We see Gideon decline at first , but yet he takes this spoil , he wants this tribute . So it's kind of like a kingly act , a royal act of go ahead and give me some spoil of the war .

Speaker 2 22:19

He wants . The money without the responsibility is basically what he wants . But the people of Israel rule over , thus both you and your son and your son's son . Now , the part we didn't read . We learned that Gideon's son was so young that he was green . He wasn't mature enough yet to be a soldier or take responsibility . But yet here the people are saying Gideon , we want three generations of your family to be our king , when there was no indication that really any of them had any maturity and again , as Steve pointed out , had God told them that it was a good thing to have a king ?

Speaker 1 22:56

No , and they weren't going to God . They weren't asking God what should we do ? Should we make Gideon a king , along with his offspring ? So it's a failure of the people as well , not looking to God .

Speaker 2 23:09

Before the battle they were even not willing to help them and now they're asking them to be the king . Why would people change their minds so quickly ? I think it's because people follow the desires that happen to be in their belly today rather than the direction that God would give them , the true direction that's given to us in the Scriptures . In verse 23 , he answers that let God rule over you , but you can pay me . In the end , gideon learned that God's the only good ruler . But he also had these flaws . I think , steve , one of the things you said at the beginning of the session today . Even though Gideon had many flaws , he knew that God was the right person to rule over Israel , and we can see ourselves in many of these people . They're flawed people , but in the end he had enough faith to step out on faith and follow God . He had some sin in his life .

Speaker 1 24:02

Yeah , and despite his claims that he didn't want to be king , he increasingly took on the trappings of royalty that we've kind of talked about . The requesting of the tribute of war , it's a symbolic gesture of submission . And then the people willingly gave their agreement to it and offering the spoils to him , and in essence they're acknowledging that they're going to be his subjects , and then the amount of gold submitted has the character of a royal treasury .

Speaker 2 24:31

So we've got all this gold , the purple , all the various jewelry and pendants , and he last verse , verse 27 , makes it into an Ephod and they start worshiping it . Well , what in the world is an Ephod

Warning Against Idolatry

Speaker 2 24:45

?

Speaker 1 24:45

So an Ephod is a garment that was a part of the priestly garments that were worn . The priest wore several parts of clothing and the Ephod was the breast plate or the tunic , more or less that the breastplate went on , but it was a tunic that went over the clothing and the other things that were the robes and other things that were there for the priests . The fact that it's named an Ephod and the fact that Gideon takes it , you get the sense that it's going to have something to do with worship or being related to priestly sacrifice or priestly worship or something like that .

Speaker 2 25:28

I think of a priest's garments . When they put on that , people think , oh , this is a special person , because they're wearing the priests , the garments . Or , in the secular world , a judge will wear a robe . That is a symbol that this is a special person . So he creates this garment , this Ephod , this breastplate that would be used in worship , and he makes it out of this gold . We don't know his motivation , but it's possible that he had a good motivation .

Speaker 2 25:57

But it's a wrong thing to do because we shouldn't be creating objects of religious focus . And here's one of the reasons why we don't create objects of religious focus Because people get more interested in the object than they are the true God . People from all eternity have wanted something to see , to worship . So they create this thing . It becomes an idol . It says the people played the harlot with it there so that it became a snare . And we've talked about this before . What does a snare do ? A snare is a trap that you can't see . It's something you catch an animal and the animal is unaware of it until they're already in it . That's what's happened here is he takes this gold out of greed , he takes part of the gold , creates this object that then becomes an object of worship , and the people worship the object instead of the true God that was supposed to be behind it .

Speaker 1 26:51

And for the first time in the book of Judges , now we see a judge , somebody that God has raised up , and he's beginning to foster idolatry on his own . Oprah , where it was , became a center of idolatrous worship , like you mentioned . It became a snare to Gideon and his house . So , you know , he's taken on the role of a priest himself and he's establishing a worship center away from the tabernacle which was in Shiloh still at this time .

Speaker 2 27:19

Chapter 8 , verse 33 says Then it came about , as soon as Gideon was dead , that the sons of Israel again played the harlot with the balls and made the all berth their God . Thus , the sons of Israel did not remember the Lord , their God , who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side , nor did they show kindness to the household of Jerubal , that is , gideon , in accord with all the good that he had done to Israel . Again , the horribleness just multiplies and continues . Here was this man , gideon , that had enough faith to follow God . Yes , he had some flaws , but as soon as he dies , the people forget the 300 men and the miraculous victory and driving out all the people that had oppressed them and taken their food and made them poor . And Gideon , on faith , drives all these people out . Well , as soon as he's dead , they forget it and start to worship the idols again , and the cycle just continues .

Speaker 1 28:22

That's a pattern that we've seen when Joshua died and the elders died , that people forgot . So it's a pattern that we're seeing with the nation of Israel , but , as we're pointing out as we go through here , it's also something that we as individual people need to be aware of and things that a pattern that we can sometimes fall into and sometimes we do fall into and that we need to be looking out for and be aware of .

Speaker 2 28:48

Yes , I mean teaching this . We feel like , okay , we're teaching the same concepts over and over , because the same things are in the book over and over , but , as you just said , I have to learn these lessons myself , that's human nature . It's human nature , we see it in our lives , we see it in our country . Look at all the great things that the Lord has done for ourselves and our nation and our family , and how often do we forget ?

Reflection on the Book of Judges

Speaker 1 29:11

It's easy to look at Israel , the nation , and say why are these people continuing to falter like this ? Why do they continue to go back and rehash and fall away from God ? But it's a reflection of us and that we need to be in our own lives . We need to be aware that we are subject to this happening to us in our own lives . Why ? Because we're human beings , just like them . They're human beings , it's the human nature and it's something that we need to take out of the book of Judges .

Speaker 2 29:45

Right , the flesh is weak , so that's probably a good place to pull it to the curb for now . So just a reminder we're working our way through the book of Judges . We encourage everyone to visit our website , reasoningthroughthebiblecom , and there you'll find additional resources . We have lesson plans that go along with each of these sessions that can be used in local churches to help teachers local Bible studies . We've got support documents and resources . You can find out a little bit more about how to support for ministry and some of the things that's going on . So we'll pick up next time in chapter 9 of Judges on reasoning through the Bible .