Gideon
And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea for multitude. And when Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along. And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: for into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host. And it was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation thereof, that he worshipped, and returned into the host of Israel, and said, Arise; for the LORD hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian. And he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man's hand, with empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers. And he said unto them, Look on me, and do likewise: and, behold, when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so shall ye do. When I blow with a trumpet, I and all that are with me, then blow ye the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say, The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon.-Judges 7:12-18***Moses was from the tribe of Levi, descended from Abraham (Abram the Hebrew) and Sarah (Sarai), Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob (Israel) and his 1st wife Leah, and Jacob and Leah's 3rd born son Levi. Joseph was the 1st son born to Jacob and his 2nd wife Rachel. Manasseh and Ephraim were the sons born to Joseph and his wife Asenath. In Egypt, Jacob proclaimed Manasseh and Ephraim to be his own sons. Joshua was from the tribe of Ephraim, and Gideon (Jerubbaal) was from the tribe of Manasseh. Over 200 years before Gideon was born, Joshua led the Israelites across the divinely parted Jordan River and onto the Promised Land, and led the Israelites to victory over many idol worshiping inhabitants, and died and was buried in his tribe's portion of the Promised Land. Afterwards, the Israelites were led by elders, judges and their own minds. The Israelites often did not obey the Ten Commandments that their ancestors heard the voice of the Lord God proclaim to them, and the Israelites often disobeyed the judgments, statutes and laws that the Lord God gave Moses for the Israelites. Thus, the Lord God sometimes allowed the Israelites to be defeated. After several years of invasions by enemies, including the Midianites, the descendants of Abraham and his 2nd wife Keturah, the angel of the Lord spoke with Gideon and assured Gideon of victory. Gideon was not convinced and was not fully aware of the identity of the divine messenger. After Gideon's offering was consumed by fire that came from a rock, and the divine messenger disappeared, Gideon realized he had been speaking to the angel of the Lord. The divinely inspired Scriptures of the Holy Bible reveal that although Gideon obeyed the commands that the Lord God gave him, Gideon still sought assurance from the Lord God. The condition of a fleece gave Gideon the confirmation he requested, and an enemy's dream and its interpretation gave Gideon the last bit of encouragement. Over 1,000 years after Gideon died and was buried in his tribe's portion of the Promised Land, Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, was born. Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary, a virgin, and Jesus was born into the tribe of Jacob and Leah's 4th born son Judah to Mary and her husband Joseph when Mary was a virgin.-Genesis 11:26-50:26, Exodus, Numbers 20:1-29, 27:12-23, Deuteronomy 31:1-30, 32:44-52, 34:1-12, Joshua 1:1-4:24, 23:1-24:33, Judges, 1 Chronicles 1:1-34, 2:1-17, 3:1-24, 6:1-81, 7:14-29, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts 1:1-26
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Jephthah
And the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and went northward, and said unto Jephthah, Wherefore passedst thou over to fight against the children of Ammon, and didst not call us to go with thee? we will burn thine house upon thee with fire. And Jephthah said unto them, I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon; and when I called you, ye delivered me not out of their hands. And when I saw that ye delivered me not, I put my life in my hands, and passed over against the children of Ammon, and the LORD delivered them into my hand: wherefore then are ye come up unto me this day, to fight against me? Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead, and fought with Ephraim: and the men of Gilead smote Ephraim, because they said, Ye Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites, and among the Manassites. And the Gileadites took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites: and it was so, that when those Ephraimites which were escaped said, Let me go over; that the men of Gilead said unto him, Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said, Nay; Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan: and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand.-Judges 12:1-6***In Canaan, the Promised Land, the land that the Lord God promised to give to Abraham (Abram the Hebrew), and to Abraham's son Isaac, and to Isaac's youngest fraternal twin son Jacob (Israel), and to their descendants, the Israelites fought the idol worshiping inhabitants and sometimes fought each other. One of the fights among the Israelites involved the tribe of Ephraim and the tribe of Manasseh, specifically descendants of Manasseh's grandson Gilead. Years earlier, men from Ephraim had angrily asked Gideon, from the tribe of Manasseh, why they hadn't been invited to fight alongside Gideon in his battle against the Midianites and their allies. The descendants of those Ephraimites asked Jephthah why they hadn't been invited to fight alongside Jephthah when he fought against enemy Ammonites. Moreover, the Ephraimites taunted Jephthah and the Gileadites about their heritage, inasmuch as 1/2 the tribe of Manasseh, which included some Gileadites, had settled with the tribe of Reuben and the tribe of Gad on the other side of the Jordan River, across from the Promised Land, and there was apparently a dialectal difference.-Genesis, Exodus, Numbers 20:1-29, 26:1-37, 27:12-23, 32:1-42, Deuteronomy 31:1-30, 32:44-52, 34:1-12, Joshua 1:1-4:24, 13:1-33, 17:1-18, 22:1-24:33, Judges, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles 1:1-34, 2:1-17, 3:1-24, 5:1-26, 7:20-29, 10:1-29:30, 2 Chronicles, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts 1:1-26