Summary
Israel suffered from the people of the land she came to occupy because she feared the gods of those people. Fear is the beginning of Wisdom, but Perfect Love casts out fear.
Perfect Love is the Lord God.
And Wisdom is Jesus. Jesus is “the End” of fear.
When afraid, don’t hide from the fear but learn from the fear; fear reveals that you are worshipping an idol.
Israel worshiped Baal and Asherah; the American church may not be any different.
Americans often say, “Salvation is your choice.”
But your choice is not salvation; the Lord God is Salvation.
Because we worship “’Me’ is Salvation,” rather than “God is Salvation,” we do not rejoice in the salvation of all.
The idol behind every idol is your self.
You, yourself, cannot deliver yourself from idolatry because the ultimate idol is you.
So the God-man appears to Gideon, hiding in a wine vat and choking on fear. Gideon raises an army, but God reveals that the army is too large to win the battle—not with Midian—but with the last idol . . . and fear.
The Lord God is not an American god; He doesn’t feed on sacrifices of fear. He has arranged all that we would feed on His sacrifice of Love.
Salvation is His Choice in you.