Barley in the Bible, part 23
We left off in the previous installment at the point where Gideon had an encounter with the angel of the LORD [Yahweh]. This angel told Gideon that he was going to deliver the Israel people from the alien invaders.
Gideon protests by essentially saying, Who, me? Deliver Israel? No way; I don’t have the capability to do that job. Then he remembers his manners, that he ought to offer some food to this person who, we presume, looked very much like an ordinary person.
He brings the dinner he had prepared and puts it on a rock per the angel’s command. The angel touches it with his staff. Instantly, fire comes up from the rock and consumes the food.
Immediately the angel disappears. Gideon is impressed to the point where he takes the trouble and time to construct an altar, or perhaps this next verse is a summary statement in advance of what happens in the next several verses. Let’s see.
Judges 6: 24 Then Gideon built an altar there unto the LORD [Yahweh], and called it Jehovahshalom [Yahweh-shalom]: unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
25 And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD [Yahweh] said unto him, Take thy father’s young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it:
26 And build an altar unto the LORD [Yahweh] thy God upon the top of this rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down.
I wonder why the second bullock? Also note: The word “rock” in verse 20 is Strong’s # H5553 {seh'-lah}, and its meanings are: “1) crag, cliff, rock …1b) as stronghold of Jehovah, of security (fig.)”
But the word “rock” in verse 26 is Strong’s # H4581 {maw-oze'} and its meanings are “1) place or means of safety, protection, refuge, stronghold 1a) place of safety, fastness, harbour, stronghold 1b) refuge (of God) (fig.) 1c) human protection (fig.)”
The “ordered place” in verse 26 has a very military connotation. It is the Hebrew word # H4634 {mah-ar-aw-kaw'} and is translated “army” 15 times. It could also be rendered “1) row, rank, battle-line 1a) battle-line 1b) rank 1c) row”.
Putting it all together, it is clear that the angel-messenger of Yahweh was speaking of an army in battle, but with the equally clear assurance that Gideon had nothing to fear because he was in the stronghold, the refuge of the Almighty.
This apparently gave Gideon sufficient assurance to do as commanded in verse 25.
27 Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the LORD [Yahweh] had said unto him: and so it was, because he feared his father’s household, and the men of the city, that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night.
As we approach the end of an age here in 1990, we are witnessing rampant and widespread Baal worship in America. And at this updated writing in 2026, the satanic rituals of Baal worship are everywhere.
Here the term “Baal worship” should be understood to include all the other false gods and idols which our Israelite forefathers learned to worship from the Canaanites.
Israel had been commanded by God to either exterminate or drive out of the promised land that degenerate strain of people. Instead Israel intermarried with them and were led by the Canaanites to practice their abominable idolatrous rituals.
For our purposes here, Baal worship is the worship of false gods, whether the god is called Baal/Bel, or Moloch/Molech, Ashtoreth/Astarte, Milcom/Malkom, Chemosh, Marduk, Dagon, and many more.
It is beyond the scope of this study to prove that what has now become commonplace in America are just the modern versions of rituals of that “old time religion” of Baal worship.
The reader can do their own on line investigation to verify Baal worship in America, but for starting points, here are some of the elements of Baal worship which are now indisputable:
- The whole LGBT, etc. movement which has brought homosexuality out of the closet and into school libraries and parades of homosexuals on Main streets all across America.
In June of 2024 I was at a meeting of our Henderson County Republican Women’s Club (of which men are welcomed as Associate Members, and for which group I provided an invocation for a couple of years, and still serve on the Constitution/Legislation Committee).
At that month’s meeting our guest speaker was a woman from downstate NC whose mission was exposing and trying to eliminate the repulsive books now in many school libraries—right down to kindergarten level! She had the “receipts” with her. Here below are just a few of the many books she displayed of which I took some quick photos. “You can’t judge a book by its cover.” …except when you can!
- The “gay pride” parades whereby they flaunt their sins openly and dare anyone to condemn it under threats of being called “homophobic”. And that is now the least punishment for not approving of their deviant lifestyle; it is not uncommon to see physical violence should anyone attempt to counter-protest a “gay pride” event.
- Mr. and Mrs. Middle America are now fully aware of the scenes on some of the news media of “drag queens” as guests of school officials who allow these deviants to read to the innocent children during “story hour.”
- The general acceptance of homosexuality (by silence on the part of Christians) has now been overshadowed by the push for not merely the cross-dressers of the homosexuals, but the horrifying spectacles of the “transgender” movement.
- Boys and men claiming to be female and demanding they be allowed in girls’/ladies’ bathrooms and in their locker rooms.
- Which brings up the abomination of boys/men claiming to be female and playing in girls’/women’s sports.
- We could list more, but the one that is the most egregious of all is the continuing practice of child sacrifice known as abortion. Sixty million and counting babies have been sacrificed.
Although Roe vs. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court, battles are raging at the state level and abortions continue essentially unabated.
One of the primary components and practices of Baal worship was human sacrifice. It was usually an infant sacrificed by the child’s parents in order to win favor with the idol.
Abortion has become very common in America, especially from 1973 through the present. Granted, the young—let’s say 15-year-old—girl who finds herself pregnant and is persuaded by older persons to get an abortion is almost certainly wholly ignorant of the deeper satanic significance.
She almost certainly has no idea of the connection of child sacrifice with the rituals of worshipping false gods. She is clueless that abortion is the modern parallel to the ancient practices of Baal worship.
But we can be sure that there are many individuals higher up the chain in the medical community and in the Planned Barrenhood hierarchy who relish in the deaths of the babies in those gruesome practices.
Before recent weeks (2026), I had never heard of “the Queen of Rap,” as she is called, Nikki Minaj. I first saw her in an interview by Erika Trump at their big Turning Point USA convention a few months ago in Phoenix. Ms. Minaj claims to have converted to faith in Jesus. (I am not saying otherwise, just reporting.)
More recently I discovered a couple of her posts on “X” which are pertinent to this point in our study of Gideon. It seems she is helping to expose the vile practices of Baal worship to the masses of blue-pilled people who follow her music and her posts. (She has ca. 26 million followers on X.) Here are three of her posts in this regard.
The point here is that the first thing that Gideon was instructed to do was to destroy Baal worship. …Throughout the entire nation of Israel? No. God says, “throw down the altar of Baal that your father has, and the grove with it.”
In other words, before God will deliver Israel from the invading armies of illegal aliens, repentance is necessary. Notice, Gideon was not commanded to go to every house in the nation and tear down and destroy all the idols—only in his father’s house.
(To be continued.)
~END~
