planning in him a new nature but the class represented by the foolish virgins have been content with a superficial work they do not know God they have not studied his character they have not held communion with him therefore they do not know how to trust how to look how to live Christ object lessons 406 and onward brothers and sisters in the story of Gideon in a time period when the church is oppressed because of disobedience Gideon is identified as one that represents the faithful at the end of the world he's hidden in the sense that he doesn't worship at the altar of Bell in other words he doesn't exalt himself he's faithfully separating the wheat wheat from the chaff he's studying God's Word with an intensity that a minor searches for hidden treasure he has a genuine confrontation with Jesus Christ a genuine worship experience with Jesus Christ he's by the winepress he knows he's close to the time when the Lord's about to finish his work he is going to be the one he symbolizes those that will be the threshing instrument at the very end he faithfully tears down the altar of Bell identifying that self-exaltation is not the genuine worship of the Lord but self-crucification is and just prior to the battle in his test of the fleece the fleece convey the truth that those that have been ordained to finish the work are made up of two classes they both look like Seventh Day Adventist they both are the Lambs fleece they both profess to believe and live the truth but only one group are going to receive the latter rain in abundance when it's poured out and the other group is going to remain dry and not even recognize that it's taking place these are some of the symbolic truths that are woven in to the story of Gideon and in our following presentation we're going to begin to look at how