The Verdict on Judges
One Dangerous Desire
February 26
How God’s Victory became Gideon’s Victory
Headline in the Manessah Times: 300 destroy army of 120,000 with torches and trumpets
Gideon was a timid farmer hiding his grain in a wine press. When God told him to fight the Midianites he required no less than four signs from God.
Told to raise an army: Food on the rock burned up
Called up the army: A wet fleece on the threshing floor and then the dry fleece on the threshing floor
Cut down the army to 300: The Midianite dream of the barley loaf rolling down the hill into the camp
Three groups of 100 men, each with a pitcher, a torch and a trumpet. They blew the trumpet and shouted. The midianites all rose up and fell on one other.
Gideon chased them back across the Jordon and destroyed the entire army, captured and put to death their kings
Just how would you feel? What would you do? How would you act… if you and 300 men had routed and wiped out 120,000 of the best-armed… most-disciplined troops in an enemy coalition?
A. Strut like a peacock?
B. Boast of how great and wonderful you are?
C. Humble yourself before God, because you know that the victory is his?
D. All of the above?
Gideon picked “D” – all of the above.
Let me point out briefly three significant problems areas in Gideon’s life because of the dangerous desire for recognition.
The Dangerous Desire for Recognition
The Shout of the 300
15 When Gideon heard about the dream and what it meant, he worshiped God. Then Gideon went back to the camp of Israel and called out to them, “Get up! The LORD has handed the army of Midian over to you!” 16 Gideon divided the three hundred men into three groups. He gave each man a trumpet and an empty jar with a burning torch inside.
17 Gideon told the men, “Watch me and do what I do. When I get to the edge of the camp, do what I do. 18 Surround the enemy camp. When I and everyone with me blow our trumpets, you blow your trumpets, too. Then shout, ‘For the LORD and for Gideon!’ ”
Judges 7:15-18
The angel of the Lord didn’t tell him to do that. This was vintage Gideon. Here we see the first evidence that there was some personal pride going on inside this man. The hunger for recognition was definitely present.
The Golden Ephod
23 But Gideon told them, “The LORD will be your ruler. I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you.” 24 He said, “I want you to do this one thing for me. I want each of you to give me a gold earring from the things you took in the fighting.” (The Ishmaelites a wore gold earrings.)
25 They said, “We will gladly give you what you want.” So they spread out a coat, and everyone threw down an earring from what he had taken. 26 The gold earrings weighed about forty-three pounds. This did not count the decorations, necklaces, and purple robes worn by the kings of Midian, nor the chains from the camels’ necks.
27 Gideon used the gold to make a holy vest, which he put in his hometown of Ophrah. But all the Israelites were unfaithful to God and worshiped it, so it became a trap for Gideon and his family.
He asked for gold from each soldier and collected 43 pounds of gold earrings – not counting the ornaments, pendants, garments, and gold chains around the camel’s necks. (The earrings alone were worth $381,702 at today’s gold prices)
He created a golden ephod with the gold that was given. An ephod is a kind of apron that covered the front and back of a priest.
It was a sign of position and authority. The scripture doesn’t say he wore it but he made it and he kept it and it became a symbol of the victory – and eventually the veneration of this symbol became more important than the worship of God who brought the victory.
Gideon would not accept the mantle of leadership but he did ask for a gold earring from each of his men—taken from their plunder of the defeated enemy.
He melted the gold down and had it spun into thread and had it woven with other thread into an ephod—the sacred garment of the priests.
Gideon, a proven deliverer, now dresses the part of a priest.
He spent his remaining years living large
29 Gideon b son of Joash went to his home to live. 30 He had seventy sons of his own, because he had many wives. 31 He had a slave woman who lived in Shechem, and he had a son by her, whom he named Abimelech.
Judges 8:29-31
And he does not stop there:
30 Gideon had seventy sons who were his own offspring, for he had many wives.
This once timid sharecropper is now a hero… a celebrated leader.
They accept his excesses—the spoils of victory.
He wallows in his fame with other excesses—many wives and many children. But the convincing evidence is in the next verse:
31 And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, whose name he called Abimelech.
He has a Canaanite slave who also bears him a son.
He names him Abimelech: meaning the “son of a king.”
He refuses formal leadership… yet he names his concubine’s child “the son of a king.”
Add them all up and you have savior… priest… and king.
He presents himself as a picture—albeit a warped picture—of the promised Messiah. He wants the honor… but not the responsibility. He has let God’s success, through him, go to his head. He strains to take credit for God’s victories—robbing God of his glory.
The Price of Pride
When Men Take God’s Glory there is a price that is paid – In Gideon’s case the scripture tells about
While Gideon lived
He ruled like a king
He claimed that God was their king – but Gideon acted like a king. He punished the treasonous leaders of Succoth and destroyed the tower of Peniel and killed the rebellious men. Gideon killed the two captured kings after his son refused.
He said the right words – but he lived differently. He acted like a king, he talked like a king, he ruled like a king.
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, swims like a duck, its probably a duck – right!
Gideon acted like he was the deliverer and was unmerciful in victory.
When God is the deliverer he is merciful and long suffering – maybe we should merciful also? You think?
The people worshiped the Golden Ephod
Gideon made this ephod to remind the people of his great victory – but over time they forgot the connection to God and began to venerate the symbol of the victory.
An ephod is to be worn and I would guess on special occasions old Gideon would put it on to remember their great victory – but the people kind of fell in love with the ephod and forgot the source of power – God.
This is why the old law forbade the use of idols. This is why we need to be careful of the symbols we use and create in our worship.
Jesus gave us two symbols – baptism which points us the death, burial, and resurrection; and the Last Supper which points us to the cross, reminds us of our covenant with God, and proclaims our faith in his coming for us at the end of time. Both of these symbols are simple, powerful, and aimed directly at Jesus.
They are both very important - neither is to be made into a golden ephod - a symbol that is more important than it’s meaning. The importance of baptism is in the transformed life. The importance of the Lord’s Supper is in the covenant we have with God.
Gideon lived large on the spoils of victory and the reputation as a victor
He had many wives, 70 sons, and who knows how many daughters – this is no small thing. Think of what it would cost to buy groceries – let alone college tuition for this crew.
Children – especially sons – were a measure of wealth in those times. Gideon was living large.
Now there is nothing wrong with this by itself but with everything else it points again to the face of a proud man who revels in his good life.
This brings us to dual questions of purpose and why? What is the purpose of our wealth? Why does God bless us so much with all that we have? Are we Americans wealthy and blessed because we are specially qualified to receive God’s blessings? Or is there something more that we are supposed to do with all that we have been given?
What are you doing with your wealth and the blessings of life God has granted you?
When Gideon died
Gideon’s son Abimelech killed 69 of his brothers
Abimileck means “my father is king”. His son born of a slave in his house he names “My Daddy is Boss” even as he says to his people God is our King – don’t follow me. Follow him.
But then Gideon acted the part of a king – in every way that it is possible he ruled.
So when he died is it any wonder that one of his sons – the one who was insecure and driven with the hunger for recognition – would build up his political connections, put together a mercenary army, gather up his brothers – his rivals for power – and kill them all. (Except for the youngest who hid and escaped.)
You reap what you sow and the acorn does not drop far from the tree does it. Abimileck was a lot like his daddy – minus the faith in God. And there in lies the real tragedy…
The people went back to Baal
Overnight they forgot about Gideon, his family and even the golden ephod.
They made Baal their god and began to follow him.
Gideon’s legacy lived only as long as he lived. That is tragic and sad.
There are some powerful implications here:
First, it is important to trust God for the victories
Second, it is important to give God the recognition for the victories
Finally, it is far more important how you finish… rather than how you begin.
Dr. Ted Patrick Williams of biological science and neuroscience at FSU, died Friday, May 2, 2003. He is survived by his wife of 47 years, Ruth Ann Williams. Born in 1933, Williams was raised in the small mining town of
Marianna, PA, and was the first in his community to graduate from college. After graduating from Muskingum College in Ohio, where he
played football, Williams went on to earn his Ph.D. in chemistry from Princeton University in 1959.
Williams joined the faculty of FSU in 1966, where he spent 35 years teaching and studying biology, physics, and chemistry of vision.
He is remembered as an innovative research scientist and an inspired teacher.
Gideon started well and finished poorly but he was always a man of faith in God
Hebrews 11 – the faith chapter of the Bible lists Gideon in the roll call of the faithful servants of God. In spite of all the mistakes and the deep hunger for recognition that led to terrible consequences
Gideon was still a mighty man of God.
