Week 6

4/13/2025

Spring 2025

 

            One of my favorite things about the book of Judges is how true to life it can be as it reflects the stubborn, forgetful, wickedness of the human heart apart from God. As we saw last week, the book reveals the downward spiral of Israel’s worship and morality. Their rebellion continuously worsens as the story continues. For Gideon, we read a much more detailed account than any story in Judges so far, but these details only further reveal the need for a God-given answer to the repeated phrase, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes,” (Judges 17:6; 21:25). Gideon’s story resembles this same downward spiral. But first, take a look at the beginning of the story

Setting the Stage with the Midianites

The story begins similarly to the other stories in Judges so far. Israel forsakes God, so God sends an oppressor until Israel cries out to Him for deliverance. However, several things are notable. First, there are more details given for the oppression by the Midianites.[1] Second, Israel responded to the Midianites by looking for refuge apart from God, seeking it instead in mountains, caves, and strongholds (Judges 6:2).[2] Third, when Israel finally cries out to God for help, he responds by first sending a prophet instead of immediately raising up a judge/deliverer. The prophet rebukes Israel with a summative reminder of their covenant with God: he recalls stories of God’s past faithfulness, gives the stipulation to fear no other gods, and then rebukes them for their disobedience, pointing them to the covenant curses that result from disobedience to the covenant stipulations. Next, God raises up his judge, a mighty man of valor.

Gideon’s Cowardly Response

            Gideon is a fearful (of the wrong things), faithless judge. His name comes from the Hebrew verb “to cut,” which foreshadows his act of cutting down the city's idols at night. However, the story shows his cowardice in a number of ways. First, his response to God’s announcement of His presence is to ask why God allowed Midian to oppress them, though he seems to know God’s character and past actions. God’s only response is the command to go and save Israel. Second, Gideon responds that he is the weakest clan in Manasseh.[3] However, the story indicates that Gideon’s family has great power and influence. They have multiple servants (6:27). His family owns the Baal altar and Asherah poles (6:25). His father’s influence and argumentation calm the people’s anger at Gideon (6:30-31). Third, in Judges 6:17, Gideon already asks for a sign (more on Gideon’s sign requests later), despite God’s promise of His empowering presence. Furthermore, when God gives him a sign, he responds with fear and dread, believing that he would die for seeing the angel of the LORD, completely forgetting that the sign was his request to confirm God’s promise to him. Fourth, Gideon destroys the altar and Asherah at night when nobody could see him. Fifth, when it seems like Gideon is finally convinced, he requests the fleece test.

            This final fleece test that Gideon requests from God is not similar to Eleazar casting lots to determine God’s will—God already revealed His will to Gideon. This is not a story to commend or replicate. It’s a story that reveals a cowardly man whom God calls a mighty man of valor. God graciously accommodates Gideon’s cowardly tests, not because Gideon is correct for administering them, but because God is gracious and patient. Gideon even seems aware that he is testing God’s patience (Judges 6:39), but he continues to do so anyway, requesting a specific test that would prove that God is more powerful than Baal, who allegedly sends the dew every morning.[4]

            However, God graciously responds each time. He even preemptively responds to his fear in Judges 7:10-15 when He told Gideon to listen to an enemy soldier’s dream interpreted to mean that God has given Midian over to Gideon. Thus, finally, Gideon trusts God to deliver the Midianites to him, even with only 300 men[5] who are equipped with nothing more than torches, jars, and trumpets. God loves to show His strength in our weakness so that we cannot boast in ourselves. I can be so easily fooled into believing daily happenings transpire apart from God’s intervening work. I fail to discern God’s provision and answer to prayers with responses like “Well, that would have happened anyway, regardless of my prayer.” This is the heart of cynicism that masquerades as realism and wisdom but is actually blind and undiscerning of God’s involvement. This epitomizes the fool who says in his heart, “There is no God.” Instead, God mercifully shows our weakness so that we learn of His strength. In Gideon’s case, He takes a cowardly, weak man, declares him to be a man of valor, and sends him into a potential slaughter with nothing more than the God who plagued the mighty Egypt and brought Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground. In our case, God takes pseudo-prideful but fearful men and women and declares them to be righteous, armed with nothing more than the cross and an empty tomb. However, for Gideon, hubris sneaks into the story.

Gideon’s Hubris

            Judges 8 has little to say about God’s activity when compared to the story so far. This reflects Gideon’s downward spiral. Having seen God deliver the Midianites into his trembling hands, he progressively fails to discern God’s work throughout Judges 8. In Judges 8:1-3, the angry Ephraimites confront Gideon, but Gideon responds that God did these things, not he. While this is true, his theologically imprecise answer says nothing about God’s Holy Spirit clothing him, commissioning, and sending him (cf. Judges 6:34-35). He doesn’t even call God by His covenantal name, Yahweh, referring to Him as simply “God” (Elohim). He responds with a persuasive speech rather than a theologically robust answer of joy at God’s work in and through him.

            Next, in Judges 8:22-28, the Israelites ask Gideon to be their king. Gideon, seemingly responding in pious deferment to God, says, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the LORD will rule over you” (8:23). However, he never corrects their misunderstanding when they said, “You have saved us from the hand of Midian,” though he had corrected the Ephraimites on this earlier in 8:1-3. When they give him the accolade of defeating the Midianites, he strays further from theological precision and remains silent on God’s role in defeating Midian. He then makes an idol (a very kingly thing to do) for the city that becomes a snare for Gideon and his family. He also names his son Abimelech, which means “my father is king.” Though Judges 8:28 ends with the familiar proclamation of peace and deliverance from oppression, this idol seems to be a loose end that immediately unravels after Gideon’s death, after which Israel abandons God again, and Abimelech murderously conspires against his family to rule as king.

Conclusion

            Gideon’s story reads true to life for us. It begins with cowardly faithlessness, climaxes with trusting in God’s strength displayed in weakness, and tragically ends with hubris and pride. God calls, equips, and commissions whom He sovereignly wills. He can use the weakest of vessels (like you and me) to accomplish His mighty works to glorify Himself. That is an awesome object lesson for us as we sympathize with Gideon’s weakness and cowardice. However, the tragic downfall at the end of his story reveals our own downward spirals in which we forget that any gift that we think we bring with us to any situation comes from Him alone. Much more, those gifts are useless without Him working ahead of us in the lives of other people. Forgetting that all gifting comes from God, I may think that I can say or write with such persuasive precision that anyone can be convinced, but what use is this without God opening hearts and minds to encounter Him on the pages of His Word? Take comfort, however. Though Gideon’s story ends soberingly, Hebrews 11 includes him among many other tragically sinful people in the famous hall of faith passage. In another twist, our weakness brings us to such low depths that we may even doubt our salvation. But Jesus’s strength, vindicated by the Resurrection, is strength enough to save us from all sin and shortcomings, even our doubt and fear. Our individual felt assurance of our salvation (or lack thereof at times) has little to do with the real assurance that Jesus provides because He is strong in our weakness. Repent and believe in Him always.

Sources

Block, Daniel I. Judges, Ruth. The New American Commentary: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture. Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 1999.

Croteau, David A. and Gary E. Yates. Urban Legends of the Old Testament: 40 Common Misconceptions. Nashville: B&H Academic, 2019.

 

[1] The Midianites were a seminomadic people on the Sinai peninsula, who were distant relatives to the Israelites (Gen 25:2-4). Their dealings with Israel are antagonistic at times but also favorable at other times. Also known as Ishmaelites (Gen 37:27-28 and Judges 8:22-26 uses Ishmaelites interchangeably with Midianites), they played a role in selling Joseph into slavery (Gen 37:27-28). However, in Exodus, they appeared to be close allies. Moses stayed in Midian when he fled from Pharaoh (Exod 2:15-22). God commissioned Moses from the burning bush in Midian (Exod 3:1-4:23). During Israel’s stay in Midianite territory, they received the covenant at Mt. Sinai (Exod 19-Num 7). Last, Moses’ Father-in-law, Jethro, a Midianite, helped offer civil solutions to Moses (Exod 18). However, after leaving Sinai, the story with the Midianites changes. In Numbers 25:6-18, they contribute to Israel’s Baal worship at Peor, prompting God to command forceful vigilance against the Midianites. By Numbers 31, Israel was at war with the Midianites. And now, with the assistance of the Amalekites and Easterners (Judges 6:3), they seize Israel’s clear moment of weakness to swarm, exploit, and oppress them.

 

[2] This helps form the structure of Gideon’s story. Israel relies on anything but God for strength-->Gideon finally learns to trust God to deliver them-->Gideon does not rely on God for strength by the end of chapter 8. Faithlessness becomes the thematic inclusio for this story.

 

[3] Other people in the Old Testament humbly express their unworthiness: Moses’ speech (Ex 4:10), Isaiah’s unclean lips (Isa 6:5), and Jeremiah’s childishness and poor speech (Jer 1:6). But Gideon’s continued responses indicate his desire to evade God’s calling, not genuine recognition of his unworthiness.

 

[4] However, God had already proved Himself to be more powerful than Baal when Gideon destroyed his altar and received no consequences.

 

[5] When I was a child, I remember hearing a Sunday school teacher explain why God used the water-drinking test in Judges 7:5-7 to narrow the troops down to 300. He explained that this test was strategic; the men who got down on their knees to drink like a dog were disqualified because the ones who used their hands to bring the water to their faces could be more watchful for enemies as they drank. However, the text is silent on the reason, so there is no need to speculate beyond the main principle: God wanted a small army so that Israel would see God’s strength only, not theirs, when he defeated the Midianites.