Deeper Commentary
Jdg 8:1 The men of Ephraim said to him, Why have you treated us
this way, that you didn’t call us when you went to fight with Midian? They
rebuked him sharply-
The Ephraimites came over as offended because they weren’t invited to
fight in a battle, even though they had shown no inclination; and they did
this with both Gideon and Jephthah (Jud. 8:1; 12:1).
Again we see absolutely credible characterization of people
and families in the Biblical record. This is in sharp contrast to the
mythical elements and exaggerated presentations in contemporary
literature.
Here we have an example of a situation being stated, and then we have the explanation of how it came about. They made this complaint after the incident of :4, when they had captured the princes of Midian. So this is not strictly chronological.
Jdg 8:2 He said to them, What have I now done in comparison with you?
Isn’t the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of
Abiezer?-
The Proverbs often comment upon historical situations in the Hebrew
Bible, and "a soft answer turns away wrath" may well be based upon this
incident (Prov. 15:1). We recall that Gideon was initially called by God
whilst he was threshing wheat in the disused family winepress in Abiezer-
disused because there was no vintage, as this was a curse for disobedience
to the covenant. He is ever aware of how the victory began with the few
men of Abiezer gathering around him, and only then did others come to his
call to arms. He assumes Ephraim has a vintage, a wine harvest, which is
incomparable to that of Abiezer. He treated even those apostates as more
worthy of God's blessing than himself and his home village. We have a
window here onto his deep and genuine humility, which is the more
commendable as it seems he was a strong warrior in his own right (see on
:18,21).
Gideon's idea is that they had had the honour of capturing the princes of Midian (:3), and this was far greater than his victory over the Midianite armies. Gideon's reply may appear a soft answer turning away wrath. But the better and more truthful answer would have been 'Because God saves by many or few and showed me that He doesn't need many men nor even swords in hands'. We sense Gideon slipping spiritually, more concerned with keeping in with people than challenging wrong positions. A far cry from the Gideon who cut down the pillar of Baal, willing to stand alone against his father, his family and the men of his town. Perhaps Gideon focused now upon personally capturing and slaying the two kings of Midian, Zeba and Zalmunah, motivated by the fact that he had lost the honour of slaying the two princes, Oreb and Zeeb. His apparently humble words were therefore only a cover for his hurt pride. And how much of our apparent humility is but a cover for hurt pride? We will later see that his apparently humble rejection of kingship was likewise not at all humble, and in reality he acted as a king.
Jdg 8:3 God has delivered into your hand the princes of Midian, Oreb and
Zeeb! What was I able to do in comparison with you? Then their anger was
abated toward him, when he had said that-
God had delivered the enemy into Gideon's personal hand (Jud. 7:9),
but Gideon speaks of the enemies having been given into Israel's hand
(Jud. 7:15).
Jdg 8:4 Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed over with the three hundred
men, exhausted yet pursuing-
LXX "faint and hungry", hence their request for bread in :5.
Saul
tried to imitate this when he prohibited the men to eat anything while
they were pursuing the Philistines (1 Sam. 11:11 = Jud. 7:16; 1 Sam. 13:5
= Jud. 7:12; 1 Sam. 14:24,28,31 = Jud. 8:4,5). But he was totally missing
the point- he was trying to make a cardboard copy of another man's faith,
following only the externalities, without Gideon's faith and humility.
The pursuit of the enemy east of Jordan repeats what Abraham did with his 318 servants, roughly the same number as Gideon had with him. He found himself, as we do, walking in the steps of his spiritual father Abraham; see on :32. David too was to pursue after his enemies exhausted, and so we see how circumstances repeat between the lives of God's people. This is how the Bible becomes a living word, the history is not dead but alive, because it has been carefully selected by God to show us that man is not alone, God is with us, no circumstance we face is in essence unique; others have trodden this path before.
Jdg 8:5 He said to the men of Succoth, Please give loaves of bread to the
people who follow me, for they are exhausted and I am pursuing Zebah and
Zalmunna, the kings of Midian-
To turn down a request for bread from travellers was a deep insult,
according to the hospitality culture of the times. And it still is, in
many such areas today. Zebah and Zalmunna had fled upon camels, and so it
seemed they would not be caught by Gideon and his men. And the men of
Succoth clearly feared they would survive and return to punish them if
they supported Gideon. They failed to learn the lesson of Deborah's song,
which castigated those Israelites who had failed to respond to her call to
arms.
We note that Gideon had very little bread when the Angel first appeared to him and commissioned him; he was beating out a few grains of wheat for a little bit of flour. In Jud. 8:5, he and his men lack bread. But it was Gideon as the tiny humble loaf of barley bread, the bread of the poor, that overturned the tent of Midian in Jud. 7:13. Again and again, Gideon was being shown that it is through the diminished and weak that God will bring victory. And we think of the five barley loaves of the little boy used by the Lord to feed thousands of people.
We wonder whether Gideon was in fact intended to pursue the Midianites beyond the Jordan. They had left Israelite territory. Their weakness and exhaustion is emphasized. Gideon turns to human help rather than Divine help, and gets furious when he doesn't get that human help. This seems in contrast to how they so easily destroyed the Midianite army within the territory of Israel. Perhaps Gideon was now motivated not by a desire to glorify God, but to glorify himself and get vengeance for the deaths of his family at Tabor. And yet God still worked through his weakness, and gave him and his exhausted 300 men an amazing victory. "The people who follow me" perhaps reflects a growing desire to be leader and have a personal following. And yet at the same time he retains his sense that Yahweh will give him victory and not his own strength (:7).
Jdg 8:6 The princes of Succoth said, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna
already in your possession, that we should give bread to your army?-
Meroz was cursed bitterly by God in Jud. 5:23. It was a village
through which Sisera or his men had fled, and they feared to join in the
fight. The same situation was to recur when Succoth and Penuel refused to
help Gideon. The history of Meroz and the Israelites who refused to help
Deborah was a lesson not learnt by Succoth and Penuel.
Jdg 8:7 Gideon said Because of that, when Yahweh has delivered Zebah and
Zalmunna into my hand, I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the
wilderness and with briers-
Gideon's faith is now so strong that he can be sure that he will
catch those whom he was pursuing, even though they had camels.
"Tear" is
AVmg. "thresh", with all its connotations of judgment. The area around
Succoth is famed for its thorn bushes. This is a far cry
from the humble, insecure Gideon so desperate for a Divine hand to hold.
He threatens even his own people with being thrown down on a bed of
thorns, trodden by him on it and whipped on it by him with briers. He was
presumably justifying his natural anger as being exercised in judging /
threshing the enemies of God. But judging for God isn't the same as just
pouring out your native anger on other men who all the same were made in
God's image. The idea of threshing appears to be of bashing out flour from
ears of corn. A far cry from the timid Gideon who was threshing ears of
grain in this way, cowering from the Midianites. Now he boasts he will do
this to his own brethren.
Just as all the animals and everything in the eretz promised to Abraham was 'delivered into the hands' of Noah (s.w. Gen. 9:2), so the nations of that eretz were delivered into the hands of Israel (s.w. Ex. 6:8; 23:31; Dt. 2:24; 3:2,3; 7:24; 21:10; Josh. 2:24; Jud. 1:2). Tragically, like Adam in Eden [perhaps the same eretz promised to Abraham] and Noah in the new, cleansed eretz, Israel didn't realize this potential. What was delivered into the hand of Joshua (Josh. 2:24) actually wasn't delivered into their hand, because they disbelieved (Jud. 2:23); and this looks ahead to the disbelief of so many in the work of the Lord Jesus, who has indeed conquered the Kingdom for us. They considered the promise of the nations being delivered into their hand as somehow open to question, and only a possibility and not at all certain (Jud. 8:7; Num. 21:2 cp. Num. 21:34). Some like Jephthah (s.w. Jud. 11:32; 12:3), Ehud (Jud. 3:10,28), Deborah (Jud. 4:14), Gideon (Jud. 7:15) did, for a brief historical moment; but as individuals, and their victories were not followed up on. Instead they were dominated by the territory. And so instead, they were delivered into the hands of their enemies within the eretz (s.w. Lev. 26:25; Jud. 13:1).
Jdg 8:8 He went up from there to Penuel and spoke to them in the same way,
and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered-
Spiritual weakness is easily contagious. They replied just as the
others had, assuming Gideon would not achieve his Divinely empowered
mission.
It could be argued that this appeal for more human help at Jud. 7:24 reflects a lack of faith. He has just sent home the majority of his soldiers. And now he appeals for more soldiers to come to him. This could be seen as the start of a downward spiral of faithless behaviour, as if he had reached his spiritual peak and was now declining, although Heb. 11:32 assures us he will be in God's Kingdom. His appeal for Israelites to come and support him led him to the sin of whipping and punishing his own brethren who didn't come and support him. That would have been avoided if he and his few soldiers had just gone onwards in God's strength, and accepted that God was clearly with him.
Jdg 8:9 He said to the men of Penuel, When I come again in peace I will
break down this tower-
Penuel was so named to celebrate how Jacob had seen the face of God
and lived (Gen. 32:30). Gideon had earlier thought he would be slain as he
had been so unworthy to see the face of the Angel (Jud. 6:22). As with our
lives, God was leading him to perceive ever more His grace. Coming "in
peace" reflected how he had learned the lesson from seeing the face of the
Angel; for he had built an altar called 'Yahweh is peace', and now he was
confident that indeed he was at peace with God despite all his weaknesses;
see on Jud. 6:23,24.
Gideon is presented in Jud. 6,7 as timid, doubting and fearful, always needing God to hold his hand, and tightly. Yet by chapter 8, Gideon's dialogue with the men of Succoth and Penuel reveals him as confident of success and not at all fearful, and he threatens to tear down their tower (Jud. 8:9). This is very different to the Gideon who had feared to tear down his father's Baal altar. His judgment of Israelites who didn't support him in Jud. 8:14-17 is a reflection of his changed character. And this leads him to the poor behaviour with which he ended his life; spiritually, it would've been far better had he remained timid and desperate for God to hold his hand, rather than to become old and brave and self confident. So many stumble once they have a taste of power and success. We are set up to hope for a tale of a man moving from fear to faith, but instead the path is from fear to self-assertion. Yet despite this failure, Heb. 11 still lists him as a Kingdom person.
Jdg 8:10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor and their armies with them,
about fifteen thousand men, all who were left of all the army of the
people of the east; one hundred and twenty thousand fighting men having
been killed-
This means that initially, 135000 were facing Gideon's 300. That
works out at precisely 450 of the enemy for every one of Gideon's men. And
it cannot be coincidence that Elijah describes himself as facing off as
one man of God against 450 prophets of Baal on Carmel (1 Kings 18:22).
Despite his arrogance and spiritual weakness, Elijah learned the lesson
from Gideon's courageous example. This is how the Bible becomes a living
word, the history is not dead but alive, because it has been carefully
selected by God to show us that man is not alone, God is with us, no
circumstance we face is in essence unique; others have trodden this path
before.
Jdg 8:11 Gideon went up by the way of those who lived in tents on the east
of Nobah and Jogbehah and attacked the army, which was unsuspecting-
'The way of the tent-dwellers' means the Bedouin route, he took the
rough short cut, because those he was pursuing had camels and he was
presumably on foot. Hence he came upon them whilst they were
"unsuspecting".
Jdg 8:12 Zebah and Zalmunna fled and he pursued after them, and took the
two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and routed all the army-
"Zebah" is the word for sacrifice, and the execution of Zebah in :21
may therefore be understood as an offering of them to Yahweh. Perhaps this
is what he was named after the event, seeing that personal names were
often given in response to life experiences.
Jdg 8:13 Gideon the son of Joash returned from the battle from the ascent
of Heres-
"Heres", the sun, probably refers to some place of idolatry. The
whole record of the victories is to show the supremacy of Yahweh over the
gods of the peoples, whom Israel were worshipping.
Jdg 8:14 He caught a young man of Succoth and asked of him, and he
described for him the princes of Succoth and its elders, seventy-seven
men-
This was presumably in the form of a list of names.
Jdg 8:15 He came to the men of Succoth and said, See Zebah and Zalmunna,
concerning whom you taunted me saying, ‘Are the hands of Zebah and
Zalmunna now in your possession, that we should give bread to your men who
are weary?’-
Gideon preserved the kings alive in order to teach the men of
Succoth. But we wonder, as always with Gideon, whether there was not an
element of arrogance now creeping in to an otherwise humble man (see on
:2) For surely there was no absolute need to humiliate his enemies and
also go to such lengths to demonstrate the wrongness of the men of
Succoth. The loss of humility, humility morphing into
pride, is one of the most tragic of spiritual declensions. We must
constantly examine ourselves as to whether we are losing humility.
Jdg 8:16 He took the elders of the city and thorns of the wilderness and
briers, and with them he taught the men of Succoth a lesson-
This kind of torture was perhaps not unto death. Perhaps it was all
an unnecessary display of power and smacks of arrogance (see on :15).
Or
maybe he didn't slay them as he did the men of Penuel (:17) because he
believed they could be "taught" from this. But "taught" is LXX "threshed";
see on :7.
Jdg 8:17 He broke down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city-
This is the language
of Christ's return in judgment upon the people of Jerusalem, who are
elsewhere likened to a tower in Zion (Mt. 22:7). In the latter day
context, those
Jews
who
survive the tribulation but still refuse to
learn the lesson of
total commitment to their Messiah / judge / saviour, will be destroyed at broadly the same
time as their enemies.
Jdg 8:18 Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, What kind of men were
they whom you killed at Tabor? They answered, They were like you. Each one
resembled the children of a king-
This massacre is not previously recorded. But clearly there had been
the deaths of Gideon's relatives at Tabor. We note that Gideon had the air
of a leader to him, resembling a king. His humility noted on :2 is
therefore the more commendable. But we note what is so true to human
experience and observation, that those who may exude authority and
confident leadership skills are often terribly insecure, clinging on to
God with a childlike faith and ever seeking His reassurance. See on :30.
We learn from this that Gideon's body language was as if he were a
king. This gives the lie to his later pious refusal to be a king. He
effectively acted as one and felt as one, so his denial of this and
apparent piety and humility were all merely an appearance. By various
means, he dodged around the spirit of God's requirements; like Levites
owning land in Cyprus. Possibly his sense of kingship began when he told
his men to charge at the Midiantes shouting 'For the LORD and for Gideon!'
(Jud. 7:18). Because the idea of [for our god] and for [our king] has
always been common from ancient times- "In the name of God and the King"
was the catchcry of the British empire. The way Abimelech asks whether
Israel want to be ruled by one man or by all his 70 sons (Jud. 9:2) is a
tacit implication that Gideon had reigned as king, and now the question
was about whether one of his sons rule them, or all 70.
Jdg 8:19 He said, They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As Yahweh
lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not kill you-
The implication of :18 is that those slain at Tabor were Gideon's own
children. See on :20. But it seems his brothers were also slain. The
Divine command was to slay the Canaanites, so Gideon's statement here that
he was only going to kill them because they had slain his relatives is
therefore somewhat spiritually lacking. As is his materialistic demand for
the spoil and making an ephod. And yet he died in faith.
Just as Samson did, despite so many weaknesses.
Jdg 8:20 He said to Jether his firstborn, Get up and kill them! But the
youth didn’t draw his sword for he was afraid, because he was still a
youth-
Although Gideon's brothers were slain (:19), it seems from :18 that
his children were also killed. This is why he asks his firstborn son, who
was with him and had survived, to act as the avenger of blood and slay
those who had killed his brothers. This however was somewhat of a twist of
the law of blood revenge, which surely didn't apply to deaths in battle.
Although the children may have been too young to fight. "Jether" means
"excellency" and this was the meaning of Jacob's firstborn Reuben, who was
the "excellency" of his power (Gen. 49:3 s.w.). In this we see Gideon
being guided by Biblical precedent, despite his weaknesses.
Gideon in Judges 6 and 7 presents as a child, desperately wanting God to hold His hand. Wanting reassurance after reassurance, even though God had given it him. As a child, you instinctively put your hand out for someone to hold it as you approached a road. You earnestly implored the adult steadying your bicycle as you learned to ride and balance "You won't let go, will you?". Or as you learned to swim without a board. Gideon comes over as this, time and again. And God used him. But just as we now have crossed thousands of roads alone, he grew old and brave, whipped Israelites who didn't support him, appeared as a mighty warrior, fearless and confident in pursuit of his enemies. But the key is to remain in contact with the little child within you, to stay small in your own eyes, to always have that need for God, that instinctive putting out of your hand to Him. It is for this reason that we have the incident of Gideon telling his young son to murder the captured kings, when [LXX] he was too young to wield a sword. He wanted to brutalize his own son at an early age by getting him to commit murder. As Gideon looked at his little boy, shy and so unsure and pining away from the challenge... he should have seen his real self.
The reference to Gideon using a sword is another allusion to Gideon's earlier spiritual strength. But he and his 300 had won the victory by shouting The sword of Yahweh and of Gideon. Gideon's sword was that of Yahweh. And there had been no sword in his hand, just trumpet and empty / useless earthen vessels. But like David later wanting Goliath's sword, so Gideon reverts to human strength.
Jdg 8:21 Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, Get up and do it yourself, for as
the man is, so is his strength. Gideon arose and killed Zebah and Zalmunna
and took the crescents that were on their camels’ necks-
The implication could be that Gideon was indeed built as a strong and
mighty warrior. His deep humility (see on :2) is therefore the more
commendable. The crescents which he took remain the symbols of Israel's
neighbouring enemies. But they had religious significance, and Gideon
would have been better to destroy them. See on :12.
Jdg 8:22 Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, Rule over us, both you and
your son and your son’s son also, for you have saved us out of the hand of
Midian-
Gideon had the deportment of a king, and had acted like one (:18).
But we see here Israel's lack of faith in Yahweh as their king, and their
desperate desire for the immediate, the human and the visual rather than
the invisible things of God's rulership and kingship over them.
"You and your son's son" means hereditary kingship. But Dt. 17 had been
clear, that they could only have any king over them whom Yahweh had
chosen. That seems to outlaw the common idea of hereditary kingship. It
could be that the apparent request of the people was actually a way of
saying 'You want to establish yourself and your family as kings- and we
now accept that, given the prowess you have demonstrated'. In Semitic
thought, such 'requests' can be made in order to confirm acceptance of
what has been demanded. Thus a subjected nation would formally request the
conqueror to reign over them. It was a way of accepting what was being
asked of them.
"You have saved us..." ought surely to have elicited from Gideon the response that he had not saved them- Yahweh had. Again, this is a far cry from the Gideon who began his ministry by saying "Oh Lord, how shall I save Israel?" (Jud. 6:23). He fails to give glory to God; and as discussed on :2, he fails through sin of omission rather than commission.
Jdg 8:23 Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my
son rule over you. Yahweh shall rule over you-
Time and again, the Bible is full of warnings against doing what seems
right before God, when our motives are far from Him. Take the way that
Gideon was invited to be king over Israel, but he refused, citing the fact
that Yahweh is Israel's King. All well and good... but the record goes on
to record how he made an idolatrous ephod in his home town, to which all
Israel came (Jud. 8:22-24). And he had a son, Abimelech- which means 'my
father is king'! And indeed Abimelech did try to become King of all
Israel (Jud. 9:2). The name Abimelech is stressed 37 times in Jud.
9, and we read multiple times there of how Abimelech 'reigned' [as king]
(Jud. 9:6,8,10,12,14,16,18), when God was the 'reigner', the King of
Israel. Abimelech's argument in Jud. 9:2 was that one leader was better
than many, and he suggested himself as that one leader. He felt the man
born to be king. Jotham chooses to claim that the Israelites wanted to
anoint Abimelech as their king (Jud. 9:8). But all this was a failure to
which they had been set up by Gideon wanting his son to become king. The
fact all Gideon's 70 sons are slain by Abimelech shows how Gideon's hopes
and projections upon Abimelech and for the establishment of his family as
kings... all came to a tragic end. His family was not blessed, but he
himself will be saved.
Our behaviour smacks of this time and time again. We do what is externally right, but our inward motives are impure. There's an urgent need for self-examination at depth within each of us... and yet the busyness of our lives, our poor time management and lack of rigorous regime in spiritual life, so easily leads us not to seriously attempt this. And we end up doing things which are only externally right. See on Jud. 9:18.
And yet we could quite understandably read this as Gideon's commendable refusal to replace Yahweh as their king. He resisted the temptation to misinterpret Dt. 17:14,15 as meaning that indeed he was the man who would be desired as king by Israel.
The parable of Jud. 9:8-11 implies that Israel repeated this request, but Gideon's sons refused, following their father's example. Only the illegitimate Abimelech accepted it.
Jdg 8:24 Gideon said to them, I would make a request of you, that every
man would give me the earrings of his spoil. They had golden earrings
because they were Ishmaelites-
Midianites were Ishmaelites (Gen. 37:25,28,36). It seems that having
overcome the temptation to be king (:23), Gideon succumbed to another
temptation- to become wealthy, to effectively act as king by demanding
wealth from his followers. We catch ourselves doing this; just as the
alcoholic quits alcohol and takes to drugs. See on :26.
Although Gideon refused to be king, he called his son Abimelech, 'my father is king'. And he in other ways effectively declared himself as king, whilst on the other hand strongly and piously denying he was king. His request for a portion of the plunder was exactly what a king required from his soldiers (Jud. 5:30; 1 Sam. 30:19,20; 2 Sam. 12:30; 1 Chron. 20:2). Likewise taking many wives and having many sons, especially 70, was typical of the behaviour of men seeking to establish themselves as king. We think of how David took more wives and had children once he was king. Ahab also established his kingship by having 70 sons, and "seventy sons" may be another way of saying 'the sons of the king' in 2 Kings 10:1-7, where Jehu ends Ahab's dynasty by slaying "the sons of the king, seventy men". So having 70 sons was a way of claiming to be king.
Jdg 8:25 They answered, We will willingly give them. They spread a garment
and each man threw the earrings of his spoil into it-
When Gideon received the golden earrings of the Ishmaelites (Jud.
8:24-27), his mind should have flown back to how golden earrings were
turned into the golden calf (Ex. 32:2). He was potentially given the
strength to resist the temptation to turn them into an idol. But he must
have blanked out that Biblical precedent in his heart; he ignored his
spiritual potential. The word for "earrings" in :24,26 only occurs
in the golden calf incident (Ex. 32:2,3). Clearly what Gideon did is being
paralleled with Aaron's creation of the golden calf. Like Aaron, Gideon
never specifically repents, and yet is saved in the end. We wonder whether
with some people, God accepts them because of outstanding faith and
loyalty to Him at an earlier point in their lives. So long as they don't
totally reject Him, He accepts them in the end despite their spiritual
decline in later years. Or we wonder whether Gideon repented at the very
end and is therefore saved on that account. We are not told, in order to
exercise our minds.
Jdg 8:26 The weight of the golden earrings that he requested was one
thousand seven hundred shekels of gold, besides the crescents, the
pendants and the purple clothing that was on the kings of Midian, and
besides the chains that were about their camels’ necks-
Purple clothing was the clothing of kings. As noted on :24, Gideon
turned down being king- but he then as it were compensated for that by
taking the clothing and wealth appropriate to a king. His victory over
temptation in this area was therefore only external, and not from the
heart. And we can do the same. We can contrast his being clothed
with the purple clothing of Midian with the way he was clothed with God's
Spirit in Jud. 6:34 (Heb.). We learn from Jer. 10:9 that purple clothes
were associated with idolatry: "Their idols... are dressed in violet and
purple cloth woven by skilled weavers" (GNB). The Midianite kings had
purple clothing- because they were king-priests. When Gideon is asked to
be king, he declines, but declares himself a priest- he had already made
an altar to Yahweh at his home village, and now he places an ephod there.
So by doing this he was effectively declaring himself also a king, given
the understanding of king-priests.
1700 shekels of gold was a huge weight, about 43 pounds [20 kg.]. Demanding and receiving such huge wealth was behaviour apppropriate to a king. It is noted in :18 that Gideon had the deportment of a King; his body language betrayed his self perception as a king. Gideon has moved far on from the man who was once young and so desperately unsure, describing himself as from the poorest family in the poorest tribe, as he beat out a few ears of grain in the disused family winepress.
Jdg 8:27 Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his city, in Ophrah, and
all Israel prostituted themselves by worshipping it there; and it became a
snare to Gideon and to his house-
Twice in 1 Timothy, Paul speaks about a snare; the snare of the devil
(1 Tim. 3:7), and the snare of wanting wealth (6:9). The desire for wealth
in whatever form is the very epitome of the devil, our inherent sin which
we must struggle against. The idea of a snare is that it results in a
sudden and unexpected destruction. The unexpectedness of the
destruction should set us thinking: surely the implication is that those
who are materialistic don't realize that in fact this is their besetting
sin, and therefore their rejection in the end because of it will be so
tragically unexpected. It's rather like pride; if you're proud and you
don't know it, then you really are proud. And if we're materialistic and
don't know it, we likewise really have a problem. The idea of riches being
a snare connects with copious OT references to idols as Israel's perpetual
snare (Ex. 23:33; Dt. 7:16; Jud. 2:3; 8:27; Ps. 106:36; Hos. 5:1). Paul's
point is surely that the desire of wealth is the equivalent of OT
idolatry.
The ephod was likely comprised of precious stones which had also been in the earrings of the Midianites and around the necks of their camels. He had built an altar to Yahweh in his home, and it seems this was an imitation high priestly breastplate. He was effectively setting himself up as a priest. Gideon had a weakness for wanting signs from God, and it seems that the urim and thummim in the High Priest's breastplate flashed out yes / no binary answers to questions. So perhaps he never quite got over that desire to have visible signs, and this weakness [like all unvanquished weaknesses] expanded into something grotesque- a golden ephod that became a spiritual snare.
The language of Israel prostituting themselves reminds us of the golden calf incident, where again golden earrings are taken from the people, and an idol is made (Ex. 32:2-6). Clearly what Gideon did was as wrong as what Aaron did. He failed to perceive that he had been called in terms of being another Moses for Israel, as discussed on chapter 7. But he fails to keep perceiving that, and behaves as faithless Aaron. We too are to perceive which Bible characters we are being led to emulate. The fact he put about 20 kg. of gold into the "ephod" surely of itself suggests that this was more of an idol than en ephod. Although Heb. 11 assures us that Gideon will be in the Kingdom, seeing he "died in faith", we have to observe that he effectively rebuilt a pagan shrine in Ophrah, after having cut it down in his youth. We see the same spiritual entropy in David and others who will all the same be in the Kingdom. Spiritual entropy is a tragic thing to behold and it is a frequent sight. But Jud. 8:35 concludes his story with the comment that he did good to Israel- even though actually his vanity led all Israel to prostitute themselves against Yahweh. So in the final judgment of God, although Gideon laid a stumbling block to them in the form of the ephod, it was Israel who were more guilty than he was. We cannot judge, but seeing an example like this of how carefully God balances His judgment, we can be assured that His final judgment will be just and factor in everything. Without the comment of Heb. 11 and Jud. 8:35, we would likely have written off Gideon as a spiritual failure, one like Saul who started well but went wrong. We are taught here, as we are with Samson, that God's judgment is different to ours; we are not to judge exactly because we cannot judge, we do not see all the inner nuances of human minds and lives. But God does.
It is the surrounding Canaanite people who are repeatedly
described as a "snare" to Israel. Just as Midianite women had been at the
time of the golden calf, which incident is clearly alluded to in Gideon's
creation of the ephod from earrings. All Gideon's hard work in delivering
Israel from the Midianites was therefore undone by him- because his ephod
became a snare to Israel, just as the Canaanite tribes had been. He left
no good legacy, and his tragic family history after his death reflects
that. Again we reflect that even if a man's work for the Lord is undone by
his own foolish pride, he himself may still be saved as Gideon was. As
Paul puts it, all a man builds may be burnt up, but he himself shall be
saved, yet so as through fire. Gideon means 'hacker down' and Jerubbaal
means 'Baal fighter' or 'Let Baal plead'. Gideon ultimately failed to
achieve his potential. He as it were built up idolatry. But still he will
be saved. This is both comfort and challenge to us.
Jdg 8:28 So Midian was subdued before the Israelites, and they exalted
their heads no more-
The nations in the land being "subdued" was the outcome of Israel
being obedient to the covenant (s.w. Dt. 9:3). We read this word "subdued"
used of how the land was at times subdued before Israel (Jud. 3:30; 4:23;
8:28; 11:33). But each time it is clear that the people generally were not
obedient to the covenant. One faithful leader was, and the results of his
faithfulness were counted to the people. This is what happened with the
Lord's death leading to righteousness being imputed to us.
The land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon-
The forty years rest of Jud. 3:11; 5:31; 8:28 may not be a literal
period. I have elsewhere noted that the forty year reigns of Saul, David and
Solomon create chronological problems if read literally. The idea may be that
forty years was a time of testing, as it was for Israel in the wilderness. We
think of the Lord's 40 days of testing too. In this case, they were tested by
peace. And they consistently failed, as God's people often do.
Jdg 8:29 Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house-
He commendably didn't try to establish himself with a palace, as he
had rejected the possibility of becoming king. But he turned that house
into a quasi sanctuary, having built an altar to Yahweh there, and now
having made a breastplate. We see how his apparent resistance of the
temptation to be king was not from the heart, because he acted like a king
in other ways. Indeed it could be argued that the statement that
he "lived in his own house" is tautological, in that of course people live
in their own homes. The suggestion seems to be that he established his
home as a kind of capital and religious center for Israel. The note that
Gideon was buried in his own city in the tomb of his fathers (:32) is the
same rubric used about the deaths and burials of Israel's later kings.
Jdg 8:30 Gideon had seventy sons conceived from his body, for he had many
wives-
I suggested on :18,20 that some of Gideon's sons had been killed at
Tabor, and this is why he asked his firstborn to act as the avenger of
blood in slaying their killers. It is psychologically understandable that
he sought to build up his family again, but his "many wives" hardly speak
of spirituality, and having 70 sons looked ahead to the ungodly behaviour
of Ahab (2 Kings 10:1). Ahab having 70 sons suggests that having
70 sons meant he was establishing himself as a king. The surrounding
legends often feature a god / king as having 70 sons. We note that the
record records Gideon's denial of kingship; but the inspired record gives
many details which appear to show God's take on that, revealing that in
fact he did act as king, despite his words to the contrary. The
description of him having many wives, amassing gold to himself and leading
Israel astray is all presented in terms of how Dt. 17:17-20 said that this
was not what the King of Israel should do. We are left to
conclude that he was the king who was never crowned, but his kingship was
not as God wished. But again we note- that despite all this, he is listed
in Heb. 11 amongst those who will be saved. The victory over Midian, and
his transformation from a doubter to a man of faith, was surely over no
more than a few weeks of his life. We are left to enquire whether this was
so very pleasing to God that He saved him anyway. Despite all the
spiritual entropy we observe in Jud. 8. We must enquire in what areas we
protest our spiritual innocence, and yet in reality, act in the very way
we deny. Are we materialistic? Do we really care about people? Are we
really loving and devoted to love as we say we are?
Jdg 8:31 His concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son and he named
him Abimelech-
Abimelech means 'my father is king'. And indeed Abimelech did try to
become King of all Israel (Jud. 9:2). As discussed on :23, Gideon overcame
the temptation to become king, but only on an external level. In reality
his behaviour was as if was a king in all but name.
Jdg 8:32 Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age and was buried in
the tomb of Joash his father in Ophrah of the Abiezrites-
This is the same description used for the death of Abraham (Gen.
15:15;
25:8) in whose faultering steps of faith Gideon had followed; see on
:4. He is presented, for all his moral weakness and faultering faith, as a
seed of Abraham. And he is listed amongst the faithful in Heb. 11. We are
thereby comforted in our own self doubt, as we review the weak nature of
our own faith and commitment.
Jdg 8:33 As soon as Gideon was dead, the people of Israel turned again and
played the prostitute after the Baals, and made Baal Berith their god-
Israel is so often set up as the bride of God (Is. 54:5; 61:10; 62:4,5;
Jer. 2:2; 3:14; Hos. 2:19,20). This is why any infidelity to God is spoken
of as adultery (Mal. 2:11; Lev. 17:7; 20:5,6; Dt. 31:16; Jud. 2:17;
8:27,33; Hos. 9:1). The very language of Israel 'selling themselves to do
iniquity' uses the image of prostitution. This is how God feels our even
temporary and fleeting acts and thoughts of unfaithfulness. This is why
God is jealous for us (Ex. 20:15; 34:14; Dt. 4:24; 5:9; 6:15)- because His
undivided love for us is so exclusive. He expects us to be totally His.
Baal Berith is literally the Baal of the covenant. Israel went wrong because they reasoned that serving Baal was a form of worshipping Yahweh and keeping covenant relationship with Him.
Jdg 8:34 The Israelites didn’t remember Yahweh their God Who had delivered
them out of the hand of all their enemies on every side-
They never formally abrogated Yahweh nor their covenant with Him, and
would never have considered themselves atheists. Just as many of us never
would. But they didn't "remember" Him nor His great salvation of them by
grace; this was not constantly in their minds. And so it can be with us.
This is why the breaking of bread service plays an important role in
helping us not to forget these things.
Jdg 8:35 neither did they show kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, that
is, Gideon, according to all the kindness which he had showed to Israel-
Gideon loved Israel. We recall how he showed kindness to them by not
becoming their king but leaving Yahweh as their king. God had delivered
the enemy into Gideon's personal hand (Jud. 7:9), but Gideon speaks of the
enemies having been given into Israel's hand (Jud. 7:15; 8:3).
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