Judges 7:24-8:35
Dear RTB’ers,
Yesterday we read the Lord’s promise to Gideon: With the 300 men who lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand … (v. 7:7a), and we saw that, in fact, the battle was the Lord’s. Today the end of that battle continues, with the Midianites fleeing and Gideon pursuing. Today we see Gideon as a strong leader, seeking help from Ephraim and then turning away their wrath with praise for their accomplishments. Then he continues his pursuit of the kings of Midian, in spite of resistance from the men of Succoth and Penuel. He kills the kings and deals with the earlier resistance.
Then he makes an unusual request of his men, that they surrender some of the spoil that they have taken from their victory. With that spoil Gideon then makes an ephod. While that activity might seem simple enough, creating a thing of beauty from the spoils of war, Gideon’s good intention is not a decision that is God-directed. We saw the making of a God-directed ephod back in Exodus 28:6-35, a holy ephod to be worn by the high priest. Gideon’s ephod, however, leads Israel astray: And Gideon made an ephod … And all Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family. (v. 8:27) That whoring continues: As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god. And the people of Israel did not remember the LORD their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side… (vv. 8:33-34)
My own moral to this sad ending – seek the Lord always, over and over again, in the little things and the big things. Seek Him first.
Blessings!
It’s such a shame that Gideon ensnares himself and his people after all that God has done for and through him. My study Bible points out that he fails to seek the Lord in many decisions in these later verses.
And his legacy becomes sullied.
I try to imagine how different it would be of the story showed him truly, faithfully following God and teaching his children to do the same. And yet, the Israelites went astray after leaders like Moses, so maybe no difference…(?)
Sigh. I take these realities as a cautionary note for my own life!