Reflections on Judges 8

Judges 08 (Contemporary English Version)

1. But the men were really upset with Gideon and complained, "When you went to war with Midian, you didn't ask us to help! Why did you treat us like that?"
2. Gideon answered: Don't be upset! Even though you came later, you were able to do much more than I did. It's just like the grape harvest: The grapes your tribe doesn't even bother to pick are better than the best grapes my family can grow.
3. Besides, God chose you to capture Raven and Wolf. I didn't do a thing compared to you. By the time Gideon had finished talking, the men of Ephraim had calmed down and were no longer angry at him.
4. After Gideon and his three hundred troops had chased the Midianites as far as the Jordan River, they were exhausted.
5. The town of Succoth was nearby, so he went there and asked, "Please give my troops some food. They are worn out, but we have to keep chasing Zebah and Zalmunna, the two Midianite kings."
6. The town leaders of Succoth answered, "Why should we feed your army? We don't know if you really will defeat Zebah and Zalmunna."
7. "Just wait!" Gideon said. "After the LORD helps me defeat them, I'm coming back here. I'll make a whip out of thorns and rip the flesh from your bones."
8. After leaving Succoth, Gideon went to Penuel and asked the leaders there for some food. But he got the same answer as he had gotten at Succoth.
9. "I'll come back safe and sound," Gideon said, "but when I do, I'm going to tear down your tower!"
10. Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with an army of fifteen thousand troops. They were all that was left of the army of the eastern nations, because one hundred twenty thousand of their warriors had been killed in the battle.
11. Gideon reached the enemy camp by going east along Nomad Road past Nobah and Jogbehah. He made a surprise attack,
12. and the enemy panicked. Zebah and Zalmunna tried to escape, but Gideon chased and captured them.
13. After the battle, Gideon set out for home. As he was going through Heres Pass,
14. he caught a young man who lived in Succoth. Gideon asked him who the town officials of Succoth were, and the young man wrote down seventy-seven names.
15. Gideon went to the town officials and said, "Here are Zebah and Zalmunna. Remember how you made fun of me? You said, 'We don't know if you really will defeat those two Midianite kings. So why should we feed your worn-out army?' "
16. Gideon made a whip from thorn plants and used it to beat the town officials.
17. Afterwards he went to Penuel, where he tore down the tower and killed all the town officials there.
18. Then Gideon said, "Zebah and Zalmunna, tell me about the men you killed at Tabor." "They were a lot like you," the two kings answered. "They were dignified, almost like royalty."
19. "They were my very own brothers!" Gideon said. "I swear by the living LORD that if you had let them live, I would let you live."
20. Gideon turned to Jether, his oldest son. "Kill them!" Gideon said. But Jether was young, and he was too afraid to even pull out his sword.
21. "What's the matter, Gideon?" Zebah and Zalmunna asked. "Do it yourself, if you're not too much of a coward!" Gideon jumped up and killed them both. Then he took the fancy gold ornaments from the necks of their camels.
22. After the battle with the Midianites, the Israelites said, "Gideon, you rescued us! Now we want you to be our king. Then after your death, your son and then your grandson will rule."
23. "No," Gideon replied, "I won't be your king, and my son won't be king either. Only the LORD is your ruler.
24. But I will ask you to do one thing: Give me all the earrings you took from the enemy." The enemy soldiers had been Ishmaelites, and they wore gold earrings.
25. The Israelite soldiers replied, "Of course we will give you the earrings." Then they spread out a robe on the ground and tossed the earrings on it.
26. The total weight of this gold was over forty pounds. In addition, there was the gold from the camels' ornaments and from the beautiful jewelry worn by the Midianite kings. Gideon also took their purple robes.
27. Gideon returned to his home in Ophrah and had the gold made into a statue, which the Israelites soon started worshiping. They became unfaithful to God, and even Gideon and his family were trapped into worshiping the statue. The Midianites had been defeated so badly that they were no longer strong enough to attack Israel. And so Israel was at peace for the remaining forty years of Gideon's life.
28. (SEE 8:27)
29. (SEE 8:27)
30. Gideon had many wives and seventy sons.
31. He even had a wife who lived at Shechem. They had a son, and Gideon named him Abimelech.
32. Gideon lived to be an old man. And when he died, he was buried in the family tomb in his hometown of Ophrah, which belonged to the Abiezer clan.
33. Soon after Gideon's death, the Israelites turned their backs on God again. They set up idols of Baal and worshiped Baal Berith as their god.
34. The Israelites forgot that the LORD was their God, and that he had rescued them from the enemies who lived around them.
35. Besides all that, the Israelites were unkind to Gideon's family, even though Gideon had done so much for Israel.
    

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    Despite God's mighty work on behalf of the Israelites and His use of Gideon to provide deliverance, some troubling events occur in the midst of these events. The first is the jealous confrontation the men of Ephraim had with Gideon. Though they had been called into the fray to play an important role in stopping the Midianites at the Jordan River and had done so effectively, they were upset that they hadn't been invited earlier. Rather than celebrate God's deliverance and recognize Gideon's role in that they were more concerned with what they considered to be a personal affront. It is a marked lack of character that leads one to assume the worst of one's intentions before knowing the facts and to consider our pride more important than anything else. It would seem their integrity was in decline along with their decline in following God.
    
    Another troubling event was the failure of two Israelite cities located in the Transjordan area, that is east of the Jordan River, to give support to Gideon and his men in their efforts to finish the job of routing the Midianites providing freedom for the Israelites from the oppression of these people. Rather than provide food for Gideon's exhausted troops they taunted them for not yet capturing the escaping kings. Gideon vowed to return when he had captured the kings and punish these cities. And he did. What is it that keeps a people from celebrating God's deliverance and instead hindering those He uses to provide deliverance?
    
    A further troubling event was Gideon's use of the spoils of battle. He showed integrity in turning down the offer of his countrymen to make him king saying it was God that would rule over them. But then he requested of them an earring from each of them from their plunder of the Midianites. They readily agreed and he collected 43 pounds of gold from this. Then he made from the gold an ephod and put it up in his hometown where "Israel prostituted themselves with it" worshipping it as an idol. This act of making the ephod "became a snare to Gideon and his household." (8:27) In the end Gideon's syncretistic past came back to haunt him. It was not just the Midianites from which Gideon was to deliver Israel but he was to also deliver them from this syncretism, that is, the worship of other gods alongside their worship of God.
    
    Though God gave Israel peace for 40 years during the remainder of Gideon's life, they immediately returned to their rebellious ways at his death. This was the last period of peace Israel was to have throughout the remainder of this period of judges. Though other judges were raised up and gave deliverance from oppressors there was no period of peace to follow. Israel could never seem to connect the dots and recognize the direct correlation between their idolatrous ways and their problems from others who wished to oppress them.
    
    Though I'm tempted to be critical of Israel for "not getting it," I have to recognize that they were simply a mirror for all of us. Though I don't want to admit it, what I see in them is a reflection of myself. Who of us is not inclined to replace God with other things in which we place our trust? We may not turn to the worship of idols in place of worshipping God but we look to other sources on which we depend to offer us security or provide for our needs. Is there a difference between this and idolatry?