Untitled Sermon (12)
Gideon missed a great opportunity to bring reformation and perhaps revival to the land. He had torn down his father’s idols, but there were many households in Israel that were still devoted to Baal, and those idols needed to be destroyed as well. The great victory over Midian gave Gideon good reason to call the nation back to the Lord and obedience to His Law. But instead of using the occasion for God’s glory, he used it for his own profit; and the nation eventually lapsed into sin once again.
With his vast wealth and his great national reputation, Gideon probably thought that his children were well provided for, but just the opposite proved true. Sixty-nine of his seventy sons were killed by their half-brother who himself was slain by a woman dropping a stone on his head. There is no security apart from the will of God. Had Gideon practiced Matthew 6:33, subsequent events might have been radically different.