Judges 6-8: The Good, The Bad, & the Ugly (Gideon)

Introduction

We continue through the book of Judges and come to our next Judge, Gideon. Many people know the story of Gideon, or at least one part of his story, the battle of 300 men with pots and torches. This part of the story is probably the “cleanest”, most heroic, and easy to teach kids in Sunday School. But it’s the the whole story. As we will see, the story continues the pattern of Judges, but the judge himself is going to become very compromised. I like to describe Gideon’s story as “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”, because that’s how the story will flow: it starts out good, turns bad, and then gets very ugly. Today we’ll see the Good. Next week we’ll see the “Bad & Ugly”.

The Setup (6:1-10)

The story opens with a predictable, but not good note. The people did what was “evil in the eyes of the Lord”.

Many translations gloss over that exact phrasing (the ESV says ‘did what was evil in the sight of the Lord’) but the Hebrew really does say “in the eyes of the Lord”, and that’s going to be important as the the book progresses. Eyes are a major theme of Judges. Keep an eye on them.

Following the pattern, the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian (and the Amelekites).

The Midianites were descendents of Abraham and Ketura (his wife after Sarah died), Genesis 25:2. Despite Abraham sending them off to the East (note how Judges says it was those very people of the East that now come back), they are a regular problem for the Israelites.

They lived in the southern portion of Canaan and the Sinai Penninsula. They were nomads who constantly wandered around devouring other people’s crops, animals, and territories. Hence Judges describes them as locusts that would leave nothing behind.

7 years of this would be very devastating for Israelite agriculture and even deadly.

The Amalekites are also another reoccurring people group in Israelite history. They could be metaphorical for an enemy that needs to be destroyed.

Amalek was a grandson of Esau. As you can see, the Bible frames all these people up as distant relatives.

They are one of the few groups that Yahweh chose for destruction, Exodus 17:14 “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.””

They were the first group to attack Israel after the Exodus. They also used cheap tactics by attacking those at the end of the caravan (usually the oldest and weakest). And lastly they had “No fear of God.”

Deuteronomy 25:17–18 ““Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God.”

The 7 years was brutal and it forced the Israelites to retreat into the mountains. Again, we are seeing the consequences of their wickedness.

Again, following the pattern, the people cry out to the Lord. And the Lord responds by sending a prophet.

The last prophet (Deborah) ended up pretty good for Israel. This would should, too, right? Wrong. He delivers a short message from the Lord: Remember everything I’ve done for you? And yet you didn’t listen.”

This should have been a call for repentance. But we are only given silence, which seems to indicate that the people didn’t listen to the prophet. It’s probably why he wasn’t even named. A forgotten prophet, an ignored message.

I need a hero (6:11-27)

With this background in place, we now meet our next Judge. The great, the mighty, the...guy who’s hiding in a cave beating out wheat in a winepress?

Notice the Lord comes down to Gideon, by sitting under his dad’s tree (reminiscent of Deborah sitting under the tree). This is opposed to “raising him up” (as we see with other Judges).

We’re told this is an “angel of the Lord”. This phrase is often used interchangeably with the Lord himself. It denotes a physical manifestation of the Lord. This is different from the incarnation where the Lord was born into humanity and took on flesh that way.

Ironically Gideon doesn’t seem to recognize the person as the Lord. “The Lord is with you!” “Yeah right. If that’s true, where is he? Why has all this happened to us?” Really? Guess we found one person who didn’t listen to the prophet...

I imagine the Lord taking a deep breath before once again saying, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?”

Gideon’s response? Prove it.

This is going to be a theme throughout the early part of Gideon’s calling. He only goes “all-in” after a series of miracles. This begs an interesting question: do we need miracles for faith?

The Lord Jesus says, “Blessed are those who believe and have no seen.” Have you ever met someone for who miracles actually changed their faith posture? Typically, if you don’t believe, no miracle is going to change that. But if you do believe, is a miracle (or lack thereof) going to effect your faith?

At the end of the day, the one miracle that Scripture is truly adamant about is the Resurrection. If we can believe in the resurrection, all the other miracles (probably) make sense. If we don’t believe in the resurrection, well none of the other miracles matter.

The Lord is very patient with Gideon here. It shows that the Lord is willing to work with us in our faith. The first miracle Gideon asks for is some divine BBQ, and the Lord grants it. It’s at this moment that Gideon finally realizes who the man he’s been talking to is.

Battle of the gods? (28-40)

Now that they are on the same page, the Lord tells him go destroy his father’s idols - an altar of Baal and an Asherah pole.

Baal was the top god of Canaan, and also a storm god. Asherah was a fertility goddess and wife of Baal. The fact that his father (and the townspeople) are worshipping these gods alongside Yahweh demonstrates how idolatry was prevalent among the Israelites. But he seemed to have picked these two specific gods as his.

It also demonstrates “henotheism”, which is the middle ground between monotheism (one God) and polytheism (multiple gods). Henotheism does not reject the existence of other gods, but it only worships one God personally. For most of the OT the Israelites were henotheists.

The Lord tolerated henotheism as a “middle way” towards the ideal: monotheism. And it worked - even if it took thousands of years. By the time of the captivity to Babylon, and certainly by the days of Jesus, the Jews were completely Monotheistic.

When we think about evangelism today, this is something to consider, especially in cultures that explicitly embrace polytheism. What if someone embraces and puts faith in Jesus Christ as the only true God that they worship, but still acknowledges the existence of other gods. Is that tolerable? Whatever the case I think it shows great grace on the Lord’s part.

Gideon obeys, but far from the “mighty man of valor” that the Lord called him, he goes and does it at night because he’s afraid of the people. His fear turns out to be warranted though.

The people come out, see their gods in flames, and demand answers. The answer? Gideon must die!

Surprisingly, it’s Gideon’s father who steps in to protect him. Even though those were his gods!

Was his love for his son greater than his love for the idols?

Did the destruction of the idols produce a change of heart? That maybe these so called “gods” were not as real as he thought they were.

Whatever the reason, he introduces logic to faith: if Baal is a real god, let him fight for himself! This is very interesting theology. How do you know if a god is real? This episode mirrors the story of Elijah and Baal in 1 Kings 18 where Baal also fails to defend himself.

Because of this, Gideon is renamed “Jerubbaal”.

Gideon means “hacker or hewer” - fitting because he cut down the Asherah pole.

Jerubbaal means “Baal contends (fights) with”. The emphasis is on “fight”, and that’s who Gideon is going to become. From this point forward the back and forth use of both names will show a Jeckyll and Hyde type of personality for Gideon.

Now that we have a fighter, we can finally have a fight. The enemies gather, and Gideon assembles his own army from 4 different tribes.

We’re told that “the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon” - the image is of a mantle or cloak. This isn’t so much the sanctifying indwelling of the Holy Spirit like we have now, but more of a presence or atmosphere that the Lord places around Gideon (and a few other judges) to empower him for leadership. It can be taken away (God takes it away from Saul, and David begs for it not to be taken away from him after his affair with Bathsheba).

We have an army, we have a battle, and we have a Spirit imbued hero! But we also have doubts?

Just like with the BBQ, Gideon once again asks for some signs. This time he uses a fleece and asks the Lord to make the fleece wet, but the ground dry. God obliges...but Gideon realizes that it’s not a very impressive miracle? So let’s reverse it! And God does that, too.

Again we’re seeing the interplay of faith, doubt, and logic at work here. This is important for us when we think about what faith is - especially since Gideon is listed in the “Hall of Faith” of Hebrews 11. God has grace with us even in our doubts.

The Battle (7:1-25)

Now that our once timid hero finally seems ready to go, we’re finally ready for the battle. But wait there’s a flag on the field! Too many men on offense, 5-yard penalty, still first down.

The Lord knows that if Israel gets this victory, with this many soldiers, they’ll think it was all them (a reasonable assumption). So he thins the ranks.

First, if anyone is scared, they can just go home. This actually was in accordance with the Law, Deuteronomy 20:8 “And the officers shall speak further to the people, and say, ‘Is there any man who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go back to his house, lest he make the heart of his fellows melt like his own.’”

The second is a little more strange - pick the ones who drink water like total weirdos. And now we’re at 300.

But wait, Gideon STILL has doubts? Apparently so - so the Lord sends him down to the Midianite camp where he overhears two men talking about a dream, and the dream is conveniently, “Gideon is going to destroy us.” If you count the initial appearance by the angel, and the choosing of 300 soldiers, that is now 6 miraculous signs Gideon has needed. But it works - he finally worships the Lord.

So what’s the plan?

The weapons: trumpets, torches, and jars. Powerful!

The attack: We’re going to blow our trumpets, shout really loud, break the jars, and wave our torches around. Full proof!

Oh and we’re going to shout, “For the Lord and for Gideon.” Hmmmm.

The soldiers actually butcher this, too. They add, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!”

Sounds like “the weakest in the clan of Manasseh who has to thresh grain in a cave and attack gods at night because he’s scared and needs 6 miracles to believe” is starting to get a little bit full of himself. Not a good sign...

The plan works, not because of Gideon, but because of the Lord who “set every man’s sword against his comrade and against all the army”. They win the battle, defeat the Midianites and kill their leaders.

Their beheading may seem gruesome (it is), but it was also an easy “proof of kill” - a lot easier to carry a head than a full body. But this is going to be a turning point Gideon’s story.

Thus concludes the “Good” of Gideon.

Conclusion

The story of Gideon is strange and complex. This is only the first half, and yet it shows us that faith is equally strange and complex. At the end of the day the point of faith is still one thing: the Lord. He is the one who is running this show (at least for now in Judges). Even in our doubts and continued questions, His grace is still mighty and His patience is great.