Judges 3-15
*image courtesy of benjoosen at www.sxc.hu
I hope you read before breakfast today! There was some gory stuff today! Can I just say that Ehud is one of my favorite Bible characters? I mean, you have to be really determined to stick a guy so hard with your sword that it pokes through his back and the handle gets sucked in by his belly fat! And how about Jael. She nailed his head to the ground with a tent peg!
Talk about girl power!
One of the more well-known characters in the book of Judges is Gideon. We read the story of his entire life today. Now, most of us are familiar with the story of Gideon and his fleece (Judges 6:33-40). But how many of us know about Gideon’s gold robe? If you read Judges 6-7, you only get part of the story of Gideon’s life. You see him start as a man in hiding, called out by God to be a mighty man of valor (Judges 6:12), testing the call with the fleece, and eventually leading his special ops team in victory against the Midianites.
But what is his legacy?
If you read chapters 8-9, you’ll find out. Part of his legacy is Abimelech, his son who brought so much controversy and death in Israel. In Judges 8:22-35, Gideon declares that neither he nor his son will rule of the people, but that God will rule over them. It is interesting then that he names the son he has by a concubine “Abimelech.” You see, Abimelech is Hebrew for “my father (abi) is king (melech).”
This is why you should learn Hebrew… just sayin’
He declared at first that he would not presume to rule God’s people in His stead, but then names his child as though he were already doing just that. Years later, Abimelech takes up this trend by trying to make himself king. The time of war and partial anarchy that followed is part of Gideon’s legacy.
Then there’s the gold robe…
Rather than taking the kingship, Gideon only took one earring from each soldier’s plunder. They were glad to give it! He used the gold to make an ephod. An ephod was a priestly robe (Exodus 28:6-14). Now, it’s not clear from the text exactly why he made it, or what he did with it other than put it in his hometown of Ophrah. What we do know from the text is that later, the Israelites began worshiping the gold ephod and it was a snare to Gideon’s family. Israel had a habit of doing such things (2 Kings 18:4, cf. Numbers 21:4-8). It seems that until the Exile, idol worship was Israel’s most common sin. Gideon, whether intentionally or not, did not help them in this. We can infer from the statement in 8:35 that Gideon was still alive when the worship began, yet he did not stop them. The man who had chopped down an Asherah pole at the Lord’s command (Judges 6:24-32) had set up his own idol for the people to worship.
As important as it is to begin your journey well by choosing to walk in the ways of the Lord, it is equally important to stay on that path till the end. I have known a few men in my short life who walked faithfully with God right up to the moment of their death. There have been others, however, who have fallen tragically, some late in life. Unfortunately, a lifetime of God-honoring faith and action can be overshadowed and virtually erased by one bad choice. In Christ, there is no more condemnation (Romans 8:1-3). But this does not mean that we may not ruin our testimony and drag the name of Christ through the mud with our own (1 Corinthians 6:15).
Let us run with endurance the race set before us (Hebrews 12:1). Let us not grow weary in doing what is right (2 Thessalonians 3:13). Let us not be foolish enough to think that though we began this journey by the work of the Spirit that we can continue it under our own power (Galatians 3:3).
We have begun well, let us finish well!
Words of Reason 