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4And Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed over, he and the 300 men who were with him, exhausted yet pursuing. 5So he said to the men of Succoth, "Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian." 6And the officials of Succoth said, "Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?" 7So Gideon said, "Well then, when the LORD has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will flail your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers." 8And from there he went up to Penuel, and spoke to them in the same way, and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered. 9And he said to the men of Penuel, "When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower."
10Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their army, about 15,000 men, all who were left of all the army of the people of the East, for there had fallen 120,000 men who drew the sword. 11And Gideon went up by the way of the tent dwellers east of Nobah and Jogbehah and attacked the army, for the army felt secure. 12And Zebah and Zalmunna fled, and he pursued them and captured the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and he threw all the army into a panic.
13Then Gideon the son of Joash returned from the battle by the ascent of Heres. 14And he captured a young man of Succoth and questioned him. And he wrote down for him the officials and elders of Succoth, seventy-seven men. 15And he came to the men of Succoth and said, "Behold Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me, saying, 'Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your men who are exhausted?'" 16And he took the elders of the city, and he took thorns of the wilderness and briers and with them taught the men of Succoth a lesson. 17And he broke down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city.
18Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, "Where are the men whom you killed at Tabor?" They answered, "As you are, so were they. Every one of them resembled the son of a king." 19And he said, "They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As the LORD lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not kill you." 20So he said to Jether his firstborn, "Rise and kill them!" But the young man did not draw his sword, for he was afraid, because he was still a young man. 21Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, "Rise yourself and fall upon us, for as the man is, so is his strength." And Gideon arose and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescent ornaments that were on the necks of their camels.
22Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, "Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian." 23Gideon said to them, "I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the LORD will rule over you." 24And Gideon said to them, "Let me make a request of you: every one of you give me the earrings from his spoil." (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.) 25And they answered, "We will willingly give them." And they spread a cloak, and every man threw in it the earrings of his spoil. 26And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels of gold, besides the crescent ornaments and the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, and besides the collars that were around the necks of their camels. 27And Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his city, in Ophrah. And all Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family. 28So Midian was subdued before the people of Israel, and they raised their heads no more. And the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon.
29Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house. 30Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring, for he had many wives. 31And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he called his name Abimelech. 32And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, at Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
God sent Gideon's 300 men to defeat the host of the Midianites. The odds were so hopelessly against Gideon's handful of warriors that it be impossible to calculate them. God did this in order to glorify himself. But, as we saw, this message underwent a series of revisions at the hand of Gideon and the tribes of Israel. At the end of the day, glory was split three ways: Gideon claimed one part, Ephraim another, and whatever was left over was God's share.
Gideon's character changed. He began so very timid, but slowly turned into a more confident person. This is not bad in itself, but there are indications that show Gideon's change in personality to go tandem with a shift from relying on God to relying on his own resources. If you ask the question, "Whom does he really worship—Yahweh or self?", the answer might well be, "A little bit of both." In this he is certainly very much like we are, who too can be perplexingly inconsistent. But inconsistency is dangerous, for opposing impulses do not cancel each other out to result in a healthy balance. At the midpoint of his career, we find the competing motives side by side, most eminently revealed in his battle shout, "For Yahweh and for Gideon" (7:18). But there is no doubt as to which of the two gains the upper hand, for at the end of his battles with Midian, Gideon asserts himself in unwarranted acts of cruelty against fellow Israelites. Eventually Gideon will even make an ephod replacing Yahweh as the object of worship.
So, as Gideon pursues the remaining Midianite soldiers and their two kings, the transformation of his character comes full turn. Gideon is a case study in what happens when we deny God his glory. Taking glory from him leaves a vacuum that can only be filled with the pursuit of our own agenda. What started as a battle belonging to the Lord, will turn into a personal tour de force. We see this in Gideon, who morphs into a rather appalling figure. Ironically, the people like the new Gideon enough to launch an attempt at making him king.
Gideon's transformation raises some serious questions about where we are heading, questions about the basic orientation of our lives. A measure of success, experience, and routine that comes with prolonged practice can turn the Christian life into a farce, in which the real power is no longer located in the risen Christ but in our (seeming) ability to handle day-to-day operations at work, home, school, or elsewhere. Anger and resentment will be constant travel companions when our own campaign is frustrated by others failing to live up to our expectations. Therefore, since such failure is not beyond us, we must be all the more careful and intentional about the purpose of our lives, so that they reflect redemption and not reproach for the name of Christ.
The author of these devotionals, the Rev. Martin Emmrich, is an ordained OPC minister (Westminster OPC, Corvallis, Oregon) as well as the author of Pneumatological Concepts in the Epistle to the Hebrews, a book on the teaching of Hebrews on the Holy Spirit. We are happy to make these devotionals on Ecclesiastes and other passages of Scripture available to you.
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