July 6 Daily Devotional

Scripture for Day 67—Judges 8:22–35

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. ³So it was, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel again played the harlot with the Baals, and made Baal-Berith their god. ³⁴Thus the children of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side; ³⁵nor did they show kindness to the house of Jerubbaal (Gideon) in accordance with the good he had done for Israel.

Devotional:

When the people offer their successful leader the royal scepter, Gideon says the right thing. But his refusal cannot be taken seriously. First, he demands a symbolic gesture of submission from his fans, and the amount of gold received would have made a nice addition to any king's treasury (1700 shekels equals about 43 pounds!).

Then Gideon does what only a king could do in the Ancient Near East. He becomes the sponsor of a new cult by setting up an image in his home town, which is turned into the nation's quasi-capitol virtually over night. Gideon's harem and 70 sons (8:30) also point in the same direction: Gideon behaves like a dynastic potentate and demonstrates his power in ostentatious ways.

Before leaving the cycle, let us take one final look at the judge. He died in a good old age, had a very large family, was wealthy, respected, perhaps even worshiped. He was a success story by any common standards! But would you like to trade with him? He gained so much, but somehow, somewhere he lost his way, and more importantly, God's presence and favor. Unless Gideon was a completely insensitive brute, he must have had moments of regret, and I dare say, he was no happy camper. Jesus says, "What profit is it to a person if one gains the whole world, and loses one's own soul? Or what will one give in exchange for one's soul?" (Matt. 16:26). What a hard lesson to learn that all the striving that ultimately helps only to promote our own agenda and boost our own ego, or make us look good, does not really do us any good! But it is a lesson we must learn if we want to avoid turning into someone we do not want to be.

The apostle Paul was a man who had learned to count the costs of discipleship through years of experience. "Whatever things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yes, indeed, I count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him…" (Phil. 3:7-9a). Being found and abiding in him is what Gideon could not claim for himself anymore, although he had gained so much. This is not to say he was unsaved, but he probably knew little of the joy of salvation.

Is Christ not your ultimate treasure, which to possess is to have all you will ever need? Have the mind of Christ and yield to it, reaching out for him by stirring up the gift of God that is in you.

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.