Judges 8 v 22-35
Summing up the Gideon story: it begins with a frightened man in a oppressed country, trying his best to scrape a living. And meeting an angel who calls him to get involved in bringing freedom to God’s people. His first response was to say “I can’t do this...”
Then asking God for a sign: if the fleece is wet and the ground is dry; if the ground is dry and the fleece is wet.
Then cutting his army back from 32,000 to 300, then finding out that the Midianites were already scared because God was already at work. Then winning the battle with the strangest weapons: trumpets and torches and jars.
Then finishing off his enemies and punishing those who had refused to support him. Gideon has become quite a forceful, and confident (at least on the surface) leader.
The end of Gideon’s story begins with this invitation: "Be our King. Establish a dynasty. Set up your legacy...." The crisis with the Midianites – just the latest in a series of crises in the book of Judges – told the people that they needed someone strong, brave and wise to lead them. They would come back to that again and again. Maybe that “king” thing was a temptation an appeal to Gideon’s sense of his own importance. He saw the nation begin to prosper – and certainly he prospered: although he never became King, he lived like a King – so much so that some scholars wonder whether when he refused it was just modesty… Who would grudge Gideon the desire to ensure that the things he had "achieved" were embedded in the life of the Nation.
But in fact Gideon rejected the idea of a dynasty: "not my sons, but the Lord shall rule over you." Right on Gideon… As he said that, he put his finger on one of the “Big truths” that drives the Book of Judges. The key is in the name. It is the Book of Judges, not the book of Kings. God sent along one Judge/rescuer after another, as the cycle – the sine wave – kept repeating – sin – judgement – defeat – repentance – a new Judge comes – victory. “The Lord shall rule over you!” Guys you don’t need anything or anyone else. The Lord is the only King you need.
But then… – in an echo of Exodus 32 – Gideon says “bring me gold: all the gold earrings you got as spoils of war from the eastern Tribes”. Remember when Moses was up the mountain with the Lord, and the people began to complain, to feel leaderless, Aaron asked the people to bring him their gold earrings, and made a golden calf. And what should have been a moment of solemnity and joy as Moses came down the mountain with the Covenant, became a moment of judgement and embarrassment. Poor old Aaron wasn’t trying to make the people worship other gods – he was just trying to make an image of the Lord: “This is the Lord Who brought you out of Egypt”. Something for them to focus on: something to “represent” the Lord’s presence with them”.
And it seems as though Gideon was trying to do the same sort of thing. “The Lord shall rule over you!” he says. But how are the people to know what the Lord is saying to them? How will they know he is there with them? So Gideon makes an “Ephod”. What on earth is an “Ephod”? An ephod was normally a sacred garment. The infant Samuel, and King David, both wore a "linen ephod"... The high priests wore an "Ephod" that was used for finding out the will of God as it contained the Ummim and Thummim: or if you like, the “Yes and No” stones that were used for asking the Lord questions. So maybe the Ephod that Gideon made included some of the rich cloth that is mentioned in verse 26. Even so at between 13 and 20 kg it was too heavy to wear, and whatever it was, it was put in Gideon’s home town, Oprah, as a kind of shrine or statue.
So what was this "Ephod" thing that Gideon made? Something to represent the presence of the Lord among his people. Something to look at and maybe something that would serve to mediate the rule of the Lord, something the people could use to decide what to do, like the High Priest’s Ephod.
It would have been a splendid and very valuable object made of so much gold... the legacy of their conquest of the Midianites... All those earrings.
Splendid. Beautiful. Valuable. Vested with spiritual significance. Sacrificial. Well-intentioned. Inspired – no doubt – by the priest’s ephod. Gideon didn’t make a Golden Calf (he knew well enough what the Canaanites worshipped.) But "Israel prostituted themselves (played the harlot) after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family."
Whatever Gideon intended, what happened at Oprah in connexion with the Ephod was described as whoring. “Played the harlot” means that the people engaged in Canaanite, pagan-style worship before this idol. It seems like making the ephod was the first step towards making the thing an idol. Something we should be very careful of when we consider our buildings, organisational structures, worship patterns. Well-intentioned, but they can become a snare.
And at the very end – Gideon takes a back seat from public life, maybe thinking he has done his bit, taken risks, achieved something, after all, “Midian was subdued before the Israelites and did not raise its head again. During Gideon’s lifetime, the land had peace for forty years.” (verse 28) Surely he left his tribe in a better place than he found them. But “retirement” didn't mean going back to the cottage where he was born. After his adventures he is a rich and powerful man and he lived like a king – with many wives he raised seventy sons. But his legacy wasn’t that secure. After his death, the people forgot all about Gideon, and forgot about the Lord, worshipping Baal-berith – the Lord of covenant. A Canaanite God who sounded a lot like Yahweh. Maybe the roots of worshipping a Canaanite god that sounded a bit like Yahweh, were found in worshipping Yahweh like he was a Canaanite god. And this guy Abimelech – son of his concubine – became an ambitious violent man who killed all of his brothers to grab power and hold onto it. The rest of Judges contains a number of pretty sordid stories and ends with “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” Not a great legacy.
So what is this saying to us today?
Stay on fire for God. All of us – as we get older – need to do what it takes to stay on fire spiritually. Constant thankfulness. Constant focus on God. Getting comfortable, getting complacent, getting resentful, and feeling “entitled” (from God or other people) are the enemies of staying on fire.
Keep the focus on Jesus. “The Lord shall rule over you!” The oldest, simplest and deepest Christian creed is this: “Jesus is Lord!” He is head of the Church. And as head he is the source of guidance and strength. Stay focussed on Jesus: don’t worship things or people or plans. Worship God. Everything else is secondary.
Keep investing in people – not programmes or things.
Keep moving forward. You just get the impression that Gideon felt he had “done his bit.” So goes into a rather prosperous retirement. Now it’s right to “pass on the baton” to other people. It’s right to recognise your limitations as you get older. But ministry isn’t a career. Never stop growing, learning, exploring, adventuring.
© Gilmour Lilly April 2018
