By Bob Mendelsohn
Given in Moscow, Russia
5 June 2014
There are three levels of
operations in most activities: planning, executing, debriefing. We certainly do
that when we go to the streets. Ilya along with the team plans our sorties, we
travel to them and evangelize, and then we come back sharing the stories of
what God did while we were out there. In a way, our stories help Ilya frame the
future as well, since our discussion tells him where we might go, and the
all-essential reality of who gets along with whom, and who works well with one
another.
When a military operation
like the battle with the Midianites is recorded in Scripture, you can imagine
that similar planning, execution and debriefing happens there. And today’s
story, the final in the series on Gideon, is at times encouraging and at other
times heartbreaking. The coward in chapter 6 became the conqueror in chapter 7,
but he ends being a compromiser in chapter 8 and that’s not a good ending by
any means. Maybe we have to guard our
hearts and minds as well, after victories gained, after prayers answered, after
we see the Lord make a difference in our little world. We have to be on our
guard lest we fail in this same way.
Let’s unpack the story in
chapter 8, and then let’s consider the Bible and the many warnings there so
that we don’t come up short ourselves in this matter of faith. Remember,
though, no matter how far Gideon fell, that he is still listed in the book
Hebrews, chapter 11, and thus still is considered a man of faith. He turned out
ok, although by his compromises he fell short of God’s best for him. And we
want the best for ourselves. And we want the best for each other, amen?
The story begins with
controversy (.1-3)—the tribe of Ephraim, which was the 2nd largest of the 12
tribes, wants some of the spoils of the war. They want to gain some land that
Israel had just gained against the Midianites. They are actually angry that
Gideon didn’t include them. Maybe some of the ones who were dismissed, the
22,000 or the 9,700 were Ephraimites. We don’t know. But what we do know is
that Gideon handled their complaint very well.
What should Ephraim have said
to Gideon after the war? Hallelujah! Thanks be to God! But no, they wanted
something for themselves. Shame on them. But Gideon was more righteous than I
would have been.
The scene shifts east of the
Jordan river where Gideon was chasing two more kings of the Midianites. You
should think of them as lieutenants or generals and not kings like political leaders
of countries. The Jewish city of Sukkot is in the territory of the tribe of
Gad. (.5) Gideon asks for hospitality for his men and the leadership in Sukkot
denies his request. What!? A Jew in the Middle East turning down his brothers
in need of hospitality. What is that about?
My guess is that the leaders
of Sukkot did not believe that Gideon would defeat the two chased kings. They
were hedging their bets, thinking, “If
Midian turns and conquers Gideon, then they will come back and beat us up. So
we had better be neutral and not help our brothers in need, for safety’s sake.”
That’s terrible, but did you
hear the reason? It is a matter of faith! They did not believe in Gideon and in
the God of Gideon. No wonder they sent no one to the battle; no wonder they did
not receive the team. Remember Rahab, the harlot, the prostitute in the Joshua
story? She did receive the spies and was rewarded with salvation and with
honorable mention in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11. And she is an ancestor of
King Messiah as well.
So the people of Sukkot are
going to receive punishment when Gideon returns. You might think, “Wait, the people of Ephraim were not so good
either. Why do the Gadites receive punishment?” Good question. The
difference in the two tribes’ behavior is that the Sukkot and Peniel people
were directly resisting the name and power of God; they were (in NT terms)
blaspheming the Holy Spirit, even assisting the enemy. It was not personal in
their case; it was rebellion and treason against the Almighty.
Gideon was chasing these two kings Zebah and Zalmunna,
because they had killed his own brothers (.19) and when he found them they were
with 15,000 men, as the other 120,000 had
been killed. By the 300!! Gideon came upon the camp when they were (.11)
unsuspecting, and the Hebrew uses the term “Betach” meaning “trusting.” Really
we could say they were over-confident. The leaders ran away and Gideon and his
men chased Zebah and Zalmunna and caught them. As well as the entire army!
Gideon brings back the two
kings through the territory of Sukkot and says to the 77 men
(.14) that their taunting him was in vain. He exacts punishment on the
people of Gad that day with thorns and briers from the field and the hills. He
lays his brothers to ruin. Wow…the punishment was deep and vivid and clear.
Gideon returns to the camp on the west side of
the Jordan River and kills the two kings Zebah and
Zalmunna, and the people of Israel want to make him a king. He refuses.
If I read it right, and if this were
the end of the story, it would be a very normal fairy tale story. And for many
of us this is where we stop reading. God chose an available man, not very bold,
and made him into a general and hero. Good ending.
Except that’s not the ending.
Remember the pattern of life in
Israel in the book of Judges about which we spoke a couple days ago? I quote it
to you from my lesson on Monday:
There is a pattern in the book of Judges, which
you must see. Read chapter 2 later, but for now, here is the cycle:
1)
Israel is disobedient
2)
Israel cries out for help
3)
God delivers us from our enemies by
means of available men and women
4)
We forget God and fall into sin again
If that pattern were to hold true, then we would
see it in the life of Gideon and Israel here in chapter 8. And that’s exactly
what we see.
The people ask Gideon to be their king (.22) and
show their unbelief in the plans of God by this. Gideon well reminds them that
God is to be their only king (.23) showing his faith again! Moses had warned
Israel about this (When you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, and you
possess it and live in it, and you say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the
nations who are around me,’: Deut. 17.14) but it was a
warning/ prophecy, not God’s plan from the beginning.
Look what the Psalmist writes about
this time in Jewish history in Psalms
They
did not destroy the peoples, as the LORD commanded them, but they mingled with
the nations and learned their practices, and served their idols, which became a
snare to them. (106.34-36)
That’s what we learn from the ephod
that Gideon made. It might have been something like the garment the priests
wore, but it was most probably an idol of gold to which the people came to
worship. What a terrible ending to the coward turned conqueror. He had a good
idea in refusing to be the king of the Jewish people, but he began living like
a king. He had the people bring him gold and he collected over 40 pounds of it
besides whatever he collected from the kings of Midian himself. $795,904 in today’s
valuation with today’s price of gold. Yes, that would get me through the
weekend.
The Bible says that Israel ‘played
the harlot’ (.27) with the ephod. It says that Gideon had 70 wives and concubines,
had a son whose name was “My God is king” and that son Abimelech later tried to
rule the Jewish people. The ending sounds fairly bad, doesn’t it?
Look at the ending of the chapter.
Israel falls and falls hard. No matter what God did for us; no matter how we
saw Him work and supply and save us, no matter what the 300 did against the
135,000, we still turned away.
Then
it came about, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the sons of Israel again played
the harlot with the Baals, and made Baal-berith their god. Thus the sons of
Israel did not remember the LORD their God, who had delivered them from the
hands of all their enemies on every side; nor did they show kindness to the
household of Jerubbaal (that is,
Gideon) in accord with all the good that he had done to Israel. (8.33-35)
Brothers and sisters, the Word of
God is clear. We are a chosen people. He chose us, not because we were so
great, but in fact, because we were NOT so great. (Deut. 7.7) and chose us to
represent him in the earth among the nations. We respond and we find eternity
in Messiah. Then He uses us to go and proclaim Him to others and we ‘win the
victory’ now and again. And the warning is clear. Listen carefully:
Do not be like the men of the tribe
of Gad who played to win, even against their own brothers, not demonstrating hospitality,
not living in faith, and chose to live apart from the rest of the community of
faith.
Do not be like the 22,000 who were
afraid and went to their homes missing the battle and the glory of seeing first
hand God’s work.
Do not be like Israel who chose to
live like the nations around her, and even though she saw God’s handiwork,
Israel turned victory to idolatry, living for immorality and false worship.
Even though Gideon ended as a bit of
a compromiser, and didn’t finish as well as he might have, his story is told us
in 100 Bible verses to remind us that God uses ordinary people like us, who
keep our eyes on God, and who trust Him to win victories.
Today we go out to share Messiah.
We go out to bring many to believe
in Yeshua.
When we return and tell stories of
victories, and you have been doing that every day, remember, don’t turn your
stories and victories into an idol. He alone is King. He alone is our Focus of
Worship. He alone is Lord, amen? Slava bogu!
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