The Failure of Gideon

If you will, turn in your copy of Scripture with me to Judges chapter 8. Judges chapter 8.
That is where we will pick up our study.
I'm going to read here in just a moment, starting back up in chapter 7,
verse 24, just to get us in context, but that will get you where you need to be.
Church, do you ever watch a movie or a series? Maybe read a book.
And you really want to like it. You really want to like it, but you just wish it was different.
For one reason or another, you're drawn to it. Maybe it's got some of your favorite actors or the
character development is, you know, really good. Maybe the setup is one that classics are made of.
Perhaps the... visuals are just really captivating, and it draws you in.
You can't tear yourself away from it. This work has everything it needs to be great,
but it just isn't. You find yourself asking,
why did the director do that? Or why did the author take this turn over here?
Whatever the case may be, you're left thinking, that could have been so good.
but it just leaves you wanting something else.
Well, church, that, if I'm honest, is how I feel about the narrative before us this morning.
If you were here last week, you know that we are considering the story of Gideon as we continue our
study in the book of Judges. Last week, we covered two chapters, and we saw there how the Lord
proved his commitment to our good and to his glory through numerous acts of his mercy and his
might. The Lord called this man Gideon to be a warrior judge,
to deliver God's people out of the hand of the enemy. We also considered how the Lord does not free
us from the oppression of the enemy for freedom's sake. He frees us to find our greatest good in
living for his glory.
And this morning we're going to turn to chapter 8. And in doing so, the author makes clear to us
that these lessons were not embraced by Israel or Gideon.
No, because the main idea that comes across as we study these verses this morning,
the main idea is one of failure. Specifically, it's as though the Holy Spirit,
through the biblical writer, is trying to teach us this, that failure to fear the Lord leads to a
less fruitful life. Failure to fear the Lord leads to a less fruitful life.
And we see this coming through three specific failures of Gideon.
First, we're going to see Gideon's failure in that Gideon... man and then we see Gideon progressing
to abuse man and finally we see how Gideon failed in his aggrandizement before his fellow man and
so these three movements are going to serve as our anchors as we make our way through the text this
morning but we don't have as much text as we did last week Yet we still have some text to get
through. So we're going to get to it. If you'll join me, we're going to pick up in chapter 7, verse
24, to get us in context this morning.
Hear the word of the Lord. Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim,
saying, Come down against the Midianites and capture the waters against them as far as Beth-berah
and also the Jordan. So all the men of Ephraim were called out. And they captured the waters as far
as Beth Barah and also the Jordan. And they captured the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeb.
They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeb they killed at the winepress of Zeb. Then they
pursued Midian, and they brought the head of Oreb and Zeb to Gideon across the Jordan.
Then the men of Ephraim said to him, What is this that you have done to us, not to call us when you
went to fight against Midian? And they accused him fiercely.
And he said to them, What have I done now in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes
of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abiezar? God has given into your hands the princes of
Midian, Oreb, and Zid. What have I been able to do in comparison with you? Then their anger against
him subsided when he said this. And Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed over.
he and the 300 men who were with him, exhausted yet pursuing. So he said to the men of Sukkoth,
Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing
after Ziba and Selmuna, the kings of Midian. And the officials of Sukkoth said, Are the hands of
Ziba and Selmuna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your enemy,
to your army? So Gideon said, Well then. When the Lord has given Ziba and Zalmunna into my hand,
I will flail your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briars. And 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. And he said to the men of Penuel, When I come again in peace, I will break
down this tower. Now Ziba 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. And Gideon went up by the way of the tent
dwellers east of Noba and Jogbeha and attacked the army, for the army felt secure.
And Ziba and Zalmunna fled, and he pursued them and captured the two kings of Midian,
Ziba and Zalmunna. And he threw all the army into a panic. Then Gideon,
the son of Joash, returned from the battle by the ascent of Herez, and he captured a young man of
Succoth and questioned him. And he wrote down for him the officials and elders of Succoth,
77 men. And he came to the men of Succoth and said, Behold, Ziba and Zalmunna,
about whom you taunted me, saying, Are the hands of Ziba and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we
should give bread to your men who are exhausted? And he took the elders of the city.
And he took thorns of the wilderness and briars, and with them taught the men of Succoth a lesson.
And he broke down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city.
Then he said to Ziba and Zalmunna, Where are the men whom you killed at Tabor? They answered,
As you are, so are they. Every one of them resembled the son of a king. And 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. So he said to Jether, his firstborn,
rise and kill them. But the young man did not draw his sword, for he was afraid. he was still a
young man. Then Ziba and Zalmunna said, Rise yourself and fall upon us, for as a man is,
so is his strength. And Gideon arose and killed Ziba and Zalmunna, and he took the crescent
ornaments that were on the necks of their camels. Then 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. Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you.
The Lord will rule over you. And 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. And they answered, We will willingly give them. And they spread a cloak,
and every man threw in it the earrings of his spoil. And 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. And 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.
So 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. Jerubal, the son of Joash,
went and lived in his own house. Now Gideon had 70 sons, his own offspring,
for he had many wives. And his concubine, who was in Shechem, also bore him a son, and he called
his name Abimelech. And Gideon, the son of Joash, died in a good old age and was buried in the tomb
of Joash's father at Ophrah, the Abiezrite. As soon as Gideon died,
the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their God.
And the people of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hand
of all their enemies on every side. And they did not show steadfast love to the family of Jerubal,
that is Gideon, in return for all the good that he had done to Israel. This is the word of the
Lord. Pray with me, church.
Father. We thank you for your word. We know that it holds great blessing for us.
More to be desired is your word than gold, even much fine gold.
Lord, your word is sweeter than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
By them is your servant warned, and in keeping them there is great reward.
So God, we ask this morning that you would give clarity as we look at your word. We ask that you
would give us a desire to know it. We ask that you would help us to taste of its sweetness,
that we may heed its warning and that we may reap its reward.
We ask all of this in Jesus' name. Amen.
The first thing that the writer turns our attention to in the chapter is how Gideon appeases man.
We pick up the narrative in the midst of tension. The men of Ephraim,
one of the tribes of Israel, They were angry with Gideon. Look at verse 1. Then the men of Ephraim
said to him, What is this that you have done to us not to call us when you went to fight against
Midian? And they accused him fiercely. So you'll recall,
it was not until after the initial battle with Midian that the tribe of Ephraim was called upon.
They were called on after the battle there at Jezreel. They were called on to head off the fleeing
Midianites, to take control of the waters, all the fords and the streams of the land.
And that they did. In so doing, they dealt a great blow to the Midianites.
They captured and killed the two of the princes of Midian,
Oreb and Zeb.
Afterward, however, they were angry with Gideon. They're angry with him for not calling them to aid
in the initial battle there at Jezreel. A proud people,
these Ephraimites, they felt that they had been slighted their share of the glory in putting the
Midianites to flight initially. So they questioned Gideon about this. And the text tells us that
they accused him fiercely, which doesn't really come through as strong in the English.
as it does in the original language. The term there translated fiercely is actually the same term
that's used back in chapter 6, verses 31 and 32, when those men of Israel came to kill Gideon after
he had torn down the altar of Baal. So you see, it says that they accused him fiercely,
but this was a really heated matter, church. One that had potential to fracture.
this already feeble group of tribes called Israel. It was a heated matter that was posing a
mounting threat, a mounting physical threat even, to Gideon.
But the way Gideon addressed them caused, the writer tells us, their anger against him to subside.
Now, the scholarship is out on this particular scene.
there's not necessarily agreement here. As the passage is going to go on to reveal,
there's no question that Gideon fails to be as faithful as he could be in several ways that we'll
see. But there isn't widespread agreement on when his lapses in faithfulness began or where they
originated in Gideon's heart. What I think the writer is doing here in the beginning of chapter 8
is showing us where the chinks in Gideon's armor were that manifested in more obvious character
flaws in the not-too-distant future. We already know that Gideon had a problem with fearing man,
right? Gideon was not bold in and of himself.
We're introduced to Gideon while he's cowering in a cave, hiding from the enemy.
But it's not just the enemy that Gideon is afraid of. When he obeyed the Lord and tore down the
altar of Baal, the writer tells us explicitly in chapter 6, verse 27, because he was too afraid of
his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night.
Then we find as the enemy draws near, Gideon sought reassurance from the Lord multiple times.
Reassurance of what? Well, safety amidst conflict. And the Lord mercifully grants these
confirmations to Gideon over and over again. But you see,
the author has painted a crystal clear picture of Gideon's spirit left to himself.
Gideon is a fear-filled man.
So after witnessing this miracle of the Lord back at Jezreel,
after watching the Lord conquer the enemy before him, we're left curious.
When these Ephraimites come to contend with him, we're left curious. How would he respond?
This man who stood for the Lord before the foe, the man who had been held up and sustained without
swinging a sword, How would he testify boldly of the direct instruction and the intervening power
of God to his fellow covenant countrymen?
You see, that's what we would expect from Gideon, to reorient this dispute.
They were saying, these Ephraimites, what is this that you have done to us?
You did not call us when you went to fight against Midian.
We would expect Gideon to say, men of Israel, don't accuse me as though the command or the combat
of the battle was mine. Give praise to Yahweh. He is the one at Jezreel who commanded who should go
out. And Yahweh is the one who stood as the great victorious combatant for Israel and put the enemy
to flight. Praise God, Ephraimite.
We would expect to come from Gideon. But what do we find?
Gideon doesn't even mention that God was the great warrior for Israel that day.
He doesn't reorient the dispute vertically toward God. He simply goes along with the horizontal
orientation of the relationship between one clan and another. What does Gideon say?
Look at verse 2. And he said to them, What have I done now in comparison with you?
Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abiezer? Now,
that phrase is somewhat difficult for us to grasp at first pass because it's culturally bound.
The gleaning of the grapes are the excess. It's the leftover. It's the grapes that were left after
the best grapes had been harvested. The author explains this analogy in verse 3.
Look at it there. He says, God has given into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb,
and Zeb. What have I been able to do in comparison with you? So instead of giving glory to God for
the miraculous feat that had just occurred, Gideon seeks to simply appease these men.
By saying that they're having caught the princes of Midian while the Midianites were fleeing from
the Lord, he's saying that that was greater in significance and value than the initial harvest of
the Midianites? What?
This was the exact opposite, you see, of God's intention. Israel was to receive no glory from the
defeat of Midian. God and he alone was to get all the glory.
That was the whole point. That was the headline of chapters 6 and 7. Chapter 7,
verse 2, do you remember? The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their
hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, my own hand has saved me.
No room for glory for anyone else but the Lord.
So what Gideon says here, at first blush, sounds like humility.
But in reality, Gideon's just trying to save his own skin by flattering these Ephraimites.
He's elevating their accomplishments and even elevating them over what he just watched God do.
You see, this is what happens when we're motivated by the fear of man rather than the fear of the
Lord.
The fear of the Lord in the Bible is sometimes misunderstood as a concept.
Author and professor Michael Reeves, he helps, though, in defining it this way. The fear of the
Lord is a trembling wonder that falls down before God,
orienting us toward God. It is a trembling wonder that falls down before God,
orienting us toward God. The Bible is replete with the call to fear the Lord.
Psalm 2, verse 11, you'll remember, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.
To fear the Lord is to be overwhelmed with awe and joy by the greatness of God in all the facets of
his being. And this should have been the nature of the exchange between Gideon and the men of
Ephraim. Out of fear, Gideon should have taken the conversation from a discussion of one tribe's
glory over another and turned it, extolling the glory of the Lord.
Instead, Gideon neglected the fear of the Lord and was motivated by this ongoing fear of man.
And in doing so, because his eyes were... fixed on the threat of these men rather than on God,
we find in Gideon what we find with all false humility.
We find the same thing we find every time that the fear of man eclipses the fear of God.
Man is not only lifted up in false humility for him, but God and his glory are neglected and
diminished.
These Ephraimites should be joining in great shouts of praise at the wondrous work of God.
And if they aren't, as the appointed judge among God's people, Gideon should be leading them to do
so. But he's more afraid of these men than he is in awe of God.
He's more content to pacify them than he is committed to the praise of Yahweh.
You know, the fear of man is something that many people,
so many people struggle with. In fact, In his aptly titled book,
When People Are Big and God Is Small, Ed Welch says that to some degree, everyone struggles with
the fear of man. So I wonder as we consider this passage this morning,
I wonder today where in your life you're allowing your fear of man to eclipse your fear of God.
Maybe it's in your evangelistic witness.
You just can't bring yourself to give a faithful... presentation, whenever you know that...
You should because you're afraid of fill in the blank.
Or this Father's Day, let me just ask, men,
are you allowing your fear of man to govern the way that you father your children and leave your
home?
I don't know. Maybe it's fear of the opinions of in-laws or fear of the expectations of coaches or
teachers. Go down the list.
Maybe it's fear of disappointing or angering your kids.
Church, we live in such a child-centered culture. And listen,
men and moms, as a fellow parent in the trenches with you,
just receive this encouragement from me. I know it's really hard, but one of the best things that
we can do sometimes is to look into those sweet little faces.
of our children and remind them, I fear the Lord way more than I fear your disappointment,
your opinion of me, your attitude, or whatever it may be.
Just ask yourself today, what would it look like for me to fear the Lord more than man?
Because that's the first failure we see from Gideon here, fearing man more than the Lord.
However, when Gideon actually begins to engage in battle in the pursuit of the Midianite kings,
he loses his fear of man. What we find next is this interesting evolution of his fundamental
failure to fear the Lord leading to Gideon's abuse of his fellow man.
It appears Gideon began to walk in the strength and the courage that the Lord supplied.
We read, that he leads the 300 men who stood with him back in the valley of Jezreel,
and he leads them in pursuit of the Midianites. We're told he leads them exhausted yet pursuing.
Gideon seems to be embodying the identity assigned to him, the identity by which he was called by
the Lord, mighty man of valor.
However, before we're ever told about Gideon's engagement with the enemy, The author relays
Gideon's interaction with two different Israelite cities. The author does this on purpose,
of course, and I believe that purpose is to underscore to us Gideon's failure to walk in the fear
of the Lord from the beginning of his leadership. It will come out more plainly later,
but the author is leaving us a bread trail to the heart of Gideon's problem.
This is not to say that Gideon was not truly a child of God. Don't hear me saying that. The author
of Hebrews seems to indicate that there's hope that we'll meet Gideon in glory. So the point is not
to demonize Gideon here, but the point is to say what the author is pointing out to us throughout
chapter 8 is a series of unwise and irresponsible patterns in Gideon's life.
Just look at the series of events that unfolds next. Verse 5. So he said to the men of Sukkoth,
Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing
after Ziba and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian. The officials of the town then go on,
you read there, to refuse to give bread to them out of fear that if Gideon was to fail,
if he isn't able to fully and finally extinguish the enemy, then perhaps these kings of Midian
would come back on them, holding it against them that they had given aid to Gideon and his men.
Now, these are fellow Israelites that Gideon is engaging with here at this point in the text.
Succoth was a territory of one of the tribes of Israel called Gad. And while we might certainly
fault these officials at Succoth for not helping, their fellow covenanters in the pursuit of the
enemy?
That doesn't seem to be the author's point. It's not seemed to be his focus.
Twice we're told of the same request from Gideon to fellow kinsmen, once at Succoth and then once
at Penuel, another city in the territory of Gad. In both cities,
the supplies are refused to him and his men, and not once, but twice,
What's noteworthy is Gideon's enraged and vengeful reaction. Look at his response to the officials
at Sukkoth, verse 7. So Gideon said, Well then, when the Lord has given Ziba and Zalmunna into my
hand, I will flail your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briars.
And again, to those at Penuel, verse 9. And he said to the men of Penuel, When I come again in
peace, I will break down this tower. Those at Penuel had obviously boasted in a castle or a tower
of sorts in which they would take refuge. And Gideon makes plain to them that when he returns,
there will be no refuge from his vengeance upon them.
You know, for a man who is to be trusting in the Lord to make him strong,
a man who needed so much confirmation from the Lord to even engage with the enemy.
You would think that his response to these cities' refusal of goods would be different.
You would think that, at best, his response would be to sympathize with their doubting.
Doubts like he had just gotten over.
Or, at worst, we would expect him to respond with simple acceptance and trust that the Lord would
provide. But, in fact, the only references made to the Lord in this chapter are passive.
Not active. And that's the point, church. In chapters 6 and 7,
the Lord was active constantly. You could say chapters 6 and 7 were about God,
as we did last week. Yet even the mention of the Lord in chapter 8 is strikingly scant.
In one sense, we could say that chapter 8 is indeed about Gideon.
But when the Bible turns our attention to men,
it's not often. for positive reasons. One commentator has said that Gideon is quite clearly using
the Lord's name in vain throughout chapter 8. Yes, attributing victory to the Lord,
but using the victories as a means of accomplishing what Gideon thought was right in his own eyes,
which is the theme of the book of Judges.
And so it came to pass. In verses 10... we read that Gideon led a successful attack on the enemy
forces. An impressive one, in fact. So much so that we read in verse 12, and Ziba and Zalmunna fled
and he pursued them and captured the two kings of Midian, Ziba and Zalmunna, and he threw all the
army into a panic. Having now captured the two kings of Midian,
Gideon's thirst for vengeance had not subsided.
So in Verse 14, we learn that he captured a young man of Sukkoth and he questioned him.
Obtaining the name of the 77 officials of Sukkoth, he proceeds to do as he told them that he would
do. He goes back and look at it, verse 16. He took the elders of the city and he took thorns of the
wilderness and briars and with them taught the men of Sukkoth a lesson.
Continuing on to verse 17, we learn that he broke down the tower at Penuel and killed the men of
the city.
Fellow covenant countrymen he killed.
And if he won't spare his fellow Israelites, for whom he's supposed to be fighting for their peace,
if he won't spare them his personal vengeance, we should not expect anything else in his treatment
of the enemy. Now, it shouldn't surprise us that Gideon would kill the two kings of Midian.
After all, conquering the enemy is the work the Lord commissioned and then empowered Gideon to
accomplish. But the author includes some detail about how Gideon goes about killing these kings
that's meant to give us pause in our reflection on Gideon's leadership. Look at verses 18 and 19
again. Then he said to Ziba and Zalmunna, Where are the men whom you killed at Tabar?
They answered, As you are, so are they. Every one of them resembled the son of a king. And 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.
So you can hear Gideon's preoccupation with personal vendetta shaping the manner in which he deals
with the enemies of God's people.
As is the case, So often, with those that God gives great gifts and abilities,
Gideon leverages the gifts of God to serve his own purposes rather than simply focusing on serving
the Lord and his purposes.
Commentator Daniel Block says of this scene, it's clear that Gideon was motivated more
psychologically than theologically. And that was his error here.
Not only are we told of his... at this point, but for one reason or another,
the author makes us privy to the way this execution takes place of these two kings.
Look at verses 20 and 21. So 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. Then Ziba and Zalmunna said, rise yourself and fall upon us,
for as a man is, so is his strength. Now, We don't want to make too much of this,
but do you remember back in chapter 6, verse 31, when Gideon was up close and personal with the men
of his own town that sought to do him harm, who stepped in to save Gideon? His father.
And here, in the execution of Ziba and Zalmunna, it's curious that Gideon tries to get his son to
carry out this execution. It's only after the refusal of his son and this sort of sarcastic charge
from the two mouths of the kings of Midian that Gideon, verse 21,
then arose and killed Ziba and Selmuna. Again, we don't want to draw out more there than we're
intended to, but it is a moment of irony.
The irony that we observe in Gideon's life only increases as the scriptures continue.
After the death of the Midianite kings, we observe several ironic moments recorded to show us that
this servant the Lord had raised up to make much of Yahweh made much of himself instead.
And in this way, the author begins to show us how Gideon was aggrandized before men.
Look with me at verse 22. Then the men of Israel said to Gideon,
Rule over us, you and your sons, and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of
Midian. Now, Gideon gives the right response here to the eager Israelites.
Apparently they had forgotten Deuteronomy 17, where the Lord told Israel,
You may indeed set a king over you whom the Lord your God will choose. They had forgotten that,
and they were simply choosing a king for themselves, trying to make Gideon a king. But Gideon had
not forgotten. He responds well in verse 23, saying, I will not rule over you,
and my son will not rule over you. The Lord will rule over you.
Yet, while he verbally rejects their call to install him as king,
the author details a series of things that Gideon does that bear an uncanny resemblance to the acts
of a king. First, in verse 24, he requests gold from the spoils of the campaign against the
Midianites. He receives it and other valuables, including the purple garments worn by the kings of
Midian. Then, Gideon proceeds to make from these spoils,
in verse 27, an ephod. And he put it in his city,
Ophrah. An ephod was a vest that was worn by the high priest in Israel.
It was a highly sacred item to Israel, associated with the worship of God and discerning the will
of God and the like. God himself directed the making of it and the use of it in Exodus 28.
But here, Gideon takes it upon himself to make one.
assuming this pseudo-priest-like authority in Israel.
And what follows? Verse 27 again. And all Israel whored after it there,
and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family.
So rather than freeing Israel from idolatry, Gideon facilitates Israel's idolatry.
Not only this, but in the last six verses of chapter 8, The author makes it a point to give us some
additional clues about the character of Gideon. In verse 30, we read, Now Gideon had seventy sons,
his own offspring, for he had many wives.
We know that any time the Bible speaks... having multiple wives. It is a deviation from rather than
devotion to the Lord's design. Yet to have so many wives was a clear indication of him envisioning
himself as a sort of king.
Solomon's the only king in Israel recorded to have more wives than Gideon. Moreover,
he had at least one concubine that we're told about who wasn't even an Israelite.
And it was with his concubine in Shechem that we're told that he had a particular son.
Verse 31, and he called his name Abimelech.
Church, the author includes this one son's name on purpose because the name Abimelech means my
father is king.
So while Gideon may have refused to be made king with his lips, his actions...
over and over again the desire of his heart.
You know, a moment ago, I mentioned Deuteronomy 17, where the Lord gave instruction about a king
for Israel. And he gives there five prohibitions for the would-be king in Israel.
Five prohibitions. The first was that the king must not be a foreigner. The second was that the
king must not acquire many horses. Third, the king must not cause the people to return to Egypt.
And we read the fourth one, and he shall not acquire many wives for himself,
lest his heart turn away. And then the fifth, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive gold and
silver.
So you see, Gideon's actions clearly displayed a heart that longed for the glory of a king.
Yet he turns out to look more like one of the pagan kings than anything.
And it's in the prescription that God gives for Israel's would-be king that we learn what Gideon
actually lacked. Just listen to two verses from Deuteronomy 17.
The Lord says there,
He shall read in it all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping
all the words of this law and these statutes and doing them. That his heart may not be lifted up
above his brothers and that he may not turn aside from the commandment either to the right hand or
to the left.
That he may learn to fear the Lord his God.
Church, this. is what Gideon lacked, the fear of the Lord his God.
The Lord called this coward from a cave and made him a conquering,
mighty man of valor.
But in the embrace of the gifts God gave him, Gideon not only lost his fear of man,
it really seems that he lost his fear of God.
More than the particular life lessons that this narrative is crafted to teach us,
more than any of those, the narrative is set up to teach us that Israel did need a king.
The people of God needed a king not only to deliver them out of the consequences of their sin,
but to lead them in the fear of the Lord.
A better king than any of the judges that we read about in this narrative.
Over in Isaiah chapter 11, we find a prophecy of a better deliverer king.
who would come listen to the description of jesus there in isaiah 11 there shall come forth a shoot
from the stump of jesse and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit and the spirit of the lord
shall rest upon him the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and might the
spirit of knowledge and the fear of the lord and his delight shall be in the fear of the lord
This is what we read of Jesus. You see, in the Lord Jesus,
who has worked true deliverance for the people of God through his perfect life of obedience and his
atoning death on the cross, in this man Jesus, in his earthly life,
we find a deliverer who is never fearful of man, but always walks in the fear of the Lord.
In his earthly life, what sort of deliverer do we find in Jesus but one who the apostle Peter
testifies when he was reviled, he did not revile in return, but suffered, he did not threaten.
Excuse me, when suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges
justly.
In Jesus' earthly life, we find the opposite. of a servant with a secret appetite for a throne.
No, in condescending from his rightful throne, he says in John chapter 6,
I have come down from heaven not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me.
All this because Jesus, our true deliverer king,
Jesus demonstrated delighting.
You know, I said at the beginning of the sermon that
this narrative is one that I want to like, but it just leaves me wanting something else.
And I think that's what the author's purpose is in crafting it the way that he does.
Gideon was not all bad. In the last line of Gideon's epitaph,
the author mentions all the good. that he had done to Israel, quote.
In verse 28, we are told that the land had rest 40 years in the days of Gideon.
So we're not to demonize Gideon here, but we are intended to be left wanting,
wanting a better deliverer for God's people. We are intended to be left wanting a better king who
would lead the people of God in the fear of the Lord.
This morning, Listen, if you are not trusting in the person and work of Jesus to deliver you from
your sins and lead you in the fear of the Lord, this text is beckoning you to find that deliverance
in Jesus because it's pointing to him as the only true deliverer king.
And this morning, if you are, brothers and sisters, trusting in the Lord Jesus for that,
then what... are intended to leave this text doing is savoring,
savoring the goodness and the humility, the strength and the authority,
the perfection of Jesus.
And in savoring the person and work of our greater deliverer king,
we then follow in his example of cultivating a life of the fear of the Lord.
May it be so. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for Jesus.
God, we can identify with Gideon in that we have so many ways in which sin has deceived us,
in which we have given over to it in defiance of you,
and in showing us the depth of sin and what it does to us,
Lord, we can only cry thank you for the better.
deliverer, King, that you have given us in Jesus. I pray, Lord, that this morning that would be our
cry. Thank you that in seeing that and savoring that,
that you would help us to walk in the fear of you all the more. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.