The
account of the reign of Gideon ended with the death of Abimelech, the son he
had with his wife from Shechem. Gideon’s life started so splendidly but was unfortunately
marred by several wrong moves. The mistakes he made included making an ephod
out of the gold the people contributed to him and marrying one wife too many. Besides,
he showed his hypocrisy when he named his son, Abimelech which means “my father
is king.” This name revealed his hypocrisy. While he wanted to live like a
king, yet he pretended to be uninterested when the rulership was offered to
him. The three mistakes he made came to haunt him. His life reminds us to be
careful about how we make decisions and conduct our lives. After the death of
Abimelech, his son, there was an emergence of two relatively unknown deliverers
namely, Tola and Jair.
Little
is said of Tola except that he is the son of Puah, the son of Dodo. He hailed
from the tribe of Issachar but lived in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim.
Perhaps this is by way of saying that he succeeded Abimelech’s leadership. And
he led Israel for 23 years. In those years there was stability. The
phrase, “he arose to save Israel” suggests that he was able to help Israel from
the calamitous impact of Abimelech’s leadership. He did what he could to manage
the negative impact left by Abimelech on the people.
Nothing
much is also given concerning Jair. He came from Gilead, an area located beyond
the Jordan. So he was known as a Gileadite. This was the region where he
exercised his leadership as a judge. Verse 4 tells us that he had 30 sons who
rode on 30 donkeys. They probably administered the 30 cities in the land of
Gilead. To have that number of sons suggests that he probably had many wives.
The fact that his sons were made to administer the cities seems to tell us that
he practised nepotism. In all, we are given the impression that his family had
an extravagant lifestyle. He led the people for 23 years and when he died, he
was buried in the place called Kamon. We can surmise from Jair and his sons’
lifestyle that deterioration had slowly seeped into the community. Trouble was
brewing on a slow boil.
The
two judges were relatively unknown because not much was said about their
exploits. The context of how they came to the scene was not fully given. We are
not told of any oppression nor any distressing call of the Israelites. The
people of God were not going through great turmoil. It was as if they were
having an uneventful period. It is during a time like this that people tend to
be complacent. What we can take away from these five verses is that we must not
allow complacency to settle into our spiritual walk. In time of peace, we need
to build, prepare and strengthen our spiritual muscle. We need to continue to
stay connected to God and build our relationship with Him. A strengthened life
will prepare us for what’s ahead of us and enable us to live a resplendent life
for His glory.
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