Judges 9:7-15 – The call to rightly appraisal one's calling

Judges 9:6 briefly describes the coronation of Abimelech which took place at the oak of the pillar in Shechem. Interestingly, according to Joshua 24:26-27, this was the very spot that Joshua gathered the Israelites years earlier and challenged them to remain faithful to God. How ironical! While the coronation was going on, Jotham, the youngest brother who escaped the massacred tried to interrupt the proceedings from a distance. He went somewhere near. Judges 9 said that he went up to Mount Gerizim, which was a safe distance from the oak of the pillar in Shechem. There he told an allegorical story seeking to awake the people of Shechem from the foolishness of installing Abimelech as the king.   

Using trees in his allegory, Jotham told the stories of how the trees were seeking to install a king. Three particular trees namely, the olive, the fig and the vine, were each in consecutive turns invited to be the king. Each of these three trees declined the invitation. Finally, the bramble, a worthless shrub agreed to be the king. This bramble was only accepted and installed as king because it threatened to burn the forest down unless it was made the king. What Jotham was seeking to do was to show that Abimelech was the least qualified to serve as a king. His allegory was to show the sheer foolishness of making Abimelech, such an unqualified person to be the king. This highlights for us the importance of putting the right people in the position of leadership. A leader plays a key role in the advancement of any community, much so the church. When a wrong person is installed as the leader, the community will suffer the effect of the wrong choice.

This story serves as a caution for us to be discerning as we seek to fill the leadership position in our fellowship. We mustn’t put incompetent people that could stifle the progress of our God-given mission.  This story also reminds us that when we are invited to fill a role, we must also carefully evaluate the invitation. We must not accept a role that promotes us into incompetence. The olive, the fig and the vine, all three realized and enjoyed the roles that they each were playing. Why should they leave their comfort zone to do something they knew they were not cut out for? We must learn to rightly appraise our own capacity. Do not try to promote ourselves at the expense of the overall good of the ministry. Paul tells us in Philippians 2:3-4 to “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” Let us seek the best interest of the community which we are a part of for the glory of God!

Judges 9:1-6 – Learn to cultivate holy ambition

Spiritually speaking, the condition of the people of Israel had deteriorated very badly. The God-granted rest that they periodically enjoyed seemed to be dissipating.  In our last reflection, we were introduced to Abimelech, the son of Gideon whom his wife from Shechem had born for him. This son was like a festering sore that would soon be inflicting pain on his people. The meaning of Abimelech is “my father is king.” It was an indication of Gideon’s hypocrisy. While he declined when the people wanted to make him their king, yet his secret desire was to live like one. Hence when this son was born, he showed his true colour by giving him a name that indicated the true desire of his heart. The closing words tainted his otherwise illustrious resume.  

The wickedness of the people after Gideon’s death was rampant. They forgot their covenant with Jehovah God and went venerating Baal, the Canaanite god. In verse 4 we are told that they even have a temple named “Baal-berith” meaning “covenant with Baal.” This was probably named in honour of the covenant they made with Baal. This signals to us the extent of the wickedness of the people. They had become steeped in the worship of Baal. It’s unthinkable to imagine that the people of God had sunk so low that they would even have a temple built to honour the covenant that they had made with this cultic god.  God’s people were on a free-fall in social, moral and spiritual decline. The worship of Baal had infiltrated so fully into the covenanted community of God.  

To cleanse His people, God would soon allow them to turn against each other in order to purge the nation of the wicked people. Apparently, Abimelech was used for this purpose. He had a lowly birth but a grand and lofty ambition. Abimelech openly desired the position of a king which Gideon only coveted covertly. He was more aggressive than his father and became more an oppressor rather than a deliverer. It would appear that God was using him to discipline his people for their unfaithfulness.

Abimelech must have surmised that with his father’s death, the leadership would have to be shared between him and his seventy half-brothers. And being an ambitious man, he was not ready to share the reign. He wanted the rule to himself. So, he contacted all his relatives in his home town of Shechem and urged them to coerce the leaders to recognize him as their ruler. He appealed to them based on their kinship. The sneaky question he asked them was “‘Which is better for you, that seventy men, all the sons of Jerubbaal, rule over you, or that one-man rule over you?’ Also, remember that I am your bone and your flesh.” There was no indication that any of the other seventy sons of Gideon was interested in the leadership. Abimelech seemed to be the only one that had this shady ambition. So, he schemed and grabbed the leadership by appealing to them based on the fact they were closer to him in terms of their blood relation. They conceded to him because to them they were closer in relation because of his mother who hailed from Shechem.

The men of Shechem then gave him seventy pieces of silver taken from the temple of Baal-berith to assist him in his bid for the rulership. With that seventy pieces of silver, he hired wicked men and had 69 of his half-brothers slaughtered. Jotham, the youngest of Gideon’s seventy sons managed to escape because he hid himself. With those brothers ruthlessly removed, Abimelech returned to Shechem and was coronated as the king. To grab the leadership by ruthlessly destroying all seeming competitors was unbecoming of Abimelech. It is perfectly alright to aspire to leadership. First Timothy 3:1 says “…if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do.” But one must not grab a position which one craves for by ruthlessly removing those who appeared as a threat. Desire to be a person whom God can use for a noble purpose. Such ambition will ensure the progress of God’s work. Be such a person for the glory of God.  

Judges 8:27-35 – Stay strong and end triumphantly

We have discovered how needful it is for us to be making the right decisions in our walk with God. Why? All it takes is one wrong decision, one flawed move and we will be scarred for life. It is perfectly okay to enjoy the victory one has secured through the Lord, but don’t be carried away in the celebration till we become careless and make a wrong move. The victory that Gideon had secured over the Midianites brought the people of Israelites rest for 40 years. In the period of rest, complacency had sneaked into the camp. Gideon made some disappointing and insidious decisions that tarnished an otherwise great period in the history of the Israelites. What did he do that was so wrong?

Remember Gideon asked the people to each give him an earring which they had taken from the Ishmaelites. They then spread a garment on the floor and everyone contributed an earring each. The amount they collected for him amounted to 1700 shekels of gold. God did not grudge him for what the people gave to honour him. Gideon however, made a wrong move by making an ephod out of the gold he had collected. The ephod was the unique garment that God instructed Moses to make for the high priest to wear for service in the Tabernacle. It was an elaborate piece of art that was a visual object to help the people see the unique place God should have in their lives. Whether this ephod Gideon made resembled the original one or not we do not know. But he had one made and placed it in the city of Ophrah. This one wrong move led the people into a tailspin into harlotry again and his household was also ensnared. For whatever reason Gideon might have in making the ephod, it was certainly the wrong move. This tells us how careful we must be in our decision on the things to do to secure our relationship with God. Simple, proven tracks are to be preferred over complicated untested ways. We must learn not to bloom where we are not called to groom.

The second thing Gideon did that was disappointing was that he took one wife too many. Instead of staying focused and enjoy the wife of his life, he had many concubines all over the cities. And in all, Gideon had seventy sons born to him by his many wives. The third disappointing move he made was found in the name he gave to the son born to him by his wife from Shechem. He named that son Abimelech, meaning “my father is king”. In so doing he had revealed the real intention of his heart. Remember in Judges 8:22-23 the people wanted to make him king saying, “Rule over us, both you and your son, also your son’s son, for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian.” At that point, Gideon responded saying, “I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you; the Lord shall rule over you.” While he claimed to be uninterested in the position, yet in naming his son Abimelech, he had shown what he truly wanted - to live like a king. His hypocrisy was exposed by his incongruence. His true desire was that he wanted to live like a king. In the next chapter, we shall see how much pain this son Abimelech would bring to the people. He was like a little festering sore. While Gideon died at a ripe old age, he did not leave behind a rich healthy spiritual legacy. We must decide now not to follow in the footsteps of Gideon. We must not allow acts of foolishness, or pride or lust to sabotage our spiritual legacy. We have started well, so let us stay strong and finish triumphantly!

Judges 8:13-26 – Be careful in making every decision

Gideon and his men returned from the battle, having captured Zebah and Zalmunna and routed the Midianites. Remembering the disdain that the men of Succoth and the people of Penuel showed them, he then made good his threats to the people of those two cities. Gideon captured a youth from Succoth and from him obtained the names of the seventy-seven key men of that city. He then showed them the two kings whom they had captured. And as warned, he punished them with thorns and briers. He also punished the people of Penuel by tearing down their tower. So, both the cities were punished for their failure to help their countrymen. Failure to carry out a warning will dilute one’s credibility. And Gideon was not about to allow that to happen to his life. So, he kept his word and did what he had warned the two cities on what he would do. He needed to because these would be a good object lesson for his followers. What happened to Succoth and Penuel underscore an important lesson: that we should always avail ourselves to the work of the larger fellowship. In God’s work, the whole should always be given priority over the part.

In Judges 8:18-21, Gideon went about punishing the two kings whom he had captured. He confronted Zebah and Zalmunna and they confessed to have ordered the killing of those people who were Gideon’s blood brothers. This suggests that they had killed them underhandedly. If they had been merciful to those whom they had killed deceitfully, Gideon would have spared them. Since they did what seemed so treacherous, he was not about to be lenient to them. So, Gideon turned to Jether, his firstborn son and ordered him to kill the two kings. We are not given the reason why Gideon wanted his son to do the execution. Perhaps, he wanted to humiliate them by asking his young and inexperienced son to do the execution. But Jether refused to do it. What lesson can we learn from this incident? In serious matters in the battle, always get people who are ready and trained for the task. Don’t put the work under jeopardy by using inexperienced and unprepared people before they are ready. Realizing their time was up the two fugitive kings told Gideon to kill them himself and so he did it with one blow. And he took the crescent ornaments from the necks of their camels.

In verses 22-26, Gideon was recognized and accepted by the Israelites as their leader. They were flowing with gratitude to him for all that he had accomplished in the destruction of the Midianites. They wanted to make him their ruler. But Gideon knew better. Had it not been for the LORD, he would never have been successful. He refused to take what was rightly God’s. He attributed the success to the LORD and insisted that He should be the rightful ruler. Gideon did, however, ask that each of them should contribute an earring from the spoil taken from the enemies to show their gratitude. The enemies were Ishmaelites hence they all worn an earning. What Gideon received amounted to 1,700 shekels of gold. What he did with the gold he received led to the beginning of the degeneration of the people. It is needful for us to be careful about what we do after the battle is won. Remember, whatever victory we have secured can be undone by one wrong decision.  So be circumspect and do what is right!  

Judges 8:4-12 – Stay on the main thing

In the passage today, we learn that not everyone will collaborate with us in our conflict to advance the kingdom. There will be those that are fearful of repercussion from the battle. They don’t want even to be seen to be assisting us for fear of being implicated. They would rather stay neutral and be uninvolved. That was exactly what happened to Gideon. Two times he was denied assistance. Once at Succoth and the other at Penuel. Gideon and his 300 men were largely successful although they had come against a large allied force of the Midianites. Verse 10 revealed that only 15,000 men of the enemy force remained. Gideon and the Israelites had already killed 120,000 of them. Yet they were in hot pursuit of two of the Midianite kings, namely Zebah and Zalmunna. Somehow, they were able to elude Gideon and his 300 men who were hot on the heels of these two fugitives.

Needless to say, Gideon and his men needed food to sustain them. As they tracked down the Midianites, they came to the city of Succoth. Here Gideon requested for provisions for his troops but the leaders of that city denied their request. They were probably afraid of repercussion from the Midianites. It would be palatable if they did not taunt Gideon. But what they did to Gideon was sheer defiance and disgraceful. They taunted Gideon by a rhetorical question - “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hands, that we should give bread to your army?” The implication is this: if they had not captured the two kings of the Midianites, what made them think that they deserve any food? What downright display of arrogance! Since they had not, then they did not deserve any provision. Though angered, Gideon did not deal with the men of Succoth immediately. However, he warned them that he would deal with them when they returned victoriously.

Gideon showed the characteristic of a good leader here. He was not sidetracked from his primary objective, annihilating the Midianites. If he had reacted and taken the time to deal with the men of Succoth, he would have afforded the fleeing Midianites the opportunity to recuperate, recharge and be more ready for the battle. To fight 15,000 men is still a lot to deal with. He refused to be derailed in his main objective of getting rid of the Midianites totally. This same thing happened to him again a second time in Penuel. And Gideon’s response was similar. He refused to be affected by their refusal to provide provisions. These two incidences teach us to take care of the big issue before we get back to deal with the smaller one. We should not be distracted from our pursuit of a major goal and waste time dealing with a less important one. We can always get back to deal with it when the major job is done. Was Gideon disappointed? Sure, he was. But he did not allow his disappointment to take his eye off his main task. Instead, he took their refusal as a challenge to forge ahead with his quest. What good would it be to make the people of Succoth and Penuel pay for their refusal to help if, in the process of doing it, he allowed the Midianites to escape? A great strategist will never go for a petty disappointment at the expense of capturing the prize.

What a lesson to learn for our spiritual advancement! Don’t allow the nitty-gritty, artificial-superficial mundane needs of life distract us. Don't allow them to take our focus away from the main objective of our spiritual journey. We must not rest on our laurels, neither should we be involved in the petty. We keep our eyes riveted on Jesus, and on the objective of attaining the goal that He had paid a great price to secure for us. Let us press on to experience Him and the power of His resurrection, and to become more like Christ! All other things are secondary.

Judges 7:24 - 8:3 - Lessons from the Ephramites

The strategy Gideon and his 300 deployed had caused the whole camp of Midianites to scatter in panic. They even began to slaughter each other. And while many others were fleeing from the camp in fright, the earlier troops from Naphtali and Asher and all Manasseh were summoned to help. They came willingly and the Midianites were routed. In verses 24-25, Gideon called for the assistance of another group of Israelites. They were none other than the Ephraimites. He sent men to all the hill country of Ephraim saying, “Come down against Midian and take the waters before them, as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan.” Without hesitation, the Ephraimites answered the call to arm. They were told to take control of the Jordan River. This was a good strategy to take control of the route that would impede the Midianites’ escape.  Besides, it made good sense because the tribe of Ephraim was located around the border of Jordan. It was good that the Ephraimites responded positively. Their contribution to the fray enabled the capture of two leaders of the Midianites namely, Oreb and Zeeb. They cut off the heads of these two leaders and brought them across the Jordan and presented them to Gideon.

In the first three verses of Judges 8, we can see that the Ephraimites had an ax to grind with Gideon. They must have felt slighted that they were not included in the battle from the start. They could even feel alienated and their pride was affected and ego wounded. Isn’t this something that we in the family of God have to deal with from time to time? Pride and ego are two very unpredictable temperaments. For no explainable rhyme or reason, close family members and friends could get offended and become estranged. What’s worst is when they don’t stay around to tell you why, nor give you a chance to amend what you could have done wrong. This can be avoided when we realize that in a family it is not always possible to involve everyone. It is hard to keep everyone apprised of everything and involve everyone in every situation. There will always be those that would be needed first, then others who are available will be called for when needed. If we refuse to take offense, the family can advance better.

Thankfully, in Gideon’s situation, he had the wisdom and found a way to smoothen the ruffled ego of the Ephraimites. He praised them for the capture of Oreb and Zeeb. It is one thing to cause the camp of the Midianites to panic, but capturing their leaders was more important.  Gideon was able to assure them that what they did was more critical than what he and the 300 had done. What they did would disable the regrouping of the enemy forces. Gideon was able to pacify the Ephraimites by his logical explanation. Praise God! It is great to have leaders and members that know how to avoid causing disunity in the family and we must strive to be such people.

Here are some lessons we can glean from the situation with the Ephraimites. In a family, one should stay available to advance our corporate objective and goal. Do not feel slighted when one is not used for any project from the start. It may well be that one's service will be required later. When one is called to be involved later it doesn’t mean that one is less important. It could be a situation where one's service is best suited for that moment. When there’s unhappiness one must not allow it to fester but rather seek to find time to resolve the cause. It is better to have a peaceful settlement and progress harmoniously than to allow unhappiness to divide us.          

Judges 7:19-23 – Let’s pursue wisdom

The strategy that Gideon used shows us that in any battle, divine wisdom has the capacity to prevail over might. Victory is not always about might. This tells us that in our own spiritual battle God can grant us the wisdom that can outwit any might. We have seen this clearly demonstrated through what Christ has accomplished for us at Calvary. The cross is foolishness to the world but it is God’s wisdom. We all know that in God there is not even a bit of foolishness. Yet for the sake of argument, Paul in Corinthians tells us that even if God does have foolishness, the least of it would be greater even than the greatest wisdom of man. Of course, we know that this is hyperbolic language. It was Paul’s way of saying that in God there is only wisdom. No man can ever manoeuvre God. Coming back to Gideon’s battle, he only had 300 men coming against a huge force of the Midianites. Humanly speaking, it was foolishness to think that they could overcome such a huge force. In fact, they would be dead meat to the enemy. But with divine wisdom, there was a great difference. God granted him an ingenious plan that worked perfectly.

Gideon had divided his people into three groups, with him attaching to one of the groups. The 100 men led by Gideon then came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch (the middle watch is estimated to be the time between 12 midnight and 4 in the morning). So, they would be at the outskirt of the camp of the Midianites slightly past midnight which must be quite dark then. Gideon and the 100 men blew the trumpets and so also all the other two groups. Verse 20 tells us that “…all the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers, they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing, and cried, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” When that took place, each of the Israelites remained standing in their position around the camp, while the Midianites panicked. They were falsely led to believe that they were being attacked by huge companies of soldiers from all directions. And in the thick of darkness, they could not distinguish between their own people. Not being able to recognize their fellow men, many killed their fellow Midianites. Thus, the enemy’s camp was routed.  Gideon was able to rally the earlier disbanded Israelites from Naphtali and Asher and all Manasseh and summoned them to join in the pursuit of the Midianites.  

With divine wisdom, we can scale great heights with God. We can live an overcoming life. Wisdom will dare us to do things that we have never done before so that we can accomplish things that we never would. And truly as Proverbs 9:10 says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” So, pursue the wisdom of God.