The Scourge of the Midianites (Judges 6-11)
It is essential that, when God reveals things to us, we respond to him in obedience. Disobedience only leads to problems and distress further on in our lives. Ultimately, it will lead to a lifetime of underachievement so far as God’s Kingdom is concerned and, at the end of our lives, sorrow and regret. Determine now to ask God to give you the strength to deal with any things that are holding you back.
As we shall see in this account of Gideon and how God used him to set the whole Jewish nation free from the Midianites, all it takes for evil to prevail is for godly people to do nothing; all it takes for good to prevail is for one godly person to accept the authority that God gives in the Name of Jesus and to act in God’s strength.
Click here to open a timeline of the judges of Israel (the leaders appointed by God) in a new tab of your web browser. This will help to give you an overall picture of this period of Jewish history. Dates are approximate, but give a good indication of the length of time that Israel suffered at the hands of the tribes they were supposed to have eradicated from the land that God had promised to them. For a variety of reasons, they were not obedient and, during the time of the judges, this disobedience came back to bite them, causing extreme hardship and distress.
Drifting and drifting
During this period of the judges, there was a distinct cycle of disobedience, followed by intervention from a leader and a return to obedience before a relapse when that leader died. It began when the Israelites started to drift away from God. The further they drifted, the more they were tempted to look at other gods (usually those of their neighbours) and then start worshipping them instead of JAHWEH, their own God. The more they worshipped other gods, the more God allowed other nations to oppress them until their plight was so severe that they could not even feed themselves. They were driven from their farmlands into the hills where they eked out a meagre existence, living in clefts of rocks, caves and strongholds. What little grain they had needed to be threshed in secret if they were to survive.
We can apply this to our lives today. The temptations to deviate from the one true God are constant and are experienced by all Christians. The vast majority of people in Western societies have been drifting away from God for many years. It began with their parents and grandparents and has now reached a point where the very idea that a being such as God might exist is seen as, at best, eccentric or quaint and, for most people, simply beyond all reason. There are few examples of godly behaviour to follow and we are left with a world where God’s Name is not even acknowledged, let alone honoured. At the time of writing this, various surveys report that less than 1% of all Europeans currently honour God or have faith in Him.
Of course, this may very well change with new generations. The same cyclical pattern of belief, followed by unbelief, followed by a reawakening of faith, can be traced throughout our history. Nonetheless, the pressures just now to conform to the standards of the world at large are massive. If we decide to make a stand for God's truth, it is easy for the Enemy to make us feel endlessly marginalised.
The Perizzites (the name means ‘to separate out' or 'segregate’) were hill dwellers and a tribe whose land God had given to the Israelites. God had told His people to drive them out so that there would be no danger of separation. Christians are called to be ‘the salt of the earth'. But 'if the salt loses its saltiness, it cannot be made salty again and will be thrown out and trampled.’ (Matthew 5:13). Jesus also challenged us to be ‘the light of the world'. Like a city on a hill, such light cannot be hidden. Jesus also said: 'neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house.’ (Matthew 5:14-15). We need to be both light and salt in the midst of today’s world.
Gideon is chosen by God (Judges 6)
God first came to Gideon when he was a young man threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it hidden. At that time, the neighbouring tribes and nations (the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples) would regularly turn up at harvest-time to steal whatever they could. They would arrive, like locusts, in their thousands, pitch their tents and then roam around snatching whatever they could and threatening violence to any who tried to resist them. The Israelites could only cry out to the LORD: 'O God, WHY?'
God responded by sending a prophet to them, but the essence of his message was to remind them of all that God had done for them and how He had called them to put their faith in Him and behave accordingly. In no uncertain terms, the prophet told them that they had brought trouble on themselves by not listening to God. (Judges 6:8-10)
As so often happens when people get to the end of themselves and there are no physical or spiritual resources left, they remember things that were once said, perhaps long ago, related as stories from the past: tales of amazing miracles and courage, of deliverance and mighty victories. They begin to think about them, and perhaps they remember the reasons for them (or the ones that were related with the stories) and they begin to wonder if there could still be a God in heaven after all. Could this God in the stories really care about them? Could this God be the One who created them in the first place and has a plan for their lives? Might He give them just a small victory now to keep them going?
And so we find Gideon at a place called Ophrah, which belonged to Joash, his father. Gideon was threshing grain in a wine press, where there was no wind to blow away the chaff but at least the Midianites would not see him doing it. It would be enough to feed the family for another few days. As Gideon is working, a messenger arrives and announces: 'The LORD is with you, you mighty warrior!' (The name 'Gideon' means 'warrior'.) The messenger ('angel') then sits down in the shade under an oak tree.
Gideon's family, like many other families amongst the Israelites, had drifted away from the LORD, the God of their ancestors. Joash had constructed an altar to Baal (the god that the people of the land had worshipped for many years) and also had a 'pole' (a pagan fertility symbol) dedicated to Asherah (the local ‘goddess of fertility’) that was beside it. But Gideon had also heard the stories about JAHWEH (the LORD) and had not closed his mind to the possibility that those stories might have some truth to them.
I can imagine Gideon looking round to see who the messenger was talking about. Surely, it couldn’t have been him! He didn’t feel like a mighty warrior; he didn’t look like a mighty warrior and he wasn’t acting like a mighty warrior. Instead, he was hiding from his enemies and, as far as he was concerned, this was neither the time nor the place to be a mighty warrior! But God knew differently. The LORD had chosen Gideon 'before the foundation of the world'. (See Ephesians 1:4) God had ‘knit him together in his mother’s womb’. (See Psalm 139:13) He had created Gideon with the express capability of doing this job. It was no accident that he was alive at that precise moment. Neither is it an accident that you and I are alive at this precise moment. Regardless of our background and whether or not our parents brought us up to know Him, God wanted us to be alive at this time and He has a purpose for our life. (See Jeremiah 29:11-14)
Gideon’s reaction
Gideon responds with objections that he had probably heard from others around him: ‘I beg your pardon, Sir, but if God is really with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all these miracles that we've been told about?’ The messenger, sent by the LORD, ignores these questions (that had already been answered earlier by the prophet God had sent) and simply gives him a commission from God: 'Go, you mighty warrior, and save Israel from the Midianites! You have my authority to do it!'
Gideon was simply not prepared for this. The stories about God opening up a pathway in the sea or producing water from a rock or sending quail and manna to eat in supernatural ways were all about God doing things. Perhaps he had forgotten the parts played by Aaron and Moses who had had to step up and be leaders for God's people. 'Hang on, Lord, you can't send me! I'm a nobody! I don't even have any special role at home in my family!' But the LORD isn't listening. 'I will be with you. You'll slaughter 'em!'
Gideon was still not convinced. How could he be sure that this messenger was truly from God? Perhaps he should offer a sacrifice? (Surely that was the right way to approach God?) Would the messenger agree to wait until everything was ready? So, Gideon asks if he can have time to prepare an offering and the messenger agrees to wait. When the offering - a simple meal - has been prepared and offered to the visitor, the messenger doesn't eat it; instead he tells Gideon to place it on a nearby rock. Gideon does so and, suddenly, a flame shoots up from the rock and consumes the entire meal. As it does so, the messenger disappears.
Gideon is overcome with the realisation that he has actually met with the living God. Immediately, he is afraid that he will be struck down, but God reassures him that all is well. Gideon responds by building an altar to the LORD at the place where they met together. That night, the LORD again speaks to Gideon (in a dream, perhaps) and tells him to tear down his father's altar to Baal, together with the Asherah Pole, and to build a proper altar to JAHWEH in their place. He is then to take his father's second bull and sacrifice it on the altar (using the wood from the Asherah pole to do so).
Obedience to God's commands
Doing what God asks of us is usually not without some cost. Are we prepared to obey God fully? What might our obedience involve?
- Our Heart: loving Him more than any other relationship, activity, achievement or possession.
- Our Will: committing ourselves completely to Him.
- Our Mind: seeking to know Him and His word, so that His principles and values form the foundation of all we think and do.
- Our Body: recognising that our strengths, talents, and sexuality are given to us by God to be used for pleasure and fulfilment according to His rules, not ours.
- Our Finances: deciding that all of the resources we have ultimately come from God; that we are to be managers of them and not owners.
- Our Future: deciding to make service to God and people the main purpose of our life's work.
Are we prepared to bring our lives into line with what God has asked us to do? What He asks may often seem to be hard and we can be sure that the Enemy will seek to dissuade us and persuade us that God cannot possibly have meant it or that we must have misheard Him. But, if God has asked us to do it, then no other course of action will either succeed or bring us into the best that God has planned for us.
Gideon was willing to obey God, but knew that this would cause an almighty row within the family, so decided that doing it at night would be best. In the morning, the full implications of what he had done reverberated around the community. It wasn't just Gideon's family that was outraged; the whole town demanded that he put to death for this heresy. However, blood is truly thicker than water and Joash stood up to defend his son. Until then, he had gone along with the general attitude towards religion, perhaps not knowing fully what he believed himself, but now it had become personal and he wasn't prepared to sacrifice his son for the sake of superstitious beliefs. ‘If Baal is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar.’
Indeed. And, of course, nothing happened, because 'Baal' is not a god. The very name is a demonic substitute for the one true God: JAHWEH. Gideon had taken his stand and now all God's people were forced to decide for themselves. Were they prepared to commit themselves to their own God - the one true God - or to some foreign, so-called deities?
Preparing for battle
It was now time for harvesting. The Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East came together, crossed the Jordan and camped in the Valley of Jezreel. ‘Then the Spirit of the LORD came on Gideon and he blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezerites (his clan) to gather to him.' As they begin to arrive, Gideon sends messengers to the other clans in Israel to join him as well and they agree. As word spreads, an army begins to grow.
But Gideon was still unsure of himself, even after all that God had done, so he asks God for confirmation in the form of a small miracle. He lays out a woollen fleece on a threshing-floor and asks God to arrange things so that dew forms in the fleece but the floor all around remains dry. God graciously grants this request. But Gideon thinks about it and realises that this was not perhaps altogether unexpected in the normal course of events, so asks God for a second miracle in which the reverse should take place: the fleece should remain dry whilst the ground all around is wet. Again, God graciously complies.
Gideon is convinced and now fully reassured that God is indeed with him. So, he takes the army and moves them closer to where the enemy is camped. However, now it is God's turn to test Gideon. Any battle that God calls us to be involved in will be His and He never fights on human terms. If Gideon had beaten the enemy with an overwhelming force, he would have been tempted to consider that he could take some credit himself for the victory. God does not want any of us to fall for this delusion. God's battles are not won by human resources or abilities. Furthermore, God did not want fearful, trembling people taking part in His battle; He was looking for willing volunteers who had faith in Him. So He tells Gideon to send home anyone who is not up for the fight and over two-thirds of the army turn around and head for home. There is no room for fear in God’s battles. You either believe Him or you don’t. If you don’t, go home now and He will use someone who does believe Him.
Looking at the remaining ten thousand, God said that it was still too many, so He gets Gideon to run a little test. All the volunteers were sent to a nearby spring to drink. Some got down on their knees to bend over and drink from the stream whilst others scooped up water in their hands and lapped it up with their tongues, all the time keeping a sharp look-out around them. Gideon was told to separate the two groups and send home those who had got down on their knees. That left only three hundred - around one percent or less of the original army.
Gideon is now somewhat less reassured. His forces have dwindled alarmingly and they are well out-numbered. This is beginning to look like a suicide mission. But God comes to him during the night and tells him to take his servant and to go down quietly to the enemy camp and listen to what they are saying. The two men do as instructed and overhear one man telling his friend of a dream that he has had in which a small loaf of bread comes rolling down the hillside to the Midianite camp where it strikes a tent and completely demolishes it. The friend replies: 'That will be the sword of Gideon! Everyone's saying that God has given our whole camp into his hands!'
The sword of Gideon
Gideon bows his head in worship and immediately returns to his camp. He wakes up his troops and divides them into three groups of one hundred each, giving each one a trumpet and a torch with a clay jar to cover it. He instructs them to follow his lead and gets each column to approach the enemy camp from a different direction. They reach the camp and surround it, just at the changing of the guard. Then Gideon gives a blast on his trumpet and smashes the clay jar, releasing the light of his torch and shouting: 'A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!'. His men do the same, holding their positions but smashing their jars, blowing their trumpets and shouting their battle cry.
The Midianites wake in a panic and start crying out, then running off in all directions. As they run into each other, they start fighting each other before turning tail and running off towards their own country. Gideon’s army gives chase and calls on the other tribes of Israel to join them. Their fellow Israelites turn out and cut off the escaping enemy at the River Jordan. The two Midianite leaders are captured and beheaded and about one hundred and thirty thousand invaders were killed that day. Israel was freed from tyranny because Gideon had been obedient to God.
The day of small things
Zerubbabel was a Jewish leader who took the first group of Jewish exiles to return home from Babylon after their captivity there. He was accompanied by the high priest, Joshua, and the first action they took on returning to Jerusalem was to lay the foundation of a new temple. This is highlighted in the book of the prophet, Zechariah, the penultimate book of the Old Testament. God gave this word to Zerubbabel: 'Not my might, nor by power, but by my Spirit!' (Zechariah 4:6) Later in that same chapter, God says: 'Who dares despise the day of small things, since the seven eyes of the LORD that range throughout the earth will rejoice when they see the chosen capstone in the hand of Zerubbabel?' (4:10)
We do not know what God may do with us when we are obedient to Him. But 'God uses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise'. (1 Corinthians 1:28) Gideon was, in his own eyes, a nobody and we may think of ourselves in the same way. But God deliberately chooses 'the lowly things of this world and the despised things - and the things that are not - to nullify the things that are, so that no-one may boast before Him'. If we are prepared to smash down the idols of position (authority and power), money, sex, drugs or alcohol, or whatever is holding us back from the plans that God has for us, then anything is possible. We dare not despise 'the day of small things'.
The responsibilities of leadership
When Gideon had set Israel free, the people asked him to rule over them. But Gideon said that neither he nor his son would rule over them. Instead he pointed them to the LORD as the One to rule over them. When we are used by God to set people free, we need to point them to Jesus. If we allow ourselves to be treated as intermediaries, making them dependent on us to learn more about God, we are in effect returning to the Old Testament way of doing things, with a priest acting as an intermediary between them and God Himself.
Gideon did find it difficult, however, to step away entirely. He asked each person to give him a single gold ear-ring from the spoils of victory and, with all this gold, he made a model of an 'ephod' (part of a priest’s garments). He placed this symbol of the part he had played (representing the people before God) in the city of Ophrah and the people paid homage to it. The ephod had been intended purely as a symbolic reminder but it became a snare to Gideon and his family. It is a very human characteristic to make something that reminds others of what a particular leader has done (or even what God has done through that leader) for us. However, when we drift away from our focus on God Himself, we are in dangerous waters. All of us (and leaders especially) must always be careful to give all the glory to God. Anything less will restrict and inhibit God's blessing on our own lives.
Gideon did understand, though, that a leader has a responsibility to move people beyond the initial excitement of God's presence and action in our lives, to a firm and continuing relationship with God. In our own days, we should never forget that Jesus never told us just to make converts; we are to make disciples - and there is a vast difference between the two. Disciples are not created instantly; they grow. Growth takes place through personal prayer and continual feeding on the word of God, not just a weekly 'shot in the arm' and a quick prayer from the pastor or 'ministry leader' from time to time.
Making disciples
Jesus told his disciples, 'I have been given all authority in heaven and earth. Therefore go and make disciples in all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and then teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you; and be sure of this - that I am with you always, even to the end of the world.' (Matthew 28:19-20 in 'The Living Bible' version)
God’s heart is for growth, not a nine-day wonder. Maybe if Gideon had led his people to be close disciples of the living God in the forty years of peace after his great victory, then they would not have fallen away and gone back to pagan worship. When we know that people have chosen to follow Jesus, we have a big responsibility to ‘make disciples’. This is a true honour, just like having a new baby, and it cannot be casually set aside because new believers do not know automatically how to read the Bible, how to pray, share their faith or worship 'in Spirit and in truth', even if they go regularly to church. So we need to look out for new believers; to feed them God’s word, pray with them and be a regular support to them.
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