Judges 6-8
Agh, Gideon!
I preach on Gideon this Sunday. Here is my first reading of his story, aided significantly by Laura Smit, whose volume in the Brazos Theological Commentary series I really appreciate:
The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves, and strongholds. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and other eastern peoples invaded the country. They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.
When the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of Midian, he sent them a prophet, who said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land. I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me.”
The prophet reminds them of their story, their storied relationship to the land, and their religious responsibility within the land.
The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”
‘Threshing wheat in a winepress’ means ‘hiding.’ Gideon is introduced as a coward.
Laura Smit: “In contrast to all the other judge narratives, the Gideon narrative includes extensive conversation between Gideon and YHWH. Gideon’s inner life of faith and doubt, fear and courage, is a part of the story in a way that is not true with any of the other judges” (92).
The angel says ‘The Lord is with you’ because Gideon doubts the Lord is with them all. The angel says ‘mighty warrior’ because Gideon is a coward.
“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
As Barak questions Deborah and sidesteps the prophetic word from the Lord, Gideon questions the angel and sidesteps the prophetic word about the exodus.
The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”
“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”
The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”
Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.”
Smit: “Strength and courage built not on disciplined meditation on the law but solely on an emotional experience of God’s presence do not last. The seed of YHWH’s self-revelation has been sewn in shallow soil, and by the end of the story it is no longer bearing fruit. In this respect, the Gideon story is a microcosm of the book as a whole, which also turns in a wrong direction toward warfare within Israel in place of cleansing of the land” (93).
And the Lord said, “I will wait until you return.”
Gideon went inside, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak. The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And Gideon did so. Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of the staff that was in his hand. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread, and the angel of the Lord disappeared.
Gideon asks for a sign, and God gives him one.
When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, “Alas, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”
But the Lord said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.”
So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord Is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
That same night the Lord said to him, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering.”
Gideon hasn’t yet begun his military work. The angel/YHWH pivots and gives him an easier task: iconoclasm and altar building (Exod 20:22-24).
So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the townspeople, he did it at night rather than in the daytime.
He’s still afraid.
In the morning when the people of the town got up, there was Baal’s altar, demolished, with the Asherah pole beside it cut down and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar. They asked each other, “Who did this?”
The burnt offering is supposed to be offered daily, morning and evening (Exod 29:38-42).
When they carefully investigated, they were told, “Gideon son of Joash did it.”
The people of the town demanded of Joash, “Bring out your son. He must die, because he has broken down Baal’s altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.”
But Joash replied to the hostile crowd around him, “Are you going to plead Baal’s cause? Are you trying to save him? Whoever fights for him shall be put to death by morning! If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar.” So because Gideon broke down Baal’s altar, they gave him the name Jerub-Baal that day, saying, “Let Baal contend with him.”
God changes Jacob’s name to Israel, which means ‘one who contends with God’ (sarah-el; Gen 32:29). Israel changes Gideon’s name to Jerub-Baal, which means . ‘Gideon’ had meant ‘one who cuts down or fells’ (gaday; cf. Exod 34:13, ‘You shall break down their altars, and cut down [giddá‘ta] their Asherim).
Smit: “Even if Gideon is resisting Baal, his new name tells us that Baal—not YHWH—is the one who defines the terms of Gideon’s struggle” (96).
Block: “His real name is Jerubbaal, and the god after whom he was named has taken up the challenge proposed by Joash (6:31-32) and, sad to say, has apparently successfully contended for himself and won” (1997: 365).
Now all the Midianites, Amalekites, and other eastern peoples joined forces and crossed over 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 Abiezrites to follow him. He sent messengers throughout Manasseh, calling them to arms, and also into Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, so that they too went up to meet them.
Gideon’s not great, but God cares enough about Israel to save them despite the Gideon’s faithlessness, fear, and ongoing entanglement with Baal.
Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised—look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.” And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water.
Gideon asks for a second sign. At least it’s a good one. Jews (and Christians) associated dew with the coming of the Spirit who ‘renews the face of the earth’ (Ps 104:30) and who has already come upon Gideon (Judg 6:34).
Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.” That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.
Gideon asks for a third sign, demonstrating his dependence on ‘emotional experiences’ of God’s power, rather than a personal, appropriated sense (e.g.) from studying Yahweh’s mighty deeds (Ps 111).
Smit: “I believe that any ancient Jewish reader of this text would have seen this as an obviously bad idea on Gideon’s part. It is like the moment in a fairy tale when a character who has been granted three wishes asks for a lot of money… [Gideon] has asked for a sign that signifies the removal of blessing from Israel and the giving of blessing to the surrounding nations” (98).
Even worse, Baal is a god of dew. This Baal has a daughter named ‘Dew’ (Robert Chisholm, 2007: 172).
Smit: “Many Christians use the story of Gideon’s fleece as a model for seeking God’s will. This is clearly a wrong application of the story… The things that YHWH is asking Gideon to do are not strange or outlandish, requiring validation” (100). Gideon simply has no sense of God’s will.
Early in the morning Jerub-Baal, that is, Gideon, and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.
Although it looks like it, this is not a Pete Hegseth moment. Gideon is trimming out of the military ‘those who tremble with fear’ but not to valorize strength.
For comparison, see Exod 14:13-14, “Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that Yahweh will accomplish for you today… Yahweh will fight for you, and you have only to keep still.”
But the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”
So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.” Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.
In an arbitrary, but symbolic move, Yahweh distinguishes between those who ‘lap’ and those who ‘kneel.’ ‘Kneeling’ evokes kneeling to idols. Plus, there are more of them who do it.
The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.” So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others.
Now the camp of Midian lay below him in the valley. During that night the Lord said to Gideon, “Get up, go down against the camp, because I am going to give it into your hands. If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah and listen to what they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp.” So he and Purah his servant went down to the outposts of the camp. The Midianites, the Amalekites, and all the other eastern peoples had settled in the valley, thick as locusts. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore.
Gideon arrived just as a man was telling a friend his dream. “I had a dream,” he was saying. “A round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed.”
His friend responded, “This can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands.”
When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed down and worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel and called out, “Get up! The Lord has given the Midianite camp into your hands.” Dividing the three hundred men into three companies, he placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them, with torches inside.
Again, Gideon’s fears are assuaged by a very specific sign; this time a vision / dream given to someone else. All he’d needed was one more boost of confidence to ‘get the job done.’
“Watch me,” he told them. “Follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do. When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp blow yours and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon.’”
Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guard. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands. The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars. Grasping the torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpets they were to blow, they shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out as they fled.
When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the Lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords. The army fled to Beth Shittah toward Zererah as far as the border of Abel Meholah near Tabbath. Israelites from Naphtali, Asher, and all Manasseh were called out, and they pursued the Midianites. Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down against the Midianites and seize the waters of the Jordan ahead of them as far as Beth Barah.”
So all the men of Ephraim were called out and they seized the waters of the Jordan as far as Beth Barah. They also captured two of the Midianite leaders, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb. They pursued the Midianites and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, who was by the Jordan.
Note: There are a few more Midianites to kill, but Yahweh has stopped giving Gideon instructions. Gideon, emboldened by his victories, sets out to win more glory.
Now the Ephraimites asked Gideon, “Why have you treated us like this? Why didn’t you call us when you went to fight Midian?” And they challenged him vigorously.
Ephraim, a twin-/rival-tribe to Manasseh wanted some of the glory of victory.
But he answered them, “What have I accomplished compared to you? Aren’t the gleanings of Ephraim’s grapes better than the full grape harvest of Abiezer? God gave Oreb and Zeeb, the Midianite leaders, into your hands. What was I able to do compared to you?” At this, their resentment against him subsided.
Gideon shuts them up.
Gideon and his three hundred men, exhausted yet keeping up the pursuit, came to the Jordan and crossed it. He said to the men of Sukkoth, “Give my troops some bread; they are worn out, and I am still pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.”
But the officials of Sukkoth said, “Do you already have the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna in your possession? Why should we give bread to your troops?”
Sukkoth needs to keep the peace with the nearby Midianite towns.
Then Gideon replied, “Just for that, when the Lord has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will tear your flesh with desert thorns and briers.”
From there he went up to Peniel and made the same request of them, but they answered as the men of Sukkoth had. So he said to the men of Peniel, “When I return in triumph, I will tear down this tower.”
As divine zeal is transmuted into personal revenge, Israel’s deliverer becomes Israel’s oppressor.
Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with a force of about fifteen thousand men, all that were left of the armies of the eastern peoples; a hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen had fallen. Gideon went up by the route of the nomads east of Nobah and Jogbehah and attacked the unsuspecting army. Zebah and Zalmunna, the two kings of Midian, fled, but he pursued them and captured them, routing their entire army.
Gideon succeeds.
Gideon son of Joash then returned from the battle by the Pass of Heres. He caught a young man of Sukkoth and questioned him, and the young man wrote down for him the names of the seventy-seven officials of Sukkoth, the elders of the town. Then Gideon came and said to the men of Sukkoth, “Here are Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me by saying, ‘Do you already have the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna in your possession? Why should we give bread to your exhausted men?’” He took the elders of the town and taught the men of Sukkoth a lesson by punishing them with desert thorns and briers. He also pulled down the tower of Peniel and killed the men of the town.
Even further emboldened, Gideon terrorizes the Israelite towns of Sukkoth and Peniel.
Then he asked Zebah and Zalmunna, “What kind of men did you kill at Tabor?”
“Men like you,” they answered, “each one with the bearing of a prince.”
Gideon replied, “Those were my brothers, the sons of my own mother. As surely as the Lord lives, if you had spared their lives, I would not kill you.” Turning to Jether, his oldest son, he said, “Kill them!” But Jether did not draw his sword, because he was only a boy and was afraid.
Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Come, do it yourself. ‘As is the man, so is his strength.’” So Gideon stepped forward and killed them, and took the ornaments off their camels’ necks.
Gideon shows his manliness and strength.
The Israelites said to Gideon, “Rule over us—you, your son and your grandson—because you have saved us from the hand of Midian.”
Israel loves this Big Man.
But Gideon told them, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you.” And he said, “I do have one request, that each of you give me an earring from your share of the plunder.” (It was the custom of the Ishmaelites to wear gold earrings.)
I agree with G. Henton Davies: “Following Gideon’s reply he makes a request for the earrings of their spoil. It would be strange if Gideon made a request on top of a refusal, for his request is willingly conceded. Is it not better to suppose that GIdeon’s reply was a veiled acceptance and that the reqest for the earrings that followed was his first request as king?… I suggest that Gideon’s ephod was the same kind of ephod as appears in the stories of Saul’s kingship, the ephod worn by Ahijah in Saul’s presence at Gibeah” (1963: 154).
Although it is just as reasonable, in my mind, to take this as a priestly ephod (cf. Exod 28-29).
Either way, I read Gideon as a Christian Nationalist who, in his false piety, interprets himself as abnegating kingship but really confuses his own will with the will of Yahweh, whom he does not know all that well.
They answered, “We’ll be glad to give them.” So they spread out a garment, and each of them threw a ring from his plunder onto it. The weight of the gold rings he asked for came to seventeen hundred shekels, not counting the ornaments, the pendants, and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian or the chains that were on their camels’ necks. Gideon made the gold into an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his town. All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family.
Big Man builds a golden object of worship, a la Exod 32.
Thus Midian was subdued before the Israelites and did not raise its head again. During Gideon’s lifetime, the land had peace forty years.
Smit: “Gideon was ignorant of YHWH at the beginning of his narrative, and he has made no progress in knowledge since then. He leaves his people no better off as a result of his work” (110).
First Takeaways:
Yahweh cares so much for idolatrous Israel, and believes so much in Gideon, that He will use a weak—even a defiantly weak—man to give them peace.
Yahweh cares so much for Gideon that he will take him to the woodshed, challenging his fixation on strength and success.
Gideon never overcomes his struggles with Baal and his fixation on strength and success.
Gideon is a model of pagan piety, a foil for the ‘good guys’ of the Bible who gain strength and confidence from studying God’s works (e.g. Ps 111:2). We should read his story as a story of God’s goodness and a warning about performative piety.
Israel should have discerned Yahweh’s use of Gideon and then thanked both of them, but not valorized or approved of him on the other side. This is pretty salient for Christian engagement in American politics.
Wish I could be there for this sermon!