Judges 8

Judges chapter 8. We've been dealing with the life of Gideon. Gideon was one of the men who was called to be a judge. And he was powerfully anointed by the Lord, to be a judge. And he did some incredible things. I mean, here's a man who, with an initial regiment of 300 men, routed a Midianite army of thousands and thousands, tens of thousands of people against him. And he was just powerfully used by God. And yet what we see in the latter chapters of the stories related to Gideon is that his life unraveled. And it's quite sad. In fact, the Book of Judges in a large sense has a lot of difficult things for us to look at. But I got to thinking about that. I thought about people who've been powerfully used. Every so often we'll hear about some televangelist who had a, huge following, popular following on TV and radio. And then there's some colossal fall from grace that happens. And everybody is just like, how in the world does that happen? I mean, somebody who is... And we love to use the word, anointed. They were so anointed and they were used by God, powerfully. I've come to see, through studying out the Scriptures, that anointing does not guarantee stability or longevity in your walk with Jesus Christ. It just doesn't. Anointing is great. I'm a big fan of it, I'll tell you right now. And I count on the anointing of the Lord, to do what I do. And I assume that you do as well when you're ministering and so forth. We need that. We need to walk in the anointing of the Holy Spirit. But you can't look at anointing... You can't look at somebody on TV who maybe is commanding thousands of people at a time with their words. And they have such a charismatic personality. And people are drawn to them. And they have a powerful worldwide ministry. And you can't look at their life and think that that person is necessarily some sort of a bastion of Christian strength. You just can't do that. They could be in fact teetering on the edge of a total spiritual collapse. Because anointing doesn't tell you anything except, God is good. God uses all kinds of people to do His will. And I personally... Sometimes I even take issue with

God's choices for using people. And I've even taken issue at times with Him using me. But you look at some of the people God uses. I wouldn't use them. I look at them and I go, God, I think that's a bad choice. I wouldn't do that. But you see that God is a God of grace. And because He is full of grace, He uses people that maybe you and I would look at... I used to look at pastor Chuck and from afar. And watch the people that he raised up into areas of ministry. And remember at times, scratching my head thinking, I'm not sure that was a great choice. And sometimes those choices did come back to bite him a little bit. But it was because he was such a man of grace, that he extended that same grace that God gives people. We've talked many times. In fact last week in our study, when we started the study of Gideon, we talked about the fact that God uses people who are weak, and small, and uneducated, and unpopular. And those are the people God uses. And you and I, might look at people like that and we wonder why He would pick someone like that. But He picks all kinds of crazy people to do things. But listen, just because God picks someone to do something powerful doesn't mean that person's walk with the Lord, is even a good one. And that's what we see, frankly, in the story of Gideon. And I want to just encourage you while we're... We love the things like the anointing of the Holy Spirit. There are other things which spell great stability in our lives that we should be patterning our lives after. And frankly, running after, and seeking, and desiring in our lives. We're going to see this Gideon, Gideon, what a man who battled fear, a man who battled unbelief. A man who was a man of mediocrity for the most part, that God used, that God called. And God used powerfully. Anointed powerfully to do His will, brought him to a place of greatness in this thing that he did in confronting the Midianites. And when Gideon finally believed God's promises - and it took him a while, you'll remember from last week. Those of you that weren't with us, you might remember the story of Gideon. Took him a while. He had to throw some things out there to get God to confirm what He was actually doing. It's like, God, if you're really here, if you really want me to do this, well, I need a sign from You. Gideon was the man that needed a sign all the time. But once he was convinced, man, he did some really incredible things. God used him powerfully to save Israel. ---

And if the story had ended there, we would all be happy. At least from the standpoint that, wow, wasn't Gideon a cool guy. But unfortunately it doesn't end there. And in chapter eight, we learn... We see the reasons why. Chapter eight and nine go together. I don't think we're going to get time for both of them tonight. But they really chronicle the personal downfall of this man Gideon and how it even went into his family as well. Look at verse one with me here in Judges chapter 8. It says,

That's the ESV's word for how they attacked him. Let me explain to you very quickly before we read on what the men of Ephraim are actually complaining about. Because what they're really complaining to Gideon about is that they weren't involved in the initial attack on the Midianites. They wanted to be there. They did get in on the rest of it. The men from Ephraim were involved. After the 300 men with Gideon rushed down the hill blowing their trumpets opening, grabbing their torches and so forth. And really sending the whole Midianite army fleeing for their lives. After that happened, other Israelites were called out to pursue the Midianite army. And the Ephraimites which is a tribe of Israel were brought out and they were involved in the battle. Okay. What they're complaining about is, why didn't you call us at the beginning? We wanted to be part of the first thing. We wanted to be... Why did you only take 300 men? And they're complaining. And it says, they were very fierce in their accusations. Now you and I know the story. If you've read Gideon or you were here last week, you know that the reason was that God whittled Gideon's army down to 300. He showed up, do you remember? He showed up with 32,000 men. And then he said, alright, anybody who's afraid can go home. Twenty-two thousand guys decided they weren't up for the battle and they split. And he still had 10,000. And God said, there's still too many. Remember? And God put him through this thing of whittling the army down to just, 300 men. And here's why. Remember we talked about it last week. God said, if you do it with this many men, you're going to think it's all you. But if you do it with 300, then you'll understand that it's Me, who actually did this. But now these Ephraimites are... They're mad because they didn't get involved in this whole thing.

And I want you to notice how Gideon responds to them here in verse 2 and following. It says,

And you listen to what Gideon said. And you think, well I think he probably spoke rather wisely to them from the standpoint that he was humble. And he was calm. He didn't get back in their face. But what he had to do is he had to use flattery to get them to calm down. He had to go, aren't you guys, though, the great ones? I mean, I'm nothing. And you know that. And I know that. And you guys are really cool. And I mean, you guys have done so much more than I ever have in my clan. I don't know what you're all upset about. And they all went, yeah, you're right. You're right. Forget it. And that's basically how he got the thing to pass over. And you can see that what Gideon did was he used a biblical principle here that is a very powerful principle. And that is it's written in Proverbs 15:1 that "a soft answer turns away wrath." And that's a great way to respond when somebody's angry, is to come back with a soft answer. But the problem is it's a pretty carnal display by the Ephraimites. And we're going to find out later on in the coming chapters of Judges, they're actually going to do this again with Jephthah. And they're going to even be worse at that point. Now, I wonder why Gideon didn't just explain to them. And this is the first step, if you will, of noticing a little bit of a downfall on Gideon's part. Instead of saying, listen, 32,000 men showed up for that initial battle. And God whittled it down to 300. It wasn't my choice, boys. God wanted the glory for the battle because He knows that men are apt to take it to themselves. And to say, look what we did. So God, Himself, is the One who whittled my...

If I would have been Gideon, I would have said, you think I wanted to go up against the Midianites with 300 guys? You think I'm that stupid? That's what I would have said. I 'd of just said, listen, that was God's situation, not mine. You got a problem? Take it up with Him, a sort of a thing. As often as you can, I think you ought to, basically, tell people to go talk to God about it. But anyway, he said what he said. He basically placated them with flattery. And it's all very carnal. But it blew over. And sometimes our carnal responses do help from time to time, although it's short lived. Verse 4 goes on to say,

They're still running after or pursuing the Midianite army, who is still running for their lives.

6 And the officials of Succoth said, "Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?" By the way, if you don't get what they're saying, that's a way of basically saying, have you beat them yet? And if you haven't we're not sure we want to help. because there's always a chance that this thing might turn against you. And the Midianites might reassert themselves strength wise. And we don't want to be caught being participants in this rebellion against the Midianites. Even though it says the Midianites oppressed the Israelites cruelly for 7 years. I mean, cruelly. Still the people of Succoth, they didn't want to take the risk. They didn't want to go out on a limb and say, yeah, we're behind you a hundred percent. Here they are - they're Jews. And yet they're not willing to stand behind their own people. And the thing that the Lord is doing in liberating them from the tyranny of the Midianites. They're basically saying, we don't want to. We don't want to get involved because it might go badly for us.

An interesting response. Quite different from the one he gave to the men of Ephraim.

9 And he said to the men of Penuel, "When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower." Meaning when I have come back from victory. And apparently the city of Penuel had a tower that they must have prided themselves in for its military advantage that it gave them to. Maybe, as a lookout or something toward the enemy. But Gideon says, I'll tear down the pride of your city. Verse 10.

11 And Gideon went up by the way of the tent dwellers east of Nobah and Jogbehah and attacked the army, for the army felt secure." (They didn't... They figured the worst of it was over.)

13 (And) Then Gideon the son of Joash returned from the battle by the ascent of Heres.

15 And he came to the men of Succoth and said, "Behold Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me, saying, 'Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your men who are exhausted?'"

And then look what it says in verse 17, and then he went over to Penuel. And it says not only did he "break down the tower of Penuel, but he killed all the men of the city. That's pretty significant. I mean, he told them... He threatened, when they refused to help him, that he was going to come back and tear down their tower, which would be the strength of their city. But he went way beyond that; actually, murdered all the men. And the reason this is significant is because these aren't Canaanites. These are his people. These are his brethren. These are his folk. And what we see here is that in his fury and his anger, he becomes this loose cannon that just simply is out of control doing what he thinks is best. And frankly, bringing revenge into play that goes way beyond what these people deserved. What we're seeing here in the life of Gideon, is a man who started off so humble when the Lord appeared to him and said, I have this job for you to do, this calling upon your life. He was a man who said, it can't be me. I'm the least and in the least tribe. And we're... I'm nothing." And now he's a man for whom power and success has gone to his head. And he's now become an executioner. Verse 18 says, and "Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, "Where are the men whom you killed at Tabor?" They answered, "As you are, so (they were.) Every one of them resembled the son of a king." 19 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." And that statement... Think about that statement. What did Gideon just say here? These are... This is the enemy here. God has given the enemy into his hand to completely destroy. But what does Gideon say to these guys? He says, by the way, I want to talk to you about some of the men. And obviously these men had gone to Tabor, which is a mountain. And they had slaughtered many Israelites there. Gideon questions them, so who all did you kill there? He's now, they were guys just like you. He says, yeah, they were my brothers. And then he says, if you would have left them alive I would have left you alive. And what he is saying to them - and it becomes apparent to you and I - that at this point, Gideon is no longer serving the Lord, and God's agenda. He has ventured out on his own now to fulfill his own desire for revenge. And he's basically saying, because you did this, I'm going to do this. Rather than just following the Lord, he's now on his own path. And you can see that. He's doing his own thing. This is a man that was greatly anointed of the Lord. But there's a saying that we like to say from time to time that, absolute power corrupts absolutely. And here's this gentle, mediocre man, who's now rising up and taking matters into his own hands, using vengeance to guide him. Verse 20 goes on to say, that "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. (And) 21 Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, "Rise yourself and fall upon us, for as the man is, so is his strength." And Gideon arose and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and he (And this is interesting, too. And he) took the crescent ornaments that were on the necks of their camels." Now it's one thing to take what they call the spoils of war. But Gideon took these crescents that were on their camels. That might not mean a lot to you and I, because we're Westerners. But from an Eastern sort of a cultural thing, that was a display of royalty. That was a display of specialness, if you will. And to take those to himself is a sign of something we're going to see played out in the rest of the chapter. And that is that Gideon wants these symbols of power, these symbols of royalty, even though he's going to swear off the title. And we'll see that in just a little bit. He's going to want the lifestyle. He's living a life of duplicity, and we'll see it here. And taking on these signs of royalty, look what the very next thing that happens here in verse 22, it says, "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." Couple of things here. First of all, did you notice they say they didn't just say, you be our king. They said, you and, your son, and your grandson. In other words, we want your family line you to be king over us. And you can be the king and this thing can stay in your family. And that's pretty powerful thing for someone to say. And they say, "Rule over us." And I want you to notice why they invited Gideon to rule over them. Did you catch it? It says, for you have saved us from Midian. Isn't that crazy. God got the initial attacking army of Gideon, down to 300 men, to show that the odds were so astronomical, there's no possible way, humanly speaking, this battle could have been fought and won. And they still think it was a man. They still think it's because of Gideon. And they come to him, and they say to him, you have delivered us. You have saved us from the hand of Midian. And this is that thing that happened. We humans, we look at Israel and we go, oh, that's dumb, why did they do that? Well, we've done it before. We look at the vehicle that God uses rather than on God Himself, who does the work of deliverance and so forth. We get our eyes on people. We get our eyes on people all the time.

And we think because this guy prayed for me, boy, I'm going to go back to him because... Wow! I just... That was powerful. And God really moved in my life because of his prayer. I'm going to follow after this guy. Who is he? He's nobody. He's nothing. He's just a vehicle. He's just a tool. I mean, do you guys go out and plant a garden and then make a big deal about your rake, or your hoe, or your shovel? Wow. These tomatoes are the best crop we've ever, I'm taking this, I'm going to bronze this rake that I used." It would be a ridiculous thing to do, wouldn't it? We do it with people all the time. And that's what they're doing with Gideon. Now Gideon's response is the good news. But there's plenty of bad news to come. Verse 23 says, "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 that answer sounds good. Because people who have the anointing of the Lord, even though their lives might be unraveling, can tend to say okay things. And again, just because somebody has the anointing of the Lord and they say the right things, doesn't mean their lives are in order, or they're stable, or they're going the right direction. But he says the right things. But as we're going to see in the following verses, although he rejects the title of king, and he says, listen, don't you call me king. He's going to embrace the whole lifestyle of a king. He's going to live like a king. And he's going to treat people as if he's king. And he's going to do other telltale things as well. He's already taken these symbols of these other kings of Midian. And he's accepted them for himself. And the people obviously want him to be king. But look at the very first thing he does after he says, no, I don't want to be your king. "24 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.)" Or the Hebrew, I believe, really means because they were like-Ishmaelites, who collected that sort of stuff. "25 And they answered, "We will willingly give them." And they spread a cloak, and every man threw in it (the earnings, or excuse me,) the earrings of his spoil. 26 And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels of gold, (That's over 40 pounds of gold. Okay? And that is even) "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." Look at all the stuff he has amassed. And he's already gone to the people... First he said, I don't want to be your king, but then he said, but I'll take your money. And what do kings do? What do we see kings doing in the Bible? They go to the people to pad their treasury. And he says with his mouth, "I don't want to be your king." But he wants to take advantage of their appreciation of what just took place in this whole battle thing. And he says, but I'll take your money. And he's got all these money and purple garments, which was the raiment of royalty. And he's got all these symbols of royalty and so forth. And what does he do? Verse 27 says, "And Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his city, (of) Ophrah. And all Israel whored after it there,…" Your Bible may say, "Israel played the harlot" or "prostituted themselves to it." It's language to express covenant unfaithfulness. But you might be thinking now: What is this all about? I know enough about the Bible to know what an ephod was. It was the garment that a high priest would wear. It was kind of like an apron. And they would put it on when they would function in their role and that sort of thing. What's the big deal about this? Well, the word ephod in the Hebrew can mean different things depending on the context in which it is given. And it appears very much here, that this is far more than just a high priestly garment. That this is some kind of a pagan something that people obviously worship. Because it says right here that they did, when it says, they whored after it. In other words, they were unfaithful to the Lord over this thing. And furthermore, it goes on to tell us in the latter part of verse 27, that "... it became a snare to Gideon and (look at this) ... his family." And we find an interesting thing. Oh, big surprise. Gideon's actions affected his family as well. Here's a man who's unraveling before our eyes. Saying some of the right things, but doing exactly the opposite. Saying, I don't want to be king, but I want to live like a king. I want your money. Give me your money. I'm going to have all these symbols of power and prestige..., and so forth. And he builds this altar or this pagan thing, that people begin to worship. And that is a stumbling block, or a snare, to himself and also to his family. Here's a man who's anointed and powerfully used by God. But yet, did not have the foundation of a focus on God in his life. One of the things we keep emphasizing over and over around here, is you don't need church. What you need is the Lord who is over the church. You don't need to sit there with a Bible in your hands. You need to take in what the Word of God says. You don't need to just sing songs when we come together at church. You need to worship the Lord with all your heart. And the last thing you need is to be religious. What you need is to be Christ centered. You need to have Jesus living at the center of your very being. You see, Gideon was a man that was used by God and you could look at his life and you could think, wow! What an incredible man. But he didn't have God in the center of his heart. Never! Never, ever. He did some amazing things. We saw in the last chapter, he even broke down a pagan altar. It was his father's. Yeah, he broke it down. But then he built something else that people worshiped after that was other than the Lord. You see, he did some amazing things, but there wasn't a foundation in his life. Here's my question. Do you have a foundation in your life or are you just a church goer? Or do you just like to pull out the Bible and read it once in a while? Or do you consider yourself religious? I'm telling you, those things aren't going to stand and you're not going to finish well. And your life is going to unravel. Just like we see the life of Gideon unraveling. Because he was not centered on the person of who God is. And in our New Testament understanding of this, that person is Jesus Christ and we become centered on Him. We live our lives for Him. He becomes the center of our marriages, our homes, our families, our businesses, our thoughts, our lives, everything. He becomes the center of who we are. And again, it's not religion. It's not all these outward things that people look at that are going to make the difference. How many times have you seen somebody who goes to church and they do some powerful things. I remember years ago when I was in Montana, we had this guy that came on staff at the church where I was. And he came in and he really had a great teaching gift. And I was the youth pastor at the time. And I was just finding my way in the Lord. And the senior pastor was a great guy. But he wasn't really a teacher. He was more of a encourager/preacher. And this guy came along and he had a great teaching ministry. And the senior pastor really appreciated that. He invited him to come on staff with us. And while he was there God moved in people's lives. And did some really powerful things. And I remember just thinking, wow! God's just really using this man. And then Sue and I... This is the time, right when... It was about 30 years ago, right around the time Nellie was born. And the senior pastor came to me and said, why don't you go get some Bible college? It looks like you're probably going to stick around in the ministry for a while. Why don't you go learn a little something. So, we moved to Seattle, where I attended Bible college for a season. And I started hearing things from back home about this guy. How his life just unraveled at the seams. And he deteriorated to the point where he was sitting in a restaurant making crude comments to women as they walked by. And you look at that and you think, but he was so powerfully used by God. How could that happen? Because Christ isn't the center. Because Jesus Christ wasn't enthroned in the center. Every one of us has a throne inside our hearts, inside our lives. And it is built for Christ. He deserves to be on it. That throne was made for Him. The question is: Is He there? Because, see, you can do all the outward stuff of looking like everything is fine. When what's going on is, that throne either has someone else sitting on it, or you, or something other than God. It goes on in verse 28 to say that, "So Midian was subdued before the people of Israel, and they raised their heads no more. And the land of had rest for forty years in the days of Gideon." Does that sound like a good statement to you? It says, Midian didn't raise their head anymore. The land had rest for 40 years. Sounds like a good statement to me. But you know what? It's bittersweet and here's why: This is the last time in the Book of Judges it says this. There are going to be other deliverers, but they're never going to have rest anymore. It's like they got to this spot where they just turned a corner. And though God is going to be gracious to them, there's going to be no rest. It's just going to be boom, boom, boom. Difficulty after difficulty because they have refused to learn the lesson and make God the center of their hearts and lives.

"Jerubbaal (it says in verse 29) the son of Joash (That's Gideon. And by the way, that's his pagan name.) went and lived in his own house.” He just took it easy for the rest of his life. "30 Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring, for he had many wives. 31 And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he called his name Abimelech." Stop there. This tells us so much about how he lived out the latter part of his years. He had seventy sons. Why? You don't get seventy kids out of one woman. Because he had many concubines. That was a status symbol in the East, during that time of power and authority. That was the kind of thing kings did. See, he's living like a king. He's living in his house. He's basically living large. Next, did you catch the fact that he had a concubine in Shechem? Do you know Shechem was a Canaanite city? It was not an Israelite city. But he had a concubine in Shechem. And it says that she bore him a son. And did you notice the name that he gave the boy? The name of the boy was, Abimelech. Do you know what Abimelech means? It means my father is king. You see, he swore off the title, but he wanted it all. He wanted the life of a king. He wanted the prestige. He wanted the wealth. He wanted the women. He wanted the pleasure. He wanted the power. "32 And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, at Ophrah... (And) 33 As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god." Baal-berith literally means, Lord of the Covenant. They make Baal their covenant god, officially. "34 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, 35 and they did not show steadfast love to the family of Jerrubaal (that is, Gideon) in return for all the good that he had done in Israel." And that comment sets us up for the next chapter, which we obviously, aren't going to go through tonight. But we'll get into that. But I want you to notice one last thing before we give some time to some quietness here and reflection on these passages.

Did you notice that even though we still have a little bit more to hear about Gideon, even though he passed away. Because in the next chapter, the unraveling to his family is going to continue. And that's really sad to see that happen. But what's interesting is that from this point on, the narrator is done calling him Gideon. Gideon is a word that means hacker. Don't think of it in a computer sense, obviously. His name was because he literally, chopped down pagan idols. He was the hacker. He was the one who hacked them to pieces with his sword, just broke it down. That's what Gideon meant. And that was a good thing. But his pagan name, Jerrubaal, is what is now going to be used. And do you know that following his death, no fewer than 10 times, the narrator is now going to refer to Gideon as Jerrubaal. The pagan name now takes over in death. What a horrific legacy. And I've been thinking about this lately; about the legacy that we leave. The legacy that we extend to our families and so forth.