| Vol. 11, No. 1, Jan. - Feb. 1982 |
Harry Foster
"Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal ...
Then all the Midianites ... assembled themselves ...
But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon;"
Judges 6:32-34
GOD'S command to Gideon was: "Go in this thy might" (Judges 6:14). No-one could have been more surprised than Gideon to hear himself addressed in this way, for he clearly was quite unaware of the fact that he had any might in which to go. And, of course, it is true that in himself he had none. This is in keeping with the other personalities who emerged in those long years of Israel's weakness and confusion when they had no king. The judges who were so greatly used of God from time to time were people who suffered from severe handicaps. They were weak in themselves, like Gideon. They were despised by their fellows, like Jephtha. They were ignoble, like Samson. Indeed their list sounds rather like the description of the Corinthians: they were [10/11]"foolish", the "weak", the "base" and the "despised"; they were "the things that are not". But they were chosen by God (1 Corinthians 1:27-18).
Notice the word "chosen". It was not chance that God had no better instruments. He is not described as having to make the best of poor material because there was nothing else available. No, He chose them because He needed people like that. Gideon's story is a wonderful illustration of the fact that the condition for divine power is human weakness. God found Gideon weak, and He took care to keep him weak. Yet at the same time He told him to go in his might. The reality of that God-given might is quite spectacular. The man who knows that he is without strength to do God's service; the man who sees what strength he thought he had being taken away; the man who nevertheless goes forward in faith; this is the man whom God can use. There are three significant words in the verses quoted above: "Therefore", "Then" and "But".
This first word refers to the breaking down of Baal's altar. When God calls us to venture out in faith, there is often some practical matter which must be dealt with straight away. Gideon was told to throw down his father's altar to Baal. It may well have been the most difficult action which Gideon ever performed, for God has a way of confronting us with a major test at the very beginning of our service for Him. And it was in his own home.
The title 'Baal' simply means lord or master. In Gideon's home there was a shrine to another god, to one who was a rival to the allegiance which should have been reserved alone for Jehovah. Gideon had raised his own private altar, and called it Jehovah-shalom (v.24), but what value can our private altar have if it is contradicted in the eyes of men by subservience to rival claims; He was told, therefore, to erect a public altar "on the top of this stronghold ..." (v.26). The challenge was so great that he was afraid to do it by daytime, so he did it by night. This is in keeping with what we know of the man and of the whole book of Judges, but we need not be too concerned with how or when he did it so long as we realise that faith involves obedience. Gideon might have been what we call a coward (who of us isn't?), but having heard the Lord's voice, he obeyed. "Therefore" all the rest of the victory was made possible.
When the new day dawned, everybody concerned knew what Gideon had done, they knew that here was a man who was deliberately rejecting all other governments but that of Jehovah. Gideon may well have been tempted to by-pass this matter and get on with the task of delivering Israel. Suppose that he had done so, and suppose that the Lord had overlooked his fault and still sent Gideon on to battle and to victory. When it was all over, there would have been a question as to whether Baal or even Gideon himself might have some of the glory. The Lord will not give His glory to any other. Gideon understood this and "therefore ...".
His neighbours wanted the deliverance, but they wanted the grove and the altar of Baal as well. This is always true of human nature. Utterness of committal to the Lord is not a popular matter, so that the man who rejects human ability or human fame, to venture all on the sufficiency of the Lord, is bound to be misunderstood. It is no small thing to make firewood of what has previously been esteemed and to lay everything on the altar of the Lord.
Gideon's first act of obedience brought him a wonderful proof of the faithfulness of God. He did not die. He knew the joy of total committal to the Lord. But what then? Popularity? Comfort and ease? No, for committal to God is no story-book experience of that but rather of further conflict. "Then" -- that is, as soon as he had acquired his new name of victory -- "the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east assembled themselves together". Later on we are told that these hordes "lay along in the valley like locusts for multitude; and their camels were without number ..." (7:12).
