[Music] foreign [Music] amen. Our scripture reading this morning comes from Judges chapter 7, beginning at verse 21. Every man stood in his place around the camp, and all the army ran; they cried out and fled. When they blew the 300 trumpets, the Lord set every man’s sword against his comrade and against all the army, and the army fled as far as Beth Shata towards Zarea, as far as the border of Abel Meloa by Tabitha.
The men of Israel were called out from Naphtali, from Asher, and from Manasseh, and they pursued after Midian. Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, ‘Come down against the Midianites and capture the waters against them as far as Beth Bara and also the Jordan.’ So all the men of Ephraim were called out, and they captured the waters as far as Beth Bara and also the Jordan. They captured the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeb they killed at the winepress of Zeb.
Then they pursued Midian and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeb to Gideon across the Jordan. Then the men of Ephraim said to him, ‘What is this that you have done to us, not to call us when you went to fight against Midian?’ And they accused him fiercely. He said to them, ‘What have I done now in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abiazer? God has given into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeb. What have I been able to do in comparison with you?’ Their anger against him subsided when he said this.
Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed over, he and the 300 men who were with him, exhausted yet pursuing. He said to the men of Sukoth, ‘Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing after Zeba and Zemunah, the kings of Midian.’ The officials of Sukoth said, ‘Are the hands of Zeba and Zemunah already in your hand that we should give bread to your army?’
So Gideon said, ‘Well then, when the Lord has given Zeba and Zemunah into my hand, I will flay your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briars.’ From there, he went up to Penuel and spoke to them in the same way, and the men of Penuel answered him just as the men of Sukoth had answered. He said to the men of Penuel, ‘When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower.’
Now Zeba and Zemunah were in Carcor with their army, about 15,000 men, all who were left of all the army of the people of the East, for those who had fallen were 120,000 men who drew the sword. Gideon went out by the way of the tent dwellers east of Nova and Jagbeha and attacked the army, for the army felt secure. Zeba and Zemunah fled, and he pursued them and captured the two kings of Midian, Zeba and Zemunah, and he threw all the army into a panic.
Then Gideon the son of Joash returned from the battle by the ascent of Haris, and he captured a young man of Sukoth and questioned him, and he wrote down for him the officials and elders of Sukoth, 77 men. He came to the men of Sukoth and said, ‘Behold, about whom you taunted me, saying, ‘Are the hands of Zeba and Zemunah already in your hand that we should give bread to your men?”
He took the elders of the city and taught the men of Sukoth a lesson with thorns of the wilderness and briars. He broke down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city. This is the word of the Lord; thanks be to God.
Lord, you give us your word, and sometimes it says things that we don’t like to hear. We read about, and we hear about, things that we do not think or believe ought to have been done—that they are not the right way of going about things and doing things. But they are in your word, and though they’re hard to hear, they are things we need to remember as having happened in the past, not always with your blessing or your approval, and to learn what that means for us now in our lives and how we so very desperately need your son Jesus to restore us from all of our own sinfulness and the wickedness that has taken root in our hearts. Forgive us, we pray, and open our hearts and our minds to hear your word. Let it revive us and fill us with the knowledge of our savior and joy at his coming. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
Gideon was a young man called by the Lord to deliver Israel from the depredations of their enemies—the Midianites, the Amalekites, and all these other people of the East. He was a nobody from nowhere, the youngest son of a man from an unimportant clan in an often overlooked tribe of Israel. And although he was clothed with God’s Holy Spirit, Gideon was still uncertain that the Lord was with him personally.
But his confidence grew after he tested God with a fleece. Now that he was confident in the Lord’s promise of deliverance, he obediently dismissed 99 of the men who appeared at his summons, leaving him to deliver Israel with only 300 men. His courage and confidence were further bolstered by the Lord after he heard an enemy soldiers’ night vision and interpretation.
‘This is the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel. God has given into his hand Midian and all the camp.’ Then, using a harebrained, unorthodox, sneaky, and improbable trick, at midnight Gideon and his minuscule army routed the Midianites and caused them to flee from Israel’s territory. We can envision the Midianites as they ran through the briars and the brambles, as they ran through the bushes, where the rabbit couldn’t go. They ran so fast the hounds couldn’t catch them down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, down the Jezreel Valley to the River Jordan.
Now, much like Johnny Horton’s British in his song ‘The Battle of New Orleans,’ the Midianite army fell into Gideon’s hands. However, Gideon’s war was not over yet. Many of the Midianite soldiers escaped Israel in the confusion that night along with their leaders. But as the wicked may try to hide themselves from God’s wrath and justice, the doom of these Midianites was a certainty to Gideon. Thus, the army fled as far as Beth Shata towards Zarea, as far as the border of Abel Meloa by Tabitha.
The men of Israel were called out from Naphtali, from Asher, and from Manasseh, and they pursued after Midian. It’s unclear whether Gideon’s army suddenly increased overnight, whether those men who had been dismissed earlier now joined the pursuit, or whether we’re merely being reminded of where his 300 were sourced. It is very probable that the dismissed men did help to run down the Midianites because Gideon here was also about to enlist additional Israelite assistance.
But meanwhile, Gideon’s brave 300 continued together as one single unified force. Then Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, ‘Come down against the Midianites and capture the waters against them as far as Beth Bara and also the Jordan.’ He asked for aid from Manasseh’s southern neighbor Ephraim. Gideon did not ask for their help for the big battle, even though they were one of the principal leading tribes in the north.
Ephraim held the preeminent place, as they inherited Joseph’s firstborn position, just as Israel’s family had, and because Joshua, the son of Nun from Ephraim, was chosen by the Lord to succeed Moses. The judge Deborah, who was also from Ephraim, led the Israelite coalition with Barak against Sisera near the same place where the Midianites were recently encamped in the Jezreel Valley.
Gideon did not doubt Ephraim’s strength or ability to fight, which is why he asked for their help to take and hold the fords and prevent their enemy from escaping across the Jordan. But he did not need their help before, so it’s easy to understand why they were upset at not being called out to fight from the beginning. They were used to holding the positions of leadership and authority. Nobody likes it when a younger sibling assumes authority or responsibility which they rightly feel belongs to them.
So all the men of Ephraim were called out, and they captured the waters as far as Beth Bara and also the Jordan. Gideon’s request for Ephraim’s aid was rather smart tactics. He set up a classic hammer-and-anvil type situation where the Midianites would be trapped between Ephraim’s anvil and Gideon’s hammer. They were being trapped between a proverbial rock and a hard place.
Regardless of any offense taken, the men of Ephraim answered his summons and obeyed Gideon, the present anointed of the Lord. They took and held the river crossings and captured the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeb they killed at the winepress of Zeb. Then they pursued Midian and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeb to Gideon across the Jordan. They did their duty and captured and killed two Midianite princes, or leaders.
Fleeing from the Lord and from Gideon, many of the Midianites were not able to escape God’s judgment. But some of the foes managed to escape across the river; therefore, Gideon continued his pursuit. However, Ephraim’s small but very important part of Gideon’s victory did not sit well with them, so they interrupted Gideon’s quest, saying, ‘Then the men of Ephraim said to him, ‘What is this that you have done to us, not to call us when you went to fight against Midian?” They accused him fiercely.
We now begin to see the sibling rivalry between Manasseh and Ephraim. Recall that Manasseh and Ephraim were the two sons of Joseph. Although Manasseh was the elder son, their grandfather Jacob chose to give Ephraim the firstborn’s birthright and blessing of Joseph, the firstborn of Rachel. During the conquest, Manasseh received a lot of territory, while the people of Ephraim were frequently elevated to positions of authority.
Thus, Ephraim was prideful. They were upset, feeling as if their younger brother had shown them up and intentionally left them out of the battle. They presumed that Manasseh had usurped Ephraim’s right to authority, and their accusations against Gideon held more of a “Who do you think you are?” type tone and tenor, prompting Gideon to appease them in their indignation.
Gideon began to come into his own as a leader. He was having to deal with every managerial person in history responding to complaints, objections, and the opposition of others by virtue of their position’s responsibility. It’s now in the aftermath of the Lord’s midnight victory that other elements or aspects of Gideon’s personal, human character begin to rise into view.
He said to them, ‘What have I done now in comparison with you? See, Gideon was playing the diplomat. ‘Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abiazer?’ Better than the totality, the everything, the whole of my single little clan which is just a tiny little unimportant part of my tribe?’
So Gideon reminds them of what Ephraim has done. He acknowledges how much more impressive their actions were, telling them, ‘God has given into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeb. What have I been able to do in comparison with you?’ The Ephraimites captured some of the Midianite leaders; they caught some pretty important guys. Well, Gideon really does not seem to have done much of anything. He didn’t even get his sword wet.
Capturing or killing enemy leaders carried more glory and more honor than merely winning a battle in those days, just as Jael received all the glory for killing Sisera. Ephraim had evidence of their victory; they had something to share for themselves, whereas Gideon had nothing. No proof, just the words and tales of his men—he had nothing tangible he could claim glory from.
So Gideon of Manasseh verbally humbled and abased himself before the soldiers of Ephraim, and then their anger subsided when he said this. See, Gideon proved himself to be a competent politician. After stroking the egos of his cousins, Gideon and his brave 300 continued their pursuit of the fleeing Midianites. They were tired, they were exhausted, but they refused to give up the chase, following close behind their enemy.
They came to the Israelite town of Sukoth, east of the Jordan River within the territory of Gad, and Gideon appealed to the leaders of the town, ‘Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing after Zeba and Zemunah, the kings of Midian.’ He asked them for aid—food and water to help sustain his men as they pursued a common enemy.
He asked them for kindness and charity, which they ought to share with and give to any stranger or sojourner in the land. His request, especially for only 300-ish men, should not really have been too onerous or financially taxing for the people of Sukoth. But instead, the elders denied Gideon’s request for aid, asking, ‘Are the hands of Zeba and Zemunah already in your hand that we should give bread to your army?’
They responded to his request with indignation, maybe with some selfishness, or perhaps they merely denied him from fear of possible future Midianite reprisals because they lacked confidence in his ability to succeed in his quest. They responded as if he had demanded some kind of excessive tribute of gold and silver rather than a meal for his troops.
Sukoth’s lack of charity, compassion, or confidence leads Gideon into wrathful anger. Gideon was naturally upset by their response; he became filled with rage, and it would be difficult for anyone to say that he was really wrong to feel that way. I mean, I understand what he was trying to do for them. He was risking the lives of his men for their sake, and they would not even give his brave heroes a loaf of bread. Why were they being so ungrateful?
However, his reply to their refusal was even more uncharitable, holding no trace of grace or mercy in it as he indulged his unsanctified human nature. ‘When the Lord has given Zeba and Zemunah into my hand, I will flay your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briars.’ He responded to their refusal with threats, escalating their present negative relationship to an even worse level, going from, ‘Would you please help us out a little, show us some neighborly kindness since we’re here trying to help you,’ to, ‘I am going to beat you to within an inch of your life because you did nothing to help us.’
So Gideon goes on to the next town over, Penuel, and then he asks them for aid, only to be rebuffed and rejected just like he was at Sukoth. He said to the men of Penuel, ‘When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower.’ Gideon gets so angry that he promises to tear down their city when he returns in victory and peace.
Further escalating things far beyond his threats at Sukoth, threatening to huff and blow their tower down, Gideon, although he was anointed by the Lord, now begins to show himself as an authoritarian following the unjust system of ‘my might will make it right.’
He has been given a little power and a little authority, and he has built up a broad coalition of support from his neighboring tribes. He has managed to negotiate and preserve the peace with a stronger ally and possible rival. He won a battle, and now he is seeking to achieve total victory. But we can see how his pride and self-confidence are beginning to corrupt him. Perhaps we see him developing his own sense of entitlement as a perception sourced from his status as the Lord’s chosen.
Although they were rebuffed and denied by their fellow Israelites, Gideon and his men continued the pursuit of the Midianites beyond their own borders, plunging deep into enemy territory, with their army about 15,000 men—all who were left of the army of the people of the East. For there had fallen 120,000 men who drew the sword, and Gideon went up by the way of the tent dwellers east of Nova and Jagbeha and attacked the army.
For the army felt secure. After the earlier allegorical, more poetic descriptions of the Midianite forces, comparing them to locusts, we now get numbers that show their actual losses. Almost 90 percent of their soldiers were gone, dropping from 120,000 to a mere 15,000. They still outnumbered Gideon 50 to 1. Surely by this point, the Midianites were well aware of their pursuer’s quantity; they still possessed numerical superiority.
After they left Israelite territory, they stopped running and began to regroup. They got themselves settled and set up camp. Perhaps they believed that they were safe at home, or they may have established pickets and guard posts, or they may have sent out patrols to look for their pursuers. But regardless, after they felt safe and secure once more, Gideon again used his wits, subterfuge, and stealth to launch a surprise attack on their encampment.
Again, Zeba and Zemunah fled, and he pursued them and captured the two kings of Midian, Zeba and Zemunah, and he threw all the army into a panic. But this time, the battle was fought and won without any mention of the Lord’s providence or divine hand in the victory. Gideon captured the last of the prominent Midianite leaders, broke their forces, and they were scattered. They fled from his presence.
Gideon had now completely saved Israel from the hand of Midian through his might and power, as prophesied. But would he remember that the victory was only gained because the Lord was with him and not because of anything special about him?
Who is ultimately responsible for this great victory—Gideon or the Lord? The answer to that question should be very simple and plain for us to see because God’s victories do not look like man’s victories. The Midianites were defeated and fled from their beds in the Jezreel Valley because of the Lord’s power, because the Lord set every man’s sword against his comrade and against all the army when Gideon and his men trusted God.
But at the assault at Carcor, outside of the Lord’s Promised Land, we saw the Midianites defeated and routed by Gideon’s cunning and craft—the courage of his heroes and by surprise achieved by stealth. Gideon worshiped the Lord, praised him, and gave him thanks for your victory before the battle in Jezreel. But now, Gideon and his men fail to give any glory or honor to God at Carcor because perhaps they believed it was Gideon’s victory.
Then Gideon, the conquering Israelite, right here turns around in triumph and begins the long trek home. Returning along the way he came, he approached Sukoth once more. He captured one of the men from the town and interrogated him, and his prisoner wrote down for him the names of the officials and elders of Sukoth, 77 men. His captive gave Gideon the names of all the city officials, the elders who refused him aid.
When he and his men arrived at the city, Gideon said to the elders, ‘Behold, about whom you taunted me, saying, ‘Are the hands of Zeba and Zemunah already in your hand that we should give bread to your men who are exhausted?” He took the elders of the city and he took thorns of the wilderness and briars and, with them, taught the men of Sukoth a lesson.
After parading his prisoners of war before them, Gideon took the elders, the men who had denied his army succor, and taught them a lesson, ordering his 300 loyal veterans—his personal private army—to badly beat them and whip them with briars and thorns. Gideon kept his promised threat to them when he returned high upon this victory. He disciplined the elders according to his own sense of justice, according to his wrathful judgment and indignation.
This was an act of pure retribution, devoid of God’s righteousness or justice. It went beyond any recorded human system of justice or law, as Gideon’s punishment far exceeded their offense. The next Gideon revisited the other offending city, and he broke down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city.
Gideon’s wrath was not satiated at Sukoth; he returned to the site of his second refusal, and the severity of his vengeance continued to escalate. The men of Sukoth received a severe beating, presumably this was limited only to the leadership, just to the 77 men on his list. But at Penuel, although he was identically rebuffed, Gideon broke down their tower. He shattered their defenses and tore down their walls. Scripture says he killed the men of the city, but the story is ambiguous here, which leads us to wonder whether Gideon’s murderous act of revenge was limited to the town elders or if it extended to all the men of the town.
Gideon was quickly proving himself to be a tyrant and possibly a villain. He was acting like a beneficent dictator, believing that he had the best of intentions and certainty that he was acting for the greatest good of his people. Instead, he was acting like a small, petty, vindictive, and self-important, self-righteous tyrant. Gideon was no longer the timid youngest son of a minor family in an unimportant clan, hiding his grain in a wine press; he had become a power-mad, power-drunk warlord insisting upon absolute authority and the complete submission of his opponents.
Very little time has passed since the Lord first called him, yet we have witnessed such a drastic and severe transformation in this Christos. The changes which Gideon had experienced almost presage the changes which King Saul will later undergo. This gives us ample evidence for the truth of Lord Acton’s proverb: power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Although it was the Lord who gave Gideon the power—the one who raised him up to a position of authority and influence—God raised him up for a specific purpose: to save Israel from the hand of Midian. A purpose which may reasonably have been considered complete after the Midianites were routed and fled, or at least after the Ephraimites had captured Oreb and Zeb. It’s unlikely that Gideon’s divine mandate extended to him chasing the Midianites and attacking them outside of Israel.
We cannot attribute these latter deeds of Gideon—his vengeance and acts of injustice against Sukoth and Penuel—to the Lord. The responsibility for them lies solely at Gideon’s sinful feet. He was only human after all, and although he may have been regenerated, the Spirit of the Lord clothed him after all, and it is never said to leave him as it would Saul, he most certainly was not wholly sanctified. He was still a sinful man, able to try to quench the spirit as the Apostle Paul warns the Thessalonians against—and like us, he was still able to harden his heart against the Lord with his free will actions that lead to further sorrow and suffering in this life, but not necessarily a loss of salvation.
The tragedies at Sukoth and Penuel were entirely Gideon’s doing and responsibility, not God’s. But we can’t say that they damned him either. Up until this point in Gideon’s story, the Lord’s presence and importance has been prominently felt. God’s work and influence has been front and center throughout this entire great time of deliverance and in the life of his chosen agent, Gideon.
But now the Lord appears to be absent from the story. It’s very telling that after Gideon experienced the Lord’s victory and participated in his work of deliverance in the Jezreel Valley, he transitioned from worship and trust in God to sinful self-confidence and a superiority complex. He demonstrates a shifting belief regarding who is ultimately responsible for saving Israel—the Lord or himself.
A similarity many of us Christians share with Gideon is that whenever our confidence for salvation shifts from dependence on God’s grace to our own righteousness, to our acts of piety and charity, to our good works or our moral living, it is all too easy for us, while on the road to the celestial city, to become sidetracked and distracted by the seemingly reasonable advice of many worldly wise men around us, leading us to take a wrong way detour down that path.
But still, we may hope, like Bunyan’s Christian people, that help and evangelists will cross our path in the Lord’s providence to redirect us back onto Christ’s narrow road. It is never too late for us to turn away from our wickedness or our self-indulgent hope and trust in our own righteousness and works, and return to the believer’s absolute and total dependence upon the Lord for everything in our whole life—in this world and in the world yet to come.
We must still repent and believe. But now Gideon has completed his mission from God. He is done with what the Lord called him to do, even though it looks as if he’s falling into the same sinful trap which everyone else does—stepping away from the narrow road of Christ. However, we can be hopeful for him and his salvation because scripture does hold him up as a positive exemplar of the faith, even as his story looks to be heading towards a bad ending.
Even as he falls into sinfulness and indulges his depravity, we must remember that God’s grace is enough to preserve even such a tarnished saint. No one is too far gone for Jesus Christ’s love and sacrifice to save. No one, so long as there is breath in a person’s lungs, we may still hope for them and their salvation.
Gideon started off so well in faith and obedience that it’s such a shame to see him begin to fall. But it is in his false example that we find directions towards our true hope, directions to recognize and know our righteous deliverer, Jesus. Gideon, the Lord’s anointed, when his request for hospitality was rejected by two cities, reacted sinfully by taking revenge for his wounded human pride.
David, the Lord’s anointed before he was crowned king and still on the run from King Saul, when he asked Nabal for hospitality for him and his men, Nabal answered David’s servants, ‘Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters. Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men who come from I do not know where?’
David became wrathful and vengeful, like Gideon, and David said to his men, ‘Every man dress sword.’ But Nabal’s wife Abigail went to meet David along the way. She apologized and begged for his forgiveness; she offered him what he previously refused. David said to Abigail, ‘Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me. Blessed be your discretion and blessed be you who have kept me this day from blood guilt and from working salvation with my own hand.’
See, David felt the sinful call of wrathful vengeance for his wounded pride but was stopped from further indulging his sinfulness. Instead, he forgave Nabal and extended him mercy. David responded better than Gideon, and his example was certainly better—but not perfect; he was still pointing further ahead to Jesus ben Joseph, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ, who is welcomed into Jerusalem like a triumphant king.
Jesus received every possible positive example of hospitality from the people up until the night he was betrayed. Then the crowd suddenly became [Music] he was condemned yet not convicted of a crime. However, his greatest rejection came when the people whom he came to save shouted, and their voices prevailed. The innocent Jesus was led away to be hung from a cross; he was scourged, whipped worse than with briars and thorns.
He was scorned and mocked, beaten and bloody; a crown of thorns was squeezed and twisted into his scalp, and when he called out, ‘I thirst,’ they put a sponge for the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. David was wrathful in his reaction to Nabal’s rejection, but he avoided sinning as greatly as Gideon did.
Yet through all of this, Jesus did not sin against either God or man. Jesus was meek and mild, like a lamb led to the slaughter, forgiving those who rejected him and treated him so badly, loving them, loving us so much that he was willing to die for us in our place. The Apostle Peter writes, ‘For to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.’
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed, for you were straying like sheep but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. That is what Gideon’s example of sinful failure that we can all identify with points us towards—the Lord’s sovereign grace and Jesus Christ’s deliverance in which we hope and share.
Gideon’s sinfulness reminds us that the Lord alone saves, and whenever we forget that and try to earn our own salvation, we will go sideways. Each example of suffering experienced by Jesus was an act of rejection, and each was a denial of hospitality far worse than either Gideon or David received. But through it all, Jesus was silent. Jesus did not fight back; Jesus did not protest; Jesus did not insist upon his rights; Jesus did not call out for or seek out vengeance.
Jesus did not demand their submission to his divine authority as the Son of God, as God the Son, the second person of the Trinity. Instead, Jesus submitted to their rejection; he submitted to their inhospitality with humility and all humbleness, as the true perfect and greatest of the Lord’s anointed and the Lord’s most obedient and faithful servant. Jesus is our greatest example, and Jesus is our true divine deliverer; he alone is our savior, for he is the Lord God Almighty.
But even as he hung there dying upon the cross, saving us by his greatest victory, he was still directing our eyes to our Heavenly Father and giving him all the glory in the work that Jesus completed. Who was the conquering hero? Who was it that actually wins the victory? Who delivers his people and wins the only war that matters? Remember, God’s victory does not look like our victories.