Judges 8:22-35- Gideon Sins, But The LORD Is Faithful

Since it has been a few weeks since we have studied the book of Judges, I would like to read Judges 8:22-35, “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.’ 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 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.) And they answered, ‘We will willingly give them.’ And they spread a cloak, and every man threw in it the earrings of his spoil. And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels of gold, 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. And Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his city, in Ophrah. And all Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family. So Midian was subdued before the people of Israel, and they raised their heads no more. And the land had rest forty-years in the days of Gideon.

Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house. Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring, for he had many wives. And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he called his name Abimelech. And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, at Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god. 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, and they did not show steadfast love to the family of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in return for all the good that he had done to Israel.”

Two years ago we were studying Hebrews 11. In the beginning of that chapter the author of Hebrews spends time discussing old testament saints and how they displayed great faith. However, by the time the author of Hebrews gets to Hebrews 11:32 he realizes that he cannot speak about so much about every faithful saint and he begins to just give the names of these saints, “And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah…”. (These are all judges)

The author of Hebrews would have loved to have shared more about these saints but he couldn’t do that. Not because he was not familiar with them, but he was constrained by time. When we came to verse 32 we spent a whole sermon on Gideon.

If you would have asked me when we began to study Judges 6-8, “How long will we consider Gideon in these chapters?”, I wouldn’t have expected that it would be 13 weeks. However, that is exactly what we have now done.

Thirteen weeks is a long time to observe someones life. Over these many weeks we have seen God raise up Gideon to be Israel’s judge. We have watched how mercifully, how graciously, and how patiently God has dealt with him as He strengthened and matured his faith. In the end, the LORD used Gideon to give Israel a miraculous victory over their mighty enemies.

I hope that over the last three months your heart has become endeared to Gideon in some meaningful way. (Hebrews 13:7) This may be why as we come to the end of this story our hearts rejoiced greatly when Gideon boldly declares to Israel, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the Lord will rule over you.” But this is also why we also find ourselves grieving bitterly over Gideon when we read these words, “And Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his city, in Ophrah. And all Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family.”

I suppose, like Peter we can often say something so great and then follow it up with something so faithless. Peter testified, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” But then after this when Jesus spoke about His suffering Peter denied that this could happen, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” The LORD rebuke Peter, saying, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” Then Jesus says something that may have helped Gideon, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” (Matthew 16:13-28)

If we had never heard the end of Gideon’s story we would be shocked by how it ends. We have seen Gideon grow and mature in his faith so much; but now Gideon does something that we would not expect. No wonder the author of Hebrews finishes Hebrews 11 and then says in Hebrews 12:1-2, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Question: Is Gideon a faithful saint in Judges 6:11-8:23, buy whose example we cannot follow from 8:24-32? Is Hebrews 12:1-2 spoken of because some did this well, but some like Gideon did not?

Hebrews 12:1-2 reminds us that faithful believers in both dispensations, the Old and New Testament, need to ‘lay aside every weight, and sin that clings so closely’. No individual is perfect and neither is there any perfect congregation. The Baptist Confession speaks of this when it states…

• In 16.4, “Those who attain the greatest heights of obedience possible in this life are so far from being able to merit reward by going beyond duty or to do more than God requires. Instead, they fall short of much that is their duty to do.”

• In 26.3, “The purest churches under heaven are subject to mixture and error.”

As we come to the end of this story we see just how close sin clings, ensnares, and entangle believers if they are not careful. When this happens it effects the family and the whole community as it does in this story. (Romans 5:12-21) Therefore we must look to Jesus. Every believer, and every congregation, is to ‘continually look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of their faith’. Gideon’s story reminds us that no believer will receive eternal life because of their righteousness, but because of the righteousness of Christ who ‘endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God’. (Romans 11:33)

In this story the LORD has been so good to Israel. By His hand, ‘Midian was subdued...and they raised their heads no more.’ Then we read these words, “Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house.” (29) Sadly, during this 40 years of peace (28) there is no mention of the Word of the LORD continuing to be spoken among the people like we were told in Judges 6:7-10. There is no mention of the people receiving instruction from the Levites. There is no mention of the people of Israel faithfully going to the Tabernacle which is in Shiloh.

No, instead we do read about some troubling things that went on during this time. For example, Gideon takes the gold and returns home. This allows Gideon the prosperity to do just about anything that he pleases. He marries many women, he becomes the father of 70 children, he travels to Shechem where he has a concubine and she bears him a child- Abimelech. His name means, ‘my father is a king’. We also see that Gideon makes an ephod and all of Israel is ensnared by it. (27)

An ephod was a garment that Israel’s high priest would wear when he represented Israel before the LORD. The ephod contained the Urim and Thummim which the high priest would use to speak with the LORD. This ephod was multicolored and contained special stones that represented the 12 Tribes of Israel. The Ephod that Gideon fashioned must have been very beautiful and the ‘word of the lord’ that they received from it must have enticed Israel away from the LORD and into great sin. Why did Gideon do this? Perhaps, as Israel’s judge he wanted a way to ensure that he could guide the people? Judges 2:17 says, “They did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them.” If Israel did this when the judges spoke and acted rightly, how much faster will they depart when the judge that God raises up does what Gideon has done. (8:27 and 8:33) If only Gideon would have known what Paul speaks about in 1 Timothy 6:8-12.

Consider Judges 8:29, “Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house.” It was there, at his own house, that all of these unfortunate things took place. Was there a point that Gideon repented of these things? We do not know. What we do know is that this ephod ensnared Gideon, his family, and all of Israel. In the end, the people will turn away from the LORD. And Israel will not show steadfast love to the Gideon and to His family for all the good he had done for Israel. (33-35)

Gospel Truth: The people do not show steadfast love to Gideon for all the good he has done, but the LORD will show steadfast love to Gideon because he displayed faith in God and His Word. We know this because of Hebrews 11:32. Even so, we do not want to imitate Gideon’s sin, but his faith.

I would like for us to end by considering Psalm 30. This is a psalm of David and in it we will see that David will mirror many of the things that we have seen in this story about Gideon. Psalm 30, however, shows us how to respond to these sort of sins.

Notice the superscription which says, “A psalm of David. A song of the dedication of the Temple.” Perhaps this translation is misleading. The KJV says, “A psalm or song that was sung at the dedication of the house of David.” The NASV says, “A psalm; a song at the dedication of the house. A psalm of David.”

This psalm could have been penned for one of three reasons. The dedication of the Tabernacle. Or for the dedicated the Temple. Or perhaps for the dedication of David’s own home. If this is the case, you can see how it may be relevant to the story of Gideon when he returned to his home in Orphah. Unlike David, when Gideon returned to his home he did not dedicate it to the LORD.

Psalm 30 can be divided into three sections. The first section is in verses 1-5 where David extols God for all that the LORD has done for him. Like Gideon, David was chosen despite being the least among his family and among God’s people. The LORD had shown both of these men great mercy, grace, and steadfast love. (Read 1-5)

The second section is in verses 6-7. In verse 6 we see that at some point David’s exaltation of the LORD had ceased and he began to exalt himself, saying, “As for me, I said in my prosperity, ‘I shall never be moved.’” Like Gideon, David’s success, wealth, and abundant blessings began to be a snare to him. For a time David became arrogant and prideful and did not continue to thank the LORD.

This was temporary because David says in verse 7, “By your favor, O LORD, you made my mountain stand strong…”. Here David once again gives God the glory and not himself. What made the change in David? The LORD disciplined him. We can assume that the same had happened to Gideon. We see this discipline in verse 7, “...You hid your face; I was dismayed.”

What did David need to do when this happened? He needed to repent. This is what he does in the third section, saying, “To you, O LORD, I cry, and to the LORD I plead for mercy…”. How serious was his sin? Well, David says, “What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness?” David was learning that he is to praise the LORD for justifying grace, for sanctifying grace and also for glorifying grace. Sadly, many will only seek God’s ‘common grace’. And when God does this they only give thanks for a short time if at all. (Rom. 1:21)

David cries out to the LORD, “Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me! O LORD, be my helper!” (10) I love this part. In verse 2 David cries out for help just like Israel did in Judges 6:6. God responds to this cry; however, after the LORD does this there is a temptation to turn away from the LORD. Both David, Gideon, and Israel experience this. In Psalm 30 David comes to the point of knowing he needs God’s continuing gracious help. Therefore, he says, “LORD be my (continual) helper.”

The last two verses are a testimony to how God is answering this request of David, “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever.” Notice that the praise that is spoken of here is coming from the inside out. Grace has filled David’s heart to overflowing with grace and it expresses itself in praise, joy, gladness, and continual thankfulness.

Conclusion: Something similar is happening in the story of Gideon. Israel cried out for help. God graciously and mercifully helped his people. God’s acted despite the fact that we did not see much evidence of true repentance and faith in God in Israel. After the victory a test came to see how each person would respond. In the end, those who sinned God would have disciplined to produce the peaceful fruit of righteousness. But for those who sinned and did not receive this inward grace, they would follow other idols and turn away from the God. Many people will cry out to God for help, but so few will seek the LORD to be their helper in all things and at all times.? Many will seek help for their external circumstances, but few will ask for an internal working of grace.

Did Gideon repent? We don’t know. The Holy Spirit wanted us to see in this story the danger and ensnaring power of sin. Since Gideon is listed in Hebrews 11 we know he was commended for his faith. At the end of this story it is the steadfast love of the LORD that is to be acknowledged. Gideon, like us, was not always faithful, but the LORD is. (2 Timothy 2:13)

There may be a reason for hope that this sin was temporary for Gideon. For example, in verse 33 when Gideon died the people did not continue to whore after the ephod but turned to Baal-Berith. Perhaps this is because Gideon had destroyed this ephod? In any case, we know that sin is our greatest danger and to engage in a little will eventually lead a person farther away from God unless they repent and call out to the LORD. A little sin leavens the whole batch. (Galatians 5:9; 1 Cor. 5:6) Again, I do not know if Gideon repented. If he did not, we should rejoice all the more in the work of Christ and the results of His work as our Prophet, Priest, and King.