Gideon: Divine Power in Human Weakness

Gideon’s story begins in Judges 6 where we hear the Angel of the LORD initiate Gideon’s leadership with “the LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor” (6:2). The LORD moves him into leadership with a simply command, “go” followed by “have I not sent you?” (6:14). Nobody speaks that way in regular conversation and reading too fast, one misses the long pause “in the white spaces” where Gideon must have stood there after the first command to go. The reluctance is profound for, after prodding (“have I not sent you?”) Gideon responds with questions and a challenge for a sign, which the Angel of the LORD delivers. Gideon’s first task at home was to lead by uprooting idolatry and instituting worship of the true and living God who fulfills His promises, resulting in a new name and public reputation for Gideon. Interesting to note that Gideon’s tearing down the altar was at night. Which means that the sacrifice burned on the new altar (at night) could be seen by anyone. Hard to hide a fire at night. This will be important for what God wants him to do next. Now God has prepared him to expand his leadership by bolstering his courage with impossible signs in the wake of seemingly impossible tasks.

With a new name, Gideon (Jerubbaal) prepares to deal with the Midianite problem with a small army of God-sifted men. Chapter 7 shows a remarkable military campaign marked by Gideon’s creative leadership and obedience with God’s divine intervention. There is no record that the LORD instructed Gideon to use the torch-pot-trumpet maneuver, so this must have come from his ingenuity, or at least inspired by the replacement altar at home. The LORD only promised, and fulfilled, deliverance based on Gideon’s obedience.

While it is easy to identify Gideon’s reluctance and God’s patient responses with signs on the personal level, each encounter is directly related to the LORD accomplishing His purposes for the nation through Gideon. Time and again the LORD’s greatest signs were the fulfillment of His promises of deliverance. There is one aspect of these incidents that is worth further consideration, however. Though Gideon heard from the LORD directly, the LORD was constantly working to correct Gideon’s perception of Himself. If idolatry is defined as “making a god of one’s own understanding,” we see the LORD constantly transforming Gideon’s understanding. After his death, “the children of Israel did not remember the LORD their God who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side; nor did they show kindness to the house of Jerubbaal (Gideon) in accordance with the good he had done for Israel” (8:35) because Gideon’s ephod in Ophrah caused confusion that caused the people to fall back into idolatry, that is, their own ideas about God.