Judges 8:23-27
But Gideon told them, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you.” And he said, “I do have one request, that each of you give me an earring from your share of the plunder.” (It was the custom of the Ishmaelites to wear gold earrings.) They answered, “We’ll be glad to give them.” So they spread out a garment, and each man threw a ring from his plunder onto it. The weight of the gold rings he asked for came to seventeen hundred shekels, not counting the ornaments, the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian or the chains that were on their camels’ necks. Gideon made the gold into an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his town. All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family.
I must begin by saying I do not at all cherish being reactionary in the way I do posts or anything. Unfortunately, it seems a lot of what I have shared over the years has just been that, and so too is this that I am going to share today. Maybe reactionary is being too hard on myself, I have no clue. But I think it’s an eye opening portion of scripture that will wizen us in many scenarios. I honestly at times marvel at just how short the space a reasonable blog allows for sharing on these topics, for they are things which I could go on for an hour or so just explaining. I guess the benefit again comes from the accessibility of a blog being anywhere anytime.
I will assume we are familiar with the story of Gideon, and the 300 men (of which the movie 300 I think is a poor attempt at creativity, sincerely believing this is the source of the idea. I think I may devote a day sometime to Hollywood and its poor and sometimes brilliant way of copying ideas from what are Biblical truths.) and how he defeated an entire army. The text in question follows not too long afterwards. Having been a successful leader, ordained by the Lord and having experienced tangible communication with the Lord’s heavenly host, Gideon is found doing something that ends up leading the very people whom He should be leading to God astray. The Bible I admit is candid, with men whom God called, their failures and successes and Paul I believe says “these things were written for our learning.” Solomon it records never asked for wealth, or fame, but God loved his request for wisdom and added this to Solomon; in spite of it giving a platform for Solomon to fall away from the customs of God by being wealthy enough to afford many wives. Hezekiah requested more years after news of his imminent death, and got it. Afterwards, he found himself giving the enemy a tour of his nation’s treasures which would soon be taken away.
Here, we find Gideon, a cowardly man when the angel of the Lord found him making the very thing that would lead his nation astray when they insisted they wanted him to lead and he declined. Maybe running through his mind at that moment were thoughts similar to the ones he had when the angel initially visited him, of how small his family was in Israel and how he had the opportunity to change that by making a memorial for his family, I do not know. What I do know is the influence and position Gideon had, where he could have like a David inspired a nation to rely on God completely in that moment with a song of praise, of the greatness of God and of His sufficiency used it to stake a claim it for himself. The nation was ripe for the message of the goodness of God, they had just seen a great deliverance from a deservedly hated (back then it was acceptable to hate people.) nation and were no doubt in awe.
And I must reiterate that it was the greatness of God that accomplished this great and awesome miracle as I go on to then apply this context to today; a time when miracles, signs, wonders, prophecies are not universally accepted as part and parcel of God’s activity on earth today. Some point to the flawed nature of the doctrine held on to by some, some to obvious flaws in character such as sexual infidelity or divorce, and yet others point to the way in which some believers are swept into a blind haze by what I can only describe as creative doctrines and the charisma of some and do mindless things in the name of following God. If you are on any sort of social platform, I am sure you know what I mean. When this happens, there is always a rush to condemn, to criticize and I am ashamed to say to an eagerness to say such a person is sent from the Devil, and that the miracle is by the power of the devil. In another manner of speaking, the humanity of a preacher, his possible susceptibility to sin and to snares by virtue of their past experiences is not seen by many; they are blind even to it as their zeal dictates they must condemn.
The reality is people are the ones tasked with carrying the powerful message of Jesus. Flesh and blood humans, each with different background experiences and exposure to different messages and therefore each quite possibly susceptible to different areas of temptations. If men of God in times past as Gideon, David, Solomon who had encounters with God and were each praised spectacularly in one way or another could also have such dramatic failures, should we not be more discerning today? Taking heed of their example to know that a failure in one area or even a dramatic one does not mean one is not called by God and that it does not mean that the power seen at work in such people’s lives is not from God. I do not for a moment subscribe to the notion that the devil gives the power to heal. It makes no sense for that is the very epitome of what it means for a kingdom to be against a kingdom. False prophets some will cry and raise their voices.
I will close by asking you a question on a few characters in the Bible who should give some food for thought. The first person I will mention is Judas Ischariot, who when the disciples were sent out on healing missions, also came with a report of demons and sicknesses fleeing from his hands. Was Judas a true or a false apostle? And the second is the repented wizard, Simon I think it was who at one time moved with Peter. Was his repentance false or true that he tried to buy the anointing for money? In the first years after Jesus died, Peter did not want to preach to the Gentiles, for he considered it wrong. Was he then false?
I someone else’s mistakes could give everyone else who follows wisdom, then Adam and Eve could very well have been the only ones who ever actually committed sin. The wisdom is there to learn from, the keys to success, to beating temptation and to winning every battle in life are all there in the bible. So too every mistake we could ever think of. However, it does not automatically mean that because they are there people have learnt. The presence of a library in a school does not make every child “smart,” it is merely an opportunity for whoever will to be.
I have digressed, but my crux is this. People, human beings are in charge of spreading the gospel, but the gift of the news and the power to perform miracles is a gift from God, and not a reward. And we would be much the wiser and our mouths and speech would be much more informed if we took the time to meditate on such thoughts.
And for another footnote, I believe it to be arrogance and judgmental to think it is easy to be a church leader of any kind. There would be no reason for “double honour” if that were the case. I honestly cringe on the inside when I hear people say all there is to a successful church is to preach about money and success for an hour every week and people come. I truly believe nothing could be further from the truth; take away the results (testimonies) and I guarantee you that you can preach what you think to be the same message and you will never see the growth you see in those “other churches.”