April 2: Judges 8-9

April 2, Judges 8-9

Judges 8 is a turning point in the life of Gideon. Remember from yesterdays reading, Gideon was this insecure man that kept doubting God… Now he has gained a little confidence from the last battle that God literally won for them, and takes matters into his own hands. One of the other tribes, Ephraim, is upset because Gideon did not ask them to help in battle. Gideon flatters them to bring down the situation, and it worked. Traveling with his 300 men, they were tired and exhausted, so he asked the officials of Succoth and Penuel for some bread. They both refused, so he told them that he would come back and kill them later when he could. When he returned later, he did what he said he was going to do and killed them. Then he gets into a mockery match with two guys and he takes it personally, a personal vendetta if you will. The Israelites were to fight for God’s Glory, not their own personal vengeance. 

After this, the men of Israel came to Gideon and asked him to rule over them. At first, he says no, that he nor his son will rule over them and that only God will rule over them. But even though his words said no, he asked them for all their gold and was also given purple garments and jewelry that the kings of Midian wore. So even though he said no, he had been given all the wealth of a king. Although he did ask for it and keep it. Like any good ruler (sarcasm), he makes an ephod out of the four pounds of gold. Remember - their was only to be one ephod in Israel, and that was to inquire of God. What happened? The gold ephod became a snare/trap for the Israelites and they whored themselves after it, and did not look to God. A gold ephod, was a replica of what the priests were suppose to wear, not the average man. This started them to disobey in all other areas. Regardless of their disobedience, God gave them forty years of rest.

Then Gideon dies. Don't be confused that the writer of Judges jumps from using the name Gideon and Jerubbaal. As they both are the names for the same man. The name Jerubbaal is to remind the reader of the time that Gideon ripped down the alters of Baal and the Asherah. Jerubbaal means 'Let Baal contend against him.' He was a polygamist, and had multiple wives who gave him seventy sons. One in particular, was born to one of his concubines, Abimelech, is mentioned here. As soon as Gideon died, the Israelites turned from God and worshipped other gods. Although they made idolatry out of the ephod, a thing of the Lord, now they started following the Baals.

Judges 9 shows the continual downward spiral of the Israelites falling from God. Notice that since Baal is also worshipped, how Gideon is remembered as 'Jerubbaal' and not as 'Gideon.' But with the disobedience of the Israelites at that time, it is worthy to note, that JerubBAAL has the name Baal in there. We learn about Gideon’s son, Abimelech, who wants to be the leader. How does he do it? He plants seeds of evil with his mothers family and then hires wicked men to help him kill all of his brothers (the youngest, Jothan, escapes) at the same time. Gideon, although now dead, had 70 sons. How does Abimelech have 69 brothers and kill 70 men on one stone, with one younger brother fled away? Well I had to look that up in the Hebrew because it doesn't make sense, with 70 sons being mentioned in 8:30, 9:2, 9:5, 9:18, 9:24, 9:58. Well, in the Hebrew, they don't count like us. Let me give you an example. If we say 20. We meant 10 plus 10. In the Hebrew, they their tens column is counted until it rolls over. We do it all the time with years, and we don't even realize that is the Hebrew way of doing things. We will say, "In the 80's I went to school." But we can mean from 1980-1989. The same way with Hebrew. If they are specific, like the 12 tribes of Israel, it is 12. Now they could say the 10 tribes and it would mean the same thing, because they are still in the numbers of 10, from 10-19. Does that make sense? What that means is that it is more like when we say 'seventies' - we would know that it is in the group of all the numbers from 70-79. So look at the brothers number more like the 'seventies' then the actual number 70. If the Bible would have said 72. We would know that exact number. But when there is a zero behind it, it can mean from 0-9. Anyhow, Jotham, ( the youngest surviving brother) then goes to the top of a hill and cries out to the people so that they will listen to God. He gives them a story about making trees their king, giving them an analogy of what they have done with his brother, making Abimelech their ruler. He explains that they are wrong for how they have acted. He then gives a prayer that if the leaders of Shechem knew about this and went along with it that God would curse them. And we know that those in Shechem were who the older son partitioned in the beginning of chapter 9.

Abimelech lead Israel for three years and God, yes God, sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the leaders. There must be vengeance for the violence done by the killing of the 'seventies' brothers. As God's heart is that brothers are suppose to stick up for brothers, not kill each other, want to rule over a kingdom for the price of blood and cause the last brother to flee for his life. Then we start seeing the prayer of the last living brother, Jotham, start to unveil. As those once devoted to Abimelech, start to hate him, for ruling over them. We see a leader arise out of this hate, named Gaal. Gaal challenges Abimelech for the ruling of Shechem. And has advisers to come meet him out for battle. As the battle story unfolds, you can see a glimpse of the spiritual world in the middle of the paragraph, as verse 37 notes, that the army was coming up from 'Diviners' Oak.' This also informs us that they are so far away from the Lord and that everything they are going to do, is wisdom from foreign false gods. 

After a couple of battles, a lady drops a huge stone over the wall and crushed Abimelech’s skull. Not wanting to die from the hands of a woman, which was considered a disgrace. Abimelech asks one of his guys to kill him, which he did. The chapter then ends with the reason for all of this... But first, what was prayer from the youngest son of Gideon? Revenge for his family. And at the end of this chapter we see that it was God who judged the evil of Abimelech, for the prayer that Jothem made to God. 

To sum it all up:

• We are to fight for God’s Glory, not for our own - it is his agenda, not ours. 
• God hears your prayers. Remember that when you pray. You are speaking directly to the God in Heaven. 
• Poor leadership will lead many astray. Make sure that who you are following is a man/woman after God and a hater of evil!