From Good to Bad

Have you ever been part of a battle or trial that you knew the Lord would bring the victory? Sometimes the trials in life get so tough you begin to doubt that you are even on the right path. Fighting a battle with limited resources can be very frustrating and discouraging. Maybe you would ask God why He didn’t supply you with better equipment. I don’t know if this is close to what Gideon was thinking but it sounds like he became very frustrated with the people of Succoth and Penial when they refused to feed his men. Gideon had been fighting the Midianites and had already been given victory over a hundred and twenty thousand men, with only three hundred men. They were tired and hungry. When they asked for bread to eat, the men of Succoth and Penial thought it better not to help them. Why do you suppose that is? For some reason they did not believe that Gideon and his three hundred men could defeat fifteen thousand men. Had they not noticed that God was with them? After his defeat of Zebah and Zalmunna, the two kings of Midian, Gideon made good on his threats. He punished the men of Succoth and the men of Penial for not helping his men. After these victories, the Israelites asked Gideon to rule over them. He refused their offer to say that the Lord God will be their ruler.

Gideon did make a request of the Israelites. He asked for gold earrings. He took the gold and made it into an ephod. I am sure that Gideon had good intentions for doing this but it turned negative. The Israelites eventually worshipped the ephod and it also became a snare to Gideons family.

The last few verses of chapter eight tell us about the land having peace for forty years. Gideon returned to his home and had seventy sons. WOW! Seventy! He had a lot of wives and one concubine. The concubine gave him the son named Abimelech. After Gideon died the Israelites went back to there wicked ways. They again forgot God and they forgot all about the good things Gideon had done for them.

Next we meet Abimelech. He was hungry for power so he convinced the people of Shechem to make him their ruler. Then he had all the sons of Gideon (his brothers) murdered except Jotham who escaped. Jotham told a parable to the people of Shechem from the safety of a mountain. The parable was a warning about Abimelech’s greed for power leading to their destruction. This later was the case. Abimelech destroyed the people of Shechem, but he does not win over all. When he attacks a town called Tebez he gets a rock dropped on his head. The funniest thing about this part of the story is that he had his armour bearer kill him so that people wouldn’t say that he was killed by a woman. Abimelech and the people of Shechem were repaid for the wickedness that they had done to Gideon’s family.