JUDGES 6 and 7
As dream interpretations go, this one was at the top of the Premier League! A Midianite soldier shares an inconsequential dream he’d had the previous night about a bouncing barley bread loaf smashing into his tent and collapsing it (see 7:9-15). Quick as a flash, his Midianite colleague snapped in an interpretation that was so accurate that it not only predicted the outcome of the battle but named the unknown Israelite army leader and credited God with the entire victory! Cowering in the shadows was that very leader, who must have been hugely encouraged to hear a pagan warrior sounding completely convinced by that message – after Gideon himself had needed several reassurances and three miracles from the Lord to be convinced that he really was the man. Maybe he speculated with adopting a modified ‘Dambusters’ strategy involving bouncing bread too!
The Midianites were there in the first place because Israel had yet again abandoned the true worship of the true God and sunk into worship of the god Baal and goddess Asherah, punctuated with the occasional requirement to burn one of your children in an altar fire. Baal worship in general was easy (dead easy!) and provided an ideal excuse if you wanted to ‘stray’ with a temple prostitute – you could just tell your wife that you had been to an all-night worship meeting! It placed no moral demands or responsibilities on the worshiper and was an ideal place to meet up with your mates and business colleagues… a kind of Bronze Age golf club.
God punished Israel by removing his cover of protection over the nation and permitting foreign armies and raiding parties to take over the land and ruin the harvests. Gideon, in an effort to hide from the Midianite invaders, was forced to thresh his wheat in an enclosed winepress – which was about as effective as attempting to sail a boat in the local indoor swimming pool! This Gideon was a rather timid and inconsequential member of the Abiezrite clan – Abiezer being a descendant of Manasseh, a son of Joseph. Gideon was therefore a member of the half-tribe of Manasseh that had opted to settle to the west of the River Jordan (Numbers 26:30; Joshua 17:2). Gideon’s hometown of Ophrah was near the city of Shechem – a city of refuge in Israel.
God, in the form of ‘The Angel of the Lord’, appeared to him and greeted him as the conquering hero, as though the battle had just been won – as opposed to ‘not even started’. Looking around him, Gideon was understandably slightly sceptical about his chances, and the Lord had to encourage him by promising to be with him in battle and confirming that Gideon will be completely successful. What then follows is a key theological breakthrough for the reader: The Angel of the Lord accepted the burnt offering that Gideon had prepared, and then disappeared from sight – revealing His divine identity. Gideon then prayed to ‘The Sovereign Lord’ and talked to Him about seeing the Angel of the Lord face to face. In other words, we have two persons of the Godhead present at the same time in the same place – one invisible (God the Father) and one physically present as The Angel of the Lord (God the Son). Distinct personalities, but a united deity!
Gideon, having agreed to God’s terms, was allocated his first job: ‘clean up your own family before you can clean up the nation’. So the pagan objects were destroyed. Gideon’s obedience to the Lord results in his father regaining a bit of pride too. Rather boldly, Gideon also requested two more miracles from the Lord as evidence that Israel would triumph under Gideon’s leadership; since then, the phrase: “Putting down a fleece” has resonated through the millennia as a metaphor for seeking miraculous guidance from God.
The reduction in Gideon’s army from 32,000 to 300 is a classic example of making sure God gets the glory. If there is too much human help, the causes are blurred, and cynical onlookers will draw the wrong conclusion. Having disposed of the scared ones (lots of them!), the final selection was based upon drinking style – and the Lord basically chose those who had the least popular moves, but who kept their eyes on what was going on around them!
Having been encouraged by the dream-prophecy, Gideon launched a surprise night attack, when the majority of men and camels would have been tucked up with their cocoa. With lighted torches hidden in empty clay jars, they sneaked close and then smashed the jars and blew the trumpets, yelling at the tops of their voices. If some of you were sleeping camels, suddenly awakened by bright lights, circus noises and raucous shouting, you would probably go mental! And so they did. So also did the Midianites. In the darkness and confusion they attacked one another, leaving the Israelites looking on like spectators to God’s work.
A new testament verse comes to mind that sort of sums up the message of Gideon and applies it to us today: “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”…made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body”. (2 Corinthians 4:6-11.)
– Gideon’s lights flaring from broken jars representing the light and life of Christ revealed from our mortal bodies.
The Big Picture 