Bible Reading Blog
“A Clearly Divine Act”
Categories: Congregational Bible ReadingBIBLE READING: Judges 9
Gideon’s defeat of the Midianites was unexpected. God had whittled his army down to 300 against more than 100,000, and they won handily (Judges 7.19-23; 8.10). Add to that Gideon was an unmotivated, cowardly cave dweller with no clout and little experience (Judges 6.11, 15). This victory was clearly Divine.
But the victory did not serve to further God’s glory among his people. As Gideon completed the assault against the Midianite kings, he kept their purple garments and ornaments from their camels as a token and reminder to himself (Judges 8.21, 26). The people were ready to make him a king, and though he refused, he accepted a tremendous amount of gold spoil from them which he made into an ephod (8.21-27). This was put in his city as a testament to his leadership and caused the people to be unfaithful to, even to whore after something other than, God (8.27). Furthermore, Gideon’s proud choice put a superiority complex in the minds of his family, becoming a snare to them and the nation (8.27). They were now the leading class in Israel (9.2). In this climate, Abimelech stepped in to take advantage of his opportunity. He convinced the tribes of his worthiness and consolidated his power by killing 70 of his brothers (9.1-6). However, this unsanctioned behavior prompted God to create discord between Abimelech and the tribals leaders (9.22), leading to conspiracy, war and ultimately the circumstance leading to his death (9.25-55). It all seems a bit random, but ‘thus God returned the evil of Abimelech, which he committed against his father in killing is seventy brothers’ (9.56).
How sad that this was the follow-up to a clearly Divine moment of salvation! And yet we see once again the depravity of human choices apart from God’s leadership. Godly influence can so easily be undone by pride. For all the good changes in Gideon’s time, his legacy left the nation in a worse place than before. The good of the past didn’t justify the lapse of judgment in the present leading to failure in the future. We must learn to be on guard and not allow past success to prop us up with pride. Even the ‘greatest’ people of faith made choices that negatively impacted their families and the future (think David with Bathsheba). As the scriptures say, ‘pride comes before a fall’ (Proverbs 16.18) and ‘do not think more highly of yourself than you ought to but think with sober judgment’ (Romans 12.3).
We have been saved through a clearly Divine act of God’s grace, and any success we experience in our lives should be treated as his grace. We must position ourselves and our families in this grace by teaching them to give him glory. This means we don’t act for our own pride when teaching and training them. We must act with settled determination to help others know God rather than act for our good. We must check our desires to ensure we don’t leverage our opportunities to receive attention deserving of God. This is how we raise a generation to know God. But more importantly this is the purpose of our lives.
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter 2.9-10)
