The Challenges of Leadership (Judges 7:24–8:25)

In national life, when fighting an enemy, it is not enough to win a battle. Leaders need to win the war, and also to win the peace. The hardest task may be to win the allegiance of your countrymen. I don’t know very much about it, but I have often wondered why Winston Churchill lost the election after the war. On that occasion, he had won the war, but he did not seem to have won the peace.

Gideon had won a great battle. He had been chosen by God to lead his people to deliverance. One would have imagined that there would have been great enthusiasm for his cause. Yet his victory in battle only revealed the problems that existed in Israel and he as God’s chosen leader would have to deal with them.

It is worth noting that sometimes God will do something that is almost the opposite of what he had done previously. When fighting the initial battle against the Midianites, God had commanded Gideon to reduce the number of soldiers. This commandment had been given in order to ensure that the people could not glory in their own contribution. Since it was no longer reasonable for them to try and do so, the Lord allowed others to take part in the next stages of the campaign.

I suppose we can see here an example of the principle that the Lord will not do what he knows we can do. The Midianite invaders had been reduced in size and thrown into confusion by the Lord himself without the aid of anyone. Yet if the Israelites wanted to build on that victory they had to get involved. And this chapter mentions some of their responses.

The men of Ephraim

The first set of people mentioned are the men of Ephraim. Gideon sent out messengers to them to come and share in the battle of the Lord. As a wise leader, Gideon knew the importance of involving as many of the Lord’s people as possible. I assume he wanted them to know what it was like to enjoy victory after years of defeat and weakness.

It is important to note that they joined up after the Midianites had been defeated by Gideon. Yet because they followed Gideon’s instructions they were able to enjoy a great victory. Gideon was equipped with wisdom by God to know what to do. It is amazing how quickly he learned. In a few days he had gone from being a coward to a conqueror with effective strategies. He had the vision to know what to do, and those who went with him discovered that his plans would work.

We should also note that God allowed the men of Ephraim to have a great victory as well. He gave it to them without the actual involvement of Gideon apart from the instructions he gave. This was a sign of his goodness to them, giving to them the privilege of helping rid his people and his land of their enemies. One would have imagined that they would have thanked God for doing so and would have been content with their lot.

Their participation had not been at the time of crisis, yet their little victory caused them to imagine that they would have been of great help in the crisis. The bizarre thing is that they committed the very sin that God warned Gideon about in the first place – they wanted to have some of the glory that was due to God alone. And their sinful desire, perhaps fuelled by jealousy because God had used Gideon or perhaps fuelled by embarrassment that they had not even volunteered to help initially, led them to become angry with the one to whom God had given the victory.

Of course, the reader knows that God would not have wanted them to participate in the crisis. As we saw in the previous chapter, the Lord had reduced the number in his army from 30,000 to 300. If he had wanted the men of Ephraim to participate, he would have told Gideon to send for them.

I suppose that there is a lesson here. Those who shout the loudest about something they missed out on may not be in touch with God. Anyone can have an opinion about a past event, but the presence of an opinion or of a criticism is no proof that God wanted them to have been there. And if God does not want a person to have been involved earlier they should be content that he allowed them to be involved later.

How did Gideon deal with their foolish pride? He humbled himself is the surprising answer. Here we find the essential quality of service of God. This was the way that Jesus served, humbly. This was the way that the apostles served after the Holy Spirit had come at Pentecost. Before that, they thought too much of themselves at times. Yet divine grace changed them into humble servants.

Gideon knew that what God had done through him was far greater than what he had done through the men of Ephraim. Yet in his humility he highlighted the one thing that he had not been able to, which was to highlight their capture of enemy leaders. He knew that God would take care of his reputation, which is why Gideon is mentioned in the list of heroes in Hebrews 11, and the men of Ephraim are not. It was not hypocrisy for Gideon as a leader to highlight one activity of the others while knowing that God had done greater things through him, but it was an expression of pride for them to believe that their unique activity was more than his.

Gideon’s response here is an example of of Proverbs 15:1, which is that a soft answer turns away wrath. What did it matter that the men of Ephraim were serving with a wrong spirit? Sadly, that happens often in God’s kingdom, as Paul mentioned about those in Rome who were preaching the gospel in order to add to his bonds (Phil. 1:12). What was important for Paul, and for Gideon as well, was that their response was marked by graciousness.

The men of Succoth and Peniel

The author of Judges returns to the account of Gideon and his 300 men. There is a wonderful picture of spiritual warfare in 8:4 – they were exhausted and pursuing. It almost seems contradictory, which is how it often feels in fighting for the Lord. But then the place that is free of tiredness is not in this world.

Their response is one that we should imitate in fighting for the Lord. Endurance is a basic requirement for the Christian life. We can see two reasons for keeping on going. One is that the enemy should be so weakened so as not to be a threat again and the other is that we cannot enjoy the fulfilment of the Lord’s promise without perseverance.

What is striking about Succoth and Peniel is that they had great past privileges. Succoth was where Jacob had first lived when he returned to Canaan after his years away with his uncle Laban – he went to Succoth instead of teaming up with his brother Esau, a policy which if implemented would have taken him out of the Promised Land. Peniel was the place where Jacob had wrestled with God and obtained a blessing. It was the location where the name Israel was first used.

What were the people living in those places like? Basically they were the opposite of what Jacob had been like. They symbolised the sad fact that living in a place of previous privileges is no proof that one possesses the same power. How sad that those who lived where Jacob had once lived in order to be devoted to God should now reveal that they were not devoted to him! How sad that the place where God gave a great blessing should be inhabited by people who did not believe he could do great things through Gideon!

Another question needs to be asked and it is, ‘How did these two towns so close to the Midianites avoid being destroyed by them?’ The people of those two locations don’t seem to mind the prospect of paying tribute to the Midianites. They expected the Midianites to defeat Gideon and his few men. It looks as if they had some kind of arrangement with the Midianites, and this could explain why Gideon was so strong in his punishment of them.

How did Gideon react to them? First, he asserted his confidence of victory even although he only had 300 men. It is obvious that Gideon did not link the promises of God to the opinions of cowardly Israelites. Some of the best dampeners of a work for God are professing Christians with their negative assessments.

Second, Gideon did not respond to them in the way that he had with the men of Ephraim. At least they had participated. But the people of Succoth and Peniel refused to get involved. Gideon informed them that he would punish them. Instead of humbling himself, he would humble them. Here is a reminder that a failure to participate in the Lord’s battles is a sure way of not enjoying the benefits of the victories he gives. Participation skewed by wrong assumptions of the men of Ephraim about their own importance was bad enough, but it was not as bad as the refusal to participate by the inhabitants of Succoth and Peniel. They paid a heavy price, as the author tells us. And so will we if we refuse to take our share of the Lord’s campaign in our day, which basically is to witness for him where we are.

The remnant of the Midianites

Gideon and his 300 men were able to defeat the remaining 15,000 men of the invading army. We are not told how they did it, and sometimes there are details that we don’t need to know. Personally, I suspect that they would have copied the method that had been successful on the previous occasion when they used what many would have regarded as odd weapons. What we can see is that following the Lord’s instructions leads to experiencing the Lord’s promises. God had promised Gideon that he would free the land of the Midianites, and that is what happened. Gideon shows us here that the path of obedience is the way that leads to blessings from God.

Perhaps some are puzzled by Gideon’s treatment of the Midianite kings in connection with the deaths of his brothers. Gideon here was doing what the Israelite law required him to do concerning the murders of his brothers (their deaths may also indicate why Gideon had so many wives). It is clear from his words that Gideon would have preferred to show mercy to the captured kings but their guilt in that action meant they had to be punished. But his actions show that he wanted to obey God.

The fly in the ointment

As is common in the Lord’s campaigns, big tests come after victories, and this is what happened with Gideon. The strange thing is that Gideon passed the test and then committed a mistake that would result in permanent failure.

The test that he passed was to refuse a position of honour that he knew God would have disapproved. Since Gideon had showed such prowess, it is not surprising that the people wanted to make him a leader and start his own dynasty. Perhaps they imagined that such a dynasty would prevent the cycles of departing from the Lord after a period of rest from the Lord. Gideon knew that to allow such promotion was not what God wanted. Gideon wanted to honour the Lord.

Yet alongside this refusal to take a place forbidden to him was his decision to commence a practice that was also forbidden. Gideon encouraged the people to give the earrings they had collected from the Midianites and he made them into an ephod. An ephod was one of the items worn by the priests of Israel. So what Gideon did here was set up his own location for worshipping God. In doing this, he was encouraging the Israelites to worship away from the Tabernacle that was the place where God wanted his worship to take place. No doubt he had his own reasons for doing this, but his actions cannot be regarded as correct. God called it spiritual adultery, and it brought trouble to Gideon’s family. It is ironic that the account of his public service began with him destroying a place of false worship and closes with him arranging for false worship to take place.

Why did Gideon do this? One commentator suggests that he assumed too much from the privileges he was given. After all, he had been given a special visit by the angel of the Lord, received guidance through the use of fleeces, and was guided by God to hear what had been conveyed through a dream. Maybe he thought that God would speak to him in those ways permanently. If he did, he was wrong.

This is a reminder that men and women of faith are not perfect. Even the best of them have their defects. We have not mentioned the way Gideon seems to have tried to build a family, although perhaps that was connected to the fact that his brothers seemed to have been wiped out by the Midianites. What cannot be denied is that the Lord used Gideon to give his people forty years of rest and that his name is found among the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11.

Gideon and Jesus

I would suggest that whenever we come across one of God’s leaders we should ask if he is like Jesus in any way. So, is Gideon like Jesus? Here are four suggestions. First, in showing humility, Gideon was like Jesus. Second, in his decisions to obey the commands of God, Gideon was like Jesus. Third, in his determination to complete the task God called him to do, Gideon was like Jesus. Fourth, in fulfilling the role of the kinsman-redeemer, Gideon was like Jesus. He did not do any of those roles perfectly, yet insofar as he did, he shows to us how a believer can become like his Master. And the fact that he failed leads us to thank God for providing a greater Deliverer who did not fail in any way.