Theological Commentary: Click Here
Before
beginning Judges 8, I want to highlight some information in the commentary that
I wrote six years back. It has to do
with exactly where Gideon’s heart rested with respect to ruling the
people. While he denies ruling them, he
doesn’t exactly refute it by his lifestyle.
You can read more about it by following the link above and looking in the Gideon's fault section.
For the rest
of this blog, I want to focus on the passage of Gideon. Remember what Gideon has done. With God’s help, he has freed the people from
the grasp of the Midianites. He has scattered
incredibly large armies. He has hunted
down their kings and killed them. He has
brought freedom from oppression to the Hebrew people.
You would
think that the people would be gracious, wouldn’t you? You would think that the people would learn
their lesson and realize how much they need God. However, this isn’t what the Bible tells us
happened at all. As soon as Gideon dies,
the people turn away from God and turn their eyes to other pursuits. Their faith isn’t legit. They are feigning faith while Gideon is
around just to appease God and Gideon.
Their true colors show as soon as they can.
I think we
all need to be careful or we fall into the trap of the Hebrew people. It’s easy to turn to God when we are
oppressed. It’s easy to look like we
believe when we are being watched. It’s
easy to say all the right words when people ask questions. But how do we live when nobody is
looking? How do we live when the
decision is ours to make and the consequences don’t appear to affect anyone but
ourselves? What is the true quality of
our life? What is our character? What ethic do we hold ourselves to, if any?
These are
really important questions. Sometimes we
get it right; sometimes we get it wrong.
The only way that we’ll improve and be the person God wants us to be is
to admit our faults, watch out for them, and ask the hard questions of
ourselves to see what truth really says.
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