And the men of Israel said to Gideon, Rule over us, both thou, and thy son, and thy son's son also; for thou hast saved us from the hand of Midian.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you Jehovah will rule over you.
Gideon has just crushed Midian. Israel offers him a crown — for him, his son, and his grandson. He turns it down and points the nation to its true ruler.
The men of Israel meant it as gratitude. But their reasoning gave the credit to the man who had held the sword, and Gideon saw where that road ends.
Gideon had earned the respect of Israel. The people who saw the Lord feed the five thousand wanted to take Him by force and make Him king (John 6:15). In the same way, the men of Israel wanted Gideon to reign over them, and his sons to reign after him (v. 22). They thought this was the way to perpetuate the blessing that God had brought to them through Gideon. But this would be confidence in the vessel, not confidence in the Lord. Gideon saw this at once and refused their proposal, telling them the Lord should rule over them, not Gideon or his sons (v. 23).
Gideon refused not only a throne for himself but a family line after him. He did not treat the authority God had lent him as something he could pass on.
Gideon refused this principle absolutely, even for himself or his descendants. He had left the power with Him who had given it, God Himself: "I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the LORD will rule over you" (Judges 8:23). So too Moses, when told that he could not lead Israel any further than the border of the land, and that he must lay down his leadership, did not presume to name his successor, much less to think of his own son as taking up what he had laid down.
Earlier chapters show Gideon tested by enemies and by angry fellow Israelites. This test came dressed as admiration, and writers see it as the harder one.
But we see him exposed to a fresh snare (vv. 22-23). It is no longer the flattery of the world, but that of the people of God… They put their leader in the place of the LORD and offer him the sceptre… None are more prone to clericalism than the people of God. It is not only the curse of Christendom. It is also the natural bent of a believer's heart. When a ministry is blessed, we are apt to treat the servant as a "minister" in the human sense, and so lose sight of God… The aim of Gideon's ministry was that God should have first place, and lose none of His authority over His people.
The crowd once wanted to make Jesus king. He refused. Writers see the same principle in Gideon.
The Lord Jesus would not be made king by the people (John 6:15). He came in His Father's name, and they would not receive Him that way. He would not be received in His own name… Gideon retires; he will not take the place of rule that belongs only to the LORD. He knows what happens if the people fix their minds on Gideon: nothing but weakness and dishonour. But if they acknowledge the LORD and lean on Him, there will be strength and blessing.
The same principle shows up in Paul when believers began to set him up as their leader.
Paul hides himself. He had received great revelations from the Lord, and he had a wide range of knowledge. Yet the moment he sees people starting to set Paul up, he says, "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase"… Had he put himself forward, Christ would not have been seen. This principle was true of Gideon and true of Paul. It is true of every believer who acts in faith.
The story does not stop at verse 23. Having declined the crown, Gideon asked for the gold earrings of the plunder — and writers treat that request as the undoing of his fine answer.
Great service often breeds self-satisfaction. It also breeds a hunger for honour, which unspiritual people are far too ready to give us. The crowd urges Gideon to rule over them, but he replies, "I will not rule over you… the LORD will rule over you." How could he take the place of the God who had so blessed and honoured him? So far he spoke in the wisdom of the Spirit. But then he asked for the earrings taken from the enemy. That showed a hidden wish to keep a memorial of his own service, even though he had refused the place of power and dignity. What could such a desire produce but a snare?
- Credit — Israel looked at the man God had used, not at God, so their thanks came as a crown.
- Confidence — A permanent ruler would have meant confidence in the vessel, not confidence in the Lord.
- Crown declined — Gideon refused the throne for himself and for his sons, and named the LORD as Israel's ruler.
- Christ — Jesus would not be made king by the crowd. Paul hid himself when believers began to set him up. The pattern holds for every servant of God.
- Caution — Gideon refused the throne, then asked for the gold. A hidden wish to be remembered can turn a great victory into a snare.
And Gideon said to them, I would desire a request of you give me every man the earrings of his booty; for they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.
Gideon has just beaten Midian and refused Israel's offer of a crown. In the next breath he asks each man for the gold rings taken from the enemy, and commentators treat that one request as the turning point of his story.
Gideon's answer to the offer of kingship was faith at its clearest. His next sentence was not. One writer links the request to what great success does to a person:
Great service often breeds self-satisfaction. It also breeds a wish to be lifted up, and unspiritual people are only too ready to grant it. The crowd urges Gideon to rule over them. He replies, "I will not rule over you; the LORD will rule over you." How could he take the place of the God who had so blessed and honoured him? So far he spoke in the wisdom of the Spirit. But his request for the earrings of his spoil shows a hidden desire to be remembered for his services. He had refused the place of power and dignity, yet that desire stayed. What could such a desire produce but a snare, whether in the form of an ephod or anything else?
The verse explains where the gold came from. These rings came off the Ishmaelites, the people Gideon had just defeated.
Such is man, even the best of men, when left to himself. Here we see the very man who had led his brothers on to victory over Midian now leading them into dark and detestable idolatry. The earrings of the Ishmaelites did what their swords could not do. The loving gifts of the men of Israel proved far more dangerous than the sharp scolding of the men of Ephraim. The scolding drew out a lovely spirit of self-emptying. The gifts proved a snare to Gideon and to the whole house of Israel.
Gideon was not lining his own pockets. He meant the gold for a good purpose.
Gideon did not covet these things as Achan did, whose greed brought judgment on Israel. He was noble-hearted and unselfish, and wanted to make good use of the gold. Long before, Aaron had asked for such ornaments and made the golden calf with them. Gideon had thrown down the idols and had no wish to set them up again. But he was full of a sense of his own importance, so he wanted to set up a memorial of his victory at Ophrah, his home town. This memorial was to be an ephod, something God Himself had appointed. It was part of the clothing worn by the priest who represented the people before God. It was indeed a beautiful object, yet in the LORD's eyes it was worthless apart from the high priest who wore it.
One writer turns this on the reader. After a deep experience of God, the danger is to feel closer to Him than others are:
He has brought you low and made you learn that you are nothing in yourself. He has broken the earthen vessel to pieces. You have had an amazing experience of nearness to God, and other people look on with wonder... There is the snare. You think you hold a place of special nearness to God, the place of a priest. You begin to want to act as a kind of go-between for the people you may have led in victory and God who is their King. You refuse the kingship, but you want the priesthood... Priestly work belongs either to Christ alone, the unique High Priest, or, if to any man, then to all His people alike, with no distinction among them.
The ephod came from an instinct we all know:
Man looks for something to make present blessing last. This has always been one of his crooked ways. "What guarantee have you that it will last?" he asks. Faith answers, "None at all, except the presence of the Holy Spirit." If we try to secure it by other means, then like Gideon we make an ephod... Before long we keep up the form, having lost the power, and we worship the form instead of God. People paid divine honours to Gideon's ephod in just the same way. What is it to have a set of principles, however scriptural, without the power of the Spirit?
The same trap works now, and one writer names its modern forms:
The Christian world is no stranger to ephods. It holds many things God appointed apart from Christ, and imagines it can approach God by them. The church, ministry, baptism, the Lord's supper, even prayer — cut off from their source, they become ephods, and people bow down before them. Form takes the place of God, and souls fall back into idolatry.
- Spoil. The gold came off the beaten Ishmaelites, and it defeated the man their swords could not.
- Request. He refused the throne, then asked for a memorial. The hidden wish to be remembered outlived the public refusal.
- Memorial. His aim was good and his object was God-given, yet an ephod without the high priest wearing it was worthless.
- Snare. What we set up to keep the blessing becomes a form that replaces it, and then takes the worship owed to God.
- House. The snare did not stop with Gideon. It caught his own house, and Israel with it.
And they said, We will willingly give [them]. And they spread a garment, and cast therein every man the earrings of his booty.
Israel has just offered Gideon the crown. He refused it, saying the Lord would rule over them. Then he asks the army for the gold earrings taken from Midian. The people agree at once, and this cheerful, generous moment is where the story of Israel's deliverer turns.
Gideon's refusal of the crown was noble. What he asked for next came from a different place:
The crowd asks Gideon to rule over them. He replies, "I will not rule over you; the Lord will rule over you." How could he take the place of that God who had blessed and honoured him? So far he spoke in the wisdom of the Spirit. But his request for the earrings of his spoil shows a hidden desire to keep the memory of his services alive, even though he had refused the place of power and dignity. What could such a desire produce but a snare, whether in the form of an ephod or anything else?
Greed was not the motive. One writer names what was at work instead:
Gideon did not covet these things as Achan did, when he brought judgment upon Israel. He was noble-hearted and unselfish, and wanted to make good use of the gold... he had thrown down the idols, and in no way sought to set them up again. But he was impressed with a sense of his own importance, and he wanted to put up a memorial of his victory at Ophrah, his home town. This memorial was to be an ephod, something God Himself had appointed. It was part of the clothing that the priest wore when he stood before God for the people. It was a beautiful object, yet in the Lord's eyes it was worthless apart from the high priest who wore it. Sadly, all Israel looked on this ephod as a way to approach God, and went and bowed down before it. Even Gideon and his house fell into the snare.
The men of Israel do not hesitate. They spread out a cloak and pour their plunder into it — and that eager generosity is the trap. One writer weighs it against the earlier quarrel with the men of Ephraim:
Such is man, even the best of men, when left to himself. Here we see the very man who had led his brothers on to victory over Midian now leading them into dark and detestable idolatry. The earrings of the Ishmaelites did what their swords could not do. The gifts of love from the men of Israel proved far more dangerous than the sharp scoldings of the men of Ephraim.
The same admiration that offered him a throne now fills a cloak with gold. Writers note how readily God's people push a servant into a place that belongs to God alone:
They put their leader in the place of Jehovah and offer him the sceptre... The fact that a ministry is blessed tends to make us treat the servant as a "minister" in the human sense, and so lose sight of God.
These fighters wore their wealth because they lived as roaming raiders. The size of the pile of gold shows what Gideon had in mind:
Yet in almost the same breath in which he refuses the kingship, he stretches out his hand to take the priesthood. Nothing less can be meant by what he does with the gifts he now asks of them, the rings of the spoil... As warlike nomads it was natural for them to carry much of their wealth on their persons. The use of all this gold shows plainly that Gideon is making a high priestly ephod.
The wish to make blessing last is one every generation repeats:
Man looks for something to make present blessing permanent. This has always been one form of his perversity. "What guarantee have you that it will last?" he asks. Faith answers, "None whatever, except the presence of the Holy Spirit." If we try to secure it by other means, then like Gideon we make an ephod. We try to make blessing permanent and to secure it for others. Very soon we keep up the form, having lost the power, and we worship that instead of God.
What Israel built at Ophrah has copies still. The problem is not the object itself, but the object kept apart from Christ:
Christendom is no stranger to ephods. It holds many things of God's appointment apart from Christ, and imagines it can approach God by them. When the church, ministry, baptism, the Lord's supper, and even prayer are cut off from their source, they become ephods, and people bow down before them. Form takes the place of God.
- Gift — The people gave willingly; the sin in this scene begins with generosity, not theft.
- Gold — Gideon wanted no throne, only a monument. He turned the gold of Israel's enemies into a priest's garment he had no right to make.
- Grip — Admirers are more dangerous than critics: the earrings did what Midian's swords could not.
- Gap — No form can keep blessing alive. Only the Holy Spirit's presence can, and form without power becomes an idol.
- Guard — Even Gideon and his house fell into the snare he made. A good man's memorial became Israel's idol.
And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was a thousand seven hundred [shekels] of gold; besides the moons, and eardrops, and the purple garments that were on the kings of Midian, and besides the chains that were about their camels' necks.
Gideon has just turned down a crown. This verse weighs what he asked for instead — and the question the commentators press is what a man does with the trophies of a battle he did not win by his own strength.
Why did Gideon ask for the gold at all?
He wanted some monument to mark his victory. These earrings were the spoils of triumph, and everyone acknowledged they came from the Lord.
Gideon melted this gold into an ephod. The object itself was not wrong; what he did with it was.
He had certainly not asked God about this matter. He clearly thought it was a nice religious symbol of God's approval. How deceiving such a thing was! An ephod was the most important article of the high priest's clothing. It was the garment that held the breastplate with its twelve precious stones (Ex. 39:2-21). But Gideon was not a priest. And God never told anyone to set up an ephod on its own. It was made to be worn.
Commentators differ sharply on what was in his heart. Some read the request as a quiet grab at an honour he had just publicly refused.
When they wanted to make Gideon king he refused. But while he refused that honour he tries to grasp another, the priesthood. He gathers the gold to make a priestly ephod and puts it in Ophrah. It became a snare for all Israel as well as for Gideon... The gold was taken from the enemy. It was a self-glorification of the victor Gideon. He and all Israel forgot that the glory belonged to the Lord. Gideon claimed an honour that did not belong to him. The same has been done among Christians: man put in the place of the Lord and His work, and the instruments used in the power of the Spirit of God exalted instead of Him who supplied the instrument.
Others take a gentler view: a local man wanting to honour his home town, whose good intention went wrong.
Gideon took the trinkets with no greedy or ambitious purpose. He acted out of a kind of local patriotism, wanting an ephod for Ophrah, his home town. His aim was no doubt innocent, like that of others who have collected relics for the church, and the result was just as unfortunate. Yet through his long rule he brought no dishonour on his name that would have kept him from a place among the faithful in the letter to the Hebrews.
Refusing the throne did not make Gideon safe. The danger changed shape: it now came from his own people's gifts, not from Midian.
Here we see the very man who had led his brothers on to victory over Midian now leading them into dark and detestable idolatry. The earrings of the Ishmaelites did what their swords could not do. The love-tokens of the men of Israel proved far more dangerous than the sharp scolding of the men of Ephraim.
Behind the request lies an instinct every generation shares: to build something that will keep a good thing going.
Man seeks something to make present blessing permanent. This has always been one way of his perverseness. "What security have you that it will last?" he asks. Faith answers, "None whatever, but the presence of the Holy Spirit." If we try to secure it by other means, then, like Gideon, we make an ephod. We seek to secure the blessing for others, and in a very short time we keep up the form, having lost the power. We worship that instead of God, just as Gideon's ephod had divine honours paid to it... Such arrangements may spring from a feeling of piety, but they show a lack of dependence upon God. We cannot secure the truth of God by arrangements of our own.
It pulled the nation's attention to the wrong town.
A monument goes up which can only add to the ruin. So their Ophrah became a gathering centre, and the ephod became the centre of Ophrah. It displaced the divine sanctuary at Shiloh, the true centre of gathering for Israel. Gideon was not a proud man, but his heart was deceived, and he was no longer upright before God. He had set up a "serpent" that would in the end destroy his family. As soon as he died, Israel went back to outright idolatry and made Baal-berith their god.
- Victory. The gold in this verse is evidence that God, not Gideon, broke Midian — everyone acknowledged these "spoils of triumph" came from Him.
- Souvenir. Gideon wanted the win remembered, and turned the spoil into an ephod: a God-given object put to a use God never gave.
- Snare. What Midian's swords could not do, Midian's earrings did. Gifts from friends proved more dangerous than enemies.
- Substitute. Form outlived power. Ophrah replaced Shiloh, and a memorial became a rival to God Himself.
- Vigilance. No arrangement of ours can keep a blessing alive. Only the presence of the Holy Spirit can, and the truth of God is never secured by plans of our own.