Who was Gideon in the Bible?

Son of Joash, of the tribe of Manasseh, one of the judges of Israel. An angel of the Lord appeared to him while he was threshing wheat to hide it from the Midianites, and said, "The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour." Thus addressed, the true though weak faith that was in Gideon was manifested, and he said to the Lord, "If the Lord be with us, why is all this befallen us? And where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of ?" Jehovah added, "Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?" Gideon pleaded that his family was poor, and that he was the least in his father's house. He was further encouraged. The first thing he was bid to do was to throw down the altar of Baal, and erect an altar to Jehovah, and offer an offering thereon. Gideon obeyed, but he did it by night, for he feared to do it by day. The men of the city desired his death, but his father protected him, saying, Let Baal plead for himself, and symbolically named Gideon JERUBBAAL, 'Let Baal plead.' In 2 Sam. 11:21 it is JERUBBESHETH, 'Let the shameful thing plead,' meaning the same, without mentioning the name of Baal: cf. Jer. 11:13; Hosea 9:10.

Obedience led to strength: the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he blew a trumpet, and sent messengers to the tribes of Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali. But his small though true faith wanted a sign from God that He would save Israel by him. God graciously responded by the moisture and then by the dryness of the fleece of wool. God declared that Gideon's followers were too many: they would take the glory to themselves, and say, "mine own hand hath saved me." So he bade all that were fearful and afraid to return, and more than two-thirds went back, leaving but 10,000: proving that the mass of the people were unfit to fight the battles of the Lord. Still the people were too many, and they are tested at the water: those that fell on their knees to drink were sent away, and only three hundred men remained, those who had lapped a little water from the hand, as satisfied with a hasty refreshment.

God then told Gideon to go down to the host, for He had delivered it into his hand; but if he was afraid, he could first go with his servant and hear what the enemy said. He was still faint-hearted and therefore went to listen, and there he heard himself compared to 'a cake of barley bread,' but that God would deliver Midian into his hand. Gideon at once arranged his men into three companies, each man having a trumpet, and a lamp inside a pitcher. When they reached the camp, the trumpets were blown, and the pitchers broken. The Midianites were dismayed and some of them in the confusion and terror killed one another, and the others fled, pursued by the tribes before named, and by Ephraim. Ephraim proudly found fault with Gideon for not calling them to the battle at first; but a modest answer appeased their wrath. The conquest was complete, and the men of Succoth and Penuel were punished for not aiding Gideon with bread when he was faint.

Israel desired Gideon to rule over them, but he refused, saying, "The Lord shall rule over you." He requested of the army the golden earrings taken from the enemy. With these he made an ephod, and placed it in his city, and all Israel went in idolatry after it, and it became a snare to Gideon and his house. Alas, the man of faith, who had thrown down the altar of Baal, was now led astray with a golden ephod! A memorial of God's intervention is not present faith in the God who has intervened. The time of victory is a time of peculiar danger, when many being off their guard have fallen. During the life-time of Gideon Israel dwelt in peace during forty years, but at his decease the people turned to idols and were ungrateful to the house of Gideon. Judges 6:11 — Judges 8:35. He is called GEDEON in Heb. 11:32, where his faith is spoken of.

But the scene shifts. It is the days of the judges. Israel have gone into open idolatry, and are bowing down to the gods of the uncircumcised. And the Lord whom they have provoked has sold them into the hands of the uncircumcised. Repenting Himself because of their groanings, by reason of the oppressor, He has once and again raised up for them "saviours." Yet "it came to pass, when the Judge was dead, that they returned and corrupted themselves worse than their fathers." Just now they are greatly impoverished, the hand of Midian prevails against Israel, and the Midianites, as grasshoppers for multitude, spread themselves over the land, and eat it up. Israel have betaken themselves to mountains, and to dens, and to eaves. The highways are unoccupied; travellers walk through bye-ways. The harvest is reaped by others. The increase of the earth is destroyed, and there is no sustenance left to Israel; neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass. Mark that man of Manasseh threshing wheat under an oak in secret, to hide it from the Midianites. An angel approaches him, and salutes him thus: 'The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour, … go deliver Israel, thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.' And now, through faith, the trembler is made strong, and after having first purged out idolatry from his home, is led forth to put to flight the armies of the aliens. It is the arm of the Lord's strength that has awaked for His people; and again, as in ancient days, when it broke Rahab (Egypt), it triumphs gloriously. Israel is delivered with a great deliverance. Yet they discern not aright the lighting down of that arm; but as their fathers did, so do they; the instrument fills their eye, and they importune him - 'Rule thou over us, thou and thy son, and thy son's son also; for thou hast delivered us from the hands of Midian!' But Gideon cannot allow this; he sets them in their proper relation to the Lord: neither will he rule over them, nor his son, that belongs to the Lord. But then, alas! we have to take the eye off the exploits and the self-denial of faith, to see him immediately afterwards preparing a stumbling-block for this very people. He may have reasoned with himself that there could be nothing wrong in commemorating the victory just gained; this were not to usurp the Lord's place, but, on the contrary, a fitting acknowledgment that His servant has been valiant in fight for Israel. He asks for the golden earrings of the prey, makes of them an ephod, and puts it in his city; "which thing became a snare to Gideon and to his house;" moreover "all Israel went thither a whoring after it."

The Spirit of God has drawn our attention in the O.T. Scriptures to several men who are undoubted foreshadows of the coming man of sin; among these Abimelech the son of Gideon occupies a solemn place. He was of a stamp very different from his father, for Gideon was a man of faith and holds an honourable place in God's list as given in Heb. 11. He had God's glory before him as his object; and loved the people of Jehovah, and groaned over their low estate. He was, therefore, a fitting instrument for God to use, and He used him mightily to the utter discomfiture of Midian, so that they lifted up their heads no more. And the country was in quietness forty years in the days of Gideon (Judges 8:28).

Still, the mark of true living faith is seen in Gideon, though he is yet unable to take in the full meaning of the words, "The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour." How true it is that God sees not as man sees! for Gideon was threshing wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites. Gideon had the positive command to throw down the altar of Baal, and notwithstanding the promise that Jehovah would be with him, he did it by night, through fear of his father's household and the men of the city. His faith in God was too weak to overcome his fear of man, yet God said, "Thou mighty man of valour." God gave him that title in view of what He would make him, not according to present appearances. But it is his faith we would consider, how suited in its actings in him to the circumstances of the times. His first act shows the genuineness of it; he confesses sin and departure from God; they were lying under judgment because they had done evil. Thus faith is ever accompanied by self-judgment. God's answer to it is simply wonderful — "Go in this thy might." His might was in humbly bowing to the righteous dealing of God. Naturally he was a timid man, loath to trust the word of God without some special sign for the moment. How the great and pitying condescension of God meets him at every point, answering every expression of diffidence without upbraiding! "Let the fleece be wet, and the ground dry;" and again, "Let the fleece be dry, and the ground wet." And God answers according to his prayer. If faith in Joshua brought out the magnificent power of God, no less did faith's weakness in Gideon manifest the rich grace of God. At the head of his thousands he now goes forth against the Midianites. But God will assert Himself, and will give victory in His own way, a way that shall preclude Israel from boasting. Only three hundred men are permitted to go. This reduction of his army seems to have reawakened Gideon's fears. God's grace and pity meet him again, and send him to the enemy, to get, as it were, from their lips the assurance of victory he hesitated to receive from God's word; and if he is afraid to go alone, to take Phurah, his servant, with him. And God deigned to confirm His word by the dream of a Midianitish soldier. Surely, after so many previous proofs from God of His will, it was not to Gideon's praise to fear at the last moment. But how grace shines all through this narrative! And Gideon's faith rises and responds to this last appeal God made to it. The little band of three hundred shout, and the enemy is terrified. Panic-struck, they slay each other, and fly. So truly it was God that saved Israel — it was His power and terror that routed the enemy, not Israel that conquered Midian; they were a routed rabble when Gideon's sword overtook them.

He is cautious to the verge of timidity until God has given him the three signs to confirm his faith; but, once assured that God is with them, he does not hesitate. "Erst wägen, dann wägen": only a comma between, to take breath. He is swift, strong and thorough in action; he breaks down the altars of Baal, defeats and scatters the countless hosts of the Midianites with great slaughter, follows them to Jordan "faint yet pursuing," and captures and slays their rulers. The army he had collected is reduced from 32,000 to 300 men. It must have been deeply discouraging to see 22,000 of them walk off in avowed hopelessness and fear; but even the bulk of the 10,000 remaining, who must have been thorough heroes to have stood their ground in such general desertion, had to be set aside by a test which disclosed from amongst them 300 men too proud and too brave to lose their habitual self-command even at a time of such excitement and danger. These men stood erect and temperately allayed their fierce thirst by lapping a little water from their hands, whilst the others threw themselves down and with excusable abandonment plunged their faces into the stream. With those 300 valiant and devoted men Gideon did a more extraordinary work even than Leonidas with his 300 at Thermopylae. But the victory itself is of course no especial credit to Gideon: it is the Lord's doing and marvellous in our eyes. The strategy, however, of the sudden crashing of the breaking pitchers, the sudden blaze of 300 lights, and the sudden blare of 300 trumpets was Gideon's devising; and very astute and well-designed it was.

Gideon sought to perpetuate the blessing that had been vouchsafed to Israel by setting up an outward sign of it. The snare in this was that the true secret of the deliverance was lost sight of, and the outward thing valued. His history bears witness to the goodness and sovereign compassion of God towards His people who were constantly dishonouring Him and bringing chastening on themselves. Gideon was God's choice, for the time, to deliver His people and his moral fitness shines out in his replies to the angel. Two things mark him as suitable for God's work:-

From the sixth chapter of Judges we learn that, following the evil which Israel did in the sight of the Lord, He delivered them into the hands of the Midianites seven years, and the Midianites reaped what Israel had sowed, so that Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; they cried unto the Lord because of them.

In reply to their cry to Him, God sent a prophet to tell them that they were suffering because they had not obeyed His voice. At the same time He raised up Gideon to deliver them out of the hand of the Midianites and the land was recovered and the foe expelled; "the country was in quietness forty years in the days of Gideon." Alas, Gideon failed, in that he set up in Ophrah an ephod as a memento of the victory which the Lord had given him for Israel. This became a snare unto Gideon and his house and turned the people's heart to it and not to the Lord. Anything in the nature of a memento, set up on earth, to the Lord's victory is not of Him; He abides, the eternal witness to Himself and all that He has done!

Gideon's successor, Abimelech, is characterised by ambition which leads to the constitution of a central authority on earth with the determination to get rid of all that stands in the way, as seen in the most ruthless means taken to cut off the seventy sons of Gideon, all of whom were destroyed except the youngest, Jotham, who was not there, having hidden himself.

During the time of the judges, because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord, He 'delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years;' but when, being greatly oppressed, they cried unto the Lord, He raised up Gideon and there was a great slaughter of the Midianites, 'so that they lifted up their heads no more' against Israel. Nothing is recorded of them during the time of the kingdom. Num. 10:29; Judges 6 — Judges 8; 1 Kings 11:18; Ps. 83:9-11; Isa. 9:4; Isa. 10:26; Isa. 60:6; Hab. 3:7. Midian is called MADIAN in Acts 7:29.

In Judges 6, "Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress" (v.11 N.T.). It is obvious the winepress was empty; Midian (which means "strife") had impoverished the people of God, both as to their homes and as to their produce (vv. 2, 4), "Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites," v.8. Nevertheless Gideon, whose name means "a great warrior" (an overcomer), seeks to preserve the wheat from the enemy. His history, both in private and in public, is full of deep lessons. His desires are truly to see his brethren established in relationship with their God; thus in Judges 6:13 after the Angel of the Lord had said, "The LORD is with thee," he replied "Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?" The exercises of the threshing floor are in evidence; self-importance, self-confidence, self-seeking, have gone; his faith in what God has done and can do is apparent. His "might" (v.14) is not connected with what he is in himself, but in his faith in God, and in his obedience to God's command. The element of strife is near to us, dear brethren; Midian was a son of Abraham. Paul has to speak of it in relation to the Corinthians; how often it has weakened and impoverished the saints of God, and emptied the wine-press of joy. The facing of the matter in the threshing-floor would develop features of true strength, available for the practical salvation of the saints, and would then actuate us to refuse any place of prominence, desiring only that "the LORD shall rule over you" (Judges 8:23).