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GIDEON AND THE EPHOD
(Judges 8:22-35)
David A. Denyer

I don’t want to insult anyone’s intelligence by assuming you don’t remember what I’ve said about the book of Judges, but psychologists tell us that we only remember a fraction of what we hear, two-thirds of what we see, and ninety-five percent of what we do. Twice I’ve spoken about Gideon, but there are some additional things to learn about that man from the biblical text. So let me repeat a few introductory ideas then move on.

The Judges governed during Israel’s Settlement Period. With God’s enabling and under Joshua’s direction the Israelites conquered Canaan – probably at the end of the fifteenth or the beginning of the fourteenth century B.C. The country was divided among the twelve tribes and each began to settle in the area God assigned through Joshua. But we’re told in the opening verse of the book of Judges that Joshua died. It’s not surprising because he was elderly; but once he died things began to go downhill! In reading or studying the Bible have you noticed that the book of Judges begins with the statement, “After the death of Joshua?” Interestingly, the writer of the book of Joshua began in a similar way. In Joshua 1:1 we read, “After the death of Moses.” The book of Second Samuel starts with the statement, “After the death of Saul,” and our Second Kings begins “After Ahab’s death.” Those nearly identical openings have led some to suggest the same individual or one school of writers was responsible for editing each of these books.

In light of those statements in four Old Testament historical books (books referred to by Jewish scholars as “Former Prophets”), an appropriate outline for the book of Judges can be made. The book is divisible into three major sections of unequal length: an introduction, the body of the book, and the conclusion. If we divide the book this way, this is what you have:
I. In Those Days There Was No JOSHUA in Israel (1:1 – 3:6) = INTRODUCTION
A. The results of this territorially (1:1 – 2:5)
B. The results of this spiritually (2:6 – 3:6)
II. In Those Days There Were JUDGES in Israel (3:7 – 16:31) = BODY OF THE BOOK
Six of the Judges are referred to as major judges and six are called minor judges.
Their stories are given in the following verses:

A. Othniel (3:7-11)
B. Ehud (3:12-30)
C. Shamgar (3:31)
D. Deborah and Barak (4:1 – 5:31)
E. Gideon (6:1 – 8:35)
F. Abimelech (9:1=57)
G. Two lists of minor judges: Tola & Jair (10:1-5); Ibzan, Elon, Abdon (12:8-15)
H. Jephthah (10:6 – 12:7)
I. Samson (13:1 – 16:31)
III. In Those Days There Was No KING in Israel (17:1 – 21:25) = CONCLUSION
A. The results of this: spiritual and tribal migration (17:1 – 18:31)
B. More results: an all-Israelite civil war (19:1 – 21:25)

Keep that in mind when you study the book of Judges. But I want us to think about what was going on during this period in Israel’s history and focus on what we can learn about Gideon. A few additional introductory thoughts need to be remembered – ideas I’ve said before, but they set the stage for looking at Gideon’s life and exploits. The book of Judges is a tragic illustration of Hegel’s maxim that “what history teaches us is that nobody has ever learned anything from history.” Twelve times we’re told that the Israelites rebelled, and this brought on retribution. Under the pressure of the situations the people repented, and God invariably restored them into fellowship with himself. That situation went on over and over again. It’s no surprise that historians refer to this as Israel’s Dark Ages (so-called because there were so many knights). There were political factors and spiritual factors behind what was going on. Politically the external factor was that the people were permeated and surrounded by hostile forces. Internally, there was disunity among the Israelites themselves. The primary problem, however, was a spiritual one. We’re told about that in 2:8-19, read.

It’s no surprise that when we get to the final five chapters of the book we’re told twice that “Everyone did as he saw fit,” or as it is in the KJV, “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (17:6; 21:25). Four times in those last chapters it says, “In those days Israel had no king” (17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25). In commenting on that situation Daniel Block said, “The Israelites do not need either a governor or a king to lead them into sin, they will do it on their own” (p. 476). The Apostle Paul was right, “We reap what we sow. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction” (Galatians 6:7-8). Those biblical statements could easily be applied to today, don’t you agree?

Another thing we’ve seen is that none of the judges is presented as a saint. They were often corrupt, in many respects weak, and in all kinds of ways reflected the moral degeneracy of their times. The Bible is very candid about that; and it is because in Scripture we have a record of how God took imperfect people and used them in crisis situations. As I’ve said, God regularly uses the insignificant to accomplish the impossible. A summary message of the book of Judges is not what a great individual so and so was, but what a great God we have.
The final introductory thing that I want to say (and have already said) is that THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF LESSONS THE JUDGES TEACH US. On the one hand, they provide lessons of encouragement; we learn that God can and God does use weak and imperfect people. And that’s good news anytime because otherwise he’d never use people like you and me. On the other hand there are lessons of warning. The individuals God uses, sometimes in remarkable and unusual ways, often make appalling blunders. That too is an important lesson; otherwise some of us might go around thinking ourselves infallible.

That brings me back to GIDEON. We’ve already looked at his background. He was from the tribe of Manasseh, he was the son of Joash the Abiezrite, and he was threshing wheat in, of all places, a winepress to keep it from the Midianites and other eastern peoples who for seven consecutive years invaded Canaan as the crops were ready for harvest, destroyed the crops, killed the domesticated animals, and, in a word, made life unbearable for the Israelites. The angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, reassured him of help, and called him to save Israel out of Midian’s hands (6:1-13). In order for that to happen three steps were necessary. First, Gideon had to win a battle at home, second, he had to win a battle over self-doubt, and that set the stage for the third battle, a battle over the enemy – over the Midianites. That’s where I want us to concentrate today.

Having been convinced eventually that it was the Almighty who called him, and having rid the town of the altar to Baal, Gideon was ready to fight the enemy. We’re told in chapter 6 that Gideon traveled to four tribes (Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali), blew a trumpet, and summoned people to join him in the up-coming battle with the Midianites. He was successful in finding 32,000 men who volunteered. But as we find in chapter 7, as Gideon and his army were camped in the Jezreel Valley at the foot of Mount Gilboa where the spring of Harod emptied into the fertile plain, the Lord spoke again to Gideon, informing him that something had to be done. Look at 7:2, “The Lord said to Gideon, ‘You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands.” That’s a key passage because there’s a philosophy about these days that bigger is always better. You find this in Christian circles as well as in the world. Everything has to be bigger if it’s going to be any good: the reports we turn in at the office, our personal budget, our business accomplishments, and even the size of our congregations or classes. But there’s a caution against that kind of attitude here. There is because the trouble with bigness is that it may lull us into a spirit of self-reliance, the exact opposite of what the Christian life is all about!

Let me read on (7:2), “You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her.” How relieved Gideon must have been to see 32,000 men at his disposal. It’s true, that according to chapter 8 verse10 the enemy had 135,000 warriors – four times the number the Israelites had – but it still gave the Israelites a fighting chance, didn’t it?

But that’s precisely what God didn’t want Israel to have. This is the difference between human strategy and divine strategy. We are concerned that our side will win. God, on the other hand, has never had the slightest doubt that He will win. That which matters to God is the moral and spiritual results/consequences of our victories. If our winning is going to mean a lot of self-glorying pride and complacency, God would much rather that we lost – at least in the short term. So the only sort of victory He’s interested in is one that draws us closer to Him and that teaches us to depend upon Him more.

That’s why the Lord said, “Nice army you’ve got there, fella, but unfortunately, with this many men you could probably win without me. And so, if you want my help, get rid of a few.”
“ Get rid of a few?” Poor old Gideon had been blowing his trumpet (his lungs out) up and down the country in order to muster an army. “How many am I going to get rid of?” “Oh, about ninety-nine percent,” God said. “Start by sending home everyone who’s afraid. No, no, not you, Gideon! We sorted that out, remember? You’re staying, but everyone else who’s afraid can go home. They have honorable discharges.” It must have been a bit irksome to Gideon’s pride to see two-thirds of his army depart at that point. It didn’t show much confidence in him as their general, did it? “How many have you got left, Gideon?” “Still 10,000?” “Oh, no, far too even a match. Why that makes the odds only 30 to 1 against you. Far too good for any army of mine,” said the Lord. “We’ll have to have a more rigorous selection procedure. Go and watch how they drink.”

Now you’ve probably heard that this had to do with who were the alert ones. You know, how some lapped with their tongues and how others cupped the water to their mouth. Haven’t you heard that explanation? But if you read the story carefully, it’s not clear that that was the issue. It almost looks as if God chose the ones who weren’t alert, those who buried their noses in the water. The NRSV helps here because it follows an alternative reading for verses 5b-6a that is in one of the major manuscripts of the Septuagint. There, the phrase “with their hands to their mouths” actually appears not in verse 6 but in verse 5. Thus the passage reads,
“ All those who lap the water with their tongues, as dog laps, you shall put to one side; all those who kneel down to drink, putting their hands to their mouths, you shall put to the other side. The number of those that lapped was three hundred; but all the rest of the troops knelt down to drink water.”

Taking that viewpoint, the test is clear and consistent. The alert individuals kneel down and raise the water to their mouths. The others put their faces directly above the water and are therefore less aware of impending dangers. Any knowledgeable military commander would, of course, choose his forces from among the kneelers. By way of contrast, the Lord selects only the lappers! Not only that, but He reduces the number to an insignificant 300 – to the 300 least competent! So Gideon’s 300 commando troops, a single battalion, routed the entire Midianite army. The Israelites could hardly help but recognize that God, and not they themselves, secured the victory.

Note the war cry in verse 20, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon.” That wasn’t Israel’s victory; it was God’s! Gideon wanted every one of those soldiers to realize it. You see, the Lord is pleased to vindicate a company, no matter how small, whose confidence and trust lies in Him. He will not have us boasting that our own strength has won the victory; but He delights to have His people celebrate victories that have been won against all human odds because He has been the Deliverer. That’s what the book of Judges is all about. That’s a lesson of encouragement from the book of Judges.

Of all the Judges it’s Gideon who demonstrates the twin truths of encouragement and warning most transparently. In chapters 6 & 7 we find the lessons of encouragement; in chapter 8 we have a story that’s less ennobling. It provides a warning. Look at 8:22-35. Following the victory over the Midianites verse 22 reports, “The Israelites said to Gideon, ‘Rule over us – you, your son and your grandson – because you have saved us out of the hand of Midian.”

There was nothing unconstitutional about hereditary monarchy in Israel. Moses made provision for it in the Law (Dt. 17:14ff.); but strange to say, in this turbulent period of the Judges it was those who were the most committed to the religion of Moses who were the most suspicious of popular demands for a king. Israel was unique. She had a covenant with Yahweh, and that meant her laws, her victories, her government all came from heaven. The leaders she had, whatever title they wore, had to be God-appointed not man-elected. But it was clear that these Israelites who were offering the crown to Gideon were growing impatient with that particular political philosophy. These were days of international crisis. There were powerful enemies surrounding the people and county. To their way of thinking it was altogether too hit and miss to wait for God to raise-up leaders when He felt like it! As far as they were concerned, the nation needed a permanent commander-in-chief and a reliable means of determining who would succeed him in office. Pagan nations solved the problem by having a dynastic monarchy. Why not Israel too? And who better than Gideon? He had proven himself in battle against the Midianites?

Note that the motivation behind their aspirations was wrong. It was desire for military security that prompted them to act. That attitude reflected a desire to move from the theocratic ideals of the Israelite covenant towards a greater reliance upon human government and human achievement, and to give credit where credit was due. Gideon seems to have detected this and repudiated it for its implicit infidelity to the spirit of the covenant. “Gideon told them, ‘I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you’” (vs. 23).

We’ve already seen that when Gideon set out on his pathway to fame and glory he was timid and reserved. He was not the kind of person you would mark down as a potential hero! And it was this humble and unassuming quality that made him suitable for God’s service. There was no possibility of Gideon’s victory being ascribed to his military genius or leadership charisma. Anything he achieved was the result of God’s Spirit working through him, and on the surface it seems as if Gideon was recognizing his indebtedness to God and maintaining this humble attitude, just as much after the battle as before it – hence this modest and unpretentious refusal to accept the crown of Israel.
But that’s only a surface impression. If only we could stop at the end of verse 23, and if it represented the end of the story then Gideon’s name would have gone down in history untarnished. If only that self-effacing humility with which he began his career had remained characteristic of him to the end, then we could say that he was not only a great soldier but was also a great saint. But it didn’t. GIDEON HAD CHANGED. The shy stripling from the insignificant family in Manasseh had become a national hero. He had become a success, and success had spoiled him!

Look at verse 24, “He said, ‘I do have one request, that each of you give me an earring from your share of the plunder.’” That was a legitimate request; after all, he had won a great battle and surely deserved some financial reward from all that booty, right? Well, perhaps, but there’s something suspicious about people who enrich themselves in an opportunistic manner. There’s something grasping and unattractive about what Gideon decided to do with the money he obtained – a little over forty pounds of gold. Look at verse 27. Gideon took their gifts “and made the gold into an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his town. All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family.”

“Ephod” is the word used by Moses to describe the richly decorated vest the high priest wore when he entered the Tabernacle (Ex. 28:6-8; 35:27; 39:2-30; Lev. 8:8; 1 Sam. 14:3; 23:9-12; 28:6; 30:7-8; Ezra 2:63). There was a pocket or fold in the breastplate that contained the Urim and Thummim, objects sometimes used to discover God’s will on particular matters (see Num. 27:21). Many readers/scholars argue that Gideon’s ephod was a replica of that part of the high priest’s liturgical garb, and Gideon had previously had trouble with guidance; but my opinion is that what Gideon made was not an ecclesiastical vestment. It was a solid gold object of some kind. It’s probably called an “ephod” because, like the priest’s garment, it was thought to be a means of divination. It gave a “Yes” or “No” answer when questions were put to it in some way. So Gideon evidently regarded the ephod as a good investment – not a vestment!

Ironically, however, the only guidance this object gave Gideon and his compatriots turned out to be disastrous. It was, because it led the people straight back into idolatry – the idolatry that at the beginning of Gideon’s career he had stood so firmly against. Earlier he had destroyed the altar of Ba‘al located at Ophrah, and subsequently built an altar to the Lord in its place (6:25-27). Furthermore, Gideon offered a sacrifice to the Lord there and successfully sought a word from the Lord before going into battle (6:36-40). In other words, Gideon performed priestly functions; now he seemingly consecrated himself as a priest. While turning down the offer of kingship, he created, knowingly or not, a new religion instead. Gideon had come full circle. He began his ministry in Ophrah by destroying the altar of Ba‘al and the associated Asherah pole. By the end of his life (ministry) Ophrah had a golden ephod to take their place.

Some commentators are disposed to be charitable towards Gideon over this blunder with the ephod. They say, “It was a well-meant gesture that turned out badly. Gideon couldn’t have intended to create an idolatrous cult. As far as he was concerned the ephod was a monument to the glory of Yahweh.” “It was,” they argue, “just the pagan inclinations of the people that turned it into an object of worship, just as had happened with the brass serpent Moses made when the people were in the wilderness (Num. 21:4-9; 2 Kgs. 18:4; Jn. 3:14-15).”

Other commentators are more cynical. “No,” they say, “Gideon was not the angel Sunday School teachers paint him as being. This display of refusing the kingship was just diplomatic rhetoric. It was political expediency rather than theological conscience that made Gideon say, ‘No’ to the crown.” “The truth is,” these writers suggest, “he was determined to establish his family at the center of power in the country, and this ephod was a clever move in that direction.”

By setting it up in Ophrah, his town – and the author emphasizes that (vs. 27) – he turned Ophrah into the site of a shrine; it was the center of a cult that would act as a focus for political allegiance within the nation. Gideon’s hometown was made into a capital city, much like Jerusalem would be when David brought the Ark of the Covenant there, thus making it the focus of allegiance for all the tribes. They say that Gideon was after some such goal, and all this pretension about not wanting the kingship was only that, PRETENSE.

I suspect that the truth is somewhere between those points of view. The sacred historian doesn’t seem to suggest that there was anything insincere in Gideon’s abdication of the monarchy, but, on the other hand, he unreservedly implicates Gideon in the ephod cult. “It was a snare to Gideon,” he says (vs. 27). An ephod was the prerogative of a God-appointed leader, not a man-manipulated person.

What’s more, the writer goes on to record other suspicious elements in the closing description of Gideon’s life. For example, he mentions in verse 30 that “he had many wives,” and verse 31 refers to “a concubine.” In those days a harem was a rich man’s prerogative or the privilege of a king. This kind of suggests that Gideon did, in fact, occupy a kingly office whether or not he was anointed for the position/job. What’s more, if you look ahead to chapter 9, verse 2 you read about his seventy sons, and they’re mentioned as ruling over part of Israel’s territory. Also, he had two names (8:29), something common in monarchies. Furthermore, Zebah and Zalmunnah, the Midianite kings Gideon pursued, said, “he had the bearing of a king” (8:18). Added to that, what about the name Gideon gave to one of his sons, Abimelech? In Hebrew that means, “My father is king.”

For all the world then, it looks as though some kind of dynastic succession had taken place, with or without a coronation. As nice as it would be to pass over the latter years of Gideon’s life, there’s no getting away from it. Gideon had changed. Not perhaps as much as some have suggested, but nevertheless, the self-effacing, humble young farmer from Manasseh had bigger ideas now. SUCCESS HAD GONE TO HIS HEAD.

Success had spoiled him, and the result was, as is so often the case in the book of Judges, Gideon left Israel no better than when he found her. She was corrupted with idolatry and wide open to internal strife, the seeds of which his success had sown.

Well, there’s a lesson in that for all of us – a lesson for those of us who think we’ve made it – a lesson for those who, to quote Disraeli, “have climbed to the top of the greasy pole.” The lesson is, beware of the the temptations of success. It’s a reminder that it’s one thing to start well, but quite another to end well (see Mt. 10:22; 24:13). It’s not how you start; it’s how you finish! [This can be illustrated by the story of Dan Jansen, the Olympic speed skater. He entered four Olympics and won one medal].

Golden ephods are strewn all around us today, inviting our investment – obelisks to human achievement! But all too subtly they turn into objects of human devotion. Of course, we don’t call them “ephods” today; we call them “status symbols.”

Don’t misunderstand. It may be God’s will for you to be a success. There are things God can do with those who are successful, but be sure of this: It will be a hundred times more difficult for you to maintain the spirituality of your life at the top of the tree than at the bottom!

Beware, lest like Gideon the acquisition of money or position or prestige prove too much for you. In the biblical book of Proverbs it says, “Pride comes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Prov. 16:18). History does have something to teach us. The question is, WILL WE LEARN?

+ + + + + +

It’s outside this study, but if we were going on to look at the next character mentioned in the book of Judges we could say in summary, in connection with Abimelech, Gideon’s son, he was a king but a non-judge; on the other hand, Gideon was a judge but a non-king.

OUTLINE OF THE BOOK OF JUDGES
David A. Denyer

I. In Those Days There Was No JOSHUA In Israel (1:1 – 3:6)

A. The results of this territorially (1:1 – 2:5)

B. The results of this spiritually (2:6 – 3:6)

II. In Those Days There Were JUDGES In Israel (3:7 – 16:31)

A. Othniel (3:7-11)

B. Ehud (3:12-30)

C. Shamgar (3:31)

D. Deborah and Barak (4:1 – 5:31)

E. Gideon (6:1 – 8:35)

F. Abimelech (9:1-57)

G. Two Lists of Minor Judges (10:1-5; 12:8-15)

H. Jephthah (10:6 – 12:7)

I. Samson (13:1 – 16:31)

III. In Those Days There Was No KING In Israel (17:1 – 21:25)

A. The results: spiritual and tribal migration (17:1 – 18:31)

B. The results: an all-Israelite civil war (19:1 –21:25)
A man and his wife were having an argument about who should brew the coffee each morning.

The wife said, “You should do it because you get up first, and then we don’t have to wait as long to get our coffee.”

The husband said, “You’re in charge of the cooking around here and you should do it because that’s your job; I can just wait for my coffee.”

The wife replied, “No, you should do it, and besides it’s in the Bible that the man should make the coffee.”

The husband said, “I don’t believe that it’s in the Bible, show me.”

She fetched a Bible, opened the New Testament and showed him at the top of several pages that it says, “HE-BREWS.”

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