Judges 8:18-9:57
Gideon’s brethren had been slain in this battle with the Midianites, and because of this Gideon slew the two kings of the Midianites. He said, however, that he would have spared these kings if they had not killed his brothers at Tabor, and this, it appears, was the beginning of Gideon’s decline. He thought first of his own family, instead of what was due to the Lord. His heart was divided. Perhaps there is no time when we are in greater danger than after a victory, for self is so liable to come in in some form. Oh how we need self-judgment at such times!
The men of Israel asked Gideon, his son, and his son’s son, to be ruler over them, but Gideon refused, saying that the Lord must be their ruler. This was fine, as far as it went, but self soon asserted itself. Gideon requested that they would give him the golden earrings they had taken from the Ishmaelites, and from these he made an ephod which he placed in his house. This soon became a snare to him and to his household. It is always a bad thing to live on past victories, or to attract attention to ourselves or to our families as to any way in which the Lord may have used us. Gideon’s departure began by putting his family before the Lord, and we can see where it led to in the end.
Nevertheless the Lord used Gideon as a deliverer for His people and gave them quietness for forty years until Gideon’s death. After Gideon’s death, however, the children of Israel turned back to the worship of Baalim, and forgot all the Lord had done for them through Gideon. His son Abimelech, the son of a, bondmaid, was the cause of much shame and sorrow after Gideon’s death.
Abimelech went to the men of Shechem and asked them if they would like all Gideon’s sons, or just one of them (himself) to reign over them. He therefore killed all of Gideon’s sons (and there were seventy of them), except one who escaped, and then he reigned over Shechem. Jotham, the one son who escaped, then came and stood on the top of mount Gerizim. This was the mountain where the blessings had been announced for obedience, when the children of Israel entered the land of Canaan. He called to the men of Shechem and spoke of the evil they had committed in choosing a king to reign over them, and how they would surely suffer for their sin and for their ingratitude to Gideon. We ought to learn from this that we should remember kindnesses that have been shown to us. It is surprising how even Christians will entirely forget kindness that has been shown to them, even turning against the ones who were so good to them in their need. This is evil indeed, and there is sure to be reaping in such things. Gideon was not perfect, nor his family, nor has any servant of God ever been without failure, but this does not excuse us for being forgetful of how God has used them.
Abimelech, however, seemed to prosper for a time. Even when God raised up an adversary against him, Abimelech succeeded in overcoming him. But at last the government of God overtook him, and a woman dropped a stone out of the tower of Thebez upon him and he died. How foolish to think we can escape the government of God, for we most surely cannot, even though we may seem to for a long time.
ML 10/18/1953