Gideon's slide

S: Judges 6-8

O: Judges 6 shows Gideon as a fearful young man. The Angel of Yahweh called him, “Mighty warrior!” and I could imagine him looking behind him to see who the angel might be referring to, with a “Who me?” surprised response.

He was so afraid that he cut down the Asherah pole at night to avoid being detected. They figured out it was him anyway, but somehow his dad had the presence of mind to deflect the anger of the crowd.

Then there was the famous “laying out the fleece” incidents before he was willing to obey God to go against the Midianite invaders.

But then the amazing victory came in Judges 7, with only 300 warriors, he routed the far more numerous enemy. Gideon now starts to become bold.

Up till this point, Gideon relies on God every step of the way, but by Judges 8, he’s confident – and perhaps, over-confident – of his own abilities. What he says when he kills Zebah and Zalmunna shows that, instead of doing it for the sake of Israel and Yahweh, he is now doing it to exact revenge on them for killing his brothers.

Then he went and exacted revenge on the men of Sukkoth and Peniel. While Sukkoth and Peniel were wrong for their cowardice in not giving Gideon and his men provisions before they beat Zebah and Zalmunna, Gideon’s over-the-top vengeance by killing them and destroying their defences (the tower of Peniel) shows him going overboard.

Gideon has a bright point at 8:22-23 when he refuses to become king, saying “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. Yahweh will rule over you.” But after that, he resumes his slide, by taking gold tribute then making a gold ephod that ended up becoming an idol. The ephod was a garment meant for the priesthood God set up. By making this gold ephod, then people started worshipping that instead of Yahweh.

A: Gideon started out correctly, a true judge truly chosen by Yahweh, commissioned by the Angel of Yahweh. But we can never idolise a person God truly chose and truly used. They are still human. They can still fall.

So while it is good to honour people God had used greatly, we must not accept everything they do blindly. A recent example is Ravi Zecharias. He was a great apologist, but he ended up molesting several women. It doesn’t mean that God didn’t truly use him earlier, but we still have to be aware and test.

That’s one of the major reasons why the Catholic Church waits till someone has passed away, and often for many years, before they start the process canonisation – i.e. the process of investigating a person’s life under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to see if the person is really saved – i.e. a saint. Even for someone “obvious” like Mother Teresa, it took them 19 years – which is actually one of the shortest in modern times. And, while there is no evidence she had any bad intentions, she did make mistakes in the choices she made regarding how to care for the people under her charge.

God really did commission and empower Gideon, but he still made serious mistakes. Mother Teresa lived a life of genuine compassion and sacrifice, but she still had limitations and theological blind spots. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God – even genuine saints.

P: Father, in my flawed way, I follow You. Help me never to idolise any human great person, but honour how they have done Your will, while being aware they could be wrong in other ways. Help me to recognise when I’m wrong and repent. In Jesus’ name, amen.