Forgetting How You Got Here
Today we continue our series through the book of Judges called Broken Saviors. We’ve been observing that we all call out for saviors, but most if not all turn out to be at best temporary or at worst highly flawed and even destructive. This week we will see that latter in full effect. We are finishing off a 3 week look at Gideon by studying Judges 8-9. We’ve looked at Gideon’s calling, his requested signs from God, and his miraculous victory with 300 hundred men and some stuff from the hardware store. Today, we’ll look at a story of Gideon that doesn’t often make the Sunday school or kids ministry. We could rightfully Title this message Gideon 3: He’s Bad Now but I will call it Forgetting How You Got Here.
This text brings to mind the idiom “getting out over your skis” or the fun southern alternative of “getting too big for your britches.” Both refer to someone forgetting their own limitations and acting in a way that is now overambitious or inappropriate. When we do this in our relationship with God, when we forget that it is the Lord who sustains us and is worthy of praise, and start to look at ourselves instead, it leads to our big idea for today’s message.
Big Idea: When we seek our own glory, we invite disaster.
Context: As we’ve been going through Judges, we’ve seen this repeated cycle of Israel turning away from the Lord in order to worship other gods. Things start to go haywire as the nation sinks into depravity. The Lord then sends a foreign invader to oppress and punish the people and cause them to turn back to Him for help. He then calls a leader to serve as judge over Israel and defeat the invading peoples. Then Israel enjoys some peace before they start backsliding again.
Now the Judges we’ve covered so far like Ehud and Deborah went about their business of saving Israel then they went back home and Scripture gives us maybe 2 sentences about how long Israel was at peace after their service. Very similar to the concept of a dictator during the Roman republic. In times of need Rome would cede power away from the Senate, people, and consuls and give it all to one man as dictator. He was then, in the spirit of the republic, called to yield back the power. You can imagine this being a risky proposition. The ideal Roman dictator was a guy called Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus. History tells us that Cincinnatus was plowing his fields when Rome called him to be dictator. He stepped out from behind the plow, fought Rome’s enemies for 2 weeks, then went right back to finish plowing his fields.
Today we will see what it looks like when the person that you give ultimate power isn’t so generous in giving back that power after he has dealt with the initial problem. Instead of getting a nice 1-2 verse summary like other Judges, Gideon is gonna get 2 whole chapters, and not for good reasons.
Gideon and his 300 selected men have miraculously routed the Midianites and caused them to flee. And now the other tribes of Israel are joining in to finish off the fleeing invaders.
Sermon Body
Now since we are covering a lot of Scripture this week, I will only be reading small amounts of it and summarizing the rest. First things first, we are going to look at a couple of positive moments for Gideon. Instances where it looks like he is going to lead in a godly way and then fade into obscurity like the other judges, then we will take a look at the ways that this unravels.
8 The men of Ephraim said to him, “Why have you done this to us, not calling us when you went to fight against the Midianites?” And they argued with him violently.
2 So he said to them, “What have I done now compared to you? Is not the gleaning of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abiezer? 3 God handed over to you Oreb and Zeeb, the two princes of Midian. What was I able to do compared to you?” When he said this, their anger against him subsided.
Here we see some diplomacy and deference from Gideon. Ephraim, one of the strongest tribes in Israel, is mad that they didn’t get the honor of being a part of Gideon’s initial army. We saw honor as a temptation in the Deborah story when she told Barak that he would not receive honor for a victory in favor of a woman. He was ok with that, but it seems like the Ephraimites are not.
But Gideon gives a gentle answer to avoid strife. He tells them that they are a far greater tribe than his own and that they have even accomplished more than he has because they have captured two Midianite princes. A good humble episode for Gideon here. Let’s another positive moment from him in 8:22.
22 Then the Israelites said to Gideon, “Rule over us, you as well as your sons and your grandsons, for you delivered us from the power of Midian.”
23 But Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the Lord will rule over you.”
After the victory, the people come and want to make Gideon King over all Israel and start the Gideon family dynasty. They want to make this arrangement permanent. But look at how Gideon answers. Neither I nor my sons will rule over you; the Lord will rule over you. Good job Gideon, it looks like you understand the assignment. But those are Gideon’s words. Let’s take a look at some of Gideon’s other actions that don’t quite line up with the sentiment.
After the meeting with the tribe of Ephraim, Gideon and his 300 are pursuing the kings of Midian names Zebah and Zalmunna. They come upon two towns called Succoth and Penuel and Gideon asks them to give him and his men supplies, since they have been on campaign chasing the Midianites around Isreal. Both towns respond the way we see in 8:6
6 But the princes of Succoth asked, “Are Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hands that we should give bread to your army?”
So, both say no, because they are willing to help Gideon until the victory is fully secured. Practically this is because they don’t want the kings to come back and punish them for helping Gideon in case he fails. So, this is both a lack of homage to Gideon and a lack of belief in his cause. Now let’s see how Gideon responds to this slight.
7 Gideon replied, “Very well, when the Lord has handed Zebah and Zalmunna over to me, I will tear your flesh with thorns and briers from the wilderness!”
9 He also told the men of Penuel, “When I return safely, I will tear down this tower!”
So much for diplomatic Gideon. He jumps straight to threats, and we see later in the chapter that he lives up to these threats. When he does eventually capture the kings, he comes back to Succoth and Penuel. He kidnaps a kid from Succoth and forces him to tell him the name of 77 leaders and elders of the city before having them dragged through thorns and briars as a punishment. He goes even more extreme with Penuel where 8:17 tells us that he tore down their tower and killed the men of the city. Gideon is starting to act a lot more like the godless oppressor than the godly liberator.
He demonstrates this self-seeking nature at least 2 more times in chapter 8. He ends up killing the kings of Midian not because God tells him to bring them to justice, but out of personal vengeance for them killing his brothers. And even worse, in 8:25-27 when the people call for him to be king, after initially rejecting them, he asks that all of them hand over their gold jewelry (reminds us of the Golden calf at Mt. Sinai) to melt down into a golden Ephod. This is the garment that only the High priest was permitted to wear in Israel. But Gideon has the people make a golden version for him to take back to his home (making himself both Priest and King) where the text tells us that Israel begins to worship it like an idol.
This illustrates a clear truth about what happens when we do things outside of God’s will, even if we started by obeying God.
1st Sign that you are off track
Your actions will reveal who you want on the throne
We saw multiple examples of Gideon saying the right things about not being king or seeing himself as a humble leader. But his actions truly reveal his character. He knows it isn’t right for him to claim to be king, but he darn sure wants to be treated like one.
The takeaway for you and I is that we are no different. We don’t see it on a national scale like Gideon, but we often say one thing about how we follow God in our lives but live and act out our lives in very different ways.
We say that our highest priority is to follow God, but we get real defensive and come out swinging any time someone points out an area of sin in our life or calls us out to evaluate our priorities. (financially, how we use our time, how we raise our kids)
We say that we trust God with all our hearts but at the first sign of trouble we come apart at the seams and doubt God’s goodness or even existence.
Gideon’s life illustrates this so clearly. Remember that he went through the mind-blowing process of seeing God remove over 30 thousand men from his army and leave him with torches, horns, and pottery, so that he wouldn’t think that he deserved glory for the victory. And yet here we see him acting out the role of King and high priest for Israel.
You and I must continually keep an inventory of our lives to guard against this temptation. Do your actions line up with your stated beliefs and intentions? We have to be especially careful when life gets to the extremes of success or difficulties that’s when our actions truly reveal our hearts most clearly.
Now let’s take a look at what happened after Gideon’s time as judge came to an end.
30 Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring, since he had many wives. 31 His concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech. 32 Then Gideon son of Joash died at a good old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
33 When Gideon died, the Israelites turned and prostituted themselves by worshiping the Baals and made Baal-berith their god. 34 The Israelites did not remember the Lord their God who had rescued them from the hand of the enemies around them. 35 They did not show kindness to the house of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) for all the good he had done for Israel.
Quick note on polygamy in the Bible: it is presented but never encouraged, pretty much every biblical story that mentions polygamy shows the negative outcomes that come from it. This is no different. Gideon has 70 sons from his wives and likely an unknown number from concubines including Abimelech mentioned here.
Once Gideon dies, Israel goes right back to the worship of Baal that got them into this trouble. Gideon got the name Jerubbaal (Baal fighter) but that name doesn’t survive his life.
2nd Sign that you are off track
The next generation suffers the consequences of your sin
This can obviously mean your own children like the case of Gideon. It follows the truth taught in Judges 2 that if one generation is lax in their belief of God, the next generation can grow up to not know him at all. But this can also apply to the idea of leaving any kind of spiritual legacy.
When we live for ourselves, our focus narrows to only what benefits us in our short lives, and we don’t think about the long-term effects on future generations. The future doesn’t really matter, because we will be gone. So, we are far less inclined to sacrifice or do the hard work of making disciples with the limited time that we have. We sacrifice living for the eternal God (which calls for continual and generational growth) in favor of temporal things that fail to last and satisfy.
Abimelech gets mentioned here, now let’s see what he gets up to.
9 Abimelech son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem and spoke to his uncles and to his mother’s whole clan, saying, 2 “Please speak in the hearing of all the citizens of Shechem, ‘Is it better for you that seventy men, all the sons of Jerubbaal, rule over you or that one man rule over you?’ Remember that I am your own flesh and blood.”
3 His mother’s relatives spoke all these words about him in the hearing of all the citizens of Shechem, and they were favorable to Abimelech, for they said, “He is our brother.” 4 So they gave him seventy pieces of silver from the temple of Baal-berith. Abimelech used it to hire worthless and reckless men, and they followed him.
Abimelech (whose name literally means “my father is King”) gets up to some shenanigans here. Notice the assumption here is that Gideon’s family is ruling despite what Gideon said. And also notice where he gets the funds to hire the worthless and reckless men. It’s from the temple of Baal in town. How the mighty have fallen. Abimelech and his hired goons then proceed to go Game of Thrones on Abimelech’s half-brothers. The next verses tell us that he goes up to Ophrah kills his 70 brothers together on top of a large stone. He then goes back to Shechem and has the people recognize him as King.
Fortunately, Gideon’s youngest son Jotham hides and survives this massacre and makes a proclamation about what Abimelech and the people of Shechem have done.
7 When they told Jotham, he climbed to the top of Mount Gerizim, raised his voice, and called to them:
Listen to me, citizens of Shechem,
and may God listen to you:
8 The trees decided
to anoint a king over themselves.
They said to the olive tree, “Reign over us.”
9 But the olive tree said to them,
“Should I stop giving my oil
that people use to honor both God and men,
and rule over the trees?”
He repeats this point with the fig tree and the grapevine both also rejecting kingship. Jotham is saying that there have been far more noble rulers over Israel that have rejected being named King like Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Ehud, and Deborah. But that Shechem has chosen Abimelech as King anyway. Here’s what he compares Abimelech to.
Finally, all the trees said to the bramble,
“Come and reign over us.”
15 The bramble said to the trees,
“If you really are anointing me
as king over you,
come and find refuge in my shade.
But if not,
may fire come out from the bramble
and consume the cedars of Lebanon.”
He calls him a lowly thornbush in comparison to the valuable trees mentioned earlier. He says that if this was right in the eyes of God (knowing it wasn’t), then it will work out. But if it was the sinful thing to do, it will be disastrous for all parties.
Thus begins a tumultuous 3 year reign for Abimelech full of infighting and backstabbing as the people of Shechem begin to regret helping him in his massacre of his brothers and taking power. This culminates when another guy named Gaal son of Ebed shows up and convinces the people that he is a more worthy king than Abimelech starting a civil war of sorts.
And of course this ends in tragedy for Abimelech and thousands of others. In his civil war, he ends up completely destroying his hometown of Shechem, killing thousands of men and women, and salting the earth so that nothing would grow there again. The man-centered focus of him and the townspeople really did lead to destruction. He then tries to attack another city called Thebez where all the people had holed up in a tower.
52 When Abimelech came to attack the tower, he approached its entrance to set it on fire. 53 But a woman threw the upper portion of a millstone on Abimelech’s head and fractured his skull. 54 He quickly called his armor-bearer and said to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, or they’ll say about me, ‘A woman killed him.’” So his armor-bearer ran him through, and he died. 55 When the Israelites saw that Abimelech was dead, they all went home.
56 In this way, God brought back Abimelech’s evil—the evil that Abimelech had done to his father when he killed his seventy brothers. 57 God also brought back to the men of Shechem all their evil. So the curse of Jotham son of Jerubbaal came upon them.
Gideon was called by God to rescue Israel from the oppression of the Midianites. But his failure to point the people the Lord instead of himself lead to even more destruction by their own kinsman. That’s what sacrificing the next generation for your own glorification looks like.
3rd Sign that you are off track
You value external skills over Godly character.
The people of Shechem jump from one leader to another based on their outer/human skills. Abimelech appears to be a charismatic leader and strong warrior and he’s from their hometown, so they support him in his coup against his brothers. But when the shame of that sinks in they jump after Gaal as their new leader that will solve their problems. There’s no concern over what God desires of them, just a search for the next guy with leadership skills and battle prowess.
We too fall into this trap. We constantly wrestle with our desire to follow God but to do it in a way that elevates our own desires and skills.
Parenting: does your child need to have the best grades, be the best athlete, have the best experiences or is it more important that they live out the Gospel and are involved in Christian community?
Work: do you need to maximize success and be the first in and last to leave or should you leave some margin for your family and to be more generous with your time with others?
Socially: do you surround yourself with people that only affirm you and make you look and feel better or are there people that can truly challenge you and speak into your life and your flaws?
With social media now we are constantly inundated with people and ideas to better our lives or thrive. Often these people live lives completely counter to the Lord, but their success and popularity draws us to them. And then we begin to emphasize worldly traits in our own lives over godly ones.
All three of the signs we’ve seen today come from the same root problem. We begin to focus mainly inward and down here only at our finite, human level. So, we make decisions that we feel will benefit us most in our finite human life. In doing so we ignore God’s timeless truths and power and what feels like is best for us in this life ends up leading us to more problems in this life. This is why scripture constantly reminds us to shift our focus to God and the eternal. Thankfully we have a great example to look to.
Big Idea: Anything not done for God is liable to turn disastrous
So what is our alternative? Perhaps more than any other story in Judges that we’ve studied, we truly see the nature of Broken Saviors in the story of Gideon and Abimelech. Even someone who started as lowly and fearful as Gideon at the beginning of his story could be corrupted by power and success to forget about God’s role in all of it.
Israel needed a better savior and, fortunately, we already know the perfect and unbroken savior of Jesus Christ.
In Christ, we have a Savior who fully deserved to be praised and elevated to Kingship instead stated that He came not to be served but to serve and give his life for many. And then told His followers that they likewise should value serving one another instead of lording power over each other.
In his perfection he rightfully could have punished those that opposed Him as harshly as Gideon did. But instead He asked the Father to forgive them for they didn’t know what they were doing.
And instead of seeking earthly glory as king and high priest in one (even though he is that now), he became the ultimate sacrifice for sins by going to the cross and dying for your and my sins.
Believers, that is whose name we should be living for, He is the Name above all Names, instead of living for ourselves. If you don’t believe in Him yet, that is who you can follow today. You can stop focusing only on the here and now and follow someone who promises eternal satisfaction and safety.
We are going to celebrate Jesus specifically today by taking Communion.
Communion is a reminder that Jesus is our True King who was willing to sacrifice himself to be our Ultimate Savior. If you don’t believe he died for your sins on the cross, if you haven’t put your faith in him, then please refrain from participating in communion so you don’t go through the motions of this. Instead use this time to reflect on the message and consider putting your faith in Jesus so you can have a fruitful eternal relationship with him too...If you’ve already put your faith in Jesus, we have three stations set up, and in a few minutes I’ll invite you to come forward to the station closest to you. If you have a gluten allergy the table in the back has gluten free bread. When you come forward we’ll give you a piece of bread as a symbol of the body of Christ broken for your sins, and you’ll dip it in the cup of juice as a symbol of the blood of Christ shed for your sins. After that you can eat, drink, and head back to your seat to pray before we close in worship. If you’re helping with Communion you can start heading to your stations, as we prepare to remember and receive the good news of Jesus again.
On the night Jesus was betrayed he took bread, gave thanks for it, and broke it saying “This is my body which is to be broken for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. As often as you eat it, do so in remembrance of me, in remembrance of who I am and what I’ve done for you.” When supper ended he took the cup, blessed it, and gave thanks for it saying “This is a symbol of my blood which is to be shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. As often as you drink it, do so in remembrance of me, in remembrance of who I am and what I’ve done.” Respond to this good news by remembering and receiving. Remember what he did for you on the cross, and receive the joyful fruit of his grace for your life again. Come as you feel led...