The case against Gideon

At Sunday School we would probably be taught to see Gideon as good guy to be imitated. You can see why, but there is also much to question about how he lived his life.

Gideon is both hero and antihero, both a man of faith and a man of fear [...]

The photograph of Gideon's soul reveals serious blemishes. At the time of his call he is dull to the spiritual condition of his people (i.e., he makes no attempt on his own to remove his family's altar to Baal), to salvation history (i.e., though a "mighty warrior" [6:12] he takes no initiative to save his people), and cynically expresses his disappointment with God (i.e., instead of viewing God's mighty acts in the past as an encouragement to faith, he interprets them as a discouragement to faith: 6:13). He evades God's call (6:15) and lacks faith in God's promises through one who who proves himself without reasonable doubt to be the angel of I AM (6:16-21, 36-40). I AM's sixfold promise to give Midian into the hand of Israel (6:36-38; 7:2, 7, 9, 14-15) contrasts with Israel's "fear" (7:3, 10). Gideon tears down his altar at night out of fear of his family (6:27). His request for a wet fleece in a dry field and then for a dry fleece in a wet field reveals his lack of faith in God's word from none other than the awesome angel of I AM (6:36-40). Ironically, he has more faith in the dream of an enemy soldier than in I AM's promise. The Midianite interpreter of the soldier's dream only repeats what God has been saying all along (7:14).

[...] he provokes the battle with the Midianites only because the spirit of I AM gripped him to do so (6:34). When Gideon crosses the Jordan, he takes extreme vengeance against fellow Israelites (8:16-17). Gideon is the first judge to turn the sword against his compatriots. In the Transjordan campaign instead of mentioning God, he is bent on revenge, torturing the elders at Succoth and pulling down the tower at Peniel, killing the men (8:16-17). He kills the Midianite kings as revenge for his brothers, not for any other reason (8:19). When he is contended against, he handles it with diplomacy (8:1-3; cf. 6:30-32), but when he is the contender, he tears down and kills (8:17).

[...]Gideon's refusal to be Israel's ruler is ambiguous (8:22). In chapter 24 I argue that his statement is so much poppycock and does not express the author's evaluative point of view. In any case, he leads the nation back into idolatry by using the plunder of gold to make an ephod, a divining instrument, instead of keeping covenant with I AM out of faith in God (8:22-32).

Through this antiheroic-heroic warlord, I AM brings both grace (deliverance from Midian( and judgment (death to the Transjordan cities for their neutrality in the war and to the Ephraimites for their pride). Remarkably, the New Testament remembers only Gideon's faith - meager as it is - and holds him up as an example of faith to the church (Heb. 11:32).

(pp. 602-603, Bruce K Waltke, An Old Testament Theology)

In my daily Bible reading the plan is taking me through Judges. This morning, immediately after reading about Gideon's torture of the elders of Succoth and then his killing of the men of Penuel, my plan took me to Luke 23:13-43. The brutal ripping me out of one context and plonking me in another sometimes frustrates me about Bible reading plans, but today the juxtaposition was wonderful. The passage in Luke begins:

Pilate then called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, and said to them, "You brought me this man as one who was misleading the people. And after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him. Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him [...] what evil has he done? I have found in him no guilt deserving death.

The comparison is stark. It may be clichéd, but its also wonderfully true, the human leaders God rose up in the OT were deeply flawed. As well as good, they often did great evil. Even when much of what they did could be justified to some degree, their enemies would always have found something to say against them. However, the Gospels make clear that not one charge could be brought against Jesus!

He is a good king to have.