Gideon 2 - Judges 6:22-35

The spot where Gideon saw the angel and poured the food on the rock, Gideon made an alter there “and called it Jehovah-shalom: unto this day it is.” Just a note about the “unto this day” because it’s said a lot in these recent books, TB says that this means that whoever is writing these books, knows about and has seen these monuments during his lifetime. Just an interesting note. That same night after Gideon had talked with the angel, God comes to him and say to take his father’s young bull and destroy the altar of Baal “that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it: and build an altar unto the Lord thy God upon the top of his rock.”

A couple of notes about this statement from God to Gideon. First, I don’t know if this came to Gideon in a dream or if it was just told to him, I think I’d like to know just out of curiosity. Second, the phrase “that thy father hath” TB says it indicates that Gideon’s father is the care taker of this pagan worship idol, Gideon’s father, an Israelite, was an active caretaker of a pagan altar dedicated to Ba’al and Asherah. In later verses it says that Gideon destroyed these worship sites at night “because he feared his father’s household, and the men of the city,” which means that this wasn’t a small altar used only by Gideon’s family but it was a major center of worship for the entire town, again, a town where everyone was Hebrew. Gideon’s family probably derived a lot of their power and wealth from maintaining this altar.

The fact that Gideon was afraid of what the other Hebrew people were going to do to him for destroying this pagan altar is an indication as to just how far Israel had fallen away from their one true God. Thirdly, this “grove” that is referenced was a pole or carved tree dedicated to the fertility goddess Asherah. Over the years I’ve heard different theories on what happened at these “groves” or “poles” because they are mentioned a lot and the conduct of the people there are quite graphic, mainly like orgies and stuff, which people seem to like doing from the dawn of time, even though it is expressly forbidden by God. I saw a video the other day made by AI that depicted the kind of gathering they had there and it was enlightening. I mean it wasn’t super graphic or anything, but like fire sacrifices at night and provocative dancing with scantily clad women, and yeah that all makes sense as far as what I understand to have happened at these places.

The rest of God’s command to Gideon was to not only destroy the altar and cut down the grove, but Gideon was to take his father’s 7 year old Bull and “offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down.” The ultimate humiliation, cut down the sacred tree and use it to make a burnt offering to the God of Israel. There is a mention of a second bull in the verses but TB says that that is almost certainly a translation error and that there was only one bull used for both pulling down the altar and pole and also for the sacrifice.

Gideon takes 10 of his men servants and destroyed the altar and pole and made he sacrifice and cut up the grove and used that wood for a burnt offering. Another couple of notes, first is I wonder if the angel that Gideon talked to the day before, if he made all the food go up in flames as a sacrifice, if he did that so that Gideon would know what a sacrifice was supposed to look like. We don’t know how old Gideon is when all this happens, but my guess is young, maybe twenties at the oldest, and if Gideon’s dad had been the caretaker of all these pagan worship sites then my guess if that Gideon might not have ever seen what a properly authorized sacrifice should have looked like in his whole life. So the angel had to show him so that he knew what to do and what to expect when he did it himself.

Second, it makes a point that Gideon did this at night instead of the daytime because he was afraid of other people being angry at him. It also specifies that God commanded Gideon to do this thing during the night time. What it doesn’t specify is whether or not Gideon got up and did all that the same night or if he waited and did it the next night. One way, Gideon is being faithful and immediate, the other way he’s being cautious and a little fear base, but honestly I can’t blame him, he did what he was told and God seemed to accept his efforts. I think about the ways that God works with us in our imperfections and it’s interesting to consider the capitulations that He makes for us to work to obey but also because of our human weakness. It’s honestly liberating to me because I always think that God expects perfection and won’t move until we are perfect, but we see again and again how he works with imperfect people and makes different paths for the to obey while pushing them to the limits of their abilities at the time. But then again, I wonder if they had obeyed boldly, how much more miraculous that obedience would have been. For instance, back in the early church, God commanded a group of the quorum of the twelve to leave for a mission from Missouri exactly one year from that date. When the revelation was received, no red flags were raised because the church had a good standing in Missouri at the time, so the church leaders thought “no problem.”

But in the next 12 months the church was expelled, violently, from Missouri and the leaders were threatened with death if they ever returned. So when the year date arrived to leave for the mission from Missouri people started to debate what they should actually do. I want to say that I read about this “conversation” from The Work and The Glory series, which is excellent by the way. And in this “conversation” (I don’t know if this actually happened, like if there were notes taken that the author read and made his own or if he just speculated what it would have looked like) the brethren said things like “God won’t mind if we leave from a different place because ultimately it doesn’t matter where we leave from.” But the one that finally stopped the argument was “if only the Lord had known the future when he gave this commandment.” Everyone realized that God knew when he issued that commandment that the church leaders would face violence if they went to Missouri to leave or the mission from there, but gave the command anyway, so they knew they had to go to Missouri to be obedient.

But the caveat the decided was that God only told them to leave from Missouri on that day, but didn’t specify what time, so like Gideon, they went through there and left at night and it all worked out. It’s easy for me to armchair quarterback this whole thing, but I wonder, if they had been bold and left during the middle of the day, if they would have been able to see God work miracles in their behalf to help them be obedient and how much that would have strengthened their testimony. But then again, Jesus said “tempt not the Lord your God” when Satan told him to jump off the temple and be caught by angels, so maybe they did the right thing by not tempting God to provide those miracles for them. It’s hard to know, I feel like there’s a fine line, and I just don’t know where it is. Like Gideon asking for those signs, there’s a fine line between “convince me” and “help thou my unbelief.” I don’t know where any of these lines are, it almost feels like a game, and it’s kind of maddening.

Anyway, in the morning when people came to the altars to do their worship thing, they see that the altar of Ba’al and the grove are both destroyed, that there was a new altar made to the God of Israel and that the grove was used as firewood for a burnt offering to God, and they are not pleased. Just as a side note, it seems like a lot to get done in just one night, tear down two pagan idol worship spots, build a new altar on top of the destroyed ones, AND kill a bull and burn it’s entire body. Like I think just the burning of the bulls body would have taken several hours, not counting the time the destruction and construction of several altars would be, so I wonder if there was a bit of supernatural time manipulation used there, just lie Joshua did. Anyway, the men of the city are very upset and figure out that Gideon was the one who did it. Gideon’s dad is named Joash and as the caretaker is caught in a tough spot, the people come to him and tell him to bring Gideon out so they can kill him, and Joash has a very interesting answer, TB summarizes it as, “wait a minute, if Ba’al is unable to defend his own altar then just how powerful of a god is he? Does Ba’al need humans to defend his deity? Yo’ash’s logic was impeccable: nobody should do anything. If Ba’al were real he would avenge this sacrilege, and if he couldn’t then he’s not real and thus there was no crime… Conclusion: let Ba’al fight his own battles he ought to be more than capable.” Brilliant. It’s like that one high priest after Jesus died when they were trying to decide what to do about Christianity who said, “if it’s not from God then it will destroy itself, and if it is from God, then you can’t stop it.” Perfect. That day forward, Gideon was called Jerubbaal which means “let Ba’al defend” or basically “Let Ba’al defend himself against Gideon.

Gideon then sent out messages to the other tribes to send soldiers so that Gideon could lead them to fight against the oppressive Midianites. One thing that I thought was interesting was that TB said, God called Gideon to save Israel, but first God had to cleanse Gideon and his family from idolatry. God didn’t say “ok Gideon, go gather the army and go to war while your family back home worships idols.” No, they had to be cleansed first before they could move forward with their purpose. TB says, “this entire episode to the point was largely about purifying Gideon and his family and ridding the village of the stench of idolatry. The God-principle is simple and logical: only a man that is in good stead with the Lord can lead His people with God’s authority. It was necessary that Gideon and his family be the starting point of this cleansing.” It was powerful to me that he said the cleansing wasn’t just for Gideon but for his whole family too, that hit a little bit close to home. It just makes me think about the concept of preparation that we’ve talked about before and how this cleansing process is involved in it as well. Cleansing is part of the preparation process, and Gideon’s story is a good example of that.