Gideon: Unlikely Hero

I just finished reading the early chapters of the book of Judges for a class at church tomorrow. Reading through the chapters about Gideon, I was reminded of how much I enjoyed this story as a child. I don’t remember why, particularly, though it may have been the way David Kossoff told it in my favorite book of Bible stories.

Gideon certainly doesn’t act the way one might expect a Bible hero to act, and perhaps I liked him more because of that. (You might want to take a look at Judges 6-8  to see what I am talking about.) An angel appears to him, and instead of cowering in fright as people tended to do when angels appeared, he started asking why God hadn’t been doing a better job of taking care of His people, the way He used to. The angel is surprisingly patient with Gideon, including waiting around while Gideon prepares a goat and makes bread. (I always found it odd, as a child, to read various stories where people waited while someone else prepared food – not something simple like a sandwich and chips, either, but a goat or calf and loaves of bread. I learned later that those people were not in such a hurry as we are, and that travel was difficult and dangerous and people made the most of any opportunity to feast with visitors, however unexpected.)

I’m still puzzled by whom Gideon thinks is speaking with him in this scene. Since he later (having seen the offering consumed by miraculous fire) realizes he has seen the Angel of the Lord face to face, and fears he will die, he clearly did not realize that earlier (or he wouldn’t have been complaining about God having abandoned them). But he had gone to prepare the offering because he wants “a sign that you are speaking to me.” So whom did he think was speaking to him?

In any case, the fire convinced him, and he was willing to follow God’s instructions to pull down his father’s altar to Baal, and construct an altar to God in its place. But he is not so confident that he will do it in broad daylight; instead he does it under cover of darkness. I might have expected God to rebuke him for this bit of cowardice, but apparently this was OK too. Gideon’s father must have been quite a man also, and perhaps not too firm a believer in Baal himself, as he saved Gideon from the anger of the townspeople the next day.

Then of course there is Gideon’s test with the fleece. Didn’t Gideon know he wasn’t supposed to test God? Apparently not. And not content with the miraculous answer the first time, Gideon repeats his test. And God, rather than getting mad at him, actually obliges him again!

Of course, God doesn’t go along with Gideon’s idea of preparing an army. I can’t help wondering what all those men thought, rallying to Gideon’s side to fight the Midianites, and then being told to go home. What kind of leader calls up troops and then tells the ones who are scared to go home? I’m not sure which is most surprising, that 32,000 men came out to begin with, in spite of the vast superiority of the Midianite enemy, that 22,000 of them were willing to publicly admit being too scared to fight and go back home, or that 10,000 of them were willing to stick with Gideon and his odd type of leadership.

Then there is the scene where the men are selected based on how they drink water. (A “Skeptic’s Annotated Bible” website lists this among the absurdities they see in Scripture.) I never could figure out, as a child, why men lapping water like a dog were preferable to men getting on their knees to drink. I could only visualize the former getting down with their mouths to the water to lap, as a dog would. Then in a sermon I heard that the men who got on their knees to drink were sent home because they were not ready to fight. So how were man who got down with the faces at the water any more ready to fight? Finally I learned that the “lappers” were scooping up water in their hands and lapping it (which would leave the other hand able to hold a weapon, and their eyes able to look out for the approach of an enemy). Aha – makes much more sense that way.

Then finally there is the rout of the Midianites by 300 men armed with horns, torches, and jars. As a child, of course, I was imagining modern trumpets and glass jars (I did know what torches were), and wondering how the torches fit in the jars, and wouldn’t the torches go out if they were inside jars? Now I realize that the horns were probably rams’ horns, and the jars were no doubt pottery. I’m still not sure how they lit their torches once they had smashed the jars - though I suppose people who didn’t have matches knew how to light a fire quickly enough.

I would have liked it if the story ended there – where it usually does in Sunday School lessons. Chapter 8 of Judges has Gideon punishing fellow Israelites who had not supported him, killing the kings he has captured, making a gold “ephod” (whatever that was – other Scriptural references to ephods deal with a cloth item that is worn, but this was made of gold and sound a bit heavy for wearing), and finally having 70 sons by his many wives plus a son (by a concubine) who ended up causing plenty of trouble in the next chapter.

All in all, it’s a good reminder that God uses unlikely people to do His work. I wouldn’t have picked Gideon, and I don’t think I’d have picked myself either. (I’m glad I didn’t get picked for the same kind of work Gideon did.) Helping teach a K/1 class is not something I would have either planned to do or thought I would do well. (Sometimes I still wonder.) But God seems to delight in using unlikely people, so I hope that He is able to use me as I teach His Word to young children week by week.