Thread by @JamesBejon

THREAD: Tonight, some notes on Judges 6 for anyone’s who interested.

In ch. 6 of the book of Judges, Gideon begins his battle against the Midianites. Each judge so far in the Book has been assigned a different enemy: Othniel the Mesopotamians, Ehud the Moabites, and Deborah and Barak the Canaanites (from Hazor).

That is not a particularly remarkable observation, but it is worthy of note. Focus is important. None of us are called to dispense with *all* of the Church’s enemies singlehandedly.

As we have noted in previous chapters, names and numbers are important. Gideon (גדעון) = ‘lumberjack’ (from גדע + /ān/ > /ōn/), which is apt since Gideon is commissioned by YHWH to chop down his local Asherah pole.

Gideon’s servant Purah (פורה) = ‘winepress’, perhaps because he was employed at Gideon’s winepress. If so, he must recently have been put out of work (since Gideon has turned his winepress into a place to thresh wheat: 6.11).

Hence, in our text, Gideon must find Purah new and more gainful employment, which he does. And Gideon’s successor is named Abi-Melech (אבימלך) = ‘my father is king’, which was almost true...

...though, in reality, Gideon was a judge (שופט) rather a king (מלך), and Abi-Melech was not exactly a legitimate son of Gideon’s (8.31), which meant he had to murder Gideon’s 70 legitimate sons in order to become king (מלך: cf. 9.6).

As for numbers: in our text (chs. 6-8), we read of 7 years of Midianite oppression, a 7-year old bull, 77 elders (in Succoth), and a bounty of 1,700 shekels.

In the process, we encounter 6 x 7 refs. to Gideon (alt. Jerub-Baal), the root of which (גדע) has a gematrial value of 77. (גדעון has a value of 19 x 7 = 133.)

Thereafter (in ch. 9), we read of Gideon’s 70 sons, and a 70 shekel bribe paid to Abi-Melech to dispose of them.

As we have mentioned, Gideon is pitted against the Midianites, who are not descendants of the line of promise (they descend from Keturah’s line: Gen. 25.1-6), yet are portrayed as inheritors--and thereby ‘usurpers’--of Abraham’s promise.

YHWH has told Abraham his seed (זרע) will be ‘without number’ (לֹא־יִסָּפֵר), yet our text describes the Midianites as ‘without number’ (אין מספר cf. 6.5) and tells us their aim is to destroy Israel’s seed/grain (זרע cp. 6.3).

Furthermore, while YHWH has said to Abraham, ‘I will multiply (אַרְבֶּה) you’, the Midianites are here said to have multiplied as numerously as the locust (אַרְבֶּה). They are even likened to ‘sand on the sea shore’ (7.12 w. Gen. 32.12).

Note: The Midianites are the first people-group in Scripture who are associated with particularly large numbers of camels, which is consistent with what we know of ANE history, since Midian is roughly where camels are thought to have first been domesticated.

At the outset of our text (6.2, 11), we find Gideon in a wine press, where he has started to thresh wheat. I am no expert in matters of agriculture, but I do not imagine a wine press is a very good place in which to thresh wheat.

Gideon would be far better off in a windy location (like the top of a hill), where the wind could separate the wheat from the chaff.

Gideon, however, has been forced to work under cover. The Israelites have had to take their business underground (to the caves and dens: 6.2) for fear of the Midianites, who regularly come and destroy their produce (6.4).

Yet, by the end of ch. 7, a reversal has taken place, which involves an inversion of many of the details of Gideon and the Israelites’ predicament.

Gideon arises from his winepress and stands in a far more windy environment, clothed with the Spirit (רוח = ‘wind’) of YHWH. Gideon’s servant Purah (פורה = ‘winepress’) hears about a loaf of bread which overturns the Midianites’ camp.

A Midianite king who has previously been a high-flier (Oreb = עורב = ‘raven’) is forced to flee underground, just as the Israelites had been (cp. 7.25, and note how צורים are rocks which can be ‘entered into’: 2 Sam. 22.3, Isa. 2.10).

A second Midianite king (Zeeb) is slain at the site of a wine-press. And, at the place where the Midianites hoped to destroy Israel’s seed (יזרעאל = ‘God has planted’), the Midianites find themselves scattered (alt. יזרעאל = ‘God has scattered’).

Ch. 6 ends with ‘Gideon’s fleece’, which I cannot help but see as a poor example of how to interact with the Most High God.

Gideon is well aware of what God has told him to do (6.37), yet he arranges a ‘test’ (6.39) to double check, which hardly seems a model of excellence.

God had left the Midianites in the land in order to test the Israelites’ faithfulness, not to allow the Israelites to test God’s faithfulness (2.22, 3.1, 3.4).

Besides, the ‘test’ devised by Gideon seems very poorly formulated. Gideon devises a test where, if the world operates as it normally has done, Gideon will abandon his attack on Midian. (Or at least so it seems.)

Yet God has already told Gideon what he wants him to do. Shouldn’t the ‘default’ option be for Gideon to get on with it?

Gideon then devises a second test predicated on an even worse premise. Gideon will not continue with his present mission unless God *changes* his present behaviour, i.e., unless God now handles Gideon’s fleece in a different manner.

In other words, Gideon is determined to find a reason to disobey God’s command.

Sadly, Gideon’s behaviour represents part of a longer term trend. In ch. 7, Gideon will not be convinced of success until he hears a Midianite interpret a fellow Midianite’s dream.

An important question needs to be asked here. As remarkable as it may be, why would one pagan’s interpretation of another pagan’s dream be more persuasive to Gideon than a clear declaration from YHWH himself?

Sadly, Gideon has become dependent on out-of-the-ordinary signs rather than on the plain commands of YHWH, the end result of which will be the erection of an ephod to provide him with further signs (8.27), which will cause Israel to stumble.

(Saul’s life follows a similar trajectory, and ends in a similarly sorry state; indeed, Saul ultimately finds himself forced to consult a witch in order to obtain the kind of superstitious guidance he is after.)

The moral of our story, I believe, is as follows.

It may or may not be wrong to ‘seek signs’ in particular circumstances. (I do not believe Scripture allows us to make a blanket pronouncement either way.) But three things at least can be said with certainty.

First, the absence of a sign should never be proffered as an excuse to disobey what God has already told us. Second, in the long term, to become *dependent* on signs is a recipe for spiritual disaster.

And, third, it is easy for us to come to view Scripture as God’s ‘run-of-the-mill’ means of communication and to view out-of-the-ordinary signs as occasions when God *really* speaks to us.

Signs, however, are not ‘the real thing’. Scripture is the real thing. It is the means by which God has brought millions of men and women to faith (and kept them there) over the centuries, and by which he continues to do so.

It is anything but ordinary. It is God’s flawless and perfect revelation of his will to his people.

Of course, we are all imperfect as Christians, and I am no better than Gideon, who, for all his failures, is commended for his faith and courage in times of great adversity (Heb. 11.32).

But, if we lack faith, we would probably do better to ask for more faith (“Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”) than to ask for extraordinary signs.