In this way Midian was subdued before the Israelites and did not raise its head again. So the land had rest for forty years in the days of Gideon, Sermons
I. ORIGINATING IN MOTIVES FOR THE MOST PART NOBLE AND HONOURABLE. (1) Desirous of a national testimony to God's gracious deliverance, and a commemoration of it to future ages, he (2) persuades the Israelites to make a national offering, and (3) increases the means of grace in his own district. II. REFLECTING THE DEFECTS OF HIS CHARACTER AND BETRAYING ITS LATENT VICE. In his zeal for the religious reformation of Israel he did not sufficiently consider the bearings of the step he had taken. It was a hasty and crude expedient, from which greater experience or sage advice, or, above all, God's Spirit, would have saved him. And therein lay the root of the mischief. He relied on his own wisdom, and forgot to ask God's guidance. In getting to look upon himself as in a special sense the re-introducer of the Jehovah-worship, and the exponent of the mind of Jehovah, he forgot that it was only as he was taught of God that he could be preserved from error. Of all inventions, religious ones are to be most carefully scrutinised. And in the background of this assumption there lay a secret tendency to self-esteem because of his spiritual endowments and character, and the great achievements of the past. Pride because of his own humility - is it not a failing that many have shared? By this mistake he sowed the seeds of grave evils: schism, superstition, hero-worship. But - III. THE SUBSTANTIAL GOOD DONE WAS NOT WHOLLY DESTROYED, Whilst he lived - a quiet, steadfast, righteous life - the people observed the true worship of Jehovah. His own example was a guide and a deterrent. And when at his death superstition ran riot, and the old licentious idolatry flowed back in an obliterating wave over the land and the institutions of Jehovah's worship, there were some things that could not be destroyed, remaining as germ ideas in the spiritual consciousness of Israel - the immediate obligation of the moral law upon every one, the direct responsibility of every one to God, and faith in the personal help of Jehovah. (1) God superintends the development of his truth, and (2) restrains the evil that mingles with the good in men's works. - M.
Gideon made an ephod. A strong but not spiritual religiousness is the chief note of Gideon's character. It may be objected that such an one, if he seeks ecclesiastical office, does so unworthily; but to say so is an uncharitable error. It is not the devout temper alone that finds attraction in the ministry of sacred things; nor should a love of place and power be named as the only other leading motive. One who is not devout may in all sincerity covet the honour of standing for God before the congregation, leading the people in worship and interpreting the sacred oracles. A vulgar explanation of human desire is often a false one; it is so here. The ecclesiastic may show few tokens of the spiritual temper, the other-worldliness, the glowing and simple truth we rightly account to be the proper marks of a Christian ministry; yet he may by his own reckoning have obeyed a clear call. His function in this case is to maintain order and administer outward rites with dignity and care — a limited range of duty indeed, but not without utility, especially when there are inferior and less conscientious men in office not far away. He does not advance faith, but according to his power he maintains it. But the ecclesiastic must have the ephod. The man who feels the dignity of religion more than its humane simplicity, realising it as a great movement of absorbing interest, will naturally have regard to the means of increasing dignity and making the movement impressive. When it is supposed that Gideon fell away from his first faith in making this image the error lies in over-estimating his spirituality at the earlier stage. We must not think that at any time the use of a symbolic image would have seemed wrong to him. He acted at Ophrah as priest of the true God. And yet, pure, and for the time even elevated, in the motive, Gideon's attempt at priestcraft led to his fall. "The thing became a snare to Gideon and his house," perhaps in the way of bringing in riches and creating the desire for more.(R. A. Watson, M. A.) (R. A. Watson, M. A.) (A. Whyte, D. D.) 1. Gideon's sin injurious to himself. Scripture, unlike mere human biographies, tells faithfully the failings of its heroes. The record of the believer's blemishes is as edifying as that of his graces. Good intentions are no excuse for self-willed inventions. An oracle of Gideon's own contrivance, and made out of the golden amulets of idolaters, could never be pleasing to God, and was a bad return to make for the Divine favour in granting him victory. It "became a snare unto Gideon" himself, by lessening his zeal for the house of God in Shiloh. Still more so to his family.2. Gideon's sin had a deadly effect on the nation. One false step of a good man leads multitudes astray. If Gideon could have risen from the grave and seen the consequences of his one grand error, how he would have grieved! (A. R. Fausset, M. A.) People Abiezer, Abiezrites, Abimelech, Gideon, Ishmaelites, Israelites, Jerubbaal, Jether, Joash, Midianites, Nobah, Ophrah, Oreb, Penuel, Zalmunna, Zebah, ZeebPlaces 0, Abiezer, Heres, Jogbehah, Jordan River, Karkor, Midian, Nobah, Ophrah, Penuel, Shechem, Succoth, TaborTopics Added, Anymore, Broken, During, Enjoyed, Forty, Gideon, Gideon's, Got, Heads, Humbled, Israelites, Lifetime, Lift, Lifted, Midian, Mid'ian, Midianites, Peace, Quietness, Raise, Raised, Rest, Resteth, Sons, Strength, Subdued, Thus, UndisturbedOutline 1. Gideon pacifies the Ephraimites4. Succoth and Penuel refuse to deliver Gideon's army 10. Zebah and Zalmunna are taken 13. Succoth and Penuel are destroyed 17. Gideon revenges his brothers's death on Zebah and Zalmunna 22. He refuses government 24. His ephod the cause of idolatry 28. Midian subdued 29. Gideon's children, and death 33. The Israelites' idolatry and ingratitude Dictionary of Bible Themes Judges 8:28 1654 numbers, 11-99 Library September 21. "Faint, yet Pursuing" (Judges viii. 4). "Faint, yet pursuing" (Judges viii. 4). It is a great thing thus to learn to depend upon God to work through our feeble resources, and yet, while so depending, to be absolutely faithful and diligent, and not allow our trust to deteriorate into supineness and indolence. We find no sloth or negligence in Gideon, or his three hundred; though they were weak and few, they were wholly true, and everything in them ready for God to use to the very last. "Faint yet pursuing" was their watchword as they followed … Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth The Christian Faith Subjects of Study. Home Education in Israel; Female Education. Elementary Schools, Schoolmasters, and School Arrangements. Of the Power of Making Laws. The Cruelty of the Pope and his Adherents, in this Respect, in Tyrannically Oppressing and Destroying Souls. 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