The Bible Recap - Day 092 (Judges 8-9) - Year 6

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap. Yesterday we met Israel's fifth judge, Gideon. He was full of self-doubt, but God used him to win the war against the Midianites. Today we opened with the tribe of Ephraim having the strangest complaint of all. They're mad they weren't invited to the war. They seem to pride themselves on being warriors. It's part of their identity, so they feel insulted that Gideon only had them come in as backup yesterday in chapter 7. But they calm down a bit when Gideon praises their previous military victories.

Starting point is 00:00:42 Then Gideon and his crew head across the Jordan River into the area of the Transjordan tribes. They're trying to capture two of the Midianite kings so they can finish off the war. Gideon asks some of the people in East Manasseh to feed his army and they deny him. He's from West Manasseh so these guys technically are from the same tribe but they offer no support and he promises to destroy their town of Sukkoth. Then he moves on to Penual, a city in Gad, which is the neighboring tribe to the south, and they deny him food too, so he promises to destroy their local tower. His anger is warranted because these are fellow Israelites and they're supposed to help each other out, especially in war efforts, but Gideon's response does seem a bit extreme,

Starting point is 00:01:24 like he's still operating out of insecurity and has something to prove. Even though he just had a military victory, he never wielded a sword. He just smashed a jar and blew a trumpet. And now he's been twice rejected by his own people in front of his army. But Gideon persists. Even hungry, he chases down the two Midianite kings, Siba and Zalmunna. He captures them, kills them, and steals their crescent ornaments. Then he goes back and fulfills his threats to Succoth and Penuel.

Starting point is 00:01:53 Today's reading about Gideon's conquest has a really different feel than yesterday's, doesn't it? You may have noticed that there's no mention of God here. This seems to be something he was doing of his own volition. There's more that's happening in his heart and it's revealed as we continue reading. When Israel tries to make him king, he says, no, no, not me, God is your king. But then he immediately asked for all their gold jewelry, about 40 pounds of it, and things start to feel a little too familiar. He now has at least two sets of royal garments and ornaments from the Midianite kings, and he's making a golden ephed for himself. You may remember that the ephed was something only the high priest was allowed to wear,

Starting point is 00:02:31 so to make his own ephed was in direct violation of God's commands and an extreme act of arrogance. Insecurity and arrogance are just different sides of the same pride coin. Yesterday, the coin was tails up and we saw Gideon fearful and full of self-doubt. But today the coin has flipped, heads up, and he's puffed up and full of himself. The entire time Gideon has been the judge of Israel, it has never been about God. It hasn't even been about Israel.

Starting point is 00:02:59 It's always been about Gideon. During his position as judge, Israel has peace from war, but they do not have peace with God. They're whoring after Gideon and his ifad. Sure, they aren't worshiping the Canaanite gods, but they're worshiping something else, something that feels less sinful

Starting point is 00:03:16 because it's Yahweh-adjacent. It's an ifad, after all, made by the very judge God had appointed who wins their military battles. What's so wrong with that? This is a great example of how we can lie to ourselves in subtle ways that distract our hearts from worshipping God alone. Gideon has a lot of wives and concubines and a lot of kids, including 70 sons, and he names

Starting point is 00:03:37 one of those sons a Bimelech, which means, guess what? My father is king. So all that talk about God being their king was just lip service. Gideon wants to be king, and in fact, they seem to view him as king, but it's never ordained by God. Gideon keeps the peace for a while, but he doesn't point people to Yahweh. Their hearts are turned away from God by subtle lies. And we continue to see Israel's cycle of rebellion and apostasy,

Starting point is 00:04:05 and every time they round the track one more time, the rut gets deeper. In chapter 9, we follow the story of Gideon's son Abimelek. He's divisive and scheming, trying to take over his father's position after he dies, even though, as the son of a concubine, there are probably many other sons in line before him. But the people buy it.

Starting point is 00:04:24 They like a confident leader. They give Abimelek 70 pieces of silver In the Concubine, there are probably many other sons in line before him. But the people buy it. They like a confident leader. They give Abimelek 70 pieces of silver from one of the pagan temples, and he uses the money to hire his sketchy entourage. Then he kills all of Gideon's other sons on one stone. It's possible that one stone is an altar, which likely means he's offering them as sacrifices to Baal. In the midst of this mass murder, one brother manages to hide and escape, Jotham, the youngest.

Starting point is 00:04:50 The leaders of Shechem gather and make Abimelek king, except you have to think of that word king in quotes because it isn't real. It feels real, but it isn't. Then Jotham runs up to the top of Mount Gerizim, which you may recall is the Mountain of Blessing, and he tells them a parable. The point of the parable is that Abimelek is not worthy to be king, and that he'll be a destructive force. Ultimately this is a curse, a prophetic one, uttered from the Mount of Blessing.

Starting point is 00:05:16 After he warns them, he flees. The people don't listen to him, though. They continue with Abimelek as their quote-unquote king. Jotham did his part, and he leaves the consequences up to God. It takes time, but his prophecy is ultimately fulfilled. First, God sends an evil spirit that causes division between Abimelek and the people of Shechem. And we're reminded here that even evil bends to God's will.

Starting point is 00:05:40 Meanwhile, the people of Shechem start to IMA name Gal as a potential replacement for Abimelek. This leads to a fight and Gal has to flee. Gal and Jotham both believe Abimelek is an unfit leader, but they handle it in very different ways. One more honorable than the other. The next day, the people of Shechem set up an ambush against Abimelek, but he kills them and destroys the city altogether. Not a brilliant move. You live there, buddy.

Starting point is 00:06:05 Some of the leaders flee to a military stronghold, but he goes after them and burns it to the ground, killing a thousand more people. And remember, Jotham prophesied this very thing. Fire came out from Abimelech and devoured the same leaders who had positioned him. Then Abimelech heads out of town because he needs a new city since he destroyed his old one.

Starting point is 00:06:23 So he has to conquer the town of Thebes. All the people run to hide in the tower and he goes to burn it too, but then a woman throws a stone and mortally wounds him. He has his armor bearer finish the job so that people wouldn't say a woman killed him. But guess what? People say a woman killed him. Abimelek's manipulation never ceased. He died trying to manipulate his legacy.

Starting point is 00:06:46 His men abandoned the mission, and we end the chapter with the final lines of Jotham's prophecy being fulfilled in Abimelek's death. We covered a lot of wickedness today. What was your God shot? I saw his justice on display. Particularly, I found it fitting that Abimelek, who killed all his brothers on a stone, also died by a stone. We've talked about this before, but God's wrath and God's justice are adjacent to His love, not in contrast to it. When we love something, we have wrath toward anything that threatens it. We want to defend and protect it. We want it to be

Starting point is 00:07:21 treated justly, rightly. And when it comes to His name and His people, Yahweh is vigilantly protective. Even in the midst of all their wickedness and waywardness, He's still enacting justice to purify them and protect them from evil. In love and in justice, He's where the joy is. When I first launched D-Group, we met in the homes of members. A few years later, we started developing partnerships with churches, which means that some of our groups meet in churches as well.

Starting point is 00:07:53 But over the years, people have come to us with an entirely different need. They're people who have unique life circumstances or schedules that make it challenging to meet in real life. Or maybe they don't know anyone else who wants to join a dGroup. So we've leaned into that need by launching online dGroups. If you wanna see when and where dGroups meet near you, visit mydgroup.org forward slash map. And if there's nothing there that works for you,

Starting point is 00:08:16 check out mydgroup.org forward slash online to see if an online group might work for you instead. Whether in person or online, we'd love to have you join us. MyDGroup.org. He's Where the Joy Is has become the true catchphrase of the Bible Recap family. You guys know it and love it. And if you're curious to know where this phrase comes from

Starting point is 00:08:37 and how my life has changed because of it, click the link in the show notes to hear a recent interview I did on Wayfm's Mid-Days with Joy.

The Bible Recap - Day 092 (Judges 8-9) - Year 6

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.