Gideon's life, like the lives of several Bible characters who became famous and enormously wealthy, was not as spiritually admirable as it was before he gained fame and fortune. Although he declined the Israelites' offer to crown him king, I believe he began to think of himself as a king. As we move through our text today we'll see some indications that his fame and fortune went to his head, causing him perhaps to think more of himself than he should have. And when a person lifts himself up too much in his own eyes, he begins giving the Lord less credit that He deserves for battles won and he begins giving himself more credit than he should.
"Thus Midian was subdued before the Israelites and did not raise its head again. During Gideon's lifetime, the land had peace forty years." (Judges 8:28) Israel's military victory was so decisive that no one dared to mount an attack against the nation for four decades. The story of how Gideon's small army routed tens of thousands of enemy soldiers spread far and wide. The fear of Israel and of Israel's God came upon all the peoples round about them. If only Gideon and all his fellow citizens had remained as close to the Lord as they were while the battle was being fought, no one would ever have dared to mount an attack against the nation again, for earlier in the Bible we found the Lord promising them peace and security if they would remain faithful to Him.
But Gideon fashioned an object that took his and the people's focus off the Lord. Gideon began thinking of himself as a king, even though he refused to wear a crown, and he began doing things the kings of pagan nations did. "Jerub-Baal son of Joash went back home to live. He had seventy sons of his own, for he had many wives. His concubine, who lived in Shechem, also bore him a son, whom he named Abimelek." (Judges 8:29-30) (You'll recall that Gideon was given the name of Jerub-Baal after he tore down his father's altar to Baal.) Pagan kings maintained numerous wives and concubines. Siring many sons helped secure and defend the family's hold on the crown. In addition, it was a way pagan kings ostentatiously displayed their wealth, by proving to the world that they could afford to support multiple wives and offspring. Gideon is behaving like the kings of foreign nations, and although he has refused to accept the title of king, it's clear he considers himself one when he names one of his sons "Abimelek" which means "my father is king". (There is a reason why this one son, out of all Gideon's sons, is mentioned by name and we will get to that in Chapter 9.)
If Gideon thinks of himself as a king, he should be following the Lord's rules for kings. When we studied the book of Deuteronomy we found the Lord predicting that a day would come when the Israelites would want a king over them in order to be like all the other nations. The Lord is going to permit Israel to have kings later on in the Old Testament, but He laid down rules that these kings must follow. One of the rules is that, "He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray." (Deuteronomy 17:17a) It was customary for ancient kings to marry women of other cultures in order to form political alliances. But the Lord told the Israelites to make no treaty with any other nation, for all the nations surrounding them were heathen idolaters. Marrying foreign women, and making alliances with foreign kings, meant becoming friendly with idolaters and becoming comfortable with idolatry. Disobeying the Lord's rule about taking many wives likely became a snare to Gideon, just as it will become a snare to King Solomon, whose heart will not remain fully committed to the Lord because of all the pagan women he marries.
So we see Gideon behaving like a pagan king in the taking of many wives. We find Gideon thinking of himself as a king when he names one of his sons "Abimelek". We don't know exactly how he and his family and many of the Israelites use the golden ephod at Ophrah that caused them to waver in their loyalty to the Lord, but whatever they did set them up for failure after Gideon's death. This next passage indicates that they remained at least somewhat true to the Lord during the remainder of Gideon's lifetime but that they fell headlong back into Baal worship upon Gideon's death. "Gideon son of Joash died at a good old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals. They set up Baal-Berith as their god and did not remember the Lord their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side. They also failed to show any loyalty to the family of Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) in spite of all the good things he had done for them." (Judges 8:32-35)
I think that during Gideon's lifetime, after he and his soldiers conquered the Midianites and after he set up the golden object at Ophrah, the people were probably not completely forsaking the Lord but were blending heathen elements in with their worship of the Lord. Many of them---and especially the citizens of Gideon's own town---were probably forgoing worship at the tabernacle (where they were commanded to bring their sacrifices and offerings) in favor of worshiping at the location of the golden ephod in Ophrah. This separated them from the house of worship, separated them from the godly influence of the priests and Levites, and separated them from the location where they would have heard the public reading of the law (the covenant) every year. This separation set them up for failure, although I sincerely doubt this was Gideon's intention when he first fashioned the ephod, and after Gideon's death we learn there had been so much drifting from the Lord that the people set up a heathen center of worship at which they bow to "Baal-Berith" which means "lord of the covenant". They have forsaken the true Lord and the true covenant, exchanging them for false and useless religion.
The Lord will have to administer discipline for idolatry, just as a loving and responsible father must correct the dangerous and disobedient behavior of his child. But the Lord won't disown Israel, just as a good father doesn't disown his child. The history of that nation, like the history of every individual person, is made up both of admirable deeds and of deeds that brought shame. But the Lord is a redeemer of nations and individuals. Even Gideon, whose beginning was better than his ending, is still named in the well-known passage of the New Testament frequently called "The Hebrews Hall Of Faith". The Lord didn't wipe out Gideon's name from the pages of the Bible even though he messed up in several ways. The Lord didn't wipe out Israel even though in ancient times many of the citizens fell in and out of idolatry over and over. And the Lord hasn't wiped us out either! We've all made mistakes we wish we hadn't made but the Lord hasn't disowned us and cast us far away from His light and His love. He may have had to correct us from time to time, and He will no doubt have to correct us from time to time in the future, but He is still our Father. He still loves us. He still wants what's best for us. We'll end by quoting the words from a song often taught to children in Sunday school:
"He's still working on me
to make me what I ought to be.
It took Him just a week to make the moon and the stars,
the sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars.
How loving and patient He must be
'cause He's still working on me."
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