Lessons from Gideon on pride

This week, I had the final study of the academic year with the small group leaders at Lancaster University CU. It was our sixth study in the book of Judges.

For the past three weeks, we've been looking at the Gideon narrative in chapters 6-8. Chapters 6 and 7 were more familiar to me - the theme of grace screams loud. The LORD appears to a cowering Gideon and commands him to lead Israel into battle. Although Gideon is weak, the LORD promises to be with him - and God plus one is a majority. In the battle itself, famously Gideon's army is shrunk until it is 1/400th the size of the Midianite army - yet he still wins. Plenty of evidence, then, to show both Gideon and the Israelite nation that it's the LORD that delivers them, then?

Erm, no. As chapter 8 unfolds, the Israelite nation start a form of hero worship of Gideon (offering him to be the first king in a hereditary monarchy). Although Gideon declines, he shows himself to be proud. Perhaps he even started believing himself that his own efforts had led Israel to victory. And so he makes himself a golden ephod (at the best, over-stepping the authority he had a judge; at worst, condoning the hero worship) and, despite rejecting the kingship, starts living a kingly lifestyle. He assembles a harem and has plenty of children - a form of displaying affluence in the ancient world. Even worse, he calls one of his sons Abimelech - or 'my father is the king'. Despite having a form of godliness, Gideon confuses the LORD's power with his own. He takes the credit for the LORD's victory, even though he had so much evidence of his own weakness.

It appears that there's a big lesson to those in any form of Christian ministry. Our theological conviction might be that, without Christ, we can do nothing. Yet it's very easy to look at the fruits of our ministry and start patting ourselves on the back. Like Gideon, we forget our weakness and the reliance on God we once felt, and we become proud. The LORD, who has provided the transforming power, is forgotten. We're tempted to think we're worthy of a big golden ephod.

I remember one evangelistic talk that I gave a couple of years ago. I felt awful throughout the whole of the day I was due to give it, having not slept very well the night before. Prayer alone kept me going that night I think. Half way through the talk, I remember thinking that I should give up, so convinced was I that my efforts were in vain. I was weak and I knew it.

God used that talk to save people there that night. At the time, I was literally dumbfounded. God's strength was made perfect in my obvious weakness. Yet, two years later, I know that my heart is sometimes tempted to feel proud of my efforts that night. It's so easy to forget that which Gideon forgot: the LORD's power graciously given to weak people. At worst, my heart sometimes longs to be able to assemble a big golden ephod.

The lesson of Gideon is a sad one. He started well, yet ended badly and miserably. The ephod became a snare to Gideon and his family. In addition, Gideon's sin had prolonged effort - as we read in Judges 9 and the account of Abimelech. Much better to prayerfully realise that God alone saves and transforms. Much better to ascribe to him the power and the glory, and to be amazed that God uses individuals just like us. I've found Piper's APTAT acronym helpful to prevent my heart from getting proud. Let us not become like Gideon, but learn the lesson.

Lessons from Judges, Part 3

Been doing some more work on Judges as I prepare the small group leaders' notes for Lancaster University Christian Union.

Most recently, I've been doing work on Judges 3:5-31 which gives an account of the first three judges Othniel, Ehud and Shamgar. Tim Chester's recent post very helpfully shows the cyclical nature of proceedings in Judges: a downward spiral of idolatry and disobedience that is punctuated by God's gracious actions on behalf of his people through the judges he raises.

However, what struck me today is the nature of the judges themselves. Othniel is often help up as the 'typical' judge; he embodies all of the things that we'd want a judge to have: of good stock, inspired by the Spirit, and so on. Yet the truth is that Othniel must have been pretty old by the time he led Israel to victory in war. Chapter 1 speaks of how Othniel was Caleb's nephew. He was probably a pensioner by the time he became judge and defeated the Cushanites.

Ehud is more better known as being a less than orthodox judge. He couldn't use his right hand. It may well have been withered. Yet it is that very disability and a bizarre set of circumstances that God uses to deliver his people.

Shamgar is perhaps the most elusive of all of the judges. Compared to the chapters that other judges receive in recording their exploits, Shamgar receives just one sentence. Yet the commentaries tell me that even Shamgar was a surprising judge. His name is Canaanite. It seems that God used a very recent convert to deliver him. And that he did with what he had: an ox-goad.

And so there we have it: a pensioner, someone that is disabled and a recent convert from paganism are those that God uses. I think Paul would have called them 'jars of clay' - ordinary people, nothing special to look at. But this, of course, is how the God of grace chooses to work; he uses ordinary and weak people and resources them to do his work, showing that his all-surpassing power is from himself and not from us.

What a relief! I may be an Othniel or an Ehud or a Shamgar: I may be physically weak, I may be the butt of jokes, I may not be as wise as others. But I can be confident that the God of grace will use me nonetheless.

Lessons from Judges, Part 2

Tim Chester has written recently about one of the surprises that comes at the end of Judges 2 and the beginning of Judges 3: what God says about leaving the pagan nations in Israel's midst.

The most basic reason for allowing these pagan nations to continue in Israel's appointed land is not difficult to spot: Israel was not faithful in driving them out (as we see in Chapter 1). However, it was certainly without God's power to drive out these nations without any help from Israel at all. Why has God allowed the pagan nations to remain?

The reason is given in 2:22: so that God might test Israel by them. There are two sorts of test in Scripture: one is the test given to ascertain faithfulness, the other is the test given in the sense of 'proving something'. For example, Abraham was already credited with righteousness when he was asked to sacrifice Isaac. The 'test' God gave Abraham illustrated to him that God was trustworthy. In Judges 2-3, I believe we're reading about the second kind of 'test': the nations will remain as a test to prove God's faithfulness to his people, and for them to learn and experience reliance on him. Given the back-seat of God's word in the book of Judges (the Law goes completely unmentioned), God reveals himself in a new way: in the midst of pressure and warfare.

The reason that God didn't just eliminate these nations is stated again in 3:4; that Israel's commitment to God's word would be proven. If they would be faithful to the word of God, these other nations would not hinder them, and they would grow strong enough to drive them out completely, whilst at the same time knowing that the victory came only because of the LORD's commitment to them.

As I have thought about this passage, I have found this action by God staggaring. He longs for relationship with his people, where the joyfully submit everything to him as Lord. And he shows this commitment both through giving his word and - in this case - even when his word is obscured, through providing experiences (good and bad) by which people might come to rely on him more.

Lessons from Judges 1

I’ve been working today on a small group study on Judges 1:1-2:5. Judges isn’t a book I know very well, and so it’s been a joy to dig into this challenging chapter.

Essentially this section of Judges needs to be read within the context of God’s promises to Israel about the invasion of Canaan that he makes throughout the books of Numbers, Deuteronomy and Joshua. In these books, God promises the land to be a gift to the people of Israel, where they will experience his blessings and rest. He warns the people to ruthlessly remove the pagan peoples and their idols from the land; both as a form of judgement against their sin (see Genesis 15:12-21), and to free Israel from the temptations of idols and other false gods. The land is to be a place where God’s people willingly submit to him as their ruler without distraction (see Deuteronomy 12:3 and Numbers 33:50-56).

The book of Joshua is generally positive: the people enter the land, win victory after victory under Joshua as they trust in the LORD’s promises and strength, and experience something of his peace, rest and blessing. Judges, however, opens with the death of Joshua. Although the people’s immediate response is to enquire of the LORD and to obey him (Judges 1:1-7), things soon fall apart.

Judges 1 is the sad story of how the tribes of Israel fail to drive the people and their idols out of the land of Canaan for the sake of convenience and ease. The Israelite tribes continually make the indigenous tribes merely subservient to them, rather than ridding them from the land completely. In doing so, not only do they settle for ‘second best’ in the land, but (more worryingly), they disobey the very God that delivered them from Egypt. God’s sad verdict comes at the beginning of Chapter 2: Israel has not obeyed his voice – and for that, they will suffer. The indigenous tribes will never be driven out; they will be thorns in Israel’s sides and their gods will be a snare, just as God had said they would (Numbers 33:55).

Here are some implications for us that I think we can make from this sad story:

• God’s justice must be done. He is a God of justice and demands that justice is brought about. This is seen in microcosm with the story of Adoni-Zedek. Romans 3:25-26 say that God would act ‘out of line’ with his character if he were not to punish sin. The amazing thing is that, in Christ, he is just and the justifier of the guilty.
• The failure of the people of Israel to love and treasure the LORD God in the land shows that a more radical change is needed: a complete change of heart. This, of course, was the change that Jeremiah prophesied (Jeremiah 31:33), brought about as a person is ‘born again’ through the cleansing of the cross. In Christ, a Christian is a ‘new creation’ – and we long for our bodies to be redeemed and made new too.
• Although Christ has taken the punishment of the sins of those who have placed trust in him, we still have to face the consequences of our sin. The people of Israel had to live with the consequences of rejecting God in their lack of ruthlessness against idolatry. We, too, may face serious consequences when we disobey God, disbelieve his promises and fail to deal with the idolatry of our hearts.