Judges: Chapters 6 to 10

Last time, we got into Judges.  Now we move into the story of Gideon and beyond:

CHAPTER 6

Time for a new hero – enter Gideon.  I don’t remember him at all from my previous Bible readings, but Daniel Plotz’s “The Good Book” really made me aware of him.  This is a judge who actually debates with God. 

Midian has ruled Israel for seven years, when the people cry to God, and God responds by sending the call to Gideon.  And Gideon does a Moses imitation when he gets the word.  Rather than just accepting, he needs a few things clarified, and doesn’t think he’s the real man for the job anyway.

 He first asks that if the Lord really is with them, how come they’ve been kicked around lately.  You got to admit – it’s a fair question.  God essentially dodges the question, saying to go forth with the word and power I’ve given you.  Not so fast, Lord.  Gideon has another good question: How can I save Israel?  He belongs to the poorest family in the tribe of Manasseh and he’s the least significant in his house.  This time God has an answer, and it’s a good one.  How can he save Israel – “I will be with you.”  OK, he’s got you there, Gideon. 

Random comment – I keep feeling I should capitalize “he” when referring to God.  It is traditional.  But the Bible in front of me doesn’t do that.  Huh.  I may as well follow the Bible’s lead.

Anyhow, Gideon still isn’t quite ready – give me a sign.  He gets one in a fire in some food.  Gideon’s skittishness and insecurity is actually rather charming here.  He’s finally convinced and builds an altar, one that exists “To this day” we are told.

Well, Gideon’s first mission is to pull down his dad’s altar to Baal.  That’s a reasonable first step, but then again it is his dad’s altar.  That’s tough to do, and we’ve seen how skittish Gideon can be.  So he does it at night.  The Bible flatly says he’s too scared to do it in daylight in front of his dad and the townsmen.  Anyhow, day comes and people see it and soon everyone knows Gideon did it.  There are calls for stoning him, but the old man sticks up for his son.  If Baal really is a powerful god, he’ll get Gideon himself.  

Time to start taking bigger action.  Gideon gets his trumpet – yes, if you’ve ever heard of Gideon’s trumpet, it’s a real thing and it comes from the Bible.  He calls for the people of Manasseh, Naphtali, Asher, and Zebulun to join him.  Gideon then gives one of my favorite statements anyone has ever made to God yet, “If indeed you are going to save Israel through me, as you have said,” – and then he gives the rest of his statement.  I love that – “If” and “as you have said.”  I’m not trying to be snarky towards God, but there is just something so human about this, something so in character for Gideon.  He believes it’s God alright – he doesn’t have much doubts on that.  But he is still unsure – I’m the vessel of saving Israel?  Me?  - and he’s still not fully sure that God really does tend to save everyone.  So he’s being obedient, following the Lord’s instructions, but he still has his very real and very human doubts creeping up behind it all the time. 

Anyhow, he respectfully and diplomatically requests another test – two tests, actually. Have a wet fleece on dry ground, and then a dry fleece on dewy ground.  It’s not the most dramatic of miracles ever requested, but even that is so perfectly Gideon.  He’s talking to the all-powerful God, but he’s nervous about asking for too much.  He’s asking the Lord to do some laundry to prove that he really is Lord.  No sense in asking for too much when you’re just little old Gideon, least thought of member of the poorest family in the tribe of Manasseh.

By the way, so far the main judges have come from Judah, Benjamin, Manasseh, and Ephraim.  The first two will be part of Judea and the others are the Josephian tribes.  Those are the ones that typically get the most attention in the role calls for tribes.  I don’t think that’s entirely a coincidence.  Well, we still have two more big judges left after we’ve finished Gideon (Jephthah and Samson). 

CHAPTER 7

This is also about Gideon, but the story becomes more conventional, as it’s about his military exploits.  Thus enduring characteristics from Chapter 6 are gone, but it was a fun ride while it lasted. 

That said, there is an interesting feature to his army – God tells Gideon it’s too big.  God says your army is so big that when they win, people will assume it was themselves that freed the land, and not God.  Well, you can’t have that.  So Gideon called his army and said that anyone feeling afraid can leave.  Out of 32,000, over two-thirds – 22,000 – hit the rode.  Wow, that’s a lot.  I just imagine a cascading effect, where once more and more left, only the really pure of heart stuck around. 

However, God still isn’t satisfied.  10,000?  Still too many, so Gideon has to get rid of some more. He has his men drink by a river, and those that lap it up with their tongues like a dog can stay.  Those that cup their hands and drink that way must leave.  The hell?  Naturally, most people cup their hands, because they’re not dogs.  In fact, only 300 drink like dogs, so that’s all that stay.

Imagine this one from the point of view of the soldiers – both those staying and those leaving.  OK, it’s one thing to dismiss guys who feel afraid.  But once you’ve said you’re not afraid, you’re still made to go because you drink water like a normal person?  What kind of leader is this Gideon guy anyway?  If I was a dog-lapper, I’d be tempted to take off right then.  It’s one thing to stick around because you’re not afraid.  But what happens when your leader dismisses 97% of the forces for an apparently asinine reason?  Suddenly this fight seems less like liberation and more like utter suicide.

Well, maybe that’s what explains what happens next – a soldier has a dream, and the troops interpret the dream to mean that Gideon will triumph.  Yeah, they could use a pick-me-up after seeing their number drop from 32,000 to 300. 

The 300 go with Gideon and that’s the band that frees Israel.  And they win with a novel bit of trickery.  They set up at three points outside the enemy camp, 100 men per point.  Then they all blow their horns, break their jars, and scream for Israel.  The forces inside the camp are so taken aback at al the loud noise from so many places at once that they scatter into each other, and begin to fight one another.  Gideon’s men don’t have to fight at all, the opposing army is slaughtering itself.  Neat, but this doesn’t sound too realistic. Eventually, Gideon’s men do attack in the confusion and take some key prisoners.

CHAPTER 8

Gideon now has the initiative and goes after the remaining enemies.  He and his 300 men need some food and water from nearby peoples, the Succcoth and the people of Penuel, but they both refuse.  They are still too afraid of the guys Gideon is fighting.  Gideon makes a note of this.  He’ll be back.  He promises to make them eat thorns and briers, because they wouldn’t help his men when they were famished.

So he and his men finish the campaign successfully.  Then they turn around and make the leaders of the Succoth and the Penuel eat thorns and briers.  Gideon is a much more confidant leader than he was before, and we should expect that.  He’s no longer the lowliest son of a the poorest family of the entire tribe, but the military leader called by God – and confirmed by God with multiple signs – who has just whumped on the enemies of Israel but good.  He’s no longer the guy destroying altars at night but the guy making community leaders eat briers in broad daylight.

The people of Israel want Gideon to rule over them, and he says they should get God to rule over them.  Hmmm – that’s nice and pious, but not very practical.  God doesn’t do the detail work on this stuff, Gideon. 

Actually, it looks like Gideon starts backsliding right after this nice, pious statement.  He makes an object (an ephod, whatever that is) out of gold, and the Bible tells us that became a snare for Gideon and his household.  He puts the golden ephod in his hometown and Israel prostituted itself there.  That’s the word the Bible uses – prostituted.  This is unexpected.  Josiah has been the big hero for three chapters now, but it looks like he’s ending on a down note.  He’s a precursor to David – a humbly born warrior leader who falters near the end of his life. 

At any rate, Israel is free for 40 years, and then he dies.  He has 70 sons (!) thank to his many wives, but one son in particular is of note: Abimelech.  We’re told that once Gideon dies the people start prostituting – there’s that word again – before Baal.  It really isn’t much of a shift, given that they were already going the wrong direction later under Gideon.

CHAPTER 9

At 57 verses, this is one of the longest chapters in the Bible.  It’s the story of Abimelech, the son of Gideon, who is one of the villains of the book of Judges.  There are a half-dozen major judges profiled, and a half-dozen minor ones, but Abimelech is unlucky #13, the anti-judge. 

He’s the bad guy cautionary tale.  One of 70 sons, he decides that he doesn’t want to share power, and has all his brothers killed on a stone.  Well, one gets away, Jotham, the youngest.  Abimelech becomes the top dog in Israel.  Actually, this sounds less like judges and more like kings.  The line of Gideon might officially be judges but it reads like an attempted early monarchy that just didn’t take. 

He rules Israel for three years by working with the Shechem, who are apparently another people.  It looks like the Schechem are the big dogs in the relationship, but Abimelech gets Israel out of the deal.  From here, however, it’s easy to get lost in the weeds of political intrigue.  Apparently, the Shechem cease to trust Abimelech.  The Bible says God “put an evil spirit between Abimelech and the lords of Shechem.”  I’d love to know the background there. 

But the point is fighting broke out.  Abimelech has some success destroying some of his enemies, but when he enters a town called Thebez, things all come crashing down on him.  I meant that last bit at the end of the sentence as a cliché, but it’s actually very appropriate as things literally do come crashing down on him.  The Bible says a women cast a millstone on his head from a tower, and it killed him.  The Bible just says, “A certain woman.”  There is no other description.  That’s odd.  There are times in the Bible where no name is given, but just putting in that modify “certain” makes it sound like the writer has some sense who it was.  He likely doesn’t, but it’s just a bit odd.

So that kills him – or wait, no – not quite.  He’s on the verge of death when he tells a servant to kill him with his sword, “so they will not say about me, `A woman killed him.’”  So his servant killed him anyway, but it’s still the woman who really did it.

CHAPTER 10

This is a minor chapter about minor judges.  You have Tola and Jair.  They judge Israel for 23 and 22 years respectively.  Tola is from Ephraim and Jair from “the land of Gilead.”  Wait – Gilead?  That’s one of the two mystery tribes from the Song of Deborah!  What are they still doing around.  I have no idea.  The Bible does say the land of Gilead “are called Havvorth-jair to the present day.”  Oh.  Damn shame I have no idea what that means.  Checking Wikipedia. “Gilead” is a place, and the name has come up several times before Judges.  It’s the land west of the river where Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh live.  So the Bible says “land of Gilead” for a reason – we’re not talking about a tribe here.

At any rate, the Israelites screw up, as is their nature, and go away from God.  So the Philistines take them over and they cry out to God after eight years under Philistine and Ammonite control. 

God, interestingly, refused to help at first.  He says you abandoned me, so I will save you no more.  (Again – when it’s one of these generic “God says” moments, who exactly is he talking to, anyway?  At any rate, the Hebrew get rid of all their bad altars and rededicate themselves to the Lord. They cry out more to him, and he agrees to do something to help.  He tells them that the one who begins the war against the Ammonites will be the new hero.

Click here for the next installment of Judges - Chapters 11 to 16