After Pentecost Devotional - Day 67

“Then once again the Israelites started disobeying Yahweh, so he let the nation of Midian control Israel for seven years.” Judges 6:1

The cycles came and went between faithfulness and unfaithfulness. The people would rally to serve Yahweh under one judge, then forsake Yahweh to worship the gods of the peoples round about. They would become contented with the bounty of the land and succumbed to the promise of greater agricultural bounty promised by the fertility cults. Instead of relying upon Yahweh's provision to be sufficient for all, they would act in greed, seeking to build up personal wealth while allowing others to go without.

With the Midianite plague, the invaders would come in to steal the crops Israel had harvested, taking from them the bounty of their granaries. Then, when the people found themselves desperate as a whole, they returned to cry out to Yahweh. This was no cry of faithfulness. It was a recognition that they had erred by not caring for the needy among them. Such would be the critique of the prophets like Amos, Isaiah, Ezequiel, and Jeremiah. It would be the message of the prophet who comes to speak to Gideon.

We find Gideon in the same scenario that had been playing out in Israel. Instead of caring for the needs of the larger community, he was hiding grain for himself and his family from the larger plague of Midianite aggression. He was planning to store grain in some cave to keep it away from those who would steal it and leave him without.

That is the situation from which the prophet addresses Gideon. Israel's unfaithfulness was reflected not simply in the altar to Baal built by Gideon's father. It was visible in Gideon's own actions seeking to hide provision away for his own use with no thought regarding the needs of others.

Yahweh's conversation with Gideon to follow would focus on teaching him to rely upon the sufficiency of Yahweh. As God had promised to supply the needs of the nation with abundance, so also, God would use Gideon and supply their need in regard to liberation from their oppressor.

This would not be a story of human might, of ingenuity, of being stronger, faster, or larger than others. It would be a story of reliance upon Yahweh and simply following in faithfulness against all the perceived odds. Regardless of what Gideon saw before him in terms of a way forward, Yahweh would prove to be sufficient in unexpected ways.

This was the challenge for Gideon in standing up to the Midianite army. It was his challenge in standing against the idolatry of his community in tearing down his father's altar to Baal. It was the challenge for Israel as a whole to return to an attitude of dependence upon the faithful provision of Yahweh, of living in the sufficiency of God's provision for their needs.

Idolatry is not simply about worshipping idols. It is more basic than that. It is about distrusting God to be faithful, sufficient, and worthy of our obedience to living according to higher values.

Assess the limits of your own dependence upon God, your trust in God's purposes.


"Lord, help me to trust that your instructions and directions are worthy of my trust."

—©Copyright 2016, Christopher B. Harbin

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