Gideon and the Gospel

I’m reading through Judges at the moment, and the other day I came across the familiar story of Gideon. I was struck afresh by this story, particularly the striking ways in which it typifies the gospel.

In Judges 6.1-10, we learn that the people did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, so he gave them into the hand of Midian, an oppressive enemy, and the people are left in fear and want, for the Midianites and their friends devoured the produce of the land. Their particular crime we learn, when they cry out and he sends a prophet, was to fear the gods of the Amorites. Then the LORD comes to Gideon, whom he sends to deliver Israel from the hand of Midian, Gideon who is the least of his father’s house in the weakest clan (vv. 11-18). The LORD confirms his calling upon Gideon with a sign (vv. 19-24), and his mission from the LORD is to pull down the altars to Baal and Asherah and to construct an altar to the LORD. The LORD, through his servant, overthrows the false gods (vv. 25-27). When this is discovered, the people want to put him to death (vv. 28-32). The Midianites and their allies gather together against Israel, but Gideon is clothed with the Spirit and calls an army together (vv. 33-35). The LORD confirms to Gideon that he will save Israel with another sign, the sign of the fleece. “Putting out a fleece” often tends to be used in evangelical circles in the context of discerning God’s will. “If you want me to do X, then let Y happen”. But we’re not told whether or not to imitate this. If anything, putting out a fleece is a sign of Gideon’s lack of faith, having already received God’s word of promise and seen him perform a sign. But he’s not explicitly condemned. The point is that the LORD is confirming his servant with another sign (vv. 36-40). Gideon then leads out his army, but the LORD says there are too many and reduces the number to 300 “lest Israel boast saying, ‘My own hand has saved me’”. The LORD gives Midian in to the hands of Gideon and his men.

The situation Israel (whose calling was to be a new humanity, once again rightly related to God in his world) is in at the beginning of the chapter is the same as the situation of humanity after the Fall. The land is under a curse (Genesis 3.17-19) and because all humanity, not just Israel, ‘exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator’, God has handed us over to judgment, our dishonourable passions and impurity and all manner of unrighteousness, covetousness, malice, envy, murder, strife and deceit (Romans 1.18ff). Our world, like the Israel of Judges 6, is a world of fear and oppression and want, under the judgment of God. Yet Christ, the carpenter’s son from Nazareth is God’s appointed servant for the salvation of Israel and the world. He is attested to by God with many signs and wonders. He casts out demons, overthrowing the devil’s power. His actions cause people to want to kill him (e.g. Luke 4.28-29). By his death and resurrection, he saves us, dealing with the underlying problem that no one else could, bearing the punishment for sin, so that we can be forgiven and all who are opposed to God and his people are defeated, as they are robbed of all grounds of accusation and means of oppression: ‘”Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ’ - 1 Corinthians 15.54-57. Christ’s ministry is the fulfilment of the pattern seen with Gideon: ‘God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God’ - 1 Corinthians 1.28-29.