Word Live: Contender
What concerns are competing with God for your attention? Write them down so you can set them aside to focus on him exclusively now.
Bible passage
Judges 6:25–40
25 That same night the Lord said to him, ‘Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. 26 Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering.’
27 So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the townspeople, he did it at night rather than in the daytime.
28 In the morning when the people of the town got up, there was Baal’s altar, demolished, with the Asherah pole beside it cut down and the second bull sacrificed on the newly-built altar!
29 They asked each other, ‘Who did this?’
When they carefully investigated, they were told, ‘Gideon son of Joash did it.’
30 The people of the town demanded of Joash, ‘Bring out your son. He must die, because he has broken down Baal’s altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.’
31 But Joash replied to the hostile crowd around him, ‘Are you going to plead Baal’s cause? Are you trying to save him? Whoever fights for him shall be put to death by morning! If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar.’ 32 So because Gideon broke down Baal’s altar, they gave him the name Jerub-Baal that day, saying, ‘Let Baal contend with him.’
33 Now all the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples joined forces and crossed over the Jordan and camped in the Valley of Jezreel. 34 Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him. 35 He sent messengers throughout Manasseh, calling them to arms, and also into Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali, so that they too went up to meet them.
36 Gideon said to God, ‘If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised – 37 look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing-floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.’ 38 And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew – a bowlful of water.
39 Then Gideon said to God, ‘Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.’ 40 That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Explore
The toppling of Saddam Hussein’s statue in Baghdad in 2003 was a dramatic symbol of the end of the dictator’s rule. Similarly, Gideon’s destruction of the local Baal altar, and building of an altar to the Lord (vs 25–27), symbolises an end to idolatry and a return to exclusive worship of Israel’s covenant God. Whatever God is going to do through Gideon to deliver his people, there is to be no question that it is God, not Baal, who is acting to save. Serving two masters makes it difficult to give credit where it’s due, and so always risks dishonouring God – better to serve him alone (Matthew 6:24)!
Although the Baal altar belonged to him (v 25), Gideon’s father is quick to abandon his idolatry, having interpreted the night’s events as exposing Baal to be a false god powerless to defend himself (v 31). This is further emphasised by Gideon’s ‘fleece games’ with God (vs 36–40). Encouragingly for us, the narrator has no interest in judging Gideon’s repeated requests for reassurance. Rather, the tests serve to prove that God, unlike Baal, has real power – even over the forces of nature – and is therefore alone worthy of worship.
Respond
Look at the concerns you noted down earlier; talk to God about them and ask him to help you ensure that none displaces him as first priority in your life.
Deeper Bible study
Take a few moments to bring before the Lord an issue in your life which you don’t usually reveal to others.
The name ‘Gideon’ means ‘chopper’, and here he lives up to his name in an assault on his father’s idolatry, gaining an additional name in the process (v 32)! ‘But because he was afraid of his family and the townspeople, he did it at night rather than in the daytime’ (v 27). This all-too-human mixture of faith and fear characterises Gideon at this point in his life. His two experiments with the fleece (vs 36–40) show that his faith is not yet strong enough to act simply on the Lord’s word; this is made clear by his prayer in verse 36: ‘If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised …’ (italics added). Note too that this struggle to believe comes after the Spirit of the Lord has come upon him (v 34).
This soft centre of Gideon’s faith is not apparent to the ten servants who join him in the dangerous night-time adventure (v 27), nor to the members of the four tribes who answer his summons to engage in warfare against the invading hordes (vs 34,35). To these followers, he is a faith-filled, Spirit-anointed visionary leader of God’s people, with none of the doubts which in fact lie behind this facade. God does not seem to object to Gideon’s wavering and does not rebuke him; rather the Lord gives to him the signs which his faltering faith demands. A similar theme emerges in the story of Moses, whose assured leadership in public was built upon a prayer life which often included struggle and even argument with God.1
In the light of this, consider this comment by a football manager: ‘If players were closer to me, they would respect me less because they would see how I really am. It is better to see me at a certain distance than closer.’2
When is it appropriate for a Christian leader (or you!) to reveal her/his weaknesses to others?
1 Eg Exod 4:1–17; 5:22–6:1; 33:12–23 2 Marcelo Bielsa, manager of Leeds United FC, quoted in the i newspaper, 9 March 2019
