Most of us only know Gideon for the trumpets and torches. What followed that battle is less familiar.

The camp of Midian is in utter confusion with Gideon and his men blowing their trumpets and shouting.

😲🥷⛺️🎺🔥😬😱⚔️🫣🗡️😡🥷😵‍💫🎺🫨😧

Some of the enemy soldiers flee. Some turn and fight one another. There were, after all, 3 different groups (Midianite, Amalakite, easterners) and Josephus mentions that they spoke different languages.

If you were a soldier jerked out of sleep by something that sounded like a tornado siren and a bunch of wild men yelling, you’d grab your weapon, run out of the tent in the dark and if you encountered a wide-eyed man in the dark shouting in a language you didn’t know, you’d probably assume he was the enemy and start swinging.

Many of them began to retreat, so Gideon sends for the 10,000 guys who were left back in camp because they kneeled down to drink water. And they chased the Midianites, killing many thousands, including their 2 generals who sound like they came straight out of a Nickelodeon cartoon: Oreb and Zeeb. Zeeb was, rather ironically, killed in his own winepress – which is a kind of echo of Gideon threshing wheat in a winepress.

Then Gideon and his 300 continue chasing the rest of the army and the other two Nickelodeon characters: Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.

Seriously though… Oreb, Zeeb, Zebah, and Zalmunna. Don’t they sound like they look like this?

See what I mean? 😆

Judges chapter 8 is the origin of the familiar English idiom, “taught them a lesson.”

Gideon and his men were tired from pursuing Zebah & Zalmunna and the remaining army and two different towns refused to give them any food. Bad choice.

What started out as a massive army of 120,000 was worn down to 15,000 guys. We get no details in the text of how 300 men defeated 15,000 or if they just surrendered when their kings were captured, but either way, Gideon and his men won.

And he went back the first town that refused them food, hauled out their leaders, and wore out their backsides – not with a peach tree limb, but with basically blackberry brambles. Briars. And the text actually says Gideon “taught them a lesson.” 👀😬

At the second town he killed the men and knocked down the tower in town.

Gideon finds out that Zebah and Zalmunna had his brothers killed so he returns the favor and kills both of them.

Gideon is now a national hero. He has overthrown the Midianites. Remember – the Midianites were SO cruel and oppressive that much of Israel had been living in survival bunker conditions. Now they can travel the roads, trade in markets, and thresh their wheat like normal people again. They want to set him up as their ruler complete with a family dynasty. And Gideon refuses. He pushes the people back toward Yahweh as their ruler.

But…

(There’s always a but.)

Gideon – though greatly used by God – was not a paragon of virtue. In a story that is uncomfortably similar to the Golden Calf, Gideon collects a pile of golden earrings and pendants and melts them down. Only instead of golden calf “popping out” of the mold, he apparently has the gold pounded flat, twisted into gold threads and woven into an unauthorized, golden priestly ephod.

Ok. I have questions.

1. How did Gideon know what an ephod was? Had he been to Shiloh for sacrifice or something and seen the High Priest?
2. Of ALL the things you could make with 43 pounds of gold, why an ephod?
3. Did the people think that the golden ephod somehow represented Yahweh (like with the Golden Calf?) Did they believe they were being loyal to Yahweh by worshiping the ephod?

This whole situation looks like what scholars call “syncretism.”

It’s not so much that they entirely forgot Who Yahweh was, it’s that began to think of Him as being no different than the other gods. If you jump through enough mental hoops you can make an idol and genuinely believe you are honoring the God who commanded people to not make idols or worship them.

The golden ephod is what it looks like to worship the Lord according to what people think is best rather than how God says He is to be worshiped. People make things that LOOK like legit tools of ministry. In fact, they might even look better than the original. I mean, the ephod at the Tabernacle in Shiloh is well over 200 years old and it’s made of dyed yarn with gold woven in. This one is new and bright and solid gold!

People knew that the ephod (and the mysterious urim and thummim it contained) were tools for hearing from God. Moses had used it. Joshua too. I’m sure people told those legendary stories around the campfire. The whole idea of this piece of priestly gear had an aura of the supernatural about it. To people who did not know the Word of God given to Moses (which was basically everyone), the ephod was a magic cloak like the mystical regalia worn by the priests of the other gods.

Verse 27 says that this golden ephod became a trap for Gideon and his family. Gideon will judge Israel for 40 years and there will be peace, but Gideon is also living the high life with his golden ephod, many wives, 70 sons, and a mistress on the side. We’re going to see in the next, tragic chapter, what happens in a family when they are caught in the trap of idolatry. Hint: there is no fear of God and every man does that which is right in his own eyes.