Despite God’s miraculous salvation through Gideon, Israel fails to recognize Yahweh as their true savior and lord. They therefore seek to establish a dynasty through Gideon. Though he rebuffs them, his nerve seems to fail. He won’t be king—but he will try to uphold God’s kingship in a way that God never commanded: through a new “office” of “priest-judge.” Thus he ultimately subverts and destroys God’s rule, leading Israel into a snare which still appears in many forms throughout the church today.

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Although Gideon’s actions seem impulsive and erratic, carefully comparing them to God’s law reveals that they are thoroughly moderated by spiritual wisdom. He responds to every challenge appropriately: to the Ephraimates with patience and love; to Sukot and Penuel with zeal and justice; to the kings of Midian as an avenger of blood. Rather than being driven by his emotions to enact cruel personal vengeance, he is driven by the Spirit to enforce justice as demanded by Torah.

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We know that God satisfies our longings…but how often do we think about this in terms of being satiated with fat? Reflecting on his experience of sacrificial worship, David longs for these ordinances—and for what they represented. Yet in the new covenant age, we are given a spiritual banquet of fat things that are even better than the table David shared in.

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When Gideon’s success against Midian provokes Ephraim to contend jealously against him, he does not respond with rebuke, but with tenderness. Yet when the Israelite cities of Sukkot and Penuel contend against him, he has no mercy, instead promising to destroy them. Though the contrast seems jarring, his responses demonstrate his wisdom, insight, and righteousness, informed by the humility, subtlety, and holiness of the Spirit that is upon him.

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Since we are lights shining in earthen vessels, and our worship is with instruments and singing to God, making a loud shout, there is a clear connection between our spiritual warfare, and Gideon’s physical battle. Like Gideon, we too must cross into the world to pursue the enemy, completing the victory Christ began by routing their camp at the cross. Like Gideon, we execute judgment at the waters of baptism. And, like Gideon, we must strike the heads of our enemies…

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God has pity on us because he knows we are like weak and foolish children. Thus, Christian fathers are “children raising children,” and should model God’s pity toward their own children. A father’s insight into his children’s weakness should make him slow to anger, and willing to put his desire for adult peace and orderliness to death. Though we must discipline, we must not be disciplinarians—rather, we should imitate our Father in heaven, saying, “This is my son, in whom I am well pleased.”

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Though the covenant promise with Father Abraham is instituted through circumcision in Genesis 17, it is only ratified after he is willing to sacrifice the only son through whom this promise can be fulfilled. This event is a paradigm of Christian fatherhood, which flows from the Father himself. Many features of the text converge to instruct us in following both Abraham and God in sacrificing our sons; and in “seeing” God’s provision by faith, and “seeing to it” that their eyes are directed the same way.

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Cut off from the sanctuary by Saul, David thirsts to meet with God again in the worship of the saints. Yet for many Christians, the opposite is true: they feel closest to God in private, and experience little of his glory and power in church. Why is this, when God’s work in our lives is concentrated and manifested in the gathered body? Why is the modern church service so far from the glory David thirsted for, when he experienced only the shadow, and we have the substance? And how can we recover a drive like David’s, to experience God’s covenant love in church?

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Gideon knows the Midianite camp is given into his hand, but how shall he receive the victory? Why does he choose this strange method of warfare? The “sword of Gideon” involves no swords—instead horns and torches and pitchers. When he attacks, he does not advance upon the camp, but stands still. His strategy reflects the spiritual principles it is based upon, liturgically resonating with the cutting of God’s covenants. And it is a method God continues to use in the New Testament.

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If Gideon is afraid to go into the camp of Midian, God offers him yet another sign to help his unbelief: a dream recounted by a Midianite. The power of this sign is not in the dream itself, but in Gideon’s faith to discern its meaning. God continues to work through such dreams at times, and scripture explicitly tells us that these private revelations will be dark and riddle-like. Here we receive help for understanding the symbolic language of such dreams, and interpreting their meanings.

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