Read Judges 8:1-21
Then the men of Ephraim said to him, “What is this that you have done to us, not to call us when you went to fight against Midian?” And they accused him fiercely. 2 And he said to them, “What have I done now in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abiezer? 3 God has given into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb, and Zeeb. What have I been able to do in comparison with you?” Then their anger against him subsided when he said this.
4 And Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed over, he and the 300 men who were with him, exhausted yet pursuing. 5 So he said to the men of Succoth, “Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.” 6 And the officials of Succoth said, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?” 7 So Gideon said, “Well then when the Lord has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will flail your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.” 8 And from there he went up to Penuel and spoke to them in the same way, and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered. 9 And he said to the men of Penuel, “When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower.”
As Gideon was routing the Midianites and running after them, he asked the help of the men of Ephraim, but instead of helping Gideon, they complained that they were not called in the heat of the battle. They were insulted for not being consulted to fight with Gideon. Gideon had to diplomatically talk to them of the reasons why so no conflict would occur between them.
Reading this, I was about to commend Gideon’s humility and diplomacy yet in the following verses, we see that it was not the case. In the following verses, Gideon asked for help from the Succoths, yet he was also treated without gratitude and respect, and instead of talking humbly and diplomatically, he threatened to kill them and destroy them. It was the same thing that happened in the land of Peniel.
Here are the responses of Gideon:
Ephraim: “What have I done now in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abiezer? 3 God has given into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb, and Zeeb. What have I been able to do in comparison with you?”
Succoth: 7 So Gideon said, “Well then when the Lord has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will flail your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.”
Peniel: 9 And he said to the men of Penuel, “When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower.”
Three different scenarios and two different response from Gideon. The reason Gideon was kind to Ephraim was that Ephraim was one of the strongest clan and had a strong military presence.
He had a different response to the people of Succoth and Peniel because he was expecting them to give honor and praise for his achievements that is rightfully God’s victory. Instead of pointing them to the power of God, he asserts his control over them with his threats.
Keypoint #1: We need to remember that it is God who gives us success
We sometimes easily forget that who is the source of your victory. We tend to grab the credit that does not belong to us because we feel we are the source of our success. What was unfortunate was that Gideon was true to his threats (verse 14-17), destroying and punishing his race and brothers.
Keypoint #2: Forgetting that God is our source of success can lead to an entitled life.
The need to be recognized and to succeed can become our main ambition in life. It can be an idol we try to pursue forgetting that it is the Lord who gives us the ability to produce wealth (Deut 8:18). When we become dependent on our success, a life of entitlement is most likely to happen. We have to guard our hearts and our minds from the lure of worldly success. We must leverage the success God gives us to bring glory and honor to His name.
Talk it over:
- Have you ever felt the same way as Gideon who feels disrespected? What would be the reasons behind that feeling?
- In your honest assessment, do you recognize with how you live that God is the source of your success or you feel that in some ways it is because of you?
- Do you have people around you that remind you to always acknowledge God in the midst of success? If not, take time to enlist men and women who can help you do that.
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