FROM TODAY’S RECAP: - Judges 7:24 - TBR LIVE Tour Note: We provide links to specific resources; this is not an endorsement of the entire website, author, organization, etc. Their views may not represent our own. SHOW NOTES: - Follow The Bible Recap: Instagram | Facebook | TikTok | YouTube - Follow Tara-Leigh Cobble: Instagram - Read/listen on the Bible App or Dwell App - Learn more at our Start Page - Become a RECAPtain - Shop the TBR Store - Credits PARTNER MINISTRIES: D-Group International Israelux The God Shot TLC Writing & Speaking DISCLAIMER: The Bible Recap, Tara-Leigh Cobble, and affiliates are not a church, pastor, spiritual authority, or counseling service. Listeners and viewers consume this content on a voluntary basis and assume all responsibility for the resulting consequences and impact.
Full Episode
Hey Bible Readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap. Yesterday we met Israel's fifth judge, Gideon. He was full of self-doubt, but God used him to win the war against the Midianites. Today we open with the tribe of Ephraim having the strangest complaint of all. They're mad they weren't invited to the war. They seem to pride themselves on being warriors.
It's part of their identity, so they feel insulted that Gideon only had them come in as backup yesterday in chapter 7. But they calm down a bit when Gideon praises their previous military victories. Then Gideon and his crew head across the Jordan River into the area of the Transjordan tribes. They're trying to capture two of the Midianite kings so they can finish off the war.
Gideon asks some of the people in East Manasseh to feed his army, and they deny him. He's from West Manasseh, so these guys technically are from the same tribe, but they offer no support, and he promises to destroy their town of Succoth. Then he moves on to Penuel, a city in Gad, which is the neighboring tribe to the south, and they deny him food too, so he promises to destroy their local tower.
His anger is warranted because these are fellow Israelites and they're supposed to help each other out, especially in war efforts, but Gideon's response does seem a bit extreme, like he's still operating out of insecurity and has something to prove. Even though he'd just had a military victory, he never wielded a sword. He just smashed a jar and blew a trumpet.
And now he's been twice rejected by his own people in front of his army. But Gideon persists. Even hungry, he chases down the two Midianite kings, Ziba and Zalmunna. He captures them, kills them, and steals their crescent ornaments. Then he goes back and fulfills his threats to Succoth and Penuel. Today's reading about Gideon's conquest has a really different feel than yesterday's, doesn't it?
You may have noticed that there's no mention of God here. This seems to be something he was doing of his own volition. There's more that's happening in his heart, and it's revealed as we continue reading. When Israel tries to make him king, he says, No, no, not me. God is your king.
But then he immediately asks for all their gold jewelry, about 40 pounds of it, and things start to feel a little too familiar. He now has at least two sets of royal garments and ornaments from the Midianite kings, and he's making a golden ephod for himself.
You may remember that the ephod was something only the high priest was allowed to wear, so to make his own ephod was in direct violation of God's commands and an extreme act of arrogance. Insecurity and arrogance are just different sides of the same pride coin. Yesterday, the coin was tails up and we saw Gideon fearful and full of self-doubt.
But today the coin has flipped, heads up, and he's puffed up and full of himself. The entire time Gideon has been the judge of Israel, it has never been about God. It hasn't even been about Israel. It's always been about Gideon. During his position as judge, Israel has peace from war, but they do not have peace with God. They're whoring after Gideon and his ephod.
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