Tragedy Foretold: (Judges 8:33-35)

As soon as Gideon dies, the children of Israel return to worship false gods, abandon God and have no regard for Gideon’s sons. This was to be expected, after all, in his lifetime, he allowed the people to give him the reverence that should have been given to God alone.

In other words, though they stopped worshipping other gods, they ended up turning away from God and placed their trust in man, thereby doing the will of the devil. Therefore, they were still just as much servants of the devil as when they bowed to Baal. So when Gideon died, they continued to follow their master – the devil – and returned to what they did before.

Also, everything that Gideon tried to build – through his descendants – was destroyed by his own bad choices, as his son Abimelech killed his other brothers in an attempt to become king. Gideon did good for Israel whilst he was with God. From the moment he decided to follow his own mind, he could not even do himself any good.

This teaches us that the path of faith does not end with the exchange of spirit. It does not end when we descend from the Altar. It does not end when we win the war. When the war is won, we would need to triple our vigilance, because now the enemy could be our own hearts.

The devil will try to use whatever he can to bring us out of the faith after our victory. This is to make us focus on the things of this world, tempting us to absorb the praise of others (whether it’s sincere praise or flattery) or make us think that we now have the right to get some rest.

There is no rest in this struggle. Life is war, even when everything seems peaceful around us. Unfortunately, the end of Gideon’s story is a lesson in what not to do. However, it is possible to understand what he should have done to get it right, and what we must do in our own lives to avoid the snare that he fell into.

The secret to not losing all that we have conquered – and are yet to conquer – by faith (especially salvation) is to put God first (realising that we are second); to maintain a fear of Him (and maintain the notion that everything comes from Him); and to remain sincere and obedient to His will, without yielding to our own, until the end.

Whoever does this cannot go wrong.