Life as a king: (Judges 8:29-32)

After everything was done and the land was now quiet, Gideon continued to accept honour from the children of Israel. He returned home and began to accumulate women for himself, to the point of having seventy children, as the kings of the neighbouring lands did.

Meaning, his statement of, “I will not reign over you, nor will my son. The Lord will reign over you,” was all talk. In practice, he was treated like a king, felt like a king and lived like a king. So much so that he had a son from a concubine he housed in Shechem, who was named Abimelech.

The name ‘Abimelech’, means “My father is king.” Why would a concubine give her son such a name when Gideon was not a king? Obviously, it was because that was how he saw himself and how he was seen. The Bible does not give us any additional detail concerning Gideon’s life. All it says is that he died at a good old age. Therefore, he had time to repent and make amends, and we hope he did.

However, what remains for us is the lesson that we need to be vigilant so that the victory we so dearly seek from the Altar, never takes God’s place. The faith that brought us to the Altar, that gave us victory with God, must be maintained, along with our fear and sincerity. The devil succeeded in stealing Gideon’s sincerity. He tried in vain to steal Job’s sincerity. This makes us realise that this is his modus operandi: he will always try to steal a person’s sincerity, so as to cut off their connection with God and make room to steal their soul. This is what we must watch out for.

Continues tomorrow…

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