Judges 8: The Dangers of Being a Hero

When I was growing up, Sunday School was often full of the exciting stories from the Bible. The Lion's Den. Noah's Ark. David and Goliath. Gideon's 300 Men. Reading those same stories now, as an adult, makes me wish that I had learned the rest of their stories, because it turns out that being a "hero" can be a pretty dangerous profession, spiritually.

I had just finished reading Tim Keller's short, but profound, commentary on Judges and then was reading Judges again as part of my morning Bible reading when I came to chapter 8. Normally, in Sunday School, we only covered chapters 6 and 7, because that has all of the good bits about trimming down the army, using a fleece to determine God's plan, the visit to the Midianite army's camp and the noisy trumpet/pitcher/torch victory scene.

As in life, there is the hero's quest but then there's the hero's test.  The hero's quest involves overcoming the obstacles, internal and external, to reaching the goal. But the hero's test involves how you handle what comes after you've reached the goal. That's Judges, chapter 8.

In chapter 8, Gideon's men scatter the Midianite army and Gideon rallies the other tribes of Israel to cut off their retreat.

1. He has to downplay his own heroic deeds to placate one of the other tribes (8:1-3) that is much larger and more powerful.
2. When his heroic deeds are not recognized by people (8:4-9, 15-17) he promises and delivers revenge. (King David almost falls into the same trap in 1 Samuel 25)
3. He is taunted by his enemies about being the hero (8:18-21)
4. He turns down the offer of kingship, but takes the hero's reward, creates an idol in his home town (8:22-27), and draws Israel and his family away from God.

You can certainly see this played out in the world at large, and even within the microcosm of the church. We desire to be recognized and significant, not just in the eyes of God but in the eyes of other people. But we are clever enough to realize that if we are too blatant in our desire, it will back fire.

So it leads to a weird cycle of hide-it-crave-it-abuse-it behavior that we see in Gideon's life and ours as well. Gideon hides it from the Ephraimites who are more powerful, but wants it and takes it out on two villages who are less powerful. Gideon hides it from the Israelites by refusing to become king, but wants it and takes a reward, and then fashions it into the ephod that draws attention to his home town.

The cycle actually continues into the lives of Gideon's sons, especially Abimilek (vs. 31) in the next chapter: "They [Israel] also failed to show any loyalty to the family of Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) in spite of all the good things he had done for them." (Judges 8:25)

In church, we see these same desires for recognition played out, just a different venue. We work hard in church and sacrifice our time and our money and, in some cases, our reputation for the good of the church. We are overlooked. And if we are noticed, we have to downplay it so that we don't look too prideful. Then we get hurt because no one noticed or angry because someone else got noticed or someone treated us carelessly. Or if we are noticed, we use it regularly in the future to subtly point attention back to ourselves (and away from God).

Helen pointed me to a quote by Oswald Chambers, where he said,

Worldliness is not the trap that most endangers us as Christian workers; nor it is sin. The trap we fall into is, extravagantly desiring spiritual success measured by, and patterned after, the form set by this religious age in which we now live.

The truth is: Gideon didn't win because he was biggest, best or smartest, and neither do I. He won because he bet everything he did have on God and God is the biggest, best and smartest. Gideon's faith was nothing to shout about, it took two fleece miracles and a dream from God to move him along. But he had it. He bet everything because God... That phrase puts the credit right back where it belongs.

I struggle with this. I'm not sure how it plays out in every scenario. But I can see in Gideon's life and in my own life, the destructive down-side of needing to be recognized for my work in God's kingdom. And the positive up-side of recognizing God's win as my win.