Daily Matza June 17th

Gideon Part 7: Wrapping Up After War

[Read JUDG 7:23-8:28]

Gideon made 3 great leadership decisions at the end of his life:

1. He immediately calls out the rest of his army to chase down and plunder the fleeing Midianites, as G-d had commanded him and them.
2. He finished the Midianite defeat, and kept his Douglas MacArthur promise of I will return, to annihilate enemies who were complicit with the other anti-Semites. [vss. 5-21] The final body count? With G-d’s help, Gideon’s army had killed a total of 120,000 of the enemies of Israel–by far the greatest battle record/body count of any Judge. [8:10]
3. The men of Israel tried to make Gideon their king, which he wisely refused. [vss. 22,23] But, unfortunately,he ended his tenure as Judge with one more seemingly bad I don’t know whether his motives were pure or not. But, it seems to me that given Israel’s spiritually wicked recent actions, he should’ve known better than to make an ephod–the ceremonial breastplate/vest of the high priest. First, he was not a Levite. Second, the amount of precious metals exceeded 40 pounds. Third, he hung it up instead of having a priest wear it. Fourth, the resultwas all Israel played the harlot with it there. It became a snare [noose, nose-hook] to Gideon and to his house/tribal family.

Wisdom is the greater part of valor, the saying goes. Make good decisions. Confess your faults, Make right your wrongs. Finish well. Never cower to bullies or do the expeditious thing.

Follow what the L-rd says.

Selah…Shalom…