If we can see it, Gideon’s identity crisis will teach us who we are in God’s eyes, and that’s enough.
You remember how much the Lord did to keep Israel from assuming they had won the victory? He selected the man who was “the least in my father’s house” and whose clan was “the weakest in Manasseh” (Jdg 6:15). He pictured him as a barley cake, the poor man’s food. He whittled his army down to 300 men. They were selected, not for their bravery, but because they drank water “as a dog laps” (7:5)! Into their hands were placed trumpets and torches, making them incapable of handling swords. Then God arranged for the Midianites to kill themselves. After the war was over, what was the FIRST thing from the Israelites’ mouth? “Rule over us, both you and your son, and your grandson also; for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian” (8:22). Glorifying men is in the blood, like original sin. Gideon, to his credit, responded, “I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you; the Lord shall rule over you” (v 23). If only that was the end of his answer. But he continued: “I would like…that each of you would give me the earrings from his plunder” (v 24). Taking the shekel at half an ounce, that would be 1,130 ounces, worth over two million dollars! But it gets worse. I shouldn’t be king, he said, but I’d like the kings’ jewelry and robes, to act like one. What about us? Do we forget these words, “There is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live” (1 Cor 8:6)? There’s one Lord, and we’re all servants. But it gets worse. Gideon made an ephod of it, and led all Israel away from the Lord. The man who started by cutting down idols ended up making one. The lesson? There’s only one Man we can fully trust; only He will never lead us astray.