Judges 8:22 - Meaning and Application

Here is Gideon’s modesty after his great victory, when he refused the government the people offered him.

First, the people were right to offer it. They said, “Rule over us, because you have saved us” (Judges 8:22). They thought it was only fair that the man who had faced the danger and work of their rescue should also receive the honor and authority that came with leadership. They also saw that God had clearly been with Gideon in this crisis. We can apply that to the Lord Jesus: he has rescued us from our spiritual enemies, the worst and most dangerous ones, so it is fitting that he should rule over us. We cannot be better governed than by one who has such favor with heaven and such kindness toward this world. We are delivered so that we may serve him without fear (Luke 1:74-75).

Second, Gideon did well to refuse. He said, “I will not rule over you” (Judges 8:23). What he had done was meant to serve the people, not to make himself great. His aim was to make them safe, peaceful, and happy, not to lift himself up. He was not trying to set up power for himself, and he did not want to pass that power on to his family either: “My son will not rule over you. The Lord will rule over you.” That shows his humility and how little he thought of his own worth. He believed that the honor of doing good was reward enough. It also shows his respect for God’s rule. He would not accept any honor for himself that should belong to God alone. If the people were already turning from God’s direct rule and looking for a king like the nations, Gideon would not help them do it under the cover of his own name. No good man is pleased with honor that takes what belongs to God. “Were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Corinthians 1:13).

III. Gideon’s less wise zeal to keep the memory of this victory alive by making an ephod from the best of the spoil.

He asked the men of Israel to give him the earrings taken from the enemy, since the defeated soldiers had carried them in great numbers. He asked for them either because they were the finest gold and suitable for a sacred use, or because they had once been used for some superstitious purpose that he valued too highly. Aaron had once asked for earrings to make the golden calf (Exodus 32:2), and Gideon asked for earrings here (Judges 8:24). The people gladly gave them, since they had already offered him a crown and would not likely refuse this request (Judges 8:25). He also added the spoil he had taken from the kings of Midian, which seems to have fallen to his share (Judges 8:26). Leaders often received the most splendid part of the plunder, including decorated garments (Judges 5:30).

From all this he made an ephod (Judges 8:27), a sacred vest worn by priests. The idea may have seemed reasonable enough. He may have wanted to preserve a lasting memorial of so great a victory in his own city. But it was very unwise to make that memorial into a sacred object. I want to give the best possible reading to a good man’s actions, and Gideon was surely a good man. Still, we have reason to think this ephod had, as was often the case, a household idol or image linked with it (Hosea 3:4). Since he already had an altar built by God’s command (Judges 6:26), which he wrongly thought he could still use for sacrifice, he may have meant this ephod to serve as an object of inquiry, something people would consult when they needed guidance. That is what some learned writers think.

Each tribe was now acting more and more on its own, and the people were too ready to keep their religion close to home. We hear very little about Shiloh, where the ark was, in the book of Judges. Sometimes because of God’s permission, and much more often because of human sin, the law that required worship at one altar was not followed as carefully as it should have been. The same thing happened later, even in the days of good kings, when the high places were not removed. This helps us see that the law pointed further ahead, to Christ, through whose mediation, that is, his work as the one who brings God and people together, all our worship is accepted.

So Gideon sinned in making this ephod, even though he meant well. Shiloh was not far away, but it was in Ephraim, and that tribe had recently offended him (verse 1). He may therefore have preferred having something closer at hand for guidance. However honestly this may have begun, and however little harm it seemed to do at first, it later became dangerous. Israel began to follow it instead of God’s altar and priesthood. They were drawn toward false worship, partly because people are always eager for change, and partly because they could excuse their respect for this ephod by saying Gideon himself had set it up. Over time, their respect became more and more superstitious. Many people are led into error by one wrong step taken by a good man. Sin often begins, especially idolatry and self-made religion, like water breaking through a dam. That is why such a thing should be stopped before it gains strength. It also became a trap for Gideon himself. In his old age, it weakened his zeal for God’s house, and it brought greater harm to his family, who were drawn into sin through it, until it helped ruin the whole household.

Gideon also gave Israel peace (Judges 8:28). The Midianites, who had troubled them so much, never bothered them again. Gideon would not take the title or power of a king, but he did rule as a judge and did all the good he could for his people. The land was quiet for forty years. Up to this point, the years of Israel’s judges had often come in forties. Othniel judged forty years, Ehud eighty, which is two forties, Barak forty, and now Gideon forty. God seems to have ordered it this way to remind them of the forty years their fathers spent wandering in the wilderness. “Forty years I was grieved with that generation” (Psalm 95:10). See also Ezekiel 4:6. After this, Eli ruled forty years (1 Samuel 4:18), Samuel and Saul forty years each (Acts 13:21), David forty, and Solomon forty. Forty years is about the length of one generation.