Gideon rose to be an amazing leader in Israel, but he didn’t finish his race without a terrible
compromise. Many of us remember Gideon best for the story of his fleeces. In order to be
completely sure that God was really sending him, Gideon set up a test for God involving fleece; mercifully, God answered him! When Gideon began his work as judge, Israel had fallen victim once again to their own idolatry. Gideon led a rebellion against the false god Baal and led Israel to overcome her physical enemies as well. It seems Gideon’s problem came from his success. Judges 8 tells us that when Gideon overcame the Midianites he took the earrings of the defeated enemy soldiers and made an ephod out of them. Judges 8:27 says, “Then Gideon made it into an ephod and set it up in his city, Ophrah. And all Israel played the harlot with it there. It became a snare to Gideon and to his house.” So, the idols of Baal were replaced with the idol of Gideon’s success. We must never lose track of who God is, or we, too, will continue in sin.
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Up Next in March 2026
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Samson; Judges 10-13
Sometime around 1100 BC, a woman was told by an angel that she would bear a son. We don’t know her name, but we do know the name of her husband, Manoah from the tribe of Dan. The child they would have would be raised as a Nazirite, specially dedicated to God, and he would grow to become a trouble...
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Nazirite;Judges 14-17
Samson was born already living as a Nazirite, and he was called before his birth to become a leader in Israel. This commitment to be separated to God for a special task was meant to keep him close God, to always have on his mind who God was and what he was called to. But often, Samson forgot his ...
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A Moabite Gains Protection; Ruth 1-4
A truly amazing story surfaces in the time of the Judges. It is the story of Ruth, the Moabitess. Ruth was not from Israel so she would not have fully known or understood the way Israelite culture operated, but she learned. Through her story, we will see how Ruth learned and chose the Israelite w...
