A Scared Young Man
The story begins with a scared young man
When we first see Gideon in the book of Judges, he is a scared young man. This is because of the predicament in which his people find themselves beginning in Judges 6. The beginning of Judges 6 sets up the situation for the nation of Israel. Israel had entered the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua and had begun the task of driving out and executing God’s judgement upon the pagan and sinful people there. However, the people became sinful themselves. Their sins seems to be idolatry, the worship of false and foreign gods. They had picked up these foreign and false gods from the very people they opposed.
Judges 6:1 sums up the predicament for the nation of Israel,
“The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord” (Judges 6:1a, HCSB).
The people that were supposed to be God’s judgement on an idolatrous people became idolatrous themselves and then the object of God’s judgement.
The writer describes that judgement in the second part of the verse,
“So the Lord handed them over to Midian for seven years” (Judges 6:1b, HCSB).
Next Week: Discipline
Mark Riser - Apologist 