When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. And they said to one another, ‘Who has done this thing?’ And after they had searched and inquired, they said, ‘Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing’.
Then the men of the town said to Joash, ‘Bring out
your son, that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut
down the Asherah beside it’. But Joash said to all who stood against him, ‘Will
you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be
put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because
his altar has been broken down.’
Therefore on that day Gideon was called Jerubbaal,
that is to say, ‘Let Baal contend against him’, because he broke down his
altar.
Judges
6:28-32
To his
credit, Gideon’s father, Joash, stands up for his son. I suspect that Joash might
have been somewhat shamed by his son’s actions, realising that he himself
should have destroyed the shrine long before. Perhaps he had even felt that
conviction on hearing the prophet’s message that we reflected on last weekend!
We should
remember that Joash defended Gideon, even knowing the consequences. As we read
towards the end of the chapter, the Midianites and Amalekites, together with
some neighbouring tribes, united in the Valley of Jezreel ready to invade and
pillage again. This may even have been the biggest army of raiders yet, worse
than the reprisal the people feared when they wanted to lynch Gideon! The
critical difference was that Gideon had acted and the community had at least begun
to turn from it paganism and could begin again to rely on God.
Money is
the idol of a capitalist, consumer society and it is very easy for us to grow
up into idolatry that we take for granted, believing that there is no real
alternative. Moreover, in the absence of a physical shrine to tear down, or an
enemy army to defeat, what are we to do to ensure that we serve God, not
mammon? How blind might we be to the implications of St Paul’s observation,
that the love of money is the root of all evil? And how are we to deal with
family and friends who, like Gideon’s neighbours, feel threatened when we take
some positive steps.
Next
weekend I plan to skip to the end of Gideon's story to see how he ended up leading Israel back into idolatry, albeit a form of idolatry that looked a little more like established Judaism.
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2013.
Scripture
quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright
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