Clothed for Battle

As sunrise reveals Gideon’s destruction of the altar of Baal and the image of Asherah, the men of Ophrah are predictably outraged. “ ‘Who has done this thing?’ ” they demand. Somehow their inquiry reveals that Gideon is responsible, and so, marching to the home of Gideon’s father, Joash, they demand that Gideon be brought out to be put to death for his “crimes” against their gods. Here we see the depth of their idolatry, that they would grow so angry and demand such a punishment for a blow against the pagan worship God has always roundly condemned. “By the law of God the worshippers of Baal were to die, but these wicked men impiously turn the penalty upon the worshippers of the God of Israel,” Matthew Henry notes in his commentary. “How prodigiously mad were they upon their idols!”

The men are confident that Joash, being an idolater with them, will readily turn Gideon over to them. Surprisingly, he does not. His own “love lines,” his affection for his son, apparently supercede his love for Baal and Asherah. He is even willing that the villagers should die rather than Gideon—“ ‘Let the one who would plead for [Baal] be put to death,’ ” he cries. Perhaps he has undergone a “conversion” back to the worship of the one true God as he has witnessed Baal’s helplessness against Gideon’s work of destruction. In any case, his comments to the men of Ophrah show that he now understands that Baal is no god at all, for no true god would need people to plead his cause. “ ‘Would you plead for Baal?’ ” he asks. “ ‘Would you save him?… If he is a god, let him plead for himself’ ” against Gideon. Perhaps Joash gestures toward Gideon as he says this, for his words “Let Baal Plead,” or Jerubbaal, become attached to Gideon as a second name.

This standoff is interrupted when news arrives that the Midianites have begun their harvesttime invasion. God has called Gideon at just the “ripe” time to break their oppression. The Spirit then comes upon Gideon (the text literally says the Spirit “clothed Himself with Gideon”) and he sounds a trumpet, causing the people of his family clan to rally behind him for war. And in answer to his summons, soldiers from the tribes of Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali also rally to the cause. This one who a day before was cowering in a winepress is now ready to lead Israel into battle against mighty Midian.