hazard position or profit in identifying themselves with an enterprise
while the issue is doubtful, but desire to have the credit of connection
with it if it should succeed. They have not the humanity to associate
themselves with those who are fighting in a good cause because it is
good. In fact they do not know what is good, their only test of value
being success. They lie by, looking with half-concealed scorn on the
attempts of the earnest, sneering at their heat either in secret or
openly, and when one day it becomes clear that the world is applauding
they conceive a sudden respect for those at whom they scoffed. Now they
will do what they can to help,--with pleasure, with liberality. Why were
they not sooner invited? They will almost make a quarrel of that, and
they have to be soothed with fair speeches. And people who are worldly
at heart push forward in this fashion when Christian affairs have
success or eclat attached to them, especially where religion wears least
of its proper air and has somewhat of the earthly in tone and look.
Christ pursued by the Sanhedrin, despised by the Roman is no person for
them to know. Let Him have the patronage of Constantine or a de' Medici
and they are then assured that He has claims which they will admit--in
theory. More than that needs not be expected from men and women "of the
world." "_Messieurs, surtout, pas de zele._" Above all, no zeal: that is
the motto of every Ephraim since time began. Wait till zeal is cooling
before you join the righteous cause.
4. But while there are the carnal who like to share the success of
religion after it has cooled down to their temperature, another class
must not be forgotten, those who in their selfishness show the worst
kind of hostility to the cause they should aid. Look at the men of
Succoth and Penuel. Gideon and his band leading the pursuit of the
Midianites have had no food all night and are faint with hunger. At
Succoth they ask bread in vain. Instead of help they get the taunt--"Are
Zebah and Zalmunna now in thine hand that we should give bread unto
thine army?" Onward they press another stage up the hills to Penuel, and
there also their request is refused. Gideon savage with the need of his
men threatens dire punishment to those who are so callous and cruel; and
when he returns victorious his threat is made good. With thorns and
briars of the wilderness he scourges the elders of Succoth. The pride of
Penuel is its watchtower, and that he demolishes, at the same time
decimating the men of the city.
Penuel and Succoth lay in the way between the wilderness in which the
Midianites dwelt and the valleys of western Palestine. The men of these
cities feared that if they aided Gideon they would bring on themselves
the vengeance of the desert tribes. Yet where do we see the lowest point
of unfaith and meanness, in Ephraim or Succoth? It is perhaps hard to
say which are the least manly: those contrive to join the conquering
host and snatch the credit of victory; these are not so clever, and
while they are as eager to make things smooth for themselves the thorns
and briars are more visibly their portion. To share the honour of a
cause for which you have done very little is an easy thing in this
world, though an honest man cannot wear that kind of laurel; but as for
Succoth and Penuel, the poor creatures, who will not pity them? It is so
inconvenient often to have to decide. They would temporise if it were
possible--supply the famished army with mouldy corn and raisins at a
high price, and do as much next time for the Midianites. Yet the
opportunity for this kind of salvation does not always come. There are
times when people have to choose definitely whom they will serve, and
discover to their horror that judgment follows swiftly upon base and
cowardly choice. And God is faithful in making the recusants feel the
urgency of moral choice and the grip He has of them. They would fain let
the battle of truth sweep by and not meddle with it. But something is
forced upon them. They cannot let the whole affair of salvation alone,
but are driven to refuse heaven in the very act of trying to escape
hell. And although judgment lingers, ever and anon demonstration is made
among the ranks of the would-be prudent that One on high judges for His
warriors. It is not the Gideon leading the little band of faint but
eager champions of faith who punishes the callous heathenism and low
scorn of a Succoth and Penuel. The Lord of Hosts Himself will vindicate
and chasten. "Whoso shall cause one of these little ones that believe in
Me to stumble, it is profitable for him that a great millstone should be
hanged about his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depth of the
sea."
5. Yet another word of instruction is found in the appeal of Gideon:
"Give, I pray you, loaves of bread unto the people that follow me, for
they be faint and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna." Well has the
expression "Faint yet pursuing" found its place as a proverb of the
religious life. We are called to run with patience a race that needs
long ardour and strenuous exertion. The goal is far away, the ground is
difficult. As day after day and year after year demands are made upon
our faith, our resolution, our thought, our devotion to One who remains
unseen and on our confidence in the future life it is no wonder that
many feel faint and weary. Often have we to pass through a region
inhabited by those who are indifferent or hostile, careless or derisive.
At many a door we knock and find no sympathy. We ask for bread and
receive a stone; and still the fight slackens not, still have we to
reach forth to the things that are before. But the faintness is not
death. In the most terrible hours there is new life for our spiritual
nature. Refreshment comes from an unseen hand when earth refuses help.
We turn to Christ; we consider Him who endured great contradiction of
sinners against Himself; we realize afresh that we are ensured of the
fulness of His redemption. The body grows faint, but the soul presses
on; the body dies and has to be left behind as a worn-out garment, but
the spirit ascends into immortal youth.
"On, chariot! on, soul!
Ye are all the more fleet.
Be alone at the goal
Of the strange and the sweet!"
6. Finally let us glance at the fate of Zebah and Zalmunna, not without
a feeling of admiration and of pity for the rude ending of these stately
lives.
The sword of Jehovah and of Gideon has slain its thousands. The vast
desert army has been scattered like chaff, in the flight, at the fords,
by the rock Oreb and the winepress Zeeb, all along the way by Nobah and
Jogbehah, and finally at Karkor, where having encamped in fancied
security the residue is smitten. Now the two defeated chiefs are in the
hand of Gideon, their military renown completely wrecked, their career
destroyed. To them the expedition into Canaan was part of the common
business of leadership. As emirs of nomadic tribes they had to find
pasture and prey for their people. No special antagonism to Jehovah, no
ill-will against Israel more than other nations led them to cross the
Jordan and scour the plains of Palestine. It was quite in the natural
course of things that Midianites and Amalekites should migrate and move
towards the west. And now the defeat is crushing. What remains therefore
but to die?
We hear Gideon command his son Jether to fall upon the captive chiefs,
who brilliant and stately once lie disarmed, bound and helpless. The
indignity is not to our mind. We would have thought more of Gideon had
he offered freedom to these captives "fallen on evil days," men to be
admired not hated. But probably they do not desire a life which has in
it no more of honour. Only let the Hebrew leader not insult them by the
stroke of a young man's sword. The great chiefs would die by a warrior's
blow. And Jether cannot slay them; his hand falters as he draws the
sword. These men who have ruled their tens of thousands have still the
lion look that quails. "Rise thou and fall upon us," they say to Gideon:
"for as the man is, so is his strength." And so they die, types of the
greatest earthly powers that resist the march of Divine Providence,
overthrown by a sword which even in faulty weak human hands has
indefeasible sureness and edge.
"As the man is, so is his strength." It is another of the pregnant
sayings which meet us here and there even in the least meditative parts
of Scripture. Yes: as a man is in character, in faith, in harmony with
the will of God, so is his strength; as he is in falseness, injustice,
egotism and ignorance, so is his weakness. And there is but one real
perennial kind of strength. The demonstration made by selfish and
godless persons, though it shake continents and devastate nations, is
not Force. It has no nerve, no continuance, but is mere fury which
decays and perishes. Strength is the property of truth and truth only;
it belongs to those who are in union with eternal reality and to no
others in the universe. Would you be invincible? You must move with the
eternal powers of righteousness and love. To be showy in appearance or
terrible in sound on the wrong side with the futilities of the world is
but incipient death.
On all sides the application may be seen. In the home and its varied
incidents of education, sickness, discipline; in society high and low;
in politics, in literature. As the man or woman is in simple allegiance
to God and clear resolution there is strength to endure, to govern, to
think and every way to live. Otherwise there can only be instability,
foolishness, blundering selfishness, a sad passage to inanition and
decay.
XIV.
_GIDEON THE ECCLESIASTIC._
JUDGES viii. 22-28.
The great victory of Gideon had this special significance, that it ended
the incursions of the wandering races of the desert. Canaan offered a
continual lure to the nomads of the Arabian wilderness, as indeed the
eastern and southern parts of Syria do at the present time. The hazard
was that wave after wave of Midianites and Bedawin sweeping over the
land should destroy agriculture and make settled national life and
civilization impossible. And when Gideon undertook his work the risk of
this was acute. But the defeat inflicted on the wild tribes proved
decisive. "Midian was subdued before the children of Israel, and they
lifted up their heads no more." The slaughter that accompanied the
overthrow of Zebah and Zalmunna, Oreb and Zeeb became in the literature
of Israel a symbol of the destruction which must overtake the foes of
God. "Do thou to thine enemies as unto Midian"--so runs the cry of a
psalm--"Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb: yea, all their princes
like Zebah and Zalmunna, who said, Let us take to ourselves in
possession the habitations of God." In Isaiah the remembrance gives a
touch of vivid colour to the oracle of the coming Wonderful, Prince of
Peace. "The yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod
of his oppressor shall be broken as in the day of Midian." Regarding the
Assyrian also the same prophet testifies, "The Lord of Hosts shall stir
up against him a scourge as in the slaughter of Midian at the rock of
Oreb." We have no song like that of Deborah celebrating the victory, but
a sense of its immense importance held the mind of the people, and by
reason of it Gideon found a place among the heroes of faith. Doubtless
he had, to begin with, a special reason for taking up arms against the
Midianitish chiefs that they had slain his two brothers: the duty of an
avenger of blood fell to him. But this private vengeance merged in the
desire to give his people freedom, religious as well as political, and
it was Jehovah's victory that he won, as he himself gladly acknowledged.
We may see, therefore, in the whole enterprise, a distinct step of
religious development. Once again the name of the Most High was exalted;
once again the folly of idol worship was contrasted with the wisdom of
serving the God of Abraham and Moses. The tribes moved in the direction
of national unity and also of common devotion to their unseen King. If
Gideon had been a man of larger intellect and knowledge he might have
led Israel far on the way towards fitness for the mission it had never
yet endeavoured to fulfil. But his powers and inspiration were limited.
On his return from the campaign the wish of the people was expressed to
Gideon that he should assume the title of king. The nation needed a
settled government, a centre of authority which would bind the tribes
together, and the Abiezrite chief was now clearly marked as a man fit
for royalty. He was able to persuade as well as to fight; he was bold,
firm and prudent. But to the request that he should become king and
found a dynasty Gideon gave an absolute refusal: "I will not rule over
you, neither shall my son rule over you; Jehovah shall rule over you."
We always admire a man who refuses one of the great posts of human
authority or distinction. The throne of Israel was even at that time a
flattering offer. But should it have been made? There are few who will
pause in a moment of high personal success to think of the point of
morality involved; yet we may credit Gideon with the belief that it was
not for him or any man to be called king in Israel. As a judge he had
partly proved himself, as a judge he had a Divine call and a marvellous
vindication: that name he would accept, not the other. One of the chief
elements of Gideon's character was a strong but not very spiritual
religiousness. He attributed his success entirely to God, and God alone
he desired the nation to acknowledge as its Head. He would not even in
appearance stand between the people and their Divine Sovereign, nor with
his will should any son of his take a place so unlawful and dangerous.
Along with his devotion to God it is quite likely that the caution of
Gideon had much to do with his resolve. He had already found some
difficulty in dealing with the Ephraimites, and he could easily foresee
that if he became king the pride of that large clan would rise strongly
against him. If the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim was better than
the whole vintage of Abiezer, as Gideon had declared, did it not follow
that any elder of the great central tribe would better deserve the
position of king than the youngest son of Joash of Abiezer? The men of
Succoth and Penuel too had to be reckoned with. Before Gideon could
establish himself in a royal seat he would have to fight a great
coalition in the centre and south and also beyond Jordan. To the pains
of oppression would succeed the agony of civil war. Unwilling to kindle
a fire which might burn for years and perhaps consume himself, he
refused to look at the proposal, flattering and honourable as it was.
But there was another reason for his decision which may have had even
more weight. Like many men who have distinguished themselves in one way,
his real ambition lay in a different direction. We think of him as a
military genius. He for his part looked to the priestly office and the
transmission of Divine oracles as his proper calling. The enthusiasm
with which he overthrew the altar of Baal, built the new altar of
Jehovah and offered his first sacrifice upon it survived when the wild
delights of victory had passed away. The thrill of awe and the strange
excitement he had felt when Divine messages came to him and signs were
given in answer to his prayer affected him far more deeply and
permanently than the sight of a flying enemy and the pride of knowing
himself victor in a great campaign. Neither did kingship appear much in
comparison with access to God, converse with Him and declaration of His
will to men. Gideon appears already tired of war, with no appetite
certainly for more, however successful, and impatient to return to the
mysterious rites and sacred privileges of the altar. He had good reason
to acknowledge the power over Israel's destiny of the Great Being Whose
spirit had come upon him, Whose promises had been fulfilled. He desired
to cultivate that intercourse with Heaven which more than anything else
gave him the sense of dignity and strength. From the offer of a crown he
turned as if eager to don the robe of a priest and listen for the holy
oracles that none beside himself seemed able to receive.
It is notable that in the history of the Jewish kings the tendency shown
by Gideon frequently reappeared. According to the law of later times the
kingly duties should have been entirely separated from those of the
priesthood. It came to be a dangerous and sacrilegious thing for the
chief magistrate of the tribes, their leader in war, to touch the sacred
implements or offer a sacrifice. But just because the ideas of sacrifice
and priestly service were so fully in the Jewish mind the kings, either
when especially pious or especially strong, felt it hard to refrain from
the forbidden privilege. On the eve of a great battle with the
Philistines Saul, expecting Samuel to offer the preparatory sacrifice
and inquire of Jehovah, waited seven days and then impatient of delay
undertook the priestly part and offered a burnt sacrifice. His act was
properly speaking a confession of the sovereignty of God; but when
Samuel came he expressed great indignation against the king, denounced
his interference with sacred things and in effect removed him then and
there from the kingdom. David for his part appears to have been
scrupulous in employing the priests for every religious function; but at
the bringing up of the ark from the house of Obed-Edom he is reported to
have led a sacred dance before the Lord and to have worn a linen ephod,
that is a garment specially reserved for the priests. He also took to
himself the privilege of blessing the people in the name of the Lord. On
the division of the kingdom Jeroboam promptly assumed the ordering of
religion, set up shrines and appointed priests to minister at them; and
in one scene we find him standing by an altar to offer incense. The
great sin of Uzziah, on account of which he had to go forth from the
temple a hopeless leper, is stated in the second book of Chronicles to
have been an attempt to burn incense on the altar. These are cases in
point; but the most remarkable is that of Solomon. To be king, to build
and equip the temple and set in operation the whole ritual of the house
of God did not content that magnificent prince. His ambition led him to
assume a part far loftier and more impressive than fell to the chief
priest himself. It was Solomon who offered the prayer when the temple
was consecrated, who pronounced the blessing of God on the worshipping
multitude; and at his invocation it was that "fire came down from heaven
and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices." This crowning act
of his life, in which the great monarch rose to the very highest pitch
of his ambition, actually claiming and taking precedence over all the
house of Aaron, will serve to explain the strange turn of the
Abiezrite's history at which we have now arrived.
"He made an ephod and put it in his city, even in Ophrah." A strong but
not spiritual religiousness, we have said, is the chief note of Gideon's
character. It may be objected that such a one, if he seeks
ecclesiastical office, does so unworthily; but to say so is an
uncharitable error. It is not the devout temper alone that finds
attraction in the ministry of sacred things; nor should a love of place
and power be named as the only other leading motive. One who is not
devout may in all sincerity covet the honour of standing for God before
the congregation, leading the people in worship and interpreting the
sacred oracles. A vulgar explanation of human desire is often a false
one; it is so here. The ecclesiastic may show few tokens of the
spiritual temper, the other-worldliness, the glowing and simple truth we
rightly account to be the proper marks of a Christian ministry; yet he
may by his own reckoning have obeyed a clear call. His function in this
case is to maintain order and administer outward rites with dignity and
care--a limited range of duty indeed, but not without utility,
especially when there are inferior and less conscientious men in office
not far away. He does not advance faith, but according to his power he
maintains it.
But the ecclesiastic must have the ephod. The man who feels the dignity
of religion more than its humane simplicity, realizing it as a great
movement of absorbing interest, will naturally have regard to the means
of increasing dignity and making the movement impressive. Gideon calls
upon the people for the golden spoils taken from the Midianites,
nose-rings, earrings and the like, and they willingly respond. It is
easy to obtain gifts for the outward glory of religion, and a golden
image is soon to be seen within a house of Jehovah on the hill at
Ophrah. Whatever form it had, this figure was to Gideon no idol but a
symbol or sign of Jehovah's presence among the people, and by means of
it, in one or other of the ways used at the time, as for example by
casting lots from within it, appeal was made to God with the utmost
respect and confidence. When it is supposed that Gideon fell away from
his first faith in making this image the error lies in overestimating
his spirituality at the earlier stage. We must not think that at any
time the use of a symbolic image would have seemed wrong to him. It was
not against images but against worship of false and impure gods that his
zeal was at first directed. The sacred pole was an object of detestation
because it was a symbol of Astarte.
In some way we cannot explain the whole life of Gideon appears as quite
separate from the religious ordinances maintained before the ark, and at
the same time quite apart from that Divine rule which forbade the making
and worship of graven images. Either he did not know the second
commandment, or he understood it only as forbidding the use of an image
of any creature and the worship of a creature by means of an image. We
know that the cherubim in the Holy of Holies were symbolic of the
perfections of creation, and through them the greatness of the Unseen
God was realized. So it was with Gideon's ephod or image, which was
however used in seeking oracles. He acted at Ophrah as priest of the
true God. The sacrifices he offered were to Jehovah. People came from
all the northern tribes to bow at his altar and receive divine
intimations through him. The southern tribes had Gilgal and Shiloh. Here
at Ophrah was a service of the God of Israel, not perhaps intended to
compete with the other shrines, yet virtually depriving them of their
fame. For the expression is used that all Israel went a whoring after
the ephod.
But while we try to understand we are not to miss the warning which
comes home to us through this chapter of religious history. Pure and,
for the time, even elevated in the motive, Gideon's attempt at
priestcraft led to his fall. For a while we see the hero acting as judge
at Ophrah and presiding with dignity at the altar. His best wisdom is at
the service of the people and he is ready to offer for them at new moon
or harvest the animals they desire to consecrate and consume in the
sacred feast. In a spirit of real faith and no doubt with much sagacity
he submits their inquiries to the test of the ephod. But "the thing
became a snare to Gideon and his house," perhaps in the way of bringing
in riches and creating the desire for more. Those who applied to him as
a revealer brought gifts with them. Gradually as wealth increased among
the people the value of the donations would increase, and he who began
as a disinterested patriot may have degenerated into a somewhat
avaricious man who made a trade of religion. On this point we have,
however, no information. It is mere surmise depending upon observation
of the way things are apt to go amongst ourselves.
Reviewing the story of Gideon's life we find this clear lesson, that
within certain limits he who trusts and obeys God has a quite
irresistible efficiency. This man had, as we have seen, his limitations,
very considerable. As a religious leader, prophet or priest, he was far
from competent; there is no indication that he was able to teach Israel
a single Divine doctrine, and as to the purity and mercy, the
righteousness and love of God, his knowledge was rudimentary. In the
remote villages of the Abiezrites the tradition of Jehovah's name and
power remained, but in the confusion of the times there was no education
of children in the will of God: the Law was practically unknown. From
Shechem where Baal-Berith was worshipped the influence of a degrading
idolatry had spread, obliterating every religious idea except the barest
elements of the old faith. Doing his very best to understand God, Gideon
never saw what religion in our sense means. His sacrifices were appeals
to a Power dimly felt through nature and in the greater epochs of the
national history, chastising now and now friendly and beneficent.