Gideon Parable

Last Sunday I began a four part series on the life of Gideon in Judges 6-8 (listen to part one here).

I gave a lot of focus to Judges 6:13 in which Gideon challenges God's goodness (why then has all this happened to us?) and God's greatness (where are all His miracles?). Gideon ends in v. 13 by charging God with having forsaken Israel (But now the Lord has forsaken us....) and having delivered them into the hands of the Midianites. Again he appears completely tone deaf to the voice of God. He is accusing God of forsaking Israel in the midst of God intervening to rescue them!!!

Consider this parable:

Imagine driving down the road one day and coming upon an accident. To your horror you recognize the mangled vehicle as being that of your beloved teenage son. Just that morning you had given him a lecture on safe driving because you had noticed his tendency toward carelessness behind the wheel.

You rush to the car and manage to unhook his safety belt and pull him out of the vehicle to safety just as gas spilling from the ruptured fuel tank busts into flames engulfing the car in flames. As you reach out to embrace your precious son, he pushes you away and sneers: "This is all your fault! Why did you ever let me out on the road? If you had been driving this would never have happened!"

The words of Gideon here have something of the tone of this ungrateful son.

JTR