The Rot at the Root: Gideon's Compromised Legacy Text: Judges 8:29-35
Introduction: The Slow Fade of a Great Man
The book of Judges is a cyclical book. It is a story of sin, oppression, crying out to God, deliverance, and then, almost without fail, a return to sin. It is a spiritual rollercoaster, but one that trends steadily downward. And perhaps no story illustrates this downward spiral more poignantly than the life of Gideon. We remember him as the hero, the man with the fleece, the mighty warrior who with three hundred men routed the entire Midianite army. He is listed in the hall of faith in Hebrews 11. And yet, the end of his story, which we have before us today, is a cautionary tale of the highest order. It is a lesson in how a man can win the war and lose the peace, how he can fight the Lord's battles abroad and then plant the seeds of apostasy in his own backyard.
Gideon's life ends not with a bang, but with a whimper, followed by the thunderclap of Israel's immediate idolatry. What we see in these closing verses of chapter 8 is the bitter fruit of a compromised heart. Gideon refused the crown, saying, "Yahweh shall rule over you," which was the right answer. But then he immediately fashioned a golden ephod, a priestly garment, which became a snare to all Israel. He knew the right words, but his actions carved a new idol for the people to worship. He refused to be king, but he lived like one, with many wives and seventy sons. This is how apostasy usually works. It is not a sudden leap off a cliff, but rather a slow, comfortable drift in the wrong direction.
This passage is a warning to us. It shows us that a great victory for God does not inoculate a man, or a nation, against future failure. In fact, victory often brings with it the temptation to relax, to compromise, and to think that we can now afford a little sin. Gideon's legacy was not one of lasting faithfulness, but of a peace that was built on a faulty foundation. As soon as the man was in the ground, the whole structure collapsed. And we must ask why. The text before us gives us the answer. It shows us the rot that was present in Gideon's own house, a rot that would soon consume the entire nation.
The Text
Then Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house. Now Gideon had seventy sons who were his direct descendants, for he had many wives. And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech. Then Gideon the son of Joash died at a good old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
Then it happened, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the sons of Israel turned back and played the harlot with the Baals and made Baal-berith their god. Thus the sons of Israel did not remember Yahweh their God, who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side; nor did they show lovingkindness to the household of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in accord with all the good that he had done to Israel.
(Judges 8:29-35 LSB)
Gideon's House: A Kingdom in Miniature (v. 29-31)
We begin with Gideon's retirement and the state of his household.
"Then Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house. Now Gideon had seventy sons who were his direct descendants, for he had many wives. And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech." (Judges 8:29-31 LSB)
The text first calls him Jerubbaal, "Let Baal contend." This was the name he earned by tearing down the altar of Baal. It was a name of righteous zeal. But then it says he "went and lived in his own house." After a great public victory, he retreats into his private life. And what does his private life look like? It looks suspiciously like the life of a pagan king. He refused the title, but he took the perks.
"He had many wives." This is not just a biographical detail; it is a theological indictment. From the beginning, God's pattern was one man, one woman. Whenever we see polygamy in the Old Testament, it is always, without exception, a source of strife, rivalry, and disaster. Think of Abraham, Jacob, David, and Solomon. Multiplying wives was something God explicitly warned the future kings of Israel not to do (Deuteronomy 17:17). Why? Because it turns the heart away from God. Gideon is acting like a king in the one area God expressly forbade. His home was not a picture of the covenant between Christ and His one bride, the church. It was a picture of divided loyalties, of a man seeking his own glory and pleasure.
From this disordered household, seventy sons are born. And then, as a fatal footnote, we are told of "his concubine who was in Shechem." A concubine was a wife of a lesser legal status. This arrangement itself speaks volumes. Shechem was a Canaanite city, a place of syncretism and divided loyalties. Gideon, the great deliverer from foreign oppression, makes a compromised alliance with a Canaanite city through this woman. He is bringing the world into his family. And the fruit of this union is a son named Abimelech. The name means "My father is king." This is a staggering piece of irony. Gideon says with his mouth, "Yahweh is king," but he names his son, "My father is king." The boy's very name was a lie, a piece of royal propaganda, revealing the true ambition of Gideon's heart.
This is where national apostasy begins. It begins in the family. It begins when a father's public piety is contradicted by his private compromises. Gideon was sowing the seeds of civil war in his own bedroom. He was raising a son whose name was a monument to his own hypocrisy, and it is this son, Abimelech, who will rise up and slaughter his seventy brothers in the very next chapter. The rot begins at home.
A Good Death and a Bad Legacy (v. 32)
Verse 32 records the end of Gideon's life.
"Then Gideon the son of Joash died at a good old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites." (Judges 8:32 LSB)
On the surface, this seems like a peaceful end. He died at a "good old age." This is often a sign of God's blessing in the Old Testament. He is gathered to his fathers. The land had rest for forty years under his leadership. From an external point of view, his life was a success. God used him mightily, and he enjoyed a long life as a result. This is true, and we must not forget that he is a man of faith, commended in Hebrews.
But the blessing of a long life does not negate the poison of a compromised legacy. God is gracious. He can use flawed men to accomplish His purposes, and He can bless them in this life. But the story does not end with Gideon's burial. The real evaluation of a man's life is what happens after he is gone. What kind of foundation has he laid for the next generation? Did he build with gold, silver, and precious stones, or with wood, hay, and stubble? Gideon's foundation was a mixture. He had moments of gold, but there was far too much hay and stubble. He left behind a nation that was outwardly at peace but inwardly primed for idolatry. He left behind a family that was a tangled mess of rivalries, ready to explode. And as soon as the restraining influence of his life was removed, it did.
Covenant Amnesia and Spiritual Adultery (v. 33-34)
The consequences of Gideon's compromised legacy are immediate and catastrophic.
"Then it happened, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the sons of Israel turned back and played the harlot with the Baals and made Baal-berith their god. Thus the sons of Israel did not remember Yahweh their God, who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side;" (Judges 8:33-34 LSB)
The language here is stark. "As soon as Gideon was dead." There was no grace period. The apostasy was not a slow drift; it was a snap. This tells us that the people's loyalty was to Gideon the man, not to Yahweh his God. They were following a personality, not a principle. When the personality was gone, so was their faithfulness. This is the danger of any movement or revival that is centered on a man.
Their sin is described as playing the harlot. This is the Bible's standard language for idolatry. The covenant between God and Israel was a marriage covenant. Yahweh was the husband, and Israel was the bride. To worship another god was not merely a theological error; it was spiritual adultery. It was a profound act of betrayal. And who do they turn to? The Baals. And they make a new god for themselves, "Baal-berith," which means "Lord of the Covenant." This is blasphemy of the highest order. They are taking the very concept of covenant, which Yahweh established with them, and they are applying it to a pagan fertility god. They are trying to have it both ways, to keep the forms of covenant religion while worshipping a demon. This is precisely what Gideon's ephod had taught them to do: to mix the worship of Yahweh with man-made trinkets.
And the root cause is given in verse 34: "the sons of Israel did not remember Yahweh their God." This is not a simple lapse of memory, like forgetting where you put your keys. In Hebrew, to "remember" is to act upon the basis of a prior commitment. To "forget" is to act as though that commitment does not exist. They forgot who had delivered them. They had just witnessed one of the most miraculous military victories in history, and they forgot. Why? Because they had not been taught to build monuments to God's faithfulness. Instead, Gideon built a monument to his own ambiguous piety, the ephod. Their worship was not centered on the Word of God, but on a golden snare. And when you forget God's deliverance, you will inevitably turn to other deliverers.
Ingratitude and Betrayal (v. 35)
The chapter concludes by showing that their unfaithfulness to God was mirrored in their unfaithfulness to Gideon's family.
"nor did they show lovingkindness to the household of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in accord with all the good that he had done to Israel." (Judges 8:35 LSB)
The word for "lovingkindness" is hesed. This is a covenant word. It means loyal love, steadfast faithfulness. They broke covenant with God, and so it was no surprise that they broke faith with Gideon's house. A people that is ungrateful to their God will be ungrateful to their human benefactors as well. All of life is connected. Vertical rebellion leads to horizontal rebellion.
This verse sets the stage for the horror of the next chapter. The people's failure to show hesed to Gideon's family will result in them standing by, or even assisting, as Abimelech, the son of the concubine, murders his seventy brothers on one stone. Their apostasy was not a private, spiritual matter. It had bloody, political consequences. When you make a covenant with Baal, you get a ruler like Abimelech. When you forget God, you get tyranny.
Conclusion: Remember Your Deliverer
The story of Gideon's end is a somber one, but it is filled with necessary warnings for us. First, we must be diligent to fight sin not only in the public square but, most importantly, in our own homes. A compromised family life will eventually undermine any public victory. A man who tolerates polygamy and pride in his own house cannot expect to build a legacy of faithfulness for the nation.
Second, we must be ruthless in rooting out all forms of idolatry. Gideon's ephod was a "good idea" that became a snare. It was religious, it was made from the spoils of victory, but it was not commanded by God. Any form of worship that is based on our own ingenuity rather than God's clear Word is idolatry, no matter how pious it seems. It creates a taste for syncretism that will eventually lead to full-blown apostasy.
And last, we must remember. We must constantly call to mind the great deliverance that God has accomplished for us, not through a flawed judge like Gideon, but through the perfect Judge, Jesus Christ. Our deliverance from sin and death was infinitely greater than Israel's deliverance from Midian. And our temptation to forget is just as strong. We forget when we begin to trust in our own strength, when we compromise with the world, when we allow our worship to become man-centered.
The Israelites made Baal-berith, the "Lord of the Covenant," their god. But we have a true Lord of the Covenant, Jesus Christ, who sealed the new covenant not with gold from Midian, but with His own precious blood. He is the king who did not just refuse a crown, but who laid His crown aside to serve. He is the husband who is utterly faithful to His one bride. And He is the one who establishes a household of faith that will never be destroyed. The legacy of Gideon crumbled because it was built on man. Let us ensure our lives, our families, and our churches are built on the rock of Jesus Christ, the one whom we must never forget.