God had set up the battle so that it clearly had not been human strength that had won the victory: the glory must be given to the Lord for setting Israel free from Midian’s bondage. Indeed, Gideon endeavored to insist that the people’s allegiance must not be to him, but to the Lord (Judges 8:23).

But Gideon’s story does not end well. He accepted gold in tribute from the men of his army, and used it to make himself a golden ephod – probably something like a vest made of interwoven gold chains. This became an idol, which the people of Israel, and Gideon’s own family, would come to worship (8:27). Gideon also took many wives and concubines, and fathered 71 sons (8:29-31). Then Gideon died, after forty years of peace, and was buried in the tomb of his father. And all Israel went right back to idolatry (8:32-33).

Who would now lead the people? Gideon’s son Abimelech wanted all of his father’s authority to pass exclusively to himself, so he killed all his brothers, except for the youngest, Jotham, who managed to escape. With a setup like that, we might expect that Jotham would later lead the revolt that overthrew Abimelech (that’s how it would have happened, in a classic fairy tale). But in this case, we learned that Jotham fled out of the territory that Abimelech controlled, and was not heard from again. He did, however, leave behind an early biblical fable, “The Trees Choose a King” (9:8-15), the moral of which was a heart cry that Abimelech and his followers would regret their treachery against Gideon’s sons.

Abimelech reigned for three years before the leaders of Shechem revolted against him (9:22-29). He proved to be an able strategist as he led his troops in squashing the rebellion, but was struck down when a woman threw a millstone from the top of the tower he was attacking – though even then his pride made him command his armor bearer to kill him with his sword, so that no one would say “a woman killed him” (9:50-54). Thus all of his ambition came to nothing, just as Jotham had predicted.

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Save us, O Lord: for like Abimelech we feel the draw of ambition, power, and reputation. Remind us, again and again, that leadership is about serving you in faithfulness, and serving your people by establishing freedom and justice for them.

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