Gideon, Who Lacked the Character of a Judge

Gideon twice asked God for a sign with the fleece and had his answer confirmed, yet on the night before the battle, in a camp now reduced to three hundred men, he was once again doubtful and afraid. God told him to take his servant down to the enemy camp and listen to what was being said there, and in that camp, through the account of a dream about a barley loaf, God made the victory known in advance.

Gideon’s character remained unchanged to the very end. His was a faith that could barely manage a single step unless something was shown and explained to him, and God simply went on answering him at the level where he stood. Leaving only three hundred men, and bringing the victory through jars, torches and trumpets, were both meant to let the people know that it was God who had done it, not human strength.

Gideon gained the victory, yet because he never changed his character, his life was a failure. Only when a person breaks the jar that holds the self can the torch of Christ within be revealed. God’s people must put away a faith full of doubt and live by an honest one.