In your Bibles this evening, in the book of Judges, chapter number eight. Judges, chapter number eight. We're gonna pick right up in our study where we broke off. We sort of quit abruptly, but we had to. We couldn't tackle the entirety of it in either this chapter in simply one week, but we'll read this evening and then we'll recap just a little bit of where we were But just to bear in mind, Gideon now has routed the enemy, has defeated the allied forces of the Amalekites and the Midianites, killed a couple of their generals, rulers, kings. And now that the battle is over, we pick up the conversation. Judges chapter eight, verse 22, verse 22. Then the men of Israel said unto Gideon, Rule thou over us, both thou and thy son, and thy son's son also, for thou hast delivered us from the hand of Midian. And Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you, the Lord shall rule over you. And Gideon said unto them, I would desire a request of you that you would give me every man the earrings of his prey, for they had golden earrings because they were Ishmaelites. And they answered, we will willingly give them. And they spread a garment and did cast therein every man the earrings of his prey, what they had gotten in the battle. And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was a thousand and 700 shekels of gold beside ornaments and collars and purple raiment that was on the kings of Midian and beside the chains that were about their camels' necks. And Gideon made an ephod thereof and put it in his city, even in Ophrah, and all Israel went thither a-whoring after it. which thing became a snare unto Gideon and to his house. Thus was Midian subdued before the children of Israel, so that they lifted up their heads no more. And the country was in quietness forty years in the days of Gideon. And Jeroboam, and that's Gideon, the son of Joash, went and dwelt in his own house. And Gideon had threescore and ten sons of his body begotten, for he had many wives. And his concubine that was in Shechem, she also bare him a son, whose name he called Abimelech. And Gideon, the son of Joash, died in a good old age, and was buried in the sepulcher of Joash's father in Ophrah of the Abizarites. And he came to pass. As soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again and went a-whoring after Balaam, and made Baal-be-roth their god. And the children of Israel remembered not the Lord their god, who had delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies on every side, neither showed they kindness to the house of Jeroboam or Gideon, namely Gideon, according to all the goodness which he had showed unto Israel. This evening, I want to tackle the last half of this chapter of Judges, chapter 8, this last half of chapter 8 of Judges. By studying the end of the life of Gideon as it is revealed to us, and to title this evening's message, we're going to speak on It's hard to finish well. It's hard to finish well. I don't know if you'll remember or not, but last week I compared Gideon to like a train or locomotive. He was really slow about getting going, but once he got going, he was hard to stop. Once he picked up steam, if you will, Gideon really led the charge and led Israel through a mighty victory, a great battle. If that is a fair analogy, tonight is where he derails. In the last large portion, really, of his life, Not only does Gideon hop the tracks, but he does so in such a way that he leads Israel off into a ravine and down a chasm where they plunge headlong into apostasy. We have seen the rise and now we'll see the fall of Gideon. It is an interesting study nonetheless of this man's life, a true account both encouraging and discouraging of his call to serve, his reluctance, his leadership, but then in the last 40 or so years of his life, his falling away, his unfaithfulness to God. It's hard to finish well. And we're going to learn that from Gideon this evening. You will remember This vast Midianite army had gathered. God granted great deliverance to the Israelites by turning the army of the Midianites and Amalekites on themselves. Some 120,000 of them killed in the battle. Gideon gives pursuit to them, crosses over the Jordan River in pursuit of the last remaining soldiers, some 15,000 soldiers. On his way, we looked at this last week, on his way he stopped at a couple of Jewish villages to seek some help. They were tired. They were worn out from the battle, from pursuing after the enemy. Those Jewish villages refused to help, in which Gideon turns around and brings judgment down on them once he defeats the enemy. And at the close of our study last week, he had returned back to his homeland. There he takes the Ziba and Zalmunna, these two kings, leaders of the Midianites, and asks his son, if you remember that, asks probably his young teenage son to kill these two leaders, to which he won't do it. He's too backwards, too afraid, whatever that the Scenario is he just doesn't do it and so Gideon himself falls on these two Midianite leaders and kills them And then we pick up tonight in verse 22 And we see where the men of Israel cry out to Gideon and say to him, rule over us. Now they don't use the word king, but essentially that's what they're saying. They're asking him to govern them, to be their sole leader, and not only him, but to establish a dynasty, because they say, not only you, but we want your son and your grandsons to rule over us. And you may think that Gideon's response to them is super spiritual, and upon my first reading I thought it was a real good response. The problem is his life doesn't back up his words. I have a few thoughts for you tonight, and we'll notice first of all Gideon's refusal of kingship in verses 22 and 23. They say, we want you, I want you to notice, we want you to be our ruler, we want you to rule over us, your sons, your grandsons. Notice the close of verse 22. For thou hast delivered us from the hand of Midian. Yeah, that's right. That's not right. Robbie was shaking his head. And he's right to shake his head because that's not true. Who had delivered them from the hand of Midian? It was God that had delivered them. It was not Gideon. At best, Gideon and his 300 slew 15,000 men. God himself, by sending strong delusion into the camp and them warring against one another, God had miraculously intervened, divine intervention, and caused them to fall on themselves, killing 120,000. And so they come to Gideon and say, we want you to be our leader, our ruler. Don't use the word king, but we want you to be set up a dynasty over us because you've delivered us from the hand of our enemy. And right then and there, Gideon should have said, now wait a minute, let's clarify something. I'm not the one that gave you victory. God is the one that gave you victory. And each one of us must, when God intervenes, we must be willing not to take credit for what God has done, but to give God the glory for that. We all like an attaboy, a pat on the back. We all like to be encouraged. I get it. I mean, we do. But when God works, and it doesn't have to be miraculously God bringing about the death of 120,000, but when God works in our life or the lives of our loved ones, We don't need to rob God of the glory of that. We need to give Him the glory for that. And correct those. They want to come brag on how great we are. We need to turn it right back on them and say, no, let me tell you how great our God is. He's the one that brought this victory. It was not us. And it's almost as if Gideon's head is swelling. And he's really As my mother used to say to us boys, you're getting too big for your britches. And it's sort of what it is for Gideon here, because these accolades that they're pouring on him, this request that they make to make him ruler over us, sort of fills his head up with thinking he's somebody. And I want you to see verse 23 is where he refuses this role of rulership. And Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you. The Lord shall rule over you. Now when we read that, we want to say, that's right, Gideon, you tell them. That's dead all right. I'm not going to be your leader. My children, they're not going to be your leader. Only God will be your leader. He will be the one to rule over you. And that would be great. Except for Gideon, even though he says he doesn't want to be king, he sure acts like king. We'll study more of this together and you'll see what I'm saying. My first reading of this, when I first, as I've gone through this and studied and reread these chapters and preparing, my first reaction to that is, you're right, Gideon, amen, that's a good thing to tell them. The problem is he may have said it with his lips, but his heart was a long way from it. And one of the first things that he does to prove that he says Even though he says he doesn't want to be king, he lives like a king. One of the first things he does is, in verses 24 through 26, he requests a gift from his soldiers. In fact, we may say he requests a royal gift. He almost, as it were, taxes his soldiers by saying to them, I want each of you to give me an offering. In other words, go through all of the enemy. And I think more than just this 15,000 that had been slain, but throughout all that vast host. And I want you to give me the earrings. And this may sound odd to us, but this is what the narrative is. They were descendants of the Ishmaelites and wore fancy earrings, golden earrings, and other things. But this in particular, Gideon says, I want you to give me this. as an act of honor for the role that I have played in leading you. And they acquiesce quickly, agree. In fact, verse 25, we will willingly give these things to you. And notice, I'm going to keep saying this, even though he says he doesn't want to be king, he's sure acting like king. Even though he's saying he wants the Lord to rule over them, he's going to sort of essentially, very similar, set up rule over them. so he says give me this gift give me this love gift give me the earrings and he takes them verse 26 away to the golden earrings that he requested 1,700 shekels of gold that may not mean a lot to us but let's put it in today's vernacular 42 pounds of gold 42 pounds of gold worth upward of $800,000 in today's money would have been much more during this time period as the value of gold. So in other words, he's a rich man, a wealthy man by what they have given him. He requests this gift from them, and they give him not only the earrings in verse 26, but they give him the ornaments, the collars, the purple raiment, and the chains that were about the camel's necks. They just laud all these gifts on him. And then Gideon makes one of the worst mistakes. If there's ever been one of those defining moments, Have you ever just wish you could turn back the clock one day, just do, I mean, one time and do something differently? It had to be this for Gideon. He erects an idol in his hometown. Look at verse 27. And Gideon made an ephod thereof, and put it in his city, even in Ophir. Let me just stop and unwrap that a little bit, okay? refuses, if you will, and that's, in fact, most of the commentators I read said Gideon's refusal to be king was just lip service. He really did set himself up as king. He refuses the role of kingship, requests a gift from his soldiers, but the highlight, really one of the highlights of Gideon's failures is he erects an idol in his hometown. He takes some of that gold from those earrings that he was given, melts it down, and creates an ephod. That ephod is a breastplate. Those of you who have done some study in the Levitical priesthood, the high priest had a breastplate, a golden breastplate that had rare jewels on it, 12 different types of jewels each representing the 12 tribes of Israel on there, and it had the golden ephod that the high priest would wear when he would go into the Holy of Holies, and in it contained the Urim and the Thummim, and that's a tough study, but essentially sometimes they did not know God's will in a certain manner, so they would use the Urim and the Thummim to cast lots. You're going to ask some questions about that, and I'm not going to have much to give you. That's about all I can tell you. That's about all anybody can tell you. Sometimes God, you know, God didn't tell them what to do in every single detailed situation. So sometimes they would say, Lord, turn left or turn right. And when they didn't know, they would turn to that ephod. And in the ephod contained that Urim and that Thumm. And then they used that to decipher what God's will. And they essentially would cast lots. And whatever the lot fell, they believed that to be God's will for them in that direction. I said that to say this, Gideon takes some of that gold that he is given as a reward for his leadership, if you will, and he builds an ephod. Golden ephod. Probably fashions it in just the same shape or form as what the high priest would wear. But what he does with it, we don't know exactly. When I first read it, my thought was he set it up on a pole, and the people came to it and worshipped, and that's possible. He may have done that. He may have had that ephod there and really some of the writers think he kept an ephod there from time to time. He would call the high priest out of Shiloh and have the high priest in this 40 years of his life, 40 years of his life, have the high priest come out of Shiloh to his hometown of Ophirah to help discern what the Lord's will is by using the ephod that he had made rather than the one that they had there in Shiloh where the tabernacle was set up. We don't know, and there's a lot of mystery. We don't really know exactly what this ephod, the purpose of it, or how it was set up, or whether it was worn. We just don't know all of these details about it, but we know this much. It became an idol to the Israelites. Very plainly. I don't know how much plainer God's Word can be when it says, verse 27, that all Israel went thither a-whoring after it. That's some good old King James language, as plain as it can get, right? They prostituted themselves to that golden ephod. Now, do you remember early on the first thing that God commissioned Gideon to do? in his hometown, in his own backyard, was to tear down an altar to Baal and the Asherah pole to get rid of those false gods, those false idols. Now what does he do? He turns right around and sets up a golden ephod which becomes an idol to the children of Israel and they become to where they literally fall down, worship it, commit spiritual adultery. That's what the language go a-whoring after it. Isaiah 54, God calls Israel His wife, and rather than them being faithful to Him, they go out and serve these other gods, and that is spiritual adultery. It is committing fornication. It is a-whoring after another god. And it's amazing, it really is, to see Gideon standing there not wanting to do the work, making excuses for why he couldn't do it, God blessing him and giving him the signs that he asked for, finally filling him with faith to lead the people, give him strong role of leadership, and now he set up an idol in his hometown, possibly even right where the other altars were torn down. This thing, the close of verse 27 says, which thing became a snare unto Gideon and to his house. That word snare can also be translated a noose. And that's what it was, a noose. Like you'd hang yourself with or someone would be hung with and that's what it was. Death led to spiritual death for them. But then I, you know, sometimes as you read these narratives, you sort of wonder why things are the way they are, God and His wisdom. But in verse 28, It's almost like the writer says, now I don't want you to get the idea that Gideon's all bad. Let me just take a breath here and just remind you, even he makes it in Hebrews 11. You know, I'm going to be hard on Gideon tonight, but he does, his name is mentioned in Hebrews 11 in the Hall of Faith, and I doubt my name be there, so I don't want to be overly hard on him. We find in verse number 28 that Midian, the Midianites, were subdued before the children of Israel. They were a problem no more. They didn't have any more trouble than the Midianites. And the country was in quietness for 40 years in the days of Gideon. So they had rest. There was rest for the people, 40 years. But what I want you to see out of this is that it's possible to win the battle and lose the war. It's possible to win the battle and lose the war. They had rest but they didn't have spiritual prosperity. You're better off being in battle and spiritually prosperous than you are having peace and a whoring after a false god. Here, Gideon's mistakes affect others. Will you agree with me about that this evening? What Gideon did led others to sin. Yeah, they had rest 40 years, but what did they do during that 40-year time span? Rather than solely worshipping God at the tabernacle in Shiloh, they started going to Ophrah and worshipping at the ephod that was there. Like it or not, what we do affects others. Our sins will affect others. In particular, and I'm not saying this, believe me, for any selfish reason, in particular those who are in roles of leadership, public failure brings great reproach upon the name of God. Look at David, King David. Gideon's sin affected the lives of others. You and I need to be aware of the fact that our sin will affect others. We're not an island. No man is an island to himself. They won the battle. Yeah, man, yeah, you did a good job. You brought rest, but the problem is you didn't stay committed to God. It's hard to finish well. You got to keep pressing on, which is not what Gideon did. So Gideon then, in verse number 29, he returns home. Indelible, the son of Joash, went and dwelt in his own house. Almost as if to say he's retiring from public life, is almost what it is. But I want to be cautious about saying that's what he did, simply because he stays, I'm going to be careful how I say these things, he stays very involved in a lot of things. returns home, verse 29, and then verse 30, and Gideon had 70 sons. I've been alliterating and trying to use R, his refusal, his request, he erects an idol, people had rest, he returns home, and to keep with my alliteration, verse 30 and 31, he reproduces. Seventy sons. Many wives. I know I've said it, please let me say it again. It's just hard to imagine how Gideon went from here to here. It really is. It's almost sort of the shape of a half circle, a rainbow shape. His low point and his reluctance to get started, not wanting to do it, his high point in defeating the enemy, and now it's all downhill from there. I told you, if Gideon's life is like a train, he was slow about getting going, but tonight's when he derails. And I know that it's, I know that it's uncomfortable, but the fact is, it's a biblically accurate, biblically true, that he married many wives and had 70 sons. He reproduces 70 sons. I'm going to tell you something, if you're reading ahead or if you remember from having read ahead before, this is going to be a sad, sad occasion for Gideon. I'll just leave it right there for now. Not only did he have many wives and 70 sons, but we find out in verse 31, he had some concubines, women on the side. One of his concubines lived in a little town called Shechem. She gave birth to a son. And this is a Canaanite village, and she is almost certainly a Canaanite woman, which he was forbidden to be with, let alone having her as a concubine. She gives birth to a son and calls him, Gideon names him Abimelech. Verse 23. I won't rule over you. My sons won't rule over you. The Lord will rule over you. Verse 31, he names one of his sons Abimelech. You know what that name means? My father is king. That's what the name Abimelech means. My father is king. Now, Mr. Gideon here, who said, I'm not going to rule over you and I'm not going to be your king, names one of his boys, my father is king. And I told you as I began this that even though he said no, seemingly said no to the role of rulership, notice just a few things that he's done. He has killed the two leaders of the Midianite army who had said, why, you resemble a king. Taking, if you will, retribution into his own hands, summary execution of even some of the Jewish people, He has taken a royal share of the plunder. He's set up a false god. He's married many wives. He's got a concubine or concubines on the side. And he names his son, my father is a king. So for a man who said he's not going to be a king, he sure is acting a lot like one. For a man who says, I'm not going to rule over you, the Lord's going to rule over you, he's not acting like it. In other words, friends, it's not enough to just say it with your lips, you've got to back it with your life. It's not enough to just say, I don't want to be your king, and then turn around and act like a king. Say, I'm not going to rule over you, but then you do rule over them. Our life has to back up our words. He was surely acting like a king. Names his son Abimelech. And again, if you're reading ahead at all, this guy, Abimelech, is nothing but trouble. He is nothing but trouble. In Gideon, verse 32, Gideon dies, verse 32, and Gideon, the son of Joash, died in a good old age, was buried in the sepulcher of Joash's father in Ophrah, the Hezerites. We don't know how long he lived. We know after the battles he lived some 40 years, begat many sons, but he died. It's hard not to read these stories and ask a few questions. One of the questions I want to ask when I read stories like this It's just, what if? What if he'd have did things differently the last 40 years? I know we can live in a what if world, you know, and go a long, long ways with it. I know in my own life I can look back and say, what if you'd have done some things differently? But it's hard to finish well. It takes commitment to finish strong. Not only to start strong, but finish strong. What if Gideon had remained faithful to God? I know, I know it's a hypothetical. But what if, rather than setting up an idol, he would have led the people to Shiloh? What if, rather than marrying a bunch of wives and having concubines on the side, he stayed true, faithful to God and to the one wife of his youth? Rather than Taking on the role of kingship if he would have just served as judge. You wonder how much differently things could have been. Friends, I just want to say to you, to me, it's imperative. Not just that we get going and stay busy, but that we remain true. I want to read this. I pulled it out and I read it. I thought it was so neat, great little story. 1968 Olympics. I'm not gonna ask. Some of you may remember this 1968 Olympics man by the name. He's from Tanzania. So forgive me. I'm gonna butcher up his name. John Stephen Aquarii running in a marathon race hours, hours behind. In fact, the stadium had just about emptied. Everybody had gone home. The race had long since been over, but he was still running. Finally, he enters into the stadium and what spectators are there rise to their feet as they see him. With his leg bandaged up and bleeding, he's limping, he's struggling. to finish the race. And the story says, limping into the arena, the Tanzanian runner grimaced with every step, his knee bleeding and bandaged from an earlier fall. His ragged appearance immediately caught the attention of the remaining crowd, who cheered him on to the finish line. Why did he stay in the race? Some asked. What made him endure his injuries all the way to the end? Later on, when interviewed, John Stephen Aquari simply replied, my country did not send me 7,000 miles to start the race. They sent me 7,000 miles to finish the race. Listen, God not only called you to start the race, he's called you to finish the race. It's hard to finish well. It takes commitment and diligence to keep on keeping on. But when we look at somebody like Gideon, who God used in such a miraculous way, and see him turn away, and he's not the only one, there are other Bible characters that do this. I told you, one of the things about our study of the book of Judges, it's not going to hide anything, it's not going to sugarcoat it. It's going to tell it clearly like it is. It should grieve us. And it should warn us to see if God can use him in such a way, and he still fall away, I can too. I've got to remain faithful to God and His Word or I can lead people off into sin. If you'd have asked Gideon when he was standing on the mountaintop with all of his 300 men around him shouting the sword of the Lord and Gideon, if within a few months or years he would lead the people off into spiritual adultery, giving birth to 70 sons, married to many wives, he'd have never believed that, but that's what sin will do. It's hard to finish well. You've got to stay faithful to God. Gideon, the son of Joash, died, and he makes it into Hebrews 11, and thank God for that, but there would be such a difference. And friends, you know as well as I do, without pointing fingers and naming names, we know far too many people that have found out it's hard to finish well. It's hard to keep on keeping on as we watch them fade out one by one. And it breaks your heart and it breaks my heart, but we see it far too often. And things go from bad to worse. Finally, in verses 33 through 35, the people return to their idolatrous ways. And it came to pass, I know I say this probably too much, but I underline these words, as soon as Gideon was dead, How long did it take? Well, the dirt ain't even settled. Grass hadn't even grown, flowers hadn't even bloomed over his grave. As soon as Gideon was dead, the children of Israel turned again. Remember that sin cycle we talked about in the Book of Judges? 40 years of peace, yet not spiritual prosperity. And I think, and I'll just be frank with you about it, I think Guinea is partly responsible for this, for setting up that Golden Epoch. Look, the children of Israel turned again and went a-whoring after Balaam. Twice now we've read that language, that they committed spiritual adultery against God, serving Balaam, and made Baal-Beroth, Baal-Beroth their god, That name Baal or Baal Beeroth means God of the covenant. It's almost twisted that they serve an idol called God of the covenant while ignoring the covenant they made with the real God. Verse 34, the children of Israel remembered not the Lord their God. Some chilling words, chilling words. remembered not the Lord their God who had delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies on every side. Neither showed they kindness to the house of Jeroboam or Gideon. So Gideon's dead, no more than buried, and the people go out. Not only are they ensnared by the ephod at Ophrah, They have set up now, and I believe it's in Shechem, and we'll find out in the next chapter, but they have set up an altar to Baal, who they call the God of the covenant. They forget the Lord God of Israel. Not only that, they forget about what Gideon had done for them. Quickly forgotten is not only God, but also Gideon. Quickly forgotten. In other words, verse 35, neither showed they kindness to the house of Gideon, According to the goodness which he had shown Israel, not only did they fail to honor or recognize his work or sacrifice and the good things he had done, you'll find out in the next chapter that they don't honor his family either. It's bad when God's people don't honor his leadership for the good things that they've done, nor his family after him. Let me just close with a few thoughts. When we read these stories, I want to try to make them as real to life as I can get them. And at the same time, I don't want us to be overly discouraged. Gideon was a man. He was flesh and blood, just like you and I are. And I've enjoyed and I've been profited by studying his life. And I promise you, if somebody sat down and had an inspired account of my life, you'd not be all that impressed with it either. You could sit there and tear it apart, and you'd find many, many things where you'd say, what if Lewis would have done differently here? What if he would have made a better decision here? Absolutely. And so I don't want to be overly critical of him, but I also want to recognize that he's a man, and he failed. He didn't finish strong. He didn't stay true. And in his weakness, we can see the strength of the Savior. Where Gideon failed in the end, our Lord and Savior Christ stayed true all the way to the end. There's the beauty of it. We should be able to see Christ in Gideon's strong points and in his weak points. In the end, Gideon turned away. Gideon led people away. Gideon's failures pushed other Israelites away, but none of that's true with our Christ. He was faithful to the end, brought Israel, us, incorporated in that, to God and not from God. And all the temptation that he was faced, he was God, but he was a man. And all the temptation that Christ faced, he stayed true. They tried to take Christ and make him king, and he said, not yet, it's not my time. And he didn't try to serve as king like Gideon did, even though he said, I'm not gonna be king. But there is one of these days when Christ will be king, and he will rule, and he will reign, but his reign will be a righteous reign. This is the life of Gideon, up and down, and friends, very honestly, That's most of our lives, up and down.