We know that the Lord did some amazing miracles through Gideon. In all these things God showed his love and grace for his people. Because he loved them, he let Gideon win the battle against the Midianites with only 300 men.

The people had seen this amazing battle victory, and so they wanted to make Gideon their king. They forgot that it was God who gave the victory. To them it was Gideon who was the brave one, who won the battle, and so they wanted him as their king.

When Gideon heard them say this, he answered the people correctly. He told them that it was not him who made them win the battle, but that it was the Lord. “I’m not going to rule over you,” he said, “but let God be your ruler.”

It was good that Gideon said the right thing, but sadly he didn’t really act as though he wanted to show the people that God was their ruler. What did he do? He collected all their gold and made an ephod out of it. An ephod was part of the high priest’s clothes and was used by the high priest to communicate with God. God used the ephod to show the people what he wanted them to do. And so the ephod belonged with the high priest in the tabernacle.

But in this story Gideon made an ephod and he put it away from the tabernacle, in his own area. Gideon had said that he wanted to let God rule over him, but by making this ephod he was trying to rule over God. It’s like what the Israelites did in Eli’s day when they took the ark out of the tabernacle to try and make God do what they wanted. Gideon did the same thing here.

And what happened? Because Gideon didn’t teach the people to let God rule over them, the people turned away from serving God and again served idols.

Who is your ruler? God has saved you in Christ and so always let him rule over you.

Reflection with your child:

Can you think of times when you wanted to do your own thing instead of letting God be your ruler?

Source: Sermon by Rev. R. Vermeulen