Judges 8:35

35. Neither showed they kindness They proved ungrateful as well as idolatrous. Instead of making one of Gideon’s legitimate sons ruler, (Judges 8:22,) they saw all these cruelly slaughtered, and chose their murderer, an illegitimate son, to reign over them for three years. Judges 9:22.

Jerubbaal, namely, Gideon The names should be written Jerubbaal-Gideon. The double name is here apparently used as a reflection on Israel’s baseness in neglecting the memory of the distinguished Baal-fighter, to whom they owed so much. Note, Judges 6:32.

Thus closes the history of Gideon, another of the mixed and mysterious characters of the age of the Judges. He is the first of the deliverers of Israel whose history is given as a detailed narrative. He possessed gentleness and grace of heart and manner, with a lofty heroism and nobleness of character. This was enhanced by his commanding and kingly form.

As the deliverer of Israel, following out the instructions of Jehovah, we see in him every thing to praise: as the retired warrior, peacefully living at his native city, and apparently refusing to exercise the ordinary office of judge, there is something about him that is at least strangely unambitious; and in his setting up the costly ephod in Ophrah, and allowing all Israel to go whoring after it, we discover that which resembles a Jeroboam-like attempt to establish a new and unauthorized form and place of worship in Israel, and in this he bears the censure of the sacred historian himself. Gideon was manifestly a great character, but not well balanced. “There is a sweetness and nobleness blended with his courage, such as lifts us into a higher region something of the past greatness of Joshua, something of the future grace of David. But he was, as we should say, before his age. The attempt to establish a more settled form of government ended in disaster and crime. He himself remains as a character apart, faintly understood by others, imperfectly fulfilling his own ideas, staggering under a burden to which he was not equal.” Stanley.

The attempt of some expositors, ancient and modern, to make Gideon a type of Christ, is justly condemned by Dr. Clarke. It is farfetched and useless, and does more to confuse the sacred history than to explain it. The history of the Judges is manifestly designed, not to give us types of the Messiah, but rather to show up the lower and higher aspects of human character in the development of history. We see in this book the natural workings of humanity when confronted on the one side by the world, the flesh, and the devil, and on the other by the law and revelations of God.

The conflict too often results in the victory of the flesh over the Spirit.