Judges 8:30-32 Keeping the Faith, Finished the Race!

 30Gideon had seventy sons of his own,e since he had many wives. 31His concubine, who dwelt in Shechem, also bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech.

Gideon’s Death

32Later, Gideon son of Joash died at a ripe old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

“a. Whose name he called Abimelech: The name Abimelech means, “My father, a king.” It is the kind of name that a king himself would bear. It seems that Gideon intended that his son would become the leader of Israel after Gideon himself was gone.

b. Gideon the son of Joash died at a good old age: Through his career, we see Gideon as a man who slipped from great heights of faith to a place of outright apostasy and rebellion against God. We could say that Gideon handled adversity better than success. Success, riches, and prominence brought him down.

i. It isn’t enough for us to begin well with God. We must continue on throughout our whole Christian life. Gideon, in his later years, had to look back to see anything done for God. All those works were in the past.” (Guzik)

Keeping the Faith, Finished the Race!

2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good and worthy and noble fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith [firmly guarding the gospel against error].

Paul’s comments about finishing the race and keeping the faith is my hope and dream that I can finish well before I go home to heaven. I suspect if I had the successes and riches that Gideon had I would have fared no different!

How would you handle success, riches, and prominence?

Blessings