Gideon Loved His Nation. So Should You. Judges 6:13-14
There’s a moment in Judges 6 that should stop every Christian man in his tracks. Gideon has just poured out his complaint, imperfect theology and all, and the text says: “Then the Lord turned to him.”
Not turned away, not turned to rebuke. He turned toward Gideon. And he commissioned him.
What prompted that turn? What was it about Gideon that made God say, “This is the man I want for the job of national liberation”?
God Doesn’t Argue, He Commissions
Gideon’s complaint in verse 13 wasn’t perfectly formed. He said “us” when God had said “you.” He questioned whether God had kept his side of the covenant. He didn’t fully see the depth of syncretism around him.
But God didn’t pick apart his theology. He didn’t say, “Well, you got three things wrong, let me correct you.” He didn’t enter into a seminar. He turned to him and said: “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?”
There’s a point where words are no longer the essence. Where the talking must stop and the doing must start. God recognised in Gideon not doctrinal perfection, but something far more important: the raw materials of a man He could use.
What God Saw in Gideon
So what were those raw materials? Look at what Gideon had already demonstrated, even in an imperfect speech:
He loved his nation. Not abstractly, not theoretically, he truly loved Israel. He didn’t shrug at the invasion or make excuses for the Midianites. He didn’t talk about cultural enrichment or suggest that all nations have equal claim to the land. He was grieved that his people were being destroyed.
He had a covenantal framework. He didn’t blame the Midianites as if they were an independent force. He said: the Lord has done this. The Lord has delivered us into their hands. He understood, perhaps not fully, that God deals with nations according to covenant, that national disaster is not random but purposeful.
He had clarity. He didn’t mention Baal once. Surrounded by a sea of Baal worship, Asherah poles, and syncretistic compromise, not a word of it was on his lips. He spoke of one God and one covenant. No hedging, no “but Baal has some good points too.”
And there lies a lesson the modern church desperately needs.
Syncretism Has No Moral Voice
The reason the radical ideologues of our day; the Marxists, the gender theorists, the permanent revolutionaries, have such outsized power is that they believe one thing. They pursue it with singular focus, they don’t halt between two opinions.
Christians, by contrast, are the very picture of Elijah’s confrontation on Carmel. Halting. Hedging. “Well, you can’t be too dogmatic.” “People have different views.” “Don’t mix religion with politics.”
That is syncretism. And syncretism has no moral voice, it never will. A faith that carves God a department and hands the rest of life to other authorities will never produce the clarity, the courage, or the conviction needed to confront the age.
Gideon had clarity. And when he spoke with that clarity — loyalty to his nation, trust in the covenant, singular focus on God — the Lord turned toward him. Not to rebuke, but to commission.
The Cost — and the Reward
Here’s the hard part. If you start talking about a Christian nation — about England or Scotland or Wee Ulster or any Western nation as a place that once covenanted toward God and should do so again — many people, including many Christians, will turn away from you.
“You can’t mix religion with politics.” “That’s a worldly concern.” “We’re not called to be nationalists.” All sorts of non-biblical objections, they will turn away.
And that’s a cost you have to count. But consider what happened to Gideon: other people would go on to rebuke him, but God commissioned him. When he talked covenant, God turned toward him.
The question is not whether people will turn away. They will. The question is whether God will turn toward you. And the answer from Judges 6 is clear: He commissions men who love their nation, who trust the covenant, and who refuse to halt between two opinions.
Your Work Is Your Preparation
One more thing. “Go in this might of yours.” Part of that might was Gideon’s daily, unglamorous work, threshing wheat in a wine press. Lifting a flail and striking down, over and over.
And what was the very first act God required of him? Tearing down the Asherah pole and chopping it to pieces. The same action. The physical discipline of his daily work had been preparing him for the spiritual act of iconoclasm.
Your work; difficult, suboptimal, underpaid as it may be is not wasted – it’s preparation. The discipline you build in the winepress is the strength you’ll need when God says: “It’s chopping time, son.”
Based on the God’s World, God’s Way podcast series through Judges 6. Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts. Listen on Cr101Radio.com. Share with a brother who needs to hear this.