Gideon declined to be king but he certainly acted like
one. He asked for tribute in the form of
the earrings the people had taken from the vanquished as spoils of war. It seems a small thing but the weight of the
earrings was over forty pounds of gold. This,
Gideon had made into an ephod, a garment that had a priestly function. The ephod made in Exodus for the high priest
had stones set in it, the Urim and Thummim, which in some ways were used to determine
the will of God as an oracle. We have no
indication of how or when it was consulted by the priest but here, Gideon sets
up this golden ephod as a shrine and apparently it was worshipped as an idol
similar to the golden calf of Exodus and it became a snare to Gideon and his
family and all Israel. Gideon also acted
as Solomon did with wives and concubines, like kings of the surrounding
countries. He started well but didn't
end particularly well. There was,
however, forty years of tranquility in the land during his life.
Can't you just see Jesus laughing at Nathanael when the
latter makes his declaration, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the
King of Israel!”? Because Jesus saw him
under a fig tree when He couldn’t actually have seen him? Jesus essentially answers, "You ain't
seen nothing yet." If Nathanael
were that impressed with a bit of prophetic insight then what will he make of
healings, feedings, and the like? Nathanael,
in this confession, makes clear what he is looking for in a Messiah which is
what Philip told him they had found. His
objection to Philip's disclosure was based solely on where Jesus came from (the
information was faulty anyway) and was easily overthrown. Nathanael was looking for a king while Philip
said they had found the one promised in the Scriptures although as yet they
hadn't considered the suffering servant of Isaiah, the true Messiah.
Did you notice who was there to arrest Peter and John? The Sadducees. They were "greatly annoyed because they
were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the
dead." The Sadducees were those who
didn't believe in resurrection. They could
get along with the Pharisees okay because what they taught concerning
resurrection was theoretical but the disciples were teaching it as reality in
Jesus, that was a bridge too far. Five thousand
people believed their teaching, which would certainly make a dent in the
Sadducees ability to lead. By the time
of the trial the charge was somewhat different even though the high priestly
office at the time was controlled by the Sadducees Annas and Caiphas. The charge was changed to what power was the
healing of the lame man effected. They knew
that the charge had to be palatable to the Pharisees also. The Name of Jesus becomes the problem to be
solved and it gives Peter a chance to be the man he always wanted to be, bold
and courageous. Unlike Gideon the work
he did for God hadn't become Peter's boast.
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