Daily Lesson for March 31, 2020

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Judges chapter 6 verses 25 through 27:

25 That night the Lord said to him, “Take your father's bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it 26 and build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” 27 So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night.

This is a deeply archetypal story, outlining one generation's struggle to live out from under another generation's destructive religious practices and social mores.  The struggle is always with the cultural gods of the community -- oftentimes spoken of in terms of custom, heritage, or "way of life".  The antipathy towards these "false gods" is always at first held only in secret and the protest is at first subversive, non-direct, and oftentimes passive-aggressive. In short, this is how we rebel against our parents -- if we do.

But the rebellion usually does not last long. Social pressure is brought to fore to keep the community in order and its conventions intact. Those who step out of line are punished -- usually socially in myriads of ways and sometimes even physically.  The rebellion which takes place under cloak is found out; social punishment is swift and often harsh.  What is seen to be open rebellion is punished with even greater social force. What happened to Jesus in his own town among his own people is a case in point.

In today's story about Gideon's rebellion against his father's gods, we see the archetypal cycle. Gideon’s revolt against his father’s religion is found out by the community. "It was Gideon the son of Joash who has done this," they say, then go to Joash's house to demand his son.

But then, beautifully, the father refuses to give up his son.  He tells the villagers demanding Gideon that if the gods are upset then they can come themselves and get his son.

Here the social convention is overturned.  When confronted with the possibility of losing his own son Joash is made to admit the inadequacy and even falsehood of his own gods and customs.  He stands up with his son in defiance of the community's expectation and custom and against its hostility. Reformation takes root.

And it holds, until later in the book it is Gideon himself whose religion is corrupted.

This is a 3,000 year old story; but it also an ongoing story. History is cyclical. We are always forming and reforming. The religion of the past is not suitable for the religion of the day. Reformation is necessary. And every successive generation must cut down the false gods of the former.

NOTE: We’re reading the Bible through this year. Tomorrow’s Lesson will be from Judges chapters 8 and 9.