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Gideon won a great victory but he was a moral failure
as a husband and father because of his voracious sexual appetite. In
addition to multiple wives and 70 sons, he also fathered a son with
a concubine. Abimelech grew up as a pagan worshiper, murdered 69 of
his half-brothers and then was made king by the men in Shechem.
After his death, God raised up Tola and Jair to be judges, but then
the Israelites returned to paganism like a moth to a flame. The Lord
did not want to rescue His adulterous people and eventually allowed
Jephthah, the son of Gilead and a pagan prostitute, to become the
next leader of Israel. He was a warrior and defeated the Ammonites but
he was also a pagan worshiper who became infamous for the human
sacrifice of his only daughter. The Book of Judges was an extremely
destructive time for the people of Israel. Abimelech and Jephthah
both represented the fruit of sexual immorality. Their fathers were
whoremongers and they were affected by the sins of their parents.
God recorded these events so that you and I don't have to repeat the
mistakes of the past. |
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