Did not the Lord specifically command Gideon to destroy the pagan items (Judges 6:25–26)? For that matter, how many Israelites does it take to tear down a Baal altar, especially with a huge bull for help? Gideon finds trust in numbers rather than trust in the Lord.
Furthermore, the second half of this verse explicitly tells us that Gideon’s motivation was fear. It is rare, especially in the book of Judges, for an Old Testament author to tell us people’s motivations. Generally Hebrew narrative invites readers to draw their conclusions regarding a person’s character and motivation from his or her speech, gestures, and actions…. The second half of the verse represents a rare literary moment when the narrator offers us access to the internal motivation of a character by explicit reference to an emotion. The reader cannot help but be disappointed that the real motivation for his hasty obedience was not an eagerness to obey God but fear of the consequences from the citizens of Ophrah if he should tear down the altar of Baal in broad daylight.
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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.