There is indeed no precedent for the Lord’s concern that the victory would be attributed to the people rather than to God, nor is there precedent for reducing the army to an impossible size through God’s open intervention, in order to prevent erroneous interpretation by the people of the reason for the victory. In the other judge accounts, the return to God occurs apparently at the stage of the lament to God after the punishment and before the actual battle. Even if the lament to God does not reflect a return to God, the people interpret the judge’s victory as a result of divine intervention and therefore they remain loyal to God throughout the judge’s life. The fact that in the Gideon account God raises the concern that Gideon’s victory will not be interpreted as God’s victory as in the other accounts, indicates again the serious spiritual situation in the time of Gideon.
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2 The LORD said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’