Where does this Judges 8:18–35 leave us, a people who can be forgetful, who do not remember the Lord as we ought, and who can be charged with prostituting our hearts to the idols of this world? We have a God who forgives, and not because of our faith itself. No, our only hope is the object of our faith. God the true King came in the flesh. This king saved Gideon, Israel, and us from sin. The Lord Jesus, the great King, did not come to serve his own interests like Gideon did, like we do. This king did not demand service as a king. He came to serve. And he did so, with single-minded devotion to his Father, never turning to the right or the left. He never gave his heart, his worship, his dedication to any idol. He never forgot the Lord his God; he always remembered him, even when his Father had forsaken him. And so he overcame a far greater force than the Midianites. He overcame sin, in all its guilt and pollution, by offering up his life as payment. And unlike Gideon, Jesus waited for his kingship to be given to him, after his death and resurrection. This is the God who rules over us, the King in whom we have hope.
It is because of his life, death, and resurrection that every person with faith, even faith as small as a mustard seed, now shares in his everlasting kingdom, where grace and forgiveness are dispensed from his throne, to those who like Gideon struggle with sin, even mightily at times, but repent and believe in the exalted King of heaven and earth.
18 Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, “Where are the men whom you killed at Tabor?” They answered, “As you are, so were they. Every one of them resembled the son of a king.”