“But I can’t kill them Daddy!”

¹⁸ Then Gideon asked Zebah and Zalmunna, “The men you killed at Tabor—what were they like?”

“Like you,” they replied. “They all had the look of a king’s son.”

¹⁹ “They were my brothers, the sons of my own mother!” Gideon exclaimed. “As surely as the Lord lives, I wouldn’t kill you if you hadn’t killed them.”

²⁰ Turning to Jether, his oldest son, he said, “Kill them!” But Jether did not draw his sword, for he was only a boy and was afraid.

²¹ Then Zebah and Zalmunna said to Gideon, “Be a man! Kill us yourself!” So Gideon killed them both and took the royal ornaments from the necks of their camels.  Gideon 8:18-21

I look at today’s versus a little differently than I use to.



In the past I would read it and think like Gideon, God was going to hand my enemies over and I will be victorious!


Many a sermon has been preached on these passages from that point of view.


But it appears that Gideon almost showed mercy, he even tried to get his son to do the killing. Maybe so he would not feel the guilt.


I just want to emphasize that when I read these versus this time, I thought of how we all live in the age of mercy now. Also that we must remember that our enemies are not flesh and blood now as they were in Gideon’s day.


I was just recently sent this in an email. So think about it if you are waging war against flesh and blood. I have found myself doing that in the last week.


Part of the email read “The more time you spend alone with God, the better you get along with other people”.

“You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!” (Isaiah 26:3 NLT)

Today’s readings:
JUDGES 7:1-9:21
Tomorrow’s readings:
JUDGES 9:22-11:28