In Judges 8 & 9, God gives Gideon victory over the Midianites. In that feat of great strength and success, it causes him to forget and slowly slip from God and His direction. He stops praying and seeking God's plan, he becomes resentful towards others, he becomes concerned about material things and worries about his reputation rather than what God thinks of him. He starts veering off God's path to do whatever he wants which includes compromising with sin. He builds a gold ephod and the Israelites quickly forget about God and instead worship the ephod and the false gods. Compromise leads us further into sin and further from God. Abimelech rises up and takes over. The Israelites start fighting and killing each other which shows their true problem lies within themselves. It's a heart issue. The fruit of their choices come forth. Sin is its own curse. Jesus is the opposite of Abimelech. He is our true King, Redeemer, and Rescuer. He rescues people rather than killing them and took our millstones unto Himself. He was crushed by our sins so we could have a true choice of freedom. He died so we could live. The choice is ours to make.
