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Ending on a Tragic Note

In the conclusion of this narrative, the story ends on a tragic note
when the narrator gives an assessment in 8:34: "The Israelites did not
remember YHWH their God, who had rescued them from the hand of
all their enemies on every side. "43 Instead of a renewed sense of loyalty
to God, Israel is in a way just where they started off before God went to
all the trouble of reintroducing Godself, worshipping Baal-Berit.

Conclusion
In conclusion, some comments will be made as to how the character
of God in Judges 6-8 may function as a theological and moral resource.
Using characterization to reconstruct God in the Gideon narrative, a
very active God emerges in the first part. In a powerful way, God repeat-
edly discloses the divine nature to humans through signs and actions,
dramatically revealing a God who strongly desires to be in a personal
relationship with humans.44 Reminiscent of the Decalogue, God inten-
tionally reveals who God is by reminding people of divine activity in the
past and emphasizing that God continues to act in their lives. In this
divine-human relationship, God expects recognition from the human
partner. Again reflecting the Decalogue, this recognition should result in
loyalty and obedience as a response to God's actions.45 In the Gideon
narrative, we find traces of an appropriate response in Gideon's words
when he says in 8:3 that it was God who gave the enemy into their
hands, and in 8:23 where he declines the offer of kingship but says that
God will rule over them. Gideon's words relate to the theocratic conviction

43Gunn and Fewell, Narrative, 53. According to Gunn and Fewell, the narrator's explicit
statements about a character are most trustworthy. Moreover, the similarity of the narrator's
assessment to 6:10 is quite telling. It almost seems that the narrator bases an assessment
on Israel and Gideon's failure to live up to the command of God.
?`'John Sanders, The God Who Risks: A Theology of Providence (Downers Grove, IL:
InterVarsity, 1998), 11.
45Walter J. Harrelson, The Ten Commandments and Human Rights (Macon, GA:
Mercer University Press), 49.