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which is held up as ideal until Saul is introduced as the first king. How-
ever, Gideon's actions tell a different story.
The Gideon story manifests signs of what John Sanders describes as
a "divine risk." Accordingly, God in divine freedom has chosen to create
"significant others and has given them 'space' to operate." This space,
however, implies that there is always the danger that "the relationship
may backfire. "46 And in the Gideon narrative, this relationship does back-
fire, as the people lose their God focus when they ask Gideon to be their
king, or when Gideon's revenge mission becomes the sole focus of the
third narrative movement, or when Gideon's self-glorification reaches a
climax when he makes the ephod which becomes a snare not only for
his own family but for the whole of Israel.
How does God react to this rejection? God may respond by disap-
pearing as an actor actively involved in the narrative. 47 In contrast with
the first movement, where God is very present and active, God is totally
absent in the third movement. It seems that God is expressing anger and
disappointment at Gideon's response by withdrawing from the scene.
Terence Fretheim discusses the notion of God's presence and absence in
The Suffering of God.48 Fretheim notes that one often finds in the
Psalms and the prophetic literature that God is said to hide God's face
(e.g. Ps 44:23; 89:46; Isa 59:2; 54:7-8; Mic 3:4; cf. also Deut 31:17;
32:19-20).49 This absence of God often relates to the evil that Israel
have done in God's eyes. As Fretheim argues:
We have noted that the intensity of the divine presence can be affected
by human sinfulness or receptiveness. God can be driven away or

46Sanders, The God Who Risks, 79.
41 Sanders, The God Who Risks, 80.
48The theme of the presence and absence of God relates to the theme of the vulnerability
and suffering of God. Cf. William C. Placher, Narratives of a Vulnerable God: Christ,
Theology, and Scripture (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1995); Fretheim, The
Suffering of God, 79-101, 107-148. Fretheim notes that God chooses to assume suffering
and suffers "because of," "with," and "for" Israel.
49Fretheim, The Suffering of God, 65-68; Brueggemann, Theology, 333ff.
Brueggemann describes the absence of God or the hiddenness of God only in terms of
wisdom theology. Neither Brueggemann nor Fretheim deal with the instances where God
disappears from the narrative scene. This might be an interesting topic for further
investigation.