I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Judges 7-8.

The story of Gideon making an ephod from the gold earrings taken from the defeated Midianites has always bothered me.  Gideon made it right after defeating the Midianites.  He had unified the Israelites against the Midianites by calling for a rejection of idolatry.  Yet, here he is making an object which he should have been aware would become an object of worship.  And, sure enough, the writer tells us that the Israelites began to worship the ephod Gideon made.  Not only that the writer tells us that it became a trap for Gideon and his family.  We do not know if they worshiped the ephod, or merely took advantage of the desire of other Israelites to worship it.  In either case, it set the stage for what happened after Gideon died, both the turning back to worshiping Baal and the account in tomorrow’s passage.