Giving a Soft Answer

“And the men of Ephraim said unto him [Gideon], Why hast thou served us thus, that thou calledst us not, when thou wentest to fight with the Midianites? And they did chide with him sharply. 

   And he said unto them, What have I done now in comparison of you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer?

   God hath delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb: and what was I able to do in comparison of you? Then their anger was abated toward him, when he had said that.” (Judges 8:1-3)

   Here is the backstory to this passage: Israel, having arrived in the promised land of Canaan, repeatedly disobeyed God’s command not to fellowship with the idol-worshipping people and their false gods. As a result, God would let heathen people oppress them. They would pray, and God would send a judge to deliver them. The cycle would recur again and again: rebellion, oppression, prayer for help, deliverance.

   In one such cycle, God had let them be taken over by the Midianites. When they cried to God for help, God raised Gideon to be a judge. One day as Gideon threshed wheat, an angel appeared to him and said, “The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.” (Judges 6:12) God assured Gideon that He would give him grace to deliver Israel from the oppressive hand of the Midianites.

   Gideon gathered soldiers together to fight the Midianites, thirty-two thousand total. God told him there were too many. If Israel won, they would think it was their own power that had saved them, not God. He told Gideon to tell whoever was afraid to go back home. Twenty-two thousand left, leaving ten thousand.

God told Gideon there were still too many. He told Gideon to bring the troops to a body of water to drink. Three hundred of the men drank by cupping water in their hand. Those were the men God chose.

   The huge Midianite army was in a valley. God told Gideon to spy on them. He and his servant Phurah did and heard two soldiers talking of how Gideon would defeat them. Gideon was thrilled. He worshipped God, then had his troops surround the Midianite army with pitchers, lamps, and trumpets. They broke the pitchers, blew the trumpets, and yelled, “The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon.” (Judges 7:20) God “…set every man’s sword against his fellow,” (Judges 7:22) The Midianite army wiped themselves out.

   Gideon later told the men of Ephraim to join the battle. They did. They also took captive two Midianite princes, Oreb and Zeeb, whom they executed. Later, they were angry Gideon had not called them to the battle sooner. Coming off a stressful, dangerous situation and a great victory from God, Gideon could have responded to this uncalled-for chew-out session with some harsh words of his own. Yet he didn’t.

   By comparing the gleaning of grapes of Ephraim to the vintage of Abiezer, Gideon was saying, “What you men of Ephraim did is far better than what we people of Abiezer did. You guys got Oreb and Zeeb. How could we top that?” Gideon may have been shmoozing them a bit, since he, not they, had gone to the battle first. Yet he was humble, not harsh. After all, God deserved the glory for giving this victory.

   If you are a police officer, you often deal with people in crises, sometimes crises of their own making. They may say things you don’t deserve to hear: “Why didn’t you guys get here sooner?” “Why don’t you go after real criminals?” Proverbs 15:1 says, “A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.”Resist the temptation to respond with harsh words of your own. Pray for help to give a calm answer, as Gideon did, and to turn away wrath; to throw a wet blanket on the fire instead of gasoline.