The Truth About Gideon’s Altar Destruction

The Morning After

We’re in Judges 6, at the aftermath of the action. Gideon, on the command of the Lord, went out at night and tore down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah pole. He took ten of his servants with him and did it under cover of darkness — not from cowardice, as we established, but from wisdom. He knew his neighbours.

Now verse 28: And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, there was the altar of Baal torn down, and the wooden image that was beside it cut down, and the second bull was being offered on the altar which had been built. The first thing they see is this desecration of their sacred site. And their response is immediate and intense.

What Outrages a Man Reveals His God

So they said to one another, Who has done this thing? They inquired diligently, as a small town will, and quickly landed on Gideon son of Joash. These were not lawless men — they were men deeply concerned with law, with what they believed was right, with their community’s religious order. They moved as one to the house of Joash and demanded: Bring out your son that he may die, because he has torn down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the wooden image that was beside it.

Notice what they did not say. They did not say: this is our altar to Jehovah. They said: the altar of Baal. Snow cold. These were the children of Israel — covenant people — and their outrage was entirely for Baal.

It is like burning an American flag, or questioning the sacred consensus in whatever sphere you care to name. What gets a man’s blood boiling tells you exactly who his god is. A minister who shrugs when a cross is torn down but goes white with rage when someone questions climate change — you know his god. A churchgoer more offended by criticism of the NHS than by apostasy — you know what he trusts. The men of this city were not Sunday morning Baal worshippers. They were fully committed. Their entire community was united as one man in their devotion.

A Lawsuit Framework

This is not a mob — it is a legal proceeding. They are pressing upon Joash the legal claims of the community. And Joash responds with a counter-argument: Would you plead for Baal? Would you save him? Let the one who would plead for him be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him plead for himself, because his altar has been torn down.

This is the logic of the true God versus the idol. What power does Baal actually have? Only the power given to him by the devotion of his worshippers. Strip that away — demonstrate publicly that he cannot defend himself — and he is nothing. Joash, whether from genuine faith or simple pragmatism, sees through it. If Baal is real, let him act. He didn’t. He never does.

Real Change Starts With the Religious Root

Let’s step back and see the pattern. God’s strategy for delivering Israel from Midian begins not with a military assault but with the exposure of the false gods. Gideon’s first act of obedience was not striking Midian — it was tearing down the altar in his own town. This tells us something about the nature of reformation.

Real change never comes from pointing out the atrocities of the external enemy, however accurately and voluminously you document them. If there is an external enemy, it is because there is an internal problem. It is a religious problem. The salt and light people, the only people capable of purifying a nation, have gone away from God. That is always the root.

And God deals with individuals as individuals, yes — but he also deals with nations as nations. You cannot have a Christian nation composed of largely unbelieving, unconcerned people. If real change is going to happen, it will happen at the religious level. That is what God demonstrated here.

Who Protected Gideon?

There is one final irony worth sitting with. Who protected Gideon from the mob that wanted to kill him? His father — the man whose name was attached to that very altar of Baal, the patron of the cultic site Gideon had just destroyed.

In God’s providence, he engineered the circumstances so that his man was protected from the most unexpected direction. God is able to take someone from the very centre of a corrupt system, raise him up knowing God’s word, keeping God’s word, obeying God — even in circumstances that appear impossible. Joash’s position as keeper of the Baal site became the very thing that shielded his son.

God’s man will be protected. Not always in the way we expect. But he will be protected.

God bless you. We’ll see you next time.