JU6-29: Why We Don’t Have To Apologize For Our Faith

“‘Bring out your son,’ the men of the city demanded of Yo’ash, ‘so that he may die, because he destroyed the altar of Ba‘al and cut down the sacred pole next to it!’  But Yo’ash said to all those crowding around him, ‘You’re defending Ba‘al, are you? It’s your job to save him? Anyone who defends Ba‘al will be put to death before morning! If he’s a god, let him defend himself! After all, somebody destroyed his altar!'”-Judges 6:30-31

The men of the city call out Gideon’s father Yo’ash and demand that his son be brought out and put to death for destroying the altar of Ba’al.

Yo’ash’s response proved himself to be quite an upstanding character.

The first point he makes and this is a paraphrase…

“Listen homies, if this god Ba’al who you worship can’t even protect his own altar, then seriously guys, how powerful is he?”

Yo’ash continues…

“Does Ba’al need mere mortals like us to protect his butt?”

And then he says something that’s often misinterpreted.

“If any of you guys even tries to protect or defend Ba’al, I’m gonna have you put to death by morning”.

It sounds like Yo’ash is saying any man who tries to hurt his son is dead meat.

But that’s not the case here.

What Yo’ash really meant, and this speaks volumes about how the ancient Middle Eastern mind worked in this era, is that it was considered a major offense to even question the power of a god to defend him or herself.

To do so was considered blasphemous because you were trampling on the supposed divine nature of that god.

And the consequences for such a crime was the death penalty.

Since Yo’ash was the caretaker of this temple to Ba’al that had just been destroyed, he would have been the one responsible for meting out such capital punishment.

I must say Yo’ash’s argument was quite flawless and would have made any competent criminal defense lawyer proud.

If Ba’al were real, he would defend himself.

And if he wasn’t real, then Gideon didn’t commit a crime after all.

On top of that, it was a mere human being who had destroyed Ba’al’s altar and not some other god.

So, if push came to shove, Ba’al would only have to battle another human being.

And how much of a threat is a mere human being to a god?

The implication was let Ba’al fight his own frickin’ battles.

If he’s a god worth any salt, he oughta be more than capable of taking care of himself.

There’s a great takeaway here.

I think we humans waste a lot of time and energy trying to defend our God.

We’re worried about how to present Him to an unbelieving world so that our case for the Lord will seem valid and reasonable.

There’s even a whole field of study dedicated to this endeavor called Apologetics.

Apologia is a Greek word which means “to defend”.

It has nothing to do with saying sorry or apologizing.

But to intentionally use the word as a pun here.

We don’t have to apologize for our faith in the Lord and the Bible.

Of course, a cynical disbelieving world will try to poke holes in our faith and make fun of us.

But we don’t have to shrink in fear or shame when we’re attacked.

All we have to do is be filled with the Spirit and surrender ourselves to God in full faith and trust.

And then, He’ll do the rest.

Because he ain’t like some false god Ba’al who can’t even protect his own altar.