Judges 8:33 No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals. They set up Baal-Berith as their god and did not remember the Lord their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side. They also failed to show any loyalty to the family of Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) in spite of all the good things he had done for them. Abimelek son of Jerub-Baal went to his mother’s brothers in Shechem and said to them and to all his mother’s clan, “Ask all the citizens of Shechem, ‘Which is better for you: to have all seventy of Jerub-Baal’s sons rule over you, or just one man?’ Remember, I am your flesh and blood.” When the brothers repeated all this to the citizens of Shechem, they were inclined to follow Abimelek, for they said, “He is related to us.” They gave him seventy shekels of silver from the temple of Baal-Berith, and Abimelek used it to hire reckless scoundrels, who became his followers. He went to his father’s home in Ophrah and on one stone murdered his seventy brothers, the sons of Jerub-Baal.
There were forty years of peace from the time God used Gideon to defeat the Midianites and Gideon’s death. The people followed Gideons lead in worship and service to God. But, look, no sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites stopped worshiping and serving God after forty years of doing it. You have to wonder what kind of commitment the people had toward honoring and worshiping God. Did they just gradually lose sight of God and try to start down other paths but were held onto the path by the leadership of Gideon? Do you ever wonder if we are any different and our commitment to God is one built on convenience to how it fits into our lives? When we are very busy with life our commitment is almost non-existent. If this lax commitment is during the formative years of our children it is no wonder they can so easily have no foundation to stand on and have no want or need for God.
We do well to make our commitment firm and our foundation known to our family and friends so that we are influencing them toward a relationship with Jesus Christ rather than them influencing us toward worldly wants and desires.