Charles Spurgeon Commentary Judges 8:23-27

"And Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: Jehovah shall rule over you. And Gideon said unto them, I would make a request of you, that ye would give me every man the ear-rings of his spoil. (For they had golden ear-rings, because they were Ishmaelites.) And they answered, We will willingly give them. And they spread a garment, and did cast therein every man the ear-rings of his spoil. And the weight of the golden ear-rings that he requested was a thousand and seven hundred [shekels] of gold, besides the crescents, and the pendants, and the purple raiment that was on the kings of Midian, and besides the chains that were about their camels` necks. And Gideon made an ephod thereof, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel played the harlot after it there; and it became a snare unto Gideon, and to his house." — Judges 8:23-27 (ASV)

He did not set up an idol, but he made an ephod, an imitation of that wonderful vestment worn by the high priest. Perhaps he made it of solid gold, not to be worn, but to be looked at, simply to remind the people of the worship of God, and not to be itself worshipped.

But ah, dear friends, you see here that, if we go half an inch beyond what God's Word warrants, we always get into mischief! You hear people say, "We have such and such symbols, not to worship, but to help us in worship." Ah, yes; but the tendency of the symbol is to act as a dam to the stream of devotion, and to make it end there!

God forbid that we should ever violate the rules that Christ has laid down for us! The slightest deviation from the simplicity of the gospel may lead us away into sheer apostasy?

From where have come all the errors of Rome but from little accretions and alterations? A little ornament here, a little symbol there, and a little variation of truth there, and the gigantic system of Romanism has thus been created.

Gideon probably meant well, and we may do wrong even though we mean well. May the Lord preserve us from the smallest departure from the way that he has marked out for us in his Holy Word! Amen.