In Judges, chapter nine, four through five, the great tragedy in Gideon’s family is from Gideon’s polygamy in chapter eight, verses thirty through thirty-one. His concubine gave birth to Abimelech, who killed seventy of his brothers. Gideon had leadership ability on the battlefield but not in the home. God, on the other hand, places great importance on the family.
Under the new covenant, He commands not to appoint an overseer of God’s people who cannot manage himself or his household well.
The example of Gideon and his family is that all the good he did for God will not save his family unless he continued righteous living in the sight of God and his family. A pastor once said that “some Christians are good actors.” It is easy to put on a show for others among a congregation in a church and yet live opposite to what we claim to be. The problem with that lifestyle is people at church see us occasionally, and we can play a role of innocence in front of them that we can sustain until service is over for that day. However, at home, relatives, especially our family or the people we live with day in and day out, will see us most of the time, and eventually, the acting will fade, and the real action will reveal in front of them.
Gideon did not realize that his action resonated louder than his overall activity. The family regularly in our environment will eventually see the actual person come out. Not possible to put on a righteous acting role all-day among our family members because there will ultimately be loopholes in our character and ways that will reveal. Our lifestyle will impact our family, especially our children, who are the younger generation. That result could create a bad influence on them instead of a positive one.
The lesson to learn is all the good done in front of others that know us well will not affect them until they see the bad come out, which they will remember the most.