Turning to Jether, his oldest son, he said, “Kill them!” But Jether did not draw his sword, because he was only a boy and was afraid. Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Come, do it yourself. ‘As is the man, so is his strength.’ ” So Gideon stepped forward and killed them, and took the ornaments off their camels’ necks.
Judges 8:20-21 NIV
Who a man is determines his strength. A man can be full of muscles and physical agility, but when his mind is weak, his strength will not show. In today’s verse, we see Jether given the opportunity to be a valiant man like his father. I’m sure he was aware of the exploits his father had done through the help of God. However, we see this young man being timid because his mind is weak.
In the earlier verses of Judges 8, we see Gideon as a bold man declaring what had not happened with faith. He believed that God had already delivered the kings of Midian, Zebah, and Zalmunna into his hands. Even when the leaders of Succoth disdained his request, we see how valiantly he responded to them. He did not allow their unbelief and statement of fact to stop him from believing that these kings had been delivered into his hands. Gideon asked his firstborn, Jether, to kill these men. He gave him the opportunity to show the power that he believed was resident in his son. If you remember, God did the same for Gideon. God saw something in Gideon that he did not see in himself.
However, Gideon arose in the assurance of what God saw in him and worked with it. We expected the same of Jether. However, he allowed the fear and weakness of his heart to overpower the trust his father had in him. They had already captured and tied up Zebah and Zalmunna, but in Jether’s mind, they were still strong kings. Stop giving credit and strength to what God has already captured for you. Let your mind receive the strength of the Lord and know that greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.
An heir becomes a cowering slave when there is no understanding of who he is. Your strength is dependent on who you are, and you are what you think you are.
