And Gideon made an ephod [a sacred, high priest’s garment] of it, and put it in his city of Ophrah, and all Israel paid homage to it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family. – Judges 8:27, Amplified Bible (AMP)

The law of unintended consequences teaches that, no matter how good our intentions are in doing something, there are inevitable (and often negative), unintended consequences that follow the actions we take.

For example, Gideon’s motivations for constructing the ephod of Judges 8:27 were most likely pure. According to many Bible commentators, Gideon probably made the ephod for the following two reasons:

1. As a memorial to God’s miraculous deliverance from the Midianites

2. For use as an oracle, or a way of consulting God, in decisions where the correct path was not clear

Gideon, it appears, never intended for the ephod to become an idol to Israel, but, unfortunately, that is exactly what Judges 8:27 says that it became.

If the commentators are correct, then Gideon’s error did not arise out of a heart of rebellion. It arose out of a heart of compromise. An ephod is a sacred, high priest’s garment, and in making an ephod for himself, Gideon departed from God’s prescribed plan for worshipping. Although Gideon desired to worship God, he decided to worship God on his own terms, assuming some of the authority of the high priest, as commentator Matthew Henry states:

…having an altar already built by divine appointment (ch. 6:26), which he [Gideon] erroneously imagined he might still use for sacrifice, he intended this [ephod] for an oracle, to be consulted in doubtful cases…[and departing from the] law which obliged them to worship only at that one altar

By departing from God’s prescribed plan of worship, Gideon made it much, much easier for his house and for his countrymen to abandon God their Deliverer in favor of the idols that gave them free reign to pursue their lusts.

Their are many worship choices that Christians make that have had negative, unintended consequences. Although the intentions behind those choices are usually pure, the methods of worship created by those choices usually make people more in tune with their lusts than with the Holy God of Heaven. As a result, man’s ideas for worship end up fueling man’s sinful tendencies, bringing much iniquity into the church that angers the God of Heaven.

Be careful how you worship God. Don’t jump on the bandwagon to try something new just because it appears exciting and fresh. Measure the idea against God’s standards of worship as laid out in the Bible. If the idea violates even one biblical principle, throw it out the window. If you don’t, negative, unintended consequences will surely follow its implementation. If, however, the idea appears in line with biblical principles, give it a shot. It may be exactly what God would have you to do next in the process of growing closer to Him.

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