MARCH 19

Gideon and His Snn

As if traditional military warfare were not difficult enough, the people f-i of Ephraim, and the people of Manasseh on both sides of the Jordan, \^S i are the object of attack by Midianitcs from the east, who are the first people known to use camels in battle. With the mobility provided by the camels, the Midianites are able to force many of the Israelites to live in caves, away from their crops (which are being destroyed). God raises up Gideon, an unlikely leader who only reluctantly takes command of the outnumbered forces. Gideon's initial battle with the Midianites is an exciting example of the power of God which is available whenever one is overwhelmed by an enemy. Gideon is well aware that his victories are really God's; therefore he refuses to allow the people to make him their king. Even when he makes a golden ephoct, which some of the people later use in an idolatrous manner, Gideon does so to honor the true God of Israel.

One of Gideon's sons, Abimelech, does not have the same strength of character as his father, and actively seeks to be a king. In the process, Abimelech kills his many brothers. Although he manages for a time to reign over some of the people of Manasseh near Shechem, he is neither one of the judges raised up by God nor a true king of Israel. Abimelech is but a sorry example of a son who Refuses to follow in the steps of a righteous father.

OPPRESSION BY MIDIANITES. Judges 6:l-6

Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count the men and their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. Midian

so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the lord for help.

PROPHET REBUKES ISRAEL. Judges 6:7-10

When the Israelites cried to the lord because of Midian, he sent them a prophet, who said, "This is what the lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I snatched you from the power of Egypt and from the hand of all your oppressors. I drove them from before you and gave you their land. I said to you, 'I am the lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live/ But you have not listened to me."

GOD CALLS GIDEON. Judges 6:11-18

The angel of the lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the lord appeared to Gideon, he said, "The lord is with you, mighty warrior."

"But sir," Gideon replied, "if the lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, 'Did not the lord bring us up out of Egypt?' But now the lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian."

The lord turned to him and said, "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?"

"But Lord, " Gideon asked, "how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family."

The lord answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together."

Gideon replied, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you."

And the lord said, "I will wait until you return."

ANGEL GIVES SIGN. Judges 6:19-21

Gideon went in, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak.

The angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And Gideon did so. With the tip of the staff that was in his hand, the angel of the lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the lord disappeared.

GIDEON FEARS GOD. Judges 6:22-24

When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the lord, he exclaimed, "Ah, Sovereign lord! I have seen the angel of the lord face to face!"

But the lord said to him, "Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die."

So Gideon built an altar to the lord there and called it The lord is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

GIDEON DESTROYS ALTAR. Judges 6:25-27

That same night the lord said to him, "Take the second bull from your father's herd, the one seven years old.' Tear down your father's altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole' beside it. Then build a proper kind of altar to the lord your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering."

So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the lord told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the men of the town, he did it at night rather than in the daytime.

JOASH SAVES GIDEON. Judges 6:28-32

In the morning when the men of the town got up, there was Baal's altar, demolished, with the Asherah pole beside it cut down and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar!

They asked each other, "Who did this?"

When they carefully investigated, they were told, "Gideon son of Joash did it."

The men of the town demanded of Joash, "Bring out your son. He must die, because he has broken down Baal's altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it."

But Joash replied to the hostile crowd around him, "Are you going to plead Baal's cause? Are you trying to save him? Whoever fights for him. shall be put to death by morning! If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar." So that day they called Gideon "Jerub-Baal,'" saying, "Let Baal contend with him," because he broke down Baal's altar.

PREPARATION FOR BATTLE. Judges 6:33-35

Now all the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples joined forces and crossed over the Jordan and camped in the Valley of Jezreel. Then the Spirit of the lord came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him. He sent messengers throughout Manasseh, calling them to arms, and also into Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali, so that they too went up to meet them.

TESTS WITH FLEECE. Judges 6:36-40

Gideon paid to God, "If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised—look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then 1 will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said." And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water.

Then Gideon said to God, "Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew." That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.

FEARFUL LET GO. Judge 7:1-3

Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. The lord said to Gideon, "You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her, announce now to the people, 'Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.'" So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.

THREE HUNDRED CHOSEN. Judges 7:4-8

But the lord said to Gideon, "There are still too many men. Take them down to (he water, and I will sift them for you there. If I say. This one shall go with you,' he shall go; but if I say, 'This one shall not go with you,' he shall not go."

So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the lord told him, "Separate those who lap the water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel down to drink." Three hundred men lapped with their hands to their mouths. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.

The lord said to Gideon, "With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go, each to his own place." So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites to their tents but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others.

Now the camp of Midian lay below him in the valley.

GIDEON HEARS PROPHECY. Judges 7:9-14

During that night the lord said to Gideon, "Get up, go down against the camp, because I am going to give it into your hands. If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah and listen to what they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp." So he and Purah his servant went down to the outposts of the camp. The Midianites, the Amalekites and all the other eastern peoples had settled in the valley, thick as locusts. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore.

Gideon arrived just as a man was telling a friend his dream. "I had a dream," he was saying. "A round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed."

His friend responded, "This can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands."

PLAN FOR SURPRISE judges 7:15-18. When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped God. He returned to the camp of Israel and called

out, "Get up! The lord has given the Midianite camp into your hands."

Dividing the three hundred men into three companies, he placed trumpets

and empty jars in the hands of all of them, with torches inside.

"Watch me," he told them. "Follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do. When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp blow yours and shout, 'For the lord and for Gideon.'"

MIDIANITES FLEE judges.7:19-23

Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guard. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands. The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars. Grasping the torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpets they were to blow, they shouted, "A sword for the lord and for Gideon!" While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out as they fled.

When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords. The army fled to Beth Shittah toward Zererah as far as the border of Abel Meholah near Tabbath. Israelites from Naphtali, Asher and all Manasseh were called out, and they pursued the Midianites.

TWO PRINCES KILLED judges 7:24,25.

Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim, saying, "Come down against the Midianites and seize the waters of the Jordan ahead of them as far as Beth Barah."

So all the men of Ephraim were called out and they took the waters of the Jordan as far as Beth Barah. They also captured two of the Midianite leaders, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zecb at the winepress of Zecb. They pursued the Midianites and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, who was by the Jordan.

GIDEON CALMS DISPUTE. judges 8:1-3

Now the Ephraimites asked Gideon, "Why have you treated us like this? Why didn't you call us when you went fo fight Midian?" And they criticized him sharply.

But he answered them, "What have 1 accomplished compared to you? Aren't the gleanings of Ephraim's grapes better than the full grape harvest of Abiezer? God gave Oreb and Zeeb, the Midianite leaders, into your hands. What was I able to do compared to you?" At this, their resentment against him subsided.