Gideon from the Book of Judges

Book of Judges

The Book of Judges covers a period of about 300 years from the death of Joshua to the rise of Samuel. This Book of Judges was written either at the end of the rule of Judges or very early in the rule of King Saul. Samuel appears to be the author of this Book.

Gideon the Judge

Gideon was one of the thirteen Judges whose life is given in the Book of Judges. He was the fifth Judge about whom the Book of Judges provides details about. The life of Gideon is described in Judges 6:1 to 8:35. The Lord chose Gideon to deliver Israel, when she was being oppressed by Midianites, Amalekites and the people of the East for seven years and the people of Israel cried out to the Lord.

Midianite Oppression

The Midianites are the descendants of Abraham and Keturah (Genesis 25:2). The oppressors did not oppress Israel either by way of war or by killing. Instead, they would enter the land in great numbers to destroy it (6:5). They would also take for themselves all that Israel had sown and destroy the remaining harvest and leave none for Israel (6:3-4). Because of this Israel was greatly impoverished and forced to live in caves in the mountains to hide anything they had and to keep it for themselves.

Appearance of the Angel of the Lord

The Angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon while he was threshing wheat in a wine press to hide it from the Midianites. The Angel of the Lord said to Gideon, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” (6:12) “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” (6:14) “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man” (6:16) Gideon sought a sign from the Angel of the Lord by bringing an offering of prepared meat of a young goat, unleavened bread and broth and offered it to the Angel of the Lord. The Angel of the Lord confirmed the sign by consuming them through the fire that rose out of the rock and departing out of his sight.

Gideon tears down his father’s Altar of Baal

That same night the LORD said to Gideon “Take your father’s young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that you father has, and cut down the wooden image that is beside it; and build an altar to the Lord your God on top of this rock in proper arrangement, and take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down.” (6:25-26) Gideon did what the Lord said to him that night with the help of his ten servants.

Gathering for confrontation

The Midianites and Amalekites and the people of the East crossed over and gathered together at the Valley of Jezreel and encamped against Israel. Now the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon. Gideon blew the trumpet and gathered the Abiezrites with him. Then he sent messengers throughout Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali and gathered them behind him.

Sign of the Fleece

Gideon said to God, “If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said - look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said.” (6:36-37). Next morning the ground was dry, but when Gideon squeezed the fleece he could gather a bowlful of water. Once again Gideon said to God “Do not be angry with me but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew.” (6:39) God did so that night. In the morning there was dew on all of the ground, but the fleece was dry.

God chooses only 300

The Lord said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many … Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once ...” (7:2-3). Then 22,000 people returned, and 10,000 people were still left. The Lord said to Gideon, “The people are still too many; bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there.” (7:4) By this test the Lord chose only 300 men and sent all the rest of the Israel to their tents. The same night the Lord said to Gideon, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand.” (7:9)

Confrontation

Gideon divided the 300 men into 3 companies and gave to every man a trumpet and empty pitchers with torches inside the pitchers. By mid-night Gideon’s three companies surrounded the Midianite camp on all sides. In a coordinated manner based on Gideon’s signal all of them simultaneously blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers in their hands. They held the torches in their left hands and blew the trumpet with their right hand and shouted, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!” and stood in the same place around the camp. Panic spread throughout the whole camp and the army cried out, ran and fled. In the panic the Lord set every man’s sword against his companion throughout the whole camp and they fled. The men of Israel gathered together and pursued the Midianites. Gideon sent messengers throughout Israel asking them to “Come down against the Midianites and seize from the watering places.” And they did so and subdued the Midianites.

Gideon’s Ephod

Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, … for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian.” (8:22) Gideon collected all the golden earrings from the plunder and made it into an ephod and kept it in his city, Ophrah. And all Israel played the harlot with it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his house.

Death of Gideon

Through Gideon, Mideon was subdued before Israel, and they did not lift their heads any more. There was peace in the land for 40 years in the days of Gideon. Gideon died at a good old age and was buried in a tomb in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

Lessons that can be learnt

• The first act of Gideon was to destroy the Baal worship at his father’s house. We too must begin the process of salvation with those closer to our homes.
• Because of what Gideon experienced he repeatedly kept on asking God for signs again and again. First, he brings an offering and the Lord consumes it. Then he wants two different type of fleece tests. He even goes into the Midianite camp as the Lord suggested to see the extent of fear in the camp. He wants to be sure that it is the Lord that is directing him and that he is not carried away by anything else. We too need to be sure that what we are doing for God is in fact coming from God.
• Gideon made an Ephod as symbol of his worship to God. Instead of worshiping God they started worshiping an object that represented God. We too should directly worship God and not get distracted by anything else that represents God.

About this Post

This post is adapted from the Term Paper that I submitted to World Video Bible School as a part of my study of Old Testament History 1 Course.

You can read about the Christian Evidences from the earlier course of Christian Evidences.

You can read about The God I believe in here .

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