Gideon was a judge of Israel that God chose for a special mission. He was in charge of leading a small army of 300 men in battle against the Midianites. Israel’s army won with a very peculiar tactic even though it was much smaller than its enemies. Gideon followed the instructions that God gave him and managed to lead the people to victory.
The background of the story
We find the story of Gideon in the Old Testament, in the book of Judges chapters 6 to 8.
The situation of the people of Israel was desperate. Due to their constant disobedience, God had delivered them into the hands of the Midianites, a very cruel people. The Midianites were tyrants and constantly stole, ruined the crops and killed the animals of the Israelites. Judges 6:6 says the following:
Such was the misery of the Israelites because of the Midianites that they cried out to the Lord for help.
(Judges 6:6)
Gideon’s Call
God sent a prophet who reminded Israel of the reason they were in such misery: their own disobedience.
The angel of the Lord also went to talk to Gideon. He found him shelling the wheat in the winepress, hiding it from the Midianites to prevent it from being stolen. Even in the face of this attitude of fear on the part of Gideon, the angel greeted him calling him a “valiant warrior” (Judges 6:12) and reminding him that the Lord was with him.
Gideon began to complain about the situation in which they lived, but the angel of the Lord answered him:
Go with the strength you have, and you will save Israel from the power of Midian. I am the one who sent you.
(Judges 6:14)
Gideon, instead of feeling encouraged and strengthened, began to apologize and tell all the reasons why he was not the right person for this assignment. To make sure the message was from the Lord, Gideon asked for a sign. He prepared an offering of a kid and unleavened bread and offered it to the angel.
The angel touched with his staff the rock where Gideon had placed his offering and fire came out of the rock that consumed the meat and the bread. Gideon was scared, but the angel assured him that he would not die.
That night, the Lord commanded Gideon to destroy images of false gods and an altar that his father had dedicated to Baal. In its place he was to build an altar to the LORD. Gideon asked 10 of his servants to accompany him and he went at night to destroy the altar and build another, just as the angel of the Lord had told him. Gideon went at night because he was afraid of the men who lived in the city, but he still did what he was told.
In the morning, the townspeople found out that it was Gideon who had destroyed the altar. They went to the house of his father, Joash, to ask him to hand over Gideon to kill him. Joash spoke very cunningly saying that if Baal was really a god he could defend himself. From that day on, the townspeople began to call Gideon Jerobaal, which means “let Baal contend or defend himself.”
Gideon asks for two signs
Various peoples from the east joined the Midianites in attacking Israel. The Spirit of the Lord filled Gideon and he summoned those of Abiezer, the clan to which he belonged, to go and face the enemies. They were also joined by men from other Israelite tribes so Gideon had a good army to fight with. Still, he asked God for two signs to ensure that God would save Israel through him.
First, he placed a fleece (wool from a ram or sheep) on the ground and asked that the dew of the night fall only on the fleece and that all the ground around it be dry. It happened like that.
For greater safety, the next day Gideon asked God that during that night the ground would be covered with dew, but that the fleece would remain dry. That’s how it went. Gideon was sure that God would accompany them in battle and give them victory.
the army selection
Gideon’s army had 32,000 men, but God said it was too big. Although the Midianites and their allies were “numerous as grasshoppers, and their camels as countless as the sand on the seashore” (Judges 7:12), God did not want Israel to boast of their own strength (Judges 7:2). He told Gideon that he should reduce the number of men in his army. The glory would be only for God to achieve victory.
First, God told Gideon to let the fearful go. 22,000 men decided to leave and only 10,000 remained. The army was too big anyway, and God gave Gideon a technique to figure out which ones should go and which ones would stay with him.
They had to go drink water. Gideon would separate those who lapped up the water with their tongues from those who brought the water to his mouth with their hands. Those who brought the water to their mouths with their hands were 300 and those were the ones chosen by the Lord to accompany Gideon in battle.
The victory
Gideon still had doubts and fear. The Lord told him to go down to the Midianite camp where he would hear something that would fill him with courage. Gideon went there with his servant and heard a man tell his friend a dream. In the dream he had seen a loaf of barley rolling with great force into the Midianite camp bringing down the tent (Judges 7:13).
His friend replied: This does not mean anything other than the sword of the Israelite Gideon son of Joash. God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into their hands!
(Judges 7:14)
Hearing this, Gideon prostrated himself in worship to God and went to his camp to wake up the 300 men of his army. The strategy to attack the Midianites was a bit illogical. Gideon’s army would be armed with trumpets and pitchers with torches inside. He divided them into 3 groups and told them:
Look at me,” he told them. Follow my example. When I get to the outskirts of camp, do exactly what you see me do. When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, you also blow yours around the camp, and say, “For the Lord and for Gideon.”
(Judges 7:17-18)
So they did. The three groups surrounded the enemy. With the sound of the trumpets, the noise of the crashing pitchers, the light of the torches and their shouts, they managed to confuse the other army. In the midst of the confusion, the Midianites attacked each other and fled. Several of the Israelite tribes pursued them, captured them, and killed them. That was how they achieved victory.
a sad ending
The Israelites wanted Gideon to rule over them, but he did not accept it. He told them that only God should rule over his people (Judges 8:23). However, Gideon made a big mistake. He made an ephod (priestly robe) of gold with some rings from the booty they had gotten. That ephod became an object of idolatry and brought a sad end to Gideon, his family, and the entire people of Israel.
With the gold Gideon made an ephod, which he put in Ofra, his city. All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping the ephod there, which became a trap for Gideon and his family.
(Judges 8:27)
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