History of Israel: Gideon, Midian, and God's Deliverance

The history of Israel series continues as we move into Judges 6 with the start of the story of Gideon. The Israelites have fallen away from the worship of Yahweh, so God sends the Midianites to oppress them. After 7 years, they cry out to God for relief and He sends Gideon...the youngest man from an insignificant family. Gideon's faith is tested as God calls him to do a difficult task before taking on the Midianites. Then, after that's done, God whittles down his force to such a small number that it will have to be recognized that God won the battle. How does that happen? Listen to this episode to find out.

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Transcript

The Midianite soldier scraped the stone across his sword. It had been a busy day. The harvest had started in Israel and it was time for the Midianites to take their share...which was everything the Israelites could grow. It was best for this upstart nation not to get too big, so he and his companions helped keep them humble...and hungry.

He held his sword up to the sky, using the receding light to check for any imperfections. Finding none, he put it back in his sheath. Then he looked around the camp. There were tents and men everywhere. Beasts of burden, laden with the finest produce of Israel, were tied up as far as the eye could see. And camels...the prize animals of this nomadic tribe. They could cross deserts and their size caused fear in the locals.

And yet...something wasn’t right. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but something felt...off. He looked around him and realized what it was. The hills. Every soldier knew you always wanted the high ground whenever possible. The tribe leaders needed water and fodder for the animals and this valley was lush. It just felt like they were in a trap.

Shaking his head, he put it out of his mind. The tribes of Midian had been coming here for years and nothing had ever happened. Their numbers were overwhelming and their prowess in battle was unmatched. He overheard one of his comrades telling another about a dream. Something about a barley loaf. He yawned and, seeing as it was getting dark, decided to turn in.

But he couldn’t sleep. Tossing and turning, all he could see were those hills. What was wrong? What was he missing?

Then, out of nowhere, there was a huge roar and the valley was lit up. He sprang off his bed, grabbed his sword, and went outside. He couldn’t believe what he saw.

The hills. They almost looked alive. The roar sounded like thousands of voices: “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!” It echoed and made the valley shake. And there were lights. It looked like hundreds of lights shining down on the pitch dark valley.

The camp was in total chaos! He turned to a neighbor and noticed the man had a look of total fear in his eyes. It was like he didn’t recognize him. The neighbor said something and drew his sword. Instinctively, the soldier immediately drew his just in time to block the killing blow. He told the man to stop...that he was a friend, but it didn’t matter. Finally, he had no choice...it was kill or be killed. The neighbor made a wild swing and the solider blocked it, then cut back against the man’s side. The man went down with a grunt of pain and died immediately.

The soldier looked around and saw similar incidents happening everywhere. It was as if a madness had taken over the people. And now those lights and loud voices were coming down out of the hills towards the camp.

Every soldier knows when they should fight and when they should retreat. This was a time to retreat. Darting past knots of men fighting each other, he made his way to his camel. Untying the beast, he climbed on it’s back and had him start galloping away from the voices, the lights, and the hills that became the death trap for Midian.

Hello again everyone and welcome to another episode of Bible Backdrop. We’re continuing with our series on the history of Israel with the second episode on the book of Judges. Today, we’re going to look into the story of Gideon.

We finished the previous episode talking about the judgeship of Deborah and Barak, with the story of Jael and her mighty tent peg. Given what you know so far, you can probably guess what happened next. Yep...you’re correct. Israel forgets Yahweh, follows Baal, and God sends the Midianites to oppress them. If you remember, the Midianites were descendants of Abraham from his concubine Keturah. In this way, they were actually blood relatives to the Israelites. Moses spent time with the Midianites and his wife Zipporah was a descendant, so there was a common bond in the past. Either the bond was broken years later or an offshoot of the Midianites decided they didn’t like Israel, so they fought against them in the book of Numbers. By the time we come to Judges, the Midianite numbers have swelled to well over 100,000 and God has sent them to be a plague on Israel.

When we pick up in Judges 6, the Midianites have been oppressing Israel for 7 years. Instead of constantly ruling over them, the Midianites just show up for the harvest and take everything. So Israel worked hard to sow the fields and grow the crops only to have it all taken away. Starving and destitute, the people move into caves to escape the horde. The Israelites have indeed fallen on terrible times.

As we’ve seen before, the people cry out to God for help. Instead of immediately raising a judge, this time he sends a prophet to the people. The prophet reminds them what God did for them, that he was powerful enough to save them from Egypt and He’s powerful enough to save them from the Midianites. But the problem wasn’t with the Midianites...the problem was with Israel. “Also, I said to you: ‘Do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.’ But you have not listened to my voice.” God is telling Israel that the problem is with them following after other gods in direct violation of their covenant. The people needed to hear this to understand and act accordingly.

Then we come to what looks like another Christophany...a manifestation of Jesus before his incarnation. The Bible says that the angel of the Lord appeared and sat under a terebinth tree. The terebinth is a very hardy tree that can withstand drought and live for centuries; very similar to oak trees. The limbs grow long and can be low to the ground, providing shade and a place of hiding. We see the terebinth tree in several places in scripture and often where the Lord meets with people in the Old Testament. In this case, the Angel of the Lord has appeared at this specific tree for a purpose. It seems that the tree was near a winepress, keeping it out of sight from the Midianites. In this winepress was a man named Gideon, who was threshing out wheat there. This tells you how bad things had gotten in Israel. Winepresses were built low to the ground, making it easier to collect grapes and crush them for the juice. Threshing wheat was normally down at the top of hills so the wind could blow the chaff away while the heavier wheat kernels fell to the ground. With the Midianites on the prowl, Gideon is forced to do the best he can with this separation while in the low confines of a winepress.

The Lord comes to him and gives Gideon what he had to think was a very strange greeting: “The Lord is with you, mighty man of valor!” Gideon is rightly confused. Thinking this is probably some crazy man or maybe a prophet, he answers the Lord asking how this can be since they’re under the oppression of the Midianites. The Lord then tells him that He is sending Gideon to rescue the nation from the Midianites. Still not believing it, Gideon states that his clan is the lowest among the tribe of Manasseh and that he is the least in his father’s household, probably meaning he was the youngest and least likely to lead. The Lord answers that He will be with Gideon in this endeavor. Still not sure if this is real or not, he asks for a sign by bringing an offering. Gideon brings meat from a goat, some unleavened bread, and some broth. The Lord tells him to lay it on a rock and pour out the broth on it. When Gideon does so, the Lord touches it with the staff in his hand and it immediately catches on fire and burns up the offering. Then the Lord suddenly departs.

In a way, this is very similar to what we see with Moses at the burning bush. Moses gives reason after reason not to be the one to go rescue Israel but God rebuts each one. Here, Gideon does the same thing but seems to be convinced somewhat quicker...although he has a few more requests to make absolutely sure.

Before he can lead Israel, God gives Gideon a different assignment. Apparently, Gideon’s father, Joash, has built an altar to Baal and the family and maybe all the clan come and worship there. God tells Gideon to knock down the altar to Baal and build a new altar to the Lord. He is also to take the wooden image and use it as wood to make a burnt offering of a 7 year old bull. This is significant as the bull has been alive the whole time they’ve been oppressed by the Midianites, so it’s death is the symbol of the death of the oppression. To avoid arousing the wrath of the people, Gideon does this at night.

As the people wake up and go to the altar of Baal, they find it smashed and the image destroyed with a new altar in it’s place. The people are unhappy and it’s quickly discovered that Gideon is responsible. So they tell Joash that Gideon must die since he desecrated Baal’s altar. Joash, who’s loyalty to the deity must be questionable, tells the people that if Baal has a problem with his altar being torn down, then, as a god, he can deal with it. If he’s not powerful enough to protect his altar, then he’s probably not a real god. The people accept this logic and they give Gideon a new name, Jerubbaal, which means ‘One that strives with Baal.’

Having gotten his own house in order now with the destruction of the altar to Baal, it’s time to get to work. The Midianites and Amalekites have crossed the Jordan and are camped in the Jezreel valley. This is a very fertile area, so it makes sense that they would come here to pillage. Gideon, who had the Holy Spirit come upon him, blows the trumpet which is a call to gather. His clan gathers around and he sends messengers throughout his tribe plus the tribes of Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali all of whom are closest to him.

Now we get a little aside. Gideon must have still been troubled even though he had already seen much of God’s hand in everything he did. So he asks God to perform a sign to confirm this course of action. He would put a fleece on the threshing floor and he asked that the ground be dry, but the fleece would be covered in dew. God does so and when the fleece is rung out, it produces a full bowl of water. This is a true miracle as fleece is naturally water resistant and should be enough proof to show that God is with him. However, it seems that Gideon has a weak faith. He then asks God for a second test...to make the ground wet with dew but keep the fleece dry. Showing His patience and restraint with a weak servant, God acts on this request and does as Gideon asks. The next morning, the ground is wet with dew while the fleece is completely dry.

Now Gideon has no more excuses and it’s time to execute. The Midianites have settled in an area around the Hill of Moreh near the Jezreel Valley. If you look at Google Maps for the Hill of Moreh (spelled M-O-R-E-H) you can see that it’s the central hill in the middle of a chain of smaller hills. It creates a natural valley east of the modern day city of Dahi in northern Israel. Here there would be room for the horde of Midianites along with fodder and water for their animals.

Gideon has gathered his army just south of the Midianites at the well of Harod and numbers about 32,000. He’s probably wondering how he’s going to defeat over 100,000 Midianites with an army a third of the size when God decides...You know what? This army is way too big. The people will think that their own strength saved them instead of the power of God. That had to be a shock for Gideon. God tells him to announce that anyone who is too frightened can return home. The Bible says that 22,000 left, leaving only 10,000.

Gideon is probably about to have a coronary seeing his much smaller army cut by two-thirds when God says...Hmmm...still too big. God instructs Gideon to take the men to the water and whoever gathers the water in their hand and laps it similar to a dog is to stay and anyone that gets on their knees to drink would go. The test is a military one...the men who gathered water in their hands are alert and ready to defend themselves as necessary while those on their knees are more vulnerable. So the new grand total of Gideon’s army is...300 warriors. Against over 100,000 Midianites. I wonder if Gideon is still wishing he was threshing in that winepress.

To help strengthen his faith, God tells Gideon to take his servant and go spy on the Midian camp for one more confirmation. He does so and overhears one solider telling another about a dream he had of a barley loaf crashing into a tent in the Midian camp and knocking it over. His friend replies that it had to be a dream about Gideon and that he would knock out the Midian camp. There are two things to notice here. First, why a barley loaf? Barley bread was the bread of poor people who couldn’t afford anything else. Barley was normally fed as fodder to dogs or cattle. Basically, the Midians were about to be up-ended by a veritable nobody. Second, how did they know about Gideon? The only way I can figure is that word must have gotten out that he was gathering an army to fight against the Midianites. After hearing this, Gideon immediately falls into an attitude of worship and his faith is strengthened. Returning to his men, he divides them into 3 companies of 100 men each, giving each man an empty pitcher that had a torch inside of it. This was likely a rag or some kind of material soaked in oil. He also gave each soldier a rams horn or shofar and told them that when he broke his pitcher and sounded his horn that everyone do the same and scream out “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!” Now, before you think this is a prideful on the part of Gideon, think back to hearing the man talk about his dream. The Midians know that an army is gathering and that Gideon is leading them; but they don’t know who the Lord is. By saying both names, he is giving honor to God while by using his own name he is putting fear into the Midianites.

One thing I’ve found interesting here is that, with only 300 men, Gideon now has enough faith to divide that small company into 3 even smaller companies. But, if you think about it, this makes sense. With the Midianites in a valley surrounded by hills, Gideon can use the natural geography to make his force seem larger than it is. By being on the hills, the trumpeting and shouts will echo while the sudden light from three directions will cause great confusion.

So now it’s time. The Bible says that at the start of the middle watch, so around 10 PM, that the Israelites started their attack by smashing their pitchers, blowing their trumpets and shouting their war cry. The resounding echos probably sounded like thousands of people and combined with the sudden light from the lanterns, the effect must have been unnerving.

The result is much like we see in the story at the beginning of the episode. The camp is thrown into chaos that’s so bad, the Midianites start attacking each other. This was also surprising, but it probably shouldn’t be. The horde was so large that not everyone knew everybody else. Plus it was a mix of Midianites and Amalekites and they probably only joined forces when attacking Israel, so there were even more unfamiliar faces. In the confusion, nobody was sure who was a friend and who was a foe.

The small band of Israelites attack and start chasing the Midianites, but there’s more to the story. However, since this episode has already gone on pretty long, I’ll pick it up in the next episode. If you are enjoying Bible Backdrop, please subscribe and leave a 5 star rating and review. If you want to get in touch with the show, you can e-mail me at BibleBackdrop@gmail.com. Word of mouth is still the best way for this show to get around, so tell a friend and have them subscribe. You can find Bible Backdrop on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere podcasts are found. Thank you again for listening and have a great week!