The man named Gideon led some battles with amazing victories for Israel. His battle stories are unique and very unusual.
God clearly used Gideon for many specific reasons. He was faithful for a long time, and all of that time mattered greatly to Israel’s well-being.
Well; I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s hear the exciting stories of Gideon’s battles.
BATTLING THE MIDIANITES
Gideon finally figured out that God truly wanted him to take care of the Midianites. He gathered his army together in order to prepare and to devise a battle plan to save Israel.
Gideon’s men camped at the spring of Harod. The army of Midian lay to their north in a valley near the Hill of Moreh.
God spoke to Gideon again.
“You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me. ‘My own strength has saved me.’ Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’”
LOSING 22,000 MEN
When Gideon did this, 22,000 men left the camp. Gideon had only 10,000 left to fight in the battle against Midian.
Then God spoke again and said to Gideon:
“There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out 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 to the water. When they arrived the LORD told Gideon, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.”
LOSING ALL BUT 300
Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.
The LORD told Gideon:
“With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.”
Well, Gideon had suggested signs to God; remember? Now God was suggesting signs to Gideon. Do you ever treat your children the same way they are treating others just so they can know what it feels like?
Do you think this was God having a bit of fun with Gideon because of his need for reassurance?
Whatever the case, Gideon’s army was now whittled down from 32,000 men to 300 men.
Now that is a striking difference.
Would Gideon be brave enough to follow the signs now?
Gideon was all in!
He told everyone else to go home and assigned the provisions and trumpets over to the 300 whom he asked to stay.
SPYING ON THE MIDIANITE CAMP
That night God woke Gideon from sleeping and told him to get up and go down against the camp of Midianites. He said he was going to give the camp into the hands of Gideon and Israel’s 300 men. Maybe Gideon’s first reaction had worn off. He might have been a little timid at first.
God explained further:
“If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah. Listen to what they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp.”
So Gideon and Purah went down to the outskirts of the camp of the Midianites. On their way they saw that millions of Midianites and Amalekites had settled down in the valley. These pagan cultures were as thick as locust. The people were so numerous that they could not even be counted. To Gideon and Purah even their camels seemed as many as the sands on the seashore.
THE DREAM
Gideon was positioned in a hiding place near the Midianite camp where he overheard one of the Midianites recounting his recent dream. In his dream the man said he saw a round loaf of barley bread come tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck their tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed.
The Midianite man’s friend replied back to him saying; “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.”
GOD GIVES GIDEON A PLAN
When Gideon heard this, he bowed down and worshiped God. Quickly he returned to Israel’s camp and told his 300 men to get up!
He told them that The LORD had given the Midianite camp into their hands. Then he divided the 300 men into three companies. He placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of them all. He put torches inside the empty jars.
“Watch me!” he yelled out. “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.”
EXECUTING THE PLAN
It was the beginning of the middle watch when Gideon and his 300 reached the edge of the camp. The Midianites had just changed their guards.
The Israelites blew their trumpets and smashed the jars. Grasping the torches in their left hands and holding the trumpets in their right hands. They shouted out loudly “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!”
All the Midianites ran, crying out as they fled.
TOTAL CHAOS FOR THE MIDIANITES
When the 300 trumpets made their sounds the LORD caused the men in the Midianite camp to turn on each other with their swords.
When the army fled to different areas in Canaan; including Beth Shittah, and Abel Meholah Israelites from Naphtali, Asher and all of Manasseh heard the news and were called out. They pursued the Midianites.
Gideon also sent messengers to the hill country of Ephraim and told them to come down against the Midianites and seize the waters of the Jordan ahead of them as far as Beth Barah.
CAPTURING THE KINGS OF MIDIAN
That happened, exactly as suggested by Gideon. Two of the Midianite leaders (Oreb and Zeeb) were also captured at the winepress of Zeeb. So the Israelites pursued the Midianites and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, who was camped by the Jordan.
The Ephraimites questioned the leadership of Gideon at first. They asked him why he had not warned them of his intentions. They wanted to know why he had not warned and called them to help.
Gideon threw these words back to them: “What have I 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?”
That quieted the Ephraimites. Their resentment toward Gideon subsided.
DENIED BREAD AND REST IN SUKKOTH
Then Gideon and his three hundred crossed the Jordan into Sukkoth. They were hungry and exhausted.
In Sukkoth Gideon asked that his troops be given bread and rest. He explained that he still had to pursue Zebah and Zalmunna, the Kings of Midian.
The men there replied that Gideon already had the hands of these kings in his possession and they refused to give bread to Gideon’s troops.
When that happened Gideon replied: “Just for that, when the LORD has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will tear your flesh with desert thorns and briers.”
DENIED BREAD AND REST IN PENIEL
From there Gideon went up to Peniel and made the same request of them, but they had the same answer as Sukkoth.
So Gideon replied to the men at Peniel with these words: “When I return in triumph, I will tear down this tower.”
TAKING TWO MORE KINGS CAPTIVE
Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with an army of 15,000 men. They were all that was left of the Midianite armies because 120,000 swordsmen had fallen.
So Gideon went up by a route they were not expecting him to take and attacked the unspecting army. The two kings of Midian fled the camp, but Gideon followed them and captured them, then routed their whole army.
RETURN TO SUKKOTH
He took the route through The Pass of Heres on his return. There Gideon caught a young man from Sukkoth and questioned him. This young man wrote down the names of the seventy-seven officials of Sukkoth and the elders of the town. Then Gideon arrived in Sukkoth and addressed the men there.
“Here are Zabah and Zalmunna about whom you taunted me by saying, ‘Do you not already have the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna in your possession? Why should we give bread to your exhausted men?”
Then Gideon taught the elders of the town a lesson by punishing them with desert thorns and briers.
RETURN TO PENIEL
Gideon also pulled down the tower at Peniel and killed the men of the town there.
Next he asked Zebah and Zalmunna, “What kind of men did you kill at Tabor?” They answered back by saying “Men like you, each one with the bearing of a prince.”
Gideon replied, “Those were my brothers, the sons of my own Mother. As surely as the LORD lives, if you had spared their lives, I would not kill you.”
Then Gideon commanded his oldest son, Jether to kill them. However, Jether was only a boy. He did not draw his sword because he was afraid.
Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Come, do it yourself. ‘As is the man, so is his strength.’” So Gideon stepped forward and killed them. He took the golden ornaments off their camels necks.
GIDEON IS ASKED TO RULE
When the Israelites knew all of these bold battle stories they called for Gideon to rule over them, Gideon and all of the generations of his family to come, because Gideon had saved them from Midian.
Gideon said that he nor his family generations would rule over them; but God would rule over them.
He did ask each one of them for one gold earring from their plunder in the battles. It had been the custom of the Ishmaelites to wear gold earrings.
REMEMBER THE HISTORY OF MIDIAN
Remember that the Ishmaelites were also Midianites; some being the ancestors of Midian, and some being the ancestors of Ishmael. All were descendants of Abraham’s sons from Ketura.
These two ancestors would have been brothers. (In case you missed our former lessons, we believe that Ketura was the same person as Sarah’s slave girl named Hagar, only many years after Sarah’s death. (You can find the details of that story inside Book One of my book entitled The Gospel Hidden in Genesis.)
A BLANKET FULL OF GOLD
The Israelites had taken so much plunder from these victorious battles. The Midianites were wealthy and traveled with their many valuable treasures. The now rich victors from Israel’s tribes were glad to fulfill this request from Gideon.
Someone threw a coat down on the ground and each man threw a gold earring into its folds. When this was all done, the gold Gideon collected came to seventeen hundred shekels. That wasn’t counting the plunder he had already taken from earlier encounters.
THE EPHOD IN OPHRAH
Gideon molded the gold he gained into a golden ephod which he placed in his hometown of Ophrah.
The people would bow down before that golden ephod and worship it there. This became a snare to Gideon and the generations who followed him. It is idolatry to worship anything but God. The golden ephod was similar in nature to the golden calf from Israel’s troubled past.
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY
The good part of this story is that Midian was subdued and did not bother the Israelites in the land again for 40 years.
Gideon went back home to live with his many wives who gave him 70 sons.
One of Gideon’s son belonged to a concubine who lived in Shechem. Gideon named this son Abimelek.
Gideon lived a long life, and when he died he was buried in the tombs of his father in Ophrah.
HOW SOON WE FORGET
Almost immediately after Gideon’s death the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals.
They forgot how God had rescued them through the hands of Gideon and they set up idols of Baal in the land. In spite of all the good that Gideon did for Israel; they failed to show him any respect and honor.
WHAT DID WE LEARN FROM GIDEON?
What are we to make of this stranger than fiction story of Gideon which was taken from Chapters 6 and 7 of The Book of Judges?
Let’s ponder these many strange facts for another week and we will take up that subject and go further with it the next week.
In the meantime; this moment seems a good time to be remembering the second commandment and removing any idols from our lives.
Pray for the truth of God to prevail in our country and its leaders. Ask God to give us the wisdom to know how to fight His battles His way.