I’m back! It has been a while since I have been working on my Bible Journey with the holidays, travel, and guests. I have A LOT to get caught up on, and slowly but surely I will. Before Christmas I had started the book of Judges and am picking up where I left off. Today continued on with Gideon’s story.
After Gideon had tested God several times, it was now time for him to go to battle. Except, he had too many men for the Lord to deliver Midian into their hands. This was so Israel couldn’t boast that it was their doing in the defeat of Midian, but the Lord’s.
Gideon was directed to tell the people that if anyone was afraid and wanted to go home they could. With this, twenty-two thousand men left and ten thousand remained. But, the Lord said to Gideon that there were still too many men, and He would sift through them and say who would go and who would stay.
Gideon took the men down to the water and separated them between 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, remaining on their feet prepared for any emergency; while all the rest knelt down on their knees to drink.
The Lord told Gideon that the three hundred men would stay and go with him to give the Midianites into their hands. So, Gideon sent the rest of the men to their tents, and kept the three hundred and the provisions and trumpets of the others.
The camp of Midian was below where Gideon was. The Lord told Gideon to go down into their camp, and even though the Lord was going to give them into Gideon’s hands, he was still afraid to attack. By going down to their camp, he could listen to the things they would say, and be encouraged to fight.
Gideon and his servant Purah went to the outskirts of their camp. The Midianites, Amalekites, and all the other eastern people had settled in the valley and were as thick as locusts. “The camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore.”
They arrived just as a man was telling of a dream he had. He said that a round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp, and struck the tent with such force that it was overturned and collapsed.
The friend explained that the dream’s interpretation was the sword of Gideon, and that God had given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands. (Since barley was considered an inferior grain and only one-half the value of wheat, it is a fitting symbol for Israel, which was inferior in numbers.)
When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped God. He returned to camp, woke everyone up and said how the Lord had given the Midianites into their hands. The three hundred men were divided into three companies, and placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them with torches inside.
They went down and surrounded the Midianite camp. They all blew their trumpets and shouted “For the Lord and for Gideon,” and smashed the jars they had in their hands. All the three hundred men stood in place around the camp, and when all the trumpets sounded the Lord caused all the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords. The army fled and they pursued them.
As they ran through the lands of Naphtali, Asher, and Manasseh, they were called out to join them. Gideon sent messengers to the land of Ephraim telling them to come down against the Midianites with them, and seize the waters of the Jordan ahead of them. They also were able to capture two of the Midianite leaders, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed the leaders and brought their heads to Gideon.
Gideon and his three hundred men continued their pursuit. When they got to Succoth, he asked the men for some bread for the troops because they were exhausted. But, they would not give them any. Gideon ensured them that they would be sorry for not helping them, and he would “tear their flesh with desert thorns and briers.”
From there Gideon went to Peniel and made the same request, and like Succoth they were denied. So Gideon said that when he returned in triumph after defeating Zebah and Zalmunna, he would tear down their tower.
Zebah and Zalmunna, the two kings of Midian, were left with about fifteen thousand men. A hundred and twenty thousand men had already fallen. Gideon had pursued and captured them.
Then Gideon went back to Succoth and had a young man write down all the names of the seventy-seven officials/elders of the town. Gideon showed them Zebah and Zalmunna, and reminded the men how they taunted and denied him before.
He taught the men of Succoth a lesson by taking the elders and punishing them with desert thorns and briers. He also went to Peniel and tore down the tower and killed the men of the town. Then Gideon himself killed Zebah and Zalmunna because “As is the man, so is his strength;” and took the ornaments off of their camels’ necks.
The Israelites told Gideon to rule over them, but he refused saying “The Lord will rule over you.” He requested though that each one of them give him an earring from their share of the plunder; (It was custom of the Ishmaelites to wear gold earrings.)
They agreed and spread out a garment and each man threw a ring from his plunder onto it. The weight of the gold rings came to seventeen hundred shekels, not counting the ornaments, pendants, and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, or the chains that were on their camels’ necks.
Gideon made the gold into an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his town. All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family.
Since Midian was subdued before the Israelites, they did not have to fight anymore. During Gideon’s lifetime, the land enjoyed peace for forty years.
Gideon had seventy sons of his own, for he had many wives. His concubine who lived in Shechem, also bore him a son named Abimelech. Gideon, son of Joash died at a good old age and was buried in the tomb of his father in Ophrah.
“No sooner had Gideon died, than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals. They set up Baal-Berith as their god and did not remember the Lord their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side. They also failed to show kindness to the family of Gideon for all the good things he had done for them.”