Israel did evil in the eyes of the
Lord
Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven
years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Because the
power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters
for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. Whenever
the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and
other eastern peoples invaded the country.
They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza
and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor
cattle nor donkeys. They came up with their livestock and their
tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count the men and
their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. Midian so
impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for
help.
Israel cried out to the Lord.
When the Israelites cried to the Lord because of Midian, he sent
them a prophet, who said, "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel,
says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I
snatched you from the power of Egypt and from the hand of all your
oppressors. I drove them from before you and gave you their land.
I said to you, 'I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of
the Amorites, in whose land you live.' But you have not listened to
me."
Gideon
The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah
that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was
threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When
the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, "The Lord is with
you, mighty warrior."
"But sir," Gideon replied, "if the Lord is with us, why has all
this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told
us about when they said, 'Did not the Lord bring us up out of
Egypt?' But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand
of Midian."
The Lord turned to him and said, "Go in the strength you have and
save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?"
"But Lord," Gideon asked, "how can I save Israel? My clan is the
weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family."
The Lord answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down
all the Midianites together."
Gideon replied, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a
sign that it is really you talking to me. Please do not go away
until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you."
And the Lord said, "I will wait until you return."
Gideon went in, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah of flour
he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its
broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under
the oak.
The angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened
bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And Gideon
did so. With the tip of the staff that was in his hand, the angel of
the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire flared from
the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the
Lord disappeared.
When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he
exclaimed, "Ah, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord
face to face!"
But the Lord said to him, "Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not
going to die."
So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord
is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
Gideon destroyed the altar of
Baal
That same night the Lord said to him, "Take the second bull from
your father's herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father's
altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. Then build a
proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height.
Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the
second bull as a burnt offering."
So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord told him.
But because he was afraid of his family and the men of the town, he
did it at night rather than in the daytime. In the morning when the
men of the town got up, there was Baal's altar, demolished, with the
Asherah pole beside it cut down and the second bull sacrificed on
the newly built altar!
They asked each other, "Who did this?" When they carefully
investigated, they were told, "Gideon son of Joash did it."
The men of the town demanded of Joash, "Bring out your son. He must
die, because he has broken down Baal's altar and cut down the
Asherah pole beside it." But Joash replied to the hostile crowd
around him, "Are you going to plead Baal's cause? Are you trying to
save him? Whoever fights for him shall be put to death by morning!
If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks
down his altar." So that day they called Gideon "Jerub-Baal,"
saying, "Let Baal contend with him," because he broke down Baal's
altar.
Now all the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples joined
forces and crossed over the Jordan and camped in the Valley of
Jezreel. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew a
trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him. He sent messengers
throughout Manasseh, calling them to arms, and also into Asher,
Zebulun and Naphtali, so that they too went up to meet them.
The fleece
Gideon said to God, "If you will save Israel by my hand as you have
promised- look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor.
If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I
will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said." And
that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed
the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water.
Then Gideon said to God, "Do not be angry with me. Let me make just
one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time
make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew." That night God
did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with
dew. |