Given an unusual amount of space in the Bible, the sixth through the eighth chapters of the Book of Judges, Gideon’s story is one of initial skepticism and eventually powerful faith, ministers say.
The Revs. Terry Wright, Eddy Elliott and Tim O’Neal say Gideon was a humble man who had trouble believing that God was appointing him judge over Israel and conqueror of the nation of Midian, which had enslaved the Israelites for seven years.
“He was a man of faith who asked for signs, trusting that God would hear and his prayer for guidance would be answered,” said the Rev. Wright, retired pastor of Westover Baptist Church. “He believed God would give him victory over the Midianites and it turned out his faith was justified.”
Wright noted that in Judges 6:11-24 Gideon is given his assignment by an angel who incinerates his offering on an altar and that he asks in Judges 6:36-40 for confirmation by having a fleece of wool wettened overnight by dew while the ground around it is left dry and then by having the ground wettened while the fleece is left dry.
“God understands that we are human and I don’t think there is anything wrong with seeking confirmation of what we think he has said,” he said.
Having lived in the 12th Century B.C., Wright said, Gideon had 32,000 men volunteer to fight the Midianites, 22,000 of whom went home when he said any who were reluctant for any reason were excused. Then God had the judge reduce the remaining 10,000 to 300 so none would think the victory came from his own power.
In Judges 7:5-6, those who kneel to drink are dismissed while those who drink from cupped hands, “lapping like dogs,” are enlisted for the battle in which an army of 135,000 Midianites and Amalekites flees in terror when the Israelites break jars, blow rams’ horns and shout, “A sword for the Lord and Gideon!”
Wright said it’s unknown why those who lapped were chosen, but it might have been because that method let them be more cognizant of their surroundings. “The people fell back into idol worship when Gideon died,” he said.
“The Book of Judges shows that we should trust in God and have confidence that his way is best even if it doesn’t seem to be our way. It also shows that people need a strong spiritual leader who believes in God and leans on him.”
The Rev. Elliott, pastor of Solid Rock Fellowship Out West, said, “The amazing thing is that when God acts through somebody like he did through Gideon, he likes for the odds to be overwhelming so there’s no doubt in anybody’s mind that it is God who brings about the victory.
“That’s why he had Gideon go up against umpteen thousand Midianites with 300 men. These days and all through history, the stronger our faith is, that’s when we know he will come through for us.”
Elliott said testing God and verifying what his will is are two different things. “When Gideon got it settled in his heart that it was God, his faith increased all the more,” the pastor said.
“He had no shadow of a doubt and after that, he did what God told him to do. That’s an awesome story of God showing his love, power, strength and might and showing that he loves us. If we doubt that, then the doubt is on us because God has done his part.”
Elliott said Gideon’s story should be inspirational “because he was an ordinary old dirt farmer called forth to be judge over all Israel.
“He said, ‘Wait a minute, I’m just an old farmer, I need a little more verification,” Elliott said. “He was a humble man, just a working stiff like the rest of us. I can’t pinpoint the quality God saw in him except that he loved the Lord and worshipped him.
“If God can call out Gideon to lead all Israel, he can call out any of us to do anything. He takes ordinary people and does great things. We are simply the conduit and the avenue he chooses.”
The Rev. O’Neal, pastor of Refuge Ministries, said Gideon initially responded, “Why me? My clan is the smallest and in my own family I’m the weakest. I’m nobody. I’m not a soldier, not a battle-hardened individual and not a master planner or anything like that.”
“As a matter of fact, when God approached Gideon he was hiding under a wine press, threshing wheat and trying to hide grain from the Midianites because they’d been destroying the Israelites’ crops and enslaving them,” O’Neal said.
“He was kind of an underground railroad, hiding food when the angel sat under the tree at Ophrah.”
O’Neal said Gideon asked the angel to stay while he cooked a young goat and made bread and when the angel touched the offering with the tip of his staff, “Fire flamed from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread,” and the angel disappeared, whereupon God reassured the terrified Gideon that he would not die.
“God didn’t need Gideon in the first place but chose him to show his power after telling Gideon first to get his house in order by tearing down his father Joash’s Asherah pole and altar to Baal,” O’Neal said.
“He said, ‘Get rid of the idols, build me an altar and only serve me,’ which almost got Gideon killed before his father stepped in and defended him.
“The people wanted to make Gideon king, but he said, ‘No, only the Lord will rule over you’ because God didn’t want Israel to have a king. Gideon’s whole focus was on God and doing his will.”
GIDEON’S FLEECE
Searching for his bravery,
Gideon was a skeptic, telling
An angel and the Lord his clan
Was the least in Manasseh and he
The weakest of his brethren. He asked for a sign,
And the angel waited until he could design
An offering. Gideon’s plea
Was answered with fire, and he took his stand
As leader of the nation, felling
Midian and slavery
And giving Israel forty years
Of peace. With, of course, the guidance
Of the Lord, three hundred who
Had lapped their water like dogs
Chased an army of one hundred-thirty-five thousand,
Took Zalmunna-Zebah captive and
Punished Peniel and Succoth. The logs
Of Peniel’s tower toppled and O
How Succoth suffered for the stridence
Of her unpatriotic jeers!
Before they blew their trumpets, broke
Jars and shouted, “A sword for God
And Gideon!” the leader asked
For signs night after night to moisten
Fleece and leave the ground dry, then wet
The soil around dry fleece to show the bet
Was on. Forty-three pounds of choicest
Gold were given to the task
In Ophrah of making Gideon’s ephod.
Worshipped, it became a yoke
To the patriarch and all his people.
Gideon died at a good old age
And as soon as they had lost their sage,
Baal-Berith was on their steeple.
