Part 1
James F. Gauss, Ph.D.
July 18, 2024
And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him,
“The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!”
Judges 6:12 (NKJV)
Israel’s Oppression in the Promised Land. The Book of Judges is all about heroes. Men and women who rose to the occasion in obedience to God to deliver Israel from its oppressors, and there were many. During the 325-year (1375-1050 BC) span covered by the twelve judges, Israel was repeatedly under the captivity and oppression of the Mesopotamians (present-day Iraq, Iran and Turkey), Moabites (present-day Jordan), Philistines (Gaza), Canaanites (current-day Israel, Gaza, West Bank, and parts of Syria and Lebanon), Midianites (Jordan), and Ammonites (Jordan).
Note: All these regions are now Muslim, many of whom continue to oppress and attack Israel today.
Some of these heroes of Israel, until God called these men and women to be judges, were unrepentant sinners against God and His law. However, God saw a character trait that he could use for His purpose to deliver Israel once again.
It was less than 20 years after Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land of Canaan before Israel entered three-plus centuries of spiritual and moral darkness due to sin, depravity and hedonism—individually and as a people. God, their God, was no longer a factor in their life choices. They had refused to eliminate the enemy in their midst as God had commanded. They intermarried with pagans and adopted their idols and gods. Yahweh, the Lord Almighty, was pushed aside and ignored.
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In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes (Judges 17:6).
Israel, as a people of God, refused to learn from their history and were only concerned about the pleasures of the moment. Everything was about them and not about God and His plan and law for the nation.
Gideon’s Story Begins. Gideon was a common man, a farmer, a person of no recognition or exploits in the Israelite community. His story begins in Judges 6 of the Old Testament at a time when the Israelites were living under Midianite oppression.
Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years, and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains (Judges 6:1-3).
It was 1162 BC and Deborah’s role as judge over Israel had ended seven years prior and there had been no judge since. The Midianites, a desert people descended from Abraham’s second wife, Keturah (Genesis 25:1-2), had invaded Israel and Israelites were living under Midianite captivity and oppression. The Israelites and the Midianites had a three-century history of conflict that started when Israel was still wandering in the wilderness of Sinai. Despite Israel having the upper hand over the Midianites in the desert, they did not destroy them.
Before God called Gideon, the people of Israel had become morally and spiritually bankrupt. Midianite oppression had become so bad that many Israelites had fled to live in the caves and dens of surrounding mountains. The Midianites, along with another Israeli enemy, the Amalekites, destroyed Israel’s crops so there was no food in the land.
So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord (Judges 6:6).
Once again, God sent Israel an unnamed prophet to deliver a message.
Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage; and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. Also I said to you, “I am the Lord your God; do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.” But you have not obeyed My voice (Judges 6:8-10).
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Because the Midianites frequently raided and ravaged the farm fields of Israel and either destroyed or stole the crops and grain, it was difficult for the Israelites to feed themselves. To avoid detection while winnowing his grains of wheat, Gideon decided to separate the grain from the useless chaff in the family winepress, out of sight. While doing so, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him and gave Gideon a message from God.
The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor! (Judges 6:12).
Gideon’s first response was like today’s disbeliever: “Yeh, right!”
Gideon said to Him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.” (Judges 6:13).
Notice, Gideon is placing the burden of responsibility on God for the Israelites’ predicament. The fact that Israel had turned away from God and disobeyed Him seemed not to be a factor of Gideon’s reasoning or concern.
Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?”
So he said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” (Judges 6:14-15).
Clearly, Gideon did not see himself as a “mighty man of valor” or as a mighty warrior who could possibly save Israel from the Midianite hoards. God, through His angel, tried to reassure Gideon that he had more strength (in the Lord) than he realized.
And the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall [e]defeat the Midianites as one man.” (Judges 6:16).
Still, Gideon was not convinced. He told the Angel of the Lord,
If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who talk with me. Do not depart from here, I pray, until I come to You and bring out my offering and set it before You (Judges 6:17-18).
The Angel of the Lord told Gideon that he would wait for him to return with his offering. Gideon returned with the meat of a young goat and unleavened bread for his offering.
The Angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And he did so (Judges 6:20).
After Gideon did as he was instructed, the angel touched the meat and bread on the rock with the tip of his staff and fire arose out of the rock and completely consumed the offering as the angel departed.
Finally, Gideon believed he had been visited by the Lord’s angel. “Alas, O Lord God! For I have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face” (Judges 6:22).
Once again, the Lord said to him, “Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die” (Judges 6:23).
Due to this encounter, Gideon built an altar for the Lord in his hometown of Ophrah and called it The-Lord-Is-Peace (Shalom).
That same night God told Gideon he was to take his father’s young bull and tear down his father’s altar of Baal and destroy the pagan idols and build an altar to the Lord God of Israel.
So Gideon took ten men from among his servants and did as the Lord had said to him. But because he feared his father’s household and the men of the city too much to do it by day, he did it by night (Judges 6:27).
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Gideon’s 300: Who were they?
Part 2
July 19, 2024
And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him,
“The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!”
Judges 6:12 (NKJV)
Gideon Destroys the Altar of Baal. At the time of God’s calling of Gideon to save Israel, most Israelites, including Gideon’s father, worshipped the Canaanite god Baal and goddess Ashtoreth. Instead of worshipping Almighty God of their ancestors, the Jews turned to false gods. The Canaanites created the god Baal as the “storm” god who controlled the rains and vegetation growth. Ashtoreth was the goddess of love, war, fertility, prostitution and child sacrifice.
The Israelites quickly discovered that befriending their pagan neighbors came with great moral and spiritual risk. Trying to be friends by accepting their ungodly ways as valid truth weakened their faith as they adopted pagan beliefs that pulled them away from the truth of their God and His commandments: “You shall have no other gods before Me” and “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness ofanything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth” (Deuteronomy 5:7-8).
Not only were Gideon’s neighbors and community worshippers of these pagan gods, but to make things worse, members of Gideon’s family and his own household were also. So, it was no small decision when Gideon (aka, “tree feller” or “warrior” in Hebrew) decided to obey God’s command to destroy the altar of Baal and the images of Ashtoreth.
And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, there was the altar of Baal, torn down; and the wooden image that was beside it was cut down, and the second bull was being offered on the altar which had been built. So they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And when they had inquired and asked, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.” (Judges 6:28-29).
Although Gideon and his ten male servants had destroyed the altar of Baal and cut down the wooden idols under the cover of darkness, it did not take long before his deed was exposed. The men of the city wanted Gideon’s father, Joash, to bring forth his son so that they could kill him for destroying their gods.
The God of the Jews, however, made it clear in Deuteronomy 13:6-11, that Jews who became idol worshippers were to be stoned to death. However, the idol worshippers wanted to stone Gideon and his accomplices to death for destroying the idols God had declared an abomination. As Gideon quickly found out, taking the risk to heed God’s call to action is not always free of consequences, or the threat of them. In Gideon’s case an unexpected defender arose to plead his defense.
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But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Would you plead for Baal? Would you save him? Let the one who would plead for him be put to death by morning! If he is a god, let him plead for himself, because his altar has been torn down!” Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal [i.e., “Baal plead”], saying, “Let Baal plead against him, because he has torn down his altar” (Judges 6:31-32).
Gideon’s father apparently had an “ah, hah” moment of reality. If Baal was a real, living god, then he could defend himself. He did not need his worshippers to do so.
After that encounter the furious Midianites and Amalekites gathered in the Valley of Jezreel.
“But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon; then he blew the trumpet, and the Abiezrites gathered behind him” (Judges 6:34). In response Gideon put out the call for support throughout the region and men of faith came forth to join him.
Gideon’s Doubt. Remember, Gideon was a common man, a farmer. He was not a rabbi, priest or community leader. He was just trying to do his best at what he knew best: raise and harvest crops so that his family and neighbors could eat and survive the oppression of the Midianites. He still had his doubts about God’s call upon his life.
So Gideon said to God, “If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said—look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said.” And it was so. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water (Judges 6:36-38).
Even though God fulfilled Gideon’s request, Gideon was still not convinced that God indeed was calling him forth to stand for Israel.
Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew.” And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground (Judges 6:39-40).
Thankfully, God was not impatient with Gideon and just say, “Forget it, I’ll find someone of greater faith.” Instead, God revealed His plan for Gideon by honoring his request one more time.
Perhaps Gideon was testing God, or maybe he just needed more encouragement.
In today’s world, followers of Jesus Christ do not need to put out a “fleece” to test God’s will for their lives or what God is calling them to do. They have the benefit of God’s complete word in the Bible and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to guide them.
Gideon’s Mighty 300. In a short time, Gideon had amassed an army of 32,000 men of Israel. But God told Gideon there were too many men and that he had to reduce the number. Gideon and his followers must have been confused. Since when is a smaller army going against a much larger army a good tactical military plan? However, God had a plan, a much better plan that he wanted Gideon to implement. God did not want Gideon and his large army to go forth and achieve victory in their own might and cleverness. He wanted Gideon and his cohorts to know that it was God, Himself, who brought the victory and not their strength in numbers or ability.
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And the Lord said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ Now therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.’” And twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained (Judges 7:2-3).
Despite over two-thirds of Gideon’s army leaving and returning home, God said that Gideon’s forces were still too many for Him to accomplish His victory. He told Gideon to reduce the army even more. So God directed Gideon to put his men to an additional test of bravery.
So he brought the people down to the water. And the Lord said to Gideon, “Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set apart by himself; likewise everyone who gets down on his knees to drink.” And the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men; but all the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink water. Then the Lord said to Gideon, “By the three hundred men who lapped I will save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go, every man to his place” (Judges 7:5-7).
What was God looking for in those three hundred men? Strength? Courage? Skill? Wisdom? None of those. God was looking for a handful of men that would have trust and confidence in Him and that He would do what He said He would do—deliver Israel from their oppressors. The 300 men drank by bringing the water up to their mouths by their hand had demonstrated to God that they were watchful and aware of the enemy and their surroundings and therefore would be attentive to His plan and not their own, because they were far too few to be victorious in their own might.
What was God’s plan and how did it turn out? You can read about it here. Spoiler alert! Gideon’s army overcame their enemy without weapons of war or entering the camp of their oppressors. When the victory was won, Gideon and all of Israel knew without a doubt that it was God’s victory and not their own.
Gideon’s 300: God Gets the Victory
Part 3
July 26, 2024
And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him,
“The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!”
Judges 6:12 (NKJV)
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Gideon’s Mighty Army. Remember, Gideon was a common man, a farmer, who was not previously engaged in any kind of political activity. He, like other Israelites, was just trying to survive by being as inconspicuous as possible. When God chose him, he recoiled and questioned if God had made a mistake, because Gideon did not believe that he was the man for the task that God had laid out for him.
However, Gideon eventually surrendered to God’s call and 32,000 of his peers rose to the occasion to do battle with the Midianites. God was not impressed. He told Gideon that his army was too big and had to be pared down. So, Gideon told his men that if any were afraid, they should return home and 22,000 departed (Judges 7:3). Thank God our military leaders do not pose the same question today or our forces would be decimated. It is, perhaps, a foolish man who claims he has no fear at all. With 10,000 men remaining, Gideon believed he was under-prepared, yet ready to do battle for the LORD.
Do you recall what God said to Gideon? God told Gideon he still had too many men to go up against the hoard of Midianites (Judges 7:4).
So Gideon brought the people down to the water. And the Lord said to Gideon, “Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set apart by himself; likewise everyone who gets down on his knees to drink.” And the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men; but all the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink water. Then the Lord said to Gideon, “By the three hundred men who lapped I will save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go, every man to his place” (Judges 7:5-7).
Three hundred men out of ten thousand, no, thirty-two thousand, were left to fight with Gideon against the tens of thousands of Midianites. What was God thinking? What was Gideon thinking? What were the three hundred thinking? I know what most of us would be thinking. “God, are you nuts? There are only 300 of us left and we are way under equipped. Why us? We’ll get slaughtered.” But it was God that had the plan, not Gideon. Gideon was off the hook, so to speak, if he wanted to be.
God, not Gideon has the Plan. The 300 men that were left represented less than one percent of the fighting force that Gideon had recruited for the battle of his life against the Midianites. What was God looking for in those 300 that He did not see in the 99% that He rejected? Was God looking for the bravest among them? Perhaps. For the physically strongest? Perhaps. For the wisest? Perhaps. For the most faithful? Perhaps. The most skillful? Maybe.
Do not forget, Gideon did not consider himself worthy of God’s calling and was not really prepared to lead his countrymen into battle, especially one in which they would likely not survive.
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Remember how the 300 quenched their thirst at the water’s edge? They did not bend their heads down to the water to drink, thus losing clear sight of their surroundings. You have likely seen the videos of wary antelopes ducking their heads down to drink from the river and losing sight of the lurking crocodile who is about to snatch them for lunch. No, the 300 kept their heads up, ever vigilant, as they cupped their hands in the water and brought the morsal of water up to their mouths. God was looking, no for warriors in the traditional sense, but for watchmen, those who would be ever vigilant and alert to their surroundings and the evil that surrounded them. He was looking for those few faithful men who were ready to stand in the gap for Israel and do whatever God asked of them. They were men of valor—mighty men of valor!
So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one (Ezekiel 22:30).
Oh, that God would raise up Gideon 300s in every church and every community across America. Men who are bold, courageous and willing to stand in the gap and be watchmen and intercessors for their families, churches and communities. If so, we would be a lot further down the road to redeeming our communities and nation for God and His plan for us and our country.
After Gideon sent the 99+% of his warriors home to safety, he still did not know what God’s plan was to defeat the enemy.
It happened on the same night [that Gideon sent the rest home] that the Lord said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand.But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant, and you shall hear what they say; and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp” (Judges 7:9-11).
Gideon, I am sure was apprehensive, since he still did not know what God was planning. Yet, he was obedient.
Then he went down with Purah [meaning “branch” or “coverage” in Hebrew] his servant to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp. Now the Midianites and Amalekites, all the people of the East, were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude (Judges 11b-12).
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Imagine! God fully expected two men, Gideon and Purah, to go down into the enemy camp unarmed, an enemy that was as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number.
That was God’s plan? You might say. “Not me. No way.” But Gideon trusted God and Purah trusted Gideon. So, down into the Midianite camp they went.
And when Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said, “I have had a dream: To my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian; it came to a tent and struck it so that it fell and overturned, and the tent collapsed.”
Then his companion answered and said, “This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel! Into his hand God has delivered Midian and the whole camp” (Judges 7:13-14).
What did God do? He not only protected Gideon and Purah on the clandestine mission he sent them, but instead of fear being apart of Gideon’s and Purah’s persona, God put fear of Gideon in the hearts and minds of his and Israel’s enemies. FEAR is a powerful motivator and defeater of the strongest of foes. Too often we let fear overtake us before God can implement His plan for that moment or for our life. We have all been there.
And so it was, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, that he worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel, and said, “Arise, for the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand” (Judges 7:15).
Confident in the victory over the enemies of Israel by God’s hand, Gideon divided his small band of mighty men of valor into three bands, each fully armed, not with weapons of warfare, but with a trumpet into every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and torches inside the pitchers (Judges 7:16). Say, what? Was he crazy?
God crazy! That is what Gideon was. He was crazy sure God was with him and it would be His plan that would win the day. They were not surrounding the Midian camp with superior weapons of war, but with weapons, under God’s direction, that would assure the Israelites that it was God who defeated the Midianites and not the strength and might of Israel’s forces, lest they brag and take the glory from God.
Then Gideon instructed his men, “Look at me and do likewise; watch, and when I come to the edge of the camp you shall do as I do: When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you also blow the trumpets on every side of the whole camp, and say, ‘The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!’ ” (Judges 7:17-18).
Whether God gave Gideon this idea or whether Gideon concocted it due to the courage and boldness he had in God delivering the Midianites into his hands is not important. Gideon knew without a shadow of doubt that 300 men, no matter how bold and courageous could not defeat their enemies unless God was with them and went before them. The rest, they say, is history.
So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outpost of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just as they had posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands. Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers—they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing—and they cried, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!” And every man stood in his place all around the camp; and the whole army ran and cried out and fled. When the three hundred blew the trumpets, the Lord set every man’s sword against his companion throughout the whole camp; and the army fled to Beth Acacia, toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel Meholah, by Tabbath (Judges 7:19-22).
Now that you know the story of Gideon and the mighty men of valor, it would be great if men of faith everywhere picked up the “sword” of Gideon as watchmen (gap men) and intercessors for their families, churches and communities, trusting in God’s protection and deliverance.
Will you be a “gap man”—a watchman and intercessor TODAY for your family, church and community? If yes, just leave a simple comment on this post and say, “Yes, I will!”
Thank you and God bless you.
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