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There is a curiously modern ring about the story of Gideon, the Israeli leader who, with only three hundred men, put an army of one hundred and thirty-five thousand to ignominious flight, and afterwards with the aid of a few thousand reinforcements destroyed them utterly. This is a narrative about men possessed not only of grim tenacity in battle for the defence of their fatherland but also of sterling faith that their cause was right and for that reason God would go with them and give them the victory. Gideon was not only a military strategist of high order; he was also a man of the Covenant which God had made with his people at Sinai and he believed with all his heart that he was an instrument of God.

For perhaps a couple of generations Israel had lived more or less at peace since the resounding victory of Barak and Deborah over the Canaanites, recorded in Judges 4 and 5. Now in the sixth chapter it is shown that again all is not well with the nation. Barak and Deborah, and the heroes who had fought with them, were all dead, and the religious enthusiasm engendered by that great deliverance half a century in the past had evaporated; apostasy and Baal worship was now rife in the land. In consequence, and in accordance with the provisions of the Covenant, Israel's enemies had gained the ascendancy over them. The greater part of the nation was in bondage to the Midianites and had been so for seven years.

This was no ordinary bondage. When in past days Chushan king of Aram-Naharaim, (Mitanni), Eglon king of Moab. Jabin king of Hazor, oppressed them for greater or lesser periods the oppression took the form of exaction of tribute, a proportion of their flocks and herds, their crops and their possessions, but their national life was able to continue although impoverished. But these Midianites and Amalekites were of different stamp and came with different purpose. They were the nomadic Bedouin hordes of the eastern desert, always on the move, living "off the land", moving on from each temporary abiding place so soon as its natural resources were exhausted to find another. Every year at harvest time they moved westwards to the settled lands of Canaan, pouring across the Jordan in their thousands and setting up their tents in the fertile valley of Esdraelon, from whence they scoured the land as far south as Gaza (Jud. 6.4), taking all the cattle and flocks and all the harvested crops, leaving the unhappy inhabitants with nothing. And when they had taken all, they moved back to the desert, like the locusts to which they were compared (Ch. 6.5). Year after year they did this; because of them Israel was greatly impoverished, and at last they "cried unto the Lord".

They had been told this would happen. At Sinai God had said that if they forsook him, "ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it" (Lev. 26.16); now they realised the fulfilment of those words. And in their distress they cried unto the Lord.

God is never slow to respond when the entreaty is mixed with faith. Once again there was a wave of contrition and repentance sweeping over the nation and God was quick to act. The first step was to impress upon the people the heinousness of their sin. He sent them a prophet—his name is unknown for it is not given—who reminded them of the great events of the past, of the deliverance from Egypt and the journey to the Promised Land and the casting out of its inhabitants that they might inherit it, and of their ingratitude in forgetting all this and repudiating their God. "Ye have not obeyed my voice" He told them (Jud. 6.10). But at the same time He was moving to deliver; He had selected his instrument and the angel of the Lord was already on his way to visit Gideon.

Was Gideon himself in fact the unnamed prophet? He was evidently a man of faith and greatly concerned for the vindication of the Divine Name and might well have already won some recognition as one who sought to turn Israel back to the true faith. Be this as it may, it is clear that when Gideon, threshing wheat under cover of the winepress, in the endeavour to hide it from the sight of the marauding Midianites, looked up and saw the traveller sitting there under the terebinth tree, he was quite unprepared for what was to follow.

"The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour" came the stranger's greeting. "Oh my Lord" was Gideon's respectful rejoinder "if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? And where are all his miracles which our fathers told us of? … Now the Lord hath forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites" (ch..6. 12 13). This is not the language of unbelief; it is the language of disappointment. The Lord had delivered in the past; of that Gideon was sure, on the authority of his forefathers. Why then did God not deliver now, when the very future existence of the chosen nation seemed threatened? The problem was too great for Gideon, he could only ask "why?", and wait for the Lord to reveal his purpose. And the Lord looked upon him, and knew him for the man of faith and action that he was, and said to him "Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. I HAVE SENT THEE!" (Ch.6.14). To Gideon's protestation that his family was the least in his tribe, and he himself the least in his father's house, there came the reiteration "thou shalt smite the Midianites" and at that Gideon demurred no longer. Like Moses of earlier time, his native humility was overcome by the Divine assurance "I will be with thee"; his faith and courage both were equal to the occasion. Without reservation he put himself into the Lord's hands to be the instrument of salvation.

It is not long before tests come upon those who give themselves to God in this fashion. As it was with Jesus, who went straight from Jordan to the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil, so with the followers of Jesus; the act of dedication of life to him is followed by some experience or requirement designed to demonstrate just how sincere and steadfast is that dedication. So with Gideon. The first instruction he received was to destroy the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah, the idolatrous fertility symbol, which served the local community, and take the sacred bullocks from the sacerdotal precincts. He was then to build an altar to God and sacrifice all these appendages of Baal worship upon it and so challenge the forces of idolatry in a manner which they dare not ignore and from which he could not retreat. In a very real sense he was to nail his colours to the mast and defy the entire established order of his village.

Now this same chapter states that the children of Israel had already begun to cry to the Lord for deliverance and this implies that a reaction against Baal worship was at least already in progress. It was evidently not yet wholehearted; the cry of faith going up to Heaven was as yet weak, but it was there. It now needed a resolute figure to stand up and declare himself for the God of Israel, to sound forth the age-old rallying cry "Who is on the Lord's side, who?" rousing the dormant but never entirely obliterated belief in Israel's mission as the people for God's purpose and their invincibility when God was with them which has carried that same people to victory against apparently hopeless odds so many times in history. Gideon was that man. Without hesitation he carried out the Lord's injunction.

It would seem that his own father Joash was an idolator. The altar of Baal, and the asherah, and the sacred bullocks, are all described as being his—apparently on his land and in his custody. Gideon himself must have been in middle age—according to Ch.8.20 he had at least one son grown to manhood at this time—so his father may well have been the patriarch of the village. Nevertheless, with the aid of ten of his servants, the deed was done and when the men of the village arose next morning they found, to their consternation, the remains of their idol god smoking upon another altar that had not been there the day before.

Of course there was anger, and a great deal of shouting, and a fury of consultation on the situation, and finally a deputation to Joash demanding that his son be given up that he might be put to death for the outrage committed against Baal. Evidently the citizens of Ophrah were not numbered among those of Israel who had begun to forsake Baal to serve the living God. It seems though that Joash, at least, began to see the light. He flatly refused his neighbours' demands and taunted them with their zeal for a god who could not save himself. "Will ye plead for Baal?" he enquired sarcastically. "Will ye save him? If he be a god, let him plead for himself since someone hath cast down his altar". The extent to which the logic of this argument penetrated is not apparent from the account, but it might be that there was not much time for further discussion, for almost immediately, it would seem, a fresh and much more serious crisis developed. The annual invasion of the Midianites and Amalekites and the children of the east had begun.

The valley of Jezreel—the symbolic site of Armageddon, where all the great battles between Israel, Syria, Egypt and Assyria were fought—lies across the northern half of the land of Israel, from Jordan to the sea. It is about twenty miles long and varies from four to eight miles wide. It forms the natural passage for peoples coming in from the east and heading for Canaan, Judea or Egypt and has been thus used from antiquity. Into this valley came the hosts; as Ch. 7.12 says, they "lay all along the valley like locusts for multitude, and their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea side for multitude". Ophrah was about five miles away up in the hills fringing the south side of the valley, so that it would not be long before the news reached Gideon and his fellows. In past times this had been the signal for the whole population to seek hiding places in the caves and ravines of the highlands (see ch. 6.2) with such food as they could carry, leaving the invaders to plunder their farms and homes of everything movable. But not this time! Gideon too had acquiesced in the general submission in the past; now he was possessed of a new spirit, born of a strength induced by his zeal and courage in the affair of the idols. He had proved himself faithful in a small thing and now the Lord was going to use him in a great thing. And the men who a few hours ago were thirsting for his blood now realised that under his leadership they could strike a blow for freedom which without him they would not have dreamed of attempting.

So "the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, and all Abiezer were gathered after him. And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, who also was gathered after him; and he sent messengers unto Asher, and unto Zebulon, and unto Naphtali; and they came up to meet them" (Ch. 6.34,35). In next to no time the whole of the countryside for miles around was roused; contingents from four of the tribes of Israel, those most closely affected by the invasion, came marching to join him. Gideon found himself at the head of an army of men numbering more than thirty thousand! It is evident though that he was pinning his hopes for victory not upon the military prowess of his followers but upon the power of God. The first thing he did upon finding himself in command of this force was to ask a sign of God that He would indeed deliver Israel. Some might be inclined to consider this request for a sign to indicate a lack of faith but it was not necessarily so; the sign might be more for the encouragement of the men who had rallied to his side and to confirm in their minds the power of the God of Israel. On the other hand it might have been Gideon's desire for assurance that he had correctly interpreted the new power that had possessed him as being in truth the Spirit of the Lord. Was he doing right in accepting the service of these thousands of Israel and was this moment the critical one in which to sally forth to do battle with the enemy? There is an element of sober caution in his approach to the point where he must put his forces to the test, harmonising well with the inflexible conviction that God was with him when at last he went into battle, which speaks, not of weakness of faith or of indecisiveness, but of a deep-rooted determination that he should interpret the Divine leading aright, neither lagging behind that leading nor stepping out in front of it. So he suggested the sign that would convince him, and the Lord responded according to his faith. He set out a fleece of wool on the ground and in the morning although the dew was heavy all around, the fleece itself was inexplicably dry; again he set it out and asked for the wonder to be reversed and sure enough in the morning the ground was bone dry and the fleece wringing wet. Simple little signs but they told Gideon all that he wanted to know and without further ado he rallied his men and gave the word to march. They made their way for five miles across the hilltops and halfway down the northern slopes of Mount Gilboa above the waters of Harod. ("Mount Gilead" Ch. 7.3 is an early copyist's mistake for Gilboa, Gilead lay on the other side of Jordan). From here they could survey the valley below, some four miles wide with the rising ground of Moreh beyond it (see ch. 7.1) and in that valley the camp of the Midianites. And here the Lord stopped him.

There were too many men in Gideon's army. That was the gist of the Lord's message. There was a danger that when the Lord had given the victory they might well take the credit on account of their own numbers; "lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me" (ch. 7.2). The remedy was simple; there was to be a drastic weeding out of the army. First of all Gideon was to make a proclamation throughout all the host bidding every man who was in any way fearful or afraid of the coming battle to return home forthwith. Two-thirds of them promptly packed up and departed; twenty-two thousand went and ten thousand remained. Perhaps the martial ardour which had roused so many of them to militant action as quickly evaporated when they looked down on that valley and saw those hundred and thirty-five thousand muscular Bedouins ready for a fight. Their newly revived faith in God was still very weak and it died a sudden death at that moment. Perhaps Gideon, watching them go, remembered his insistence on a sign from the Lord that he was doing right in initiating this conflict and was glad that he had obtained the assurance. But now the Lord had another word for him.

There were still too many men. Take them down to the waters of Harod, said the Lord, and command them to drink. It must have seemed a risky business, for the stream ran—and still runs—through the valley itself and the enemy camp was only a short distance away on the other side. Nevertheless Gideon obeyed the order, and before long ten thousand men were gathered along its banks. And here the Lord drew Gideon's attention to a singular circumstance. Despite the close proximity of the enemy camp, by far the majority of the men got down on their knees to drink, oblivious to the disadvantage at which they were placed should the enemy decide to launch a sudden attack. Three hundred men, and three hundred only, drank with their heads up and their eyes fixed upon the distant scene, drawing up water in their hands and lapping as a dog would lap. Instinctively they were ready for an emergency. By these three hundred will I deliver, said the Lord. Send the rest back! This must have been the moment when Gideon's faith was tested to the uttermost. Three hundred only against that mighty host? Four hundred and fifty Midianites to each Israelite? Was such a miracle even possible? We have to remember that in Gideon's day there was no precedent for this victory. All past conflicts, whether or not the Lord had been concerned, had seen the participation of Israelite warriors in their thousands. The initial invasion of the land under Joshua, the subsequent victories of Othniel over the Mittanians, of Ehud over the Moabites, and Barak over the Canaanites, all were achieved by large and well-equipped forces of men. Now the Lord told Gideon that he was going to disperse what was in all probability by far the largest force Israel had yet to face with a paltry three hundred men. And as if to challenge his faith the Lord said "Arise, get thee down unto the host; for I have delivered it into thine hand".

The upshot of the story shows that God had chosen a fit man. Without hesitation Gideon acted. The use that he made of his three hundred men and the manner in which he routed the enemy, and all that came after, belongs to a succeeding story. There is no break in the narrative at this point; that goes on immediately to tell of Gideon's strategy and attack, but there is the attainment of a definite critical stage at this point. Here, at the waters of Harod, the Lord steps out of the affair, having done all that is necessary for him to do, and leaves the execution of the matter to Gideon. All the Israelite leader had to do was obey instructions and victory was assured. God had already delivered the Midianites into his hand. The details of that victory, and the events which followed in consequence, and how it affected the life of Gideon and the welfare of Israel in later times, must be the subject of part two.

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