Ep. 61 - Gideon (Part 1)

Last we left the Israelites, they had just started the good to bad to good to bad merry-go-round of doom. The first time that the Israelites had turned away from God, Mesopotamia invaded…and the judge Othniel delivered Israel. 40 years later, the Moabites invaded…and the judge Ehud delivered Israel. 80 years later, the Philistines and the Canaanites invaded…and the judges Shamgar and Deborah delivered Israel. Then another 40 years went by, and…wouldn’t you know it…the Israelites turned from God again. Who was going to invade Israel this time? And who would God raise up to deliver the Israelites? Well, let’s find out.

The Bible says, “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.” (Jdg. 6:1) Now, some of you kidzos out there will remember that we have run into the Midianite before. Remember the story where the Midianites had sent women into the Israelite camp to tempt them to worship false gods? And do you kidzos remember what happened to the Midianites after that? Yah, the Israelites attacked the Midianites and had beaten them badly…even burning down all their cities. Well…now the Midianites were back…and apparently, they hadn’t forgotten what the Israelites had done to them all those years ago.

Now, the Midianite invasion turned out to be a lot different from the earlier invasions. Unlike the Moabites, the Philistines, the Canaanites, and Mesopotamia, the Midianites were, what they call, “nomads”. That is to say, the Midianites did not live in cities and towns like everybody else did (maybe because the Israelites had destroyed their cities and towns all those years ago…who knows). Instead, they lived in tents and they wandered, going from place to place, and bringing everything along with them as they wandered. So what the Midianite “invasion” really meant was that the Midianites had put Israel on their list of places visit all the time. Nomadic people don’t have gardens to harvest food or fields to graze their animals. So, the Midianites would time their “visits” to happen right around the Israelite harvest. So just when the harvest was starting, the Midianites would show up, eat up all the food, steal all the animals, and scare all the Israelites into their cities or up into the mountains and caves. Then after they were done stealing everything they wanted, they left…on to the next place to “visit”. And after 7 years of these “visits”, the Israelites were on the verge of starvation and things were getting really bad. And the Bible says, “Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the LORD.” (6:6)

And so what did God do? Well at first God sent a prophet to the Israelites to help them remember why this was happening to them. And the prophet said to the Israelites, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage;  (9)  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.  (10)  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.'” (6:8-10) Basically, God was telling them, hey I brought you out of Egypt and helped you conquer most of the people in the land, but now you are worshipping the gods of those people. If you want all these bad things to stop happening to you, you need to stop worshipping other gods. And this message didn’t seem to fall on deaf ears, because right after this God raised up Israel’s next deliverer…our 5^th judge…a man named Gideon. And the Bible says, “Now the Angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites.” (6:11)

Ok so side note, there’s something that Papa needs to explain here. Who is this Angel of the LORD that appeared to Gideon? Is it an actual angel? Well, if you look up that text in the Bible (which btw is Judges chapter 6 verse 11) you will see that the word angel starts with a capital “A”. And in the Bible, an unusually capitalized word means that it’s talking about God. For example, when the Bible talks about the god of the Amorites, it uses the lowercase “g” in God. But when the Bible talks about the God of the Israelites, it uses the uppercase “G” for God. This is a sign of respect for God and it helps the reader to know exactly when the Bible is talking about God. So, if the word Angel is using a capital “A”, does that mean that this angel is somehow God? And if it’s God, then why is God being called an Angel? Well, this is getting into a few complicated things, including what God is…and what the Trinity is. And maybe we will do a bonus episode on that at some point, but suffice it to say for now that most people believe that the capital “A” Angel of the LORD is Jesus. Just like Jesus became a human being for us, at some point Jesus had become an Angel to the angels. Yah…crazy right? Of course, it starts to make you wonder…if Jesus became an angel for the angels, and a human for the humans, has Jesus become other things too? Yah we have no idea…we don’t even know exactly why Jesus became an angel. But we do know that the Angel of the LORD comes up many times in the Bible, including many times in stories that we’ve talked about. Like did you know that it was the Angel of the LORD that appeared to Hagar (Abraham’s second wife)? And that it was the Angel of the Lord that stopped Abraham from sacrificing Isaac on the altar? And that it was the Angel of the Lord who spoke to Moses from the burning bush? That it was the Angel of the LORD that appeared to Balaam’s donkey with the sword? Even the fiery cloud that protected the Israelites from the Egyptians and led them through the wilderness for 40 years was called the Angel of the LORD. Yah so interestingly, even though we haven’t officially run into Jesus as Jesus in our stories…He has already come up many times…and He’s going to continue to come up in our stories as we go along.

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s keep going with our story. So, as the Bible said, the Angel of the LORD came to Gideon while he was threshing wheat in a wine press to hide it from the Midianites. It was getting close to harvest time…which meant that the Midianites’ yearly visit was just about to start. And Gideon, wanting to save a little bit of food for his family, but not wanting to get attacked by the Midianites who should be coming at any moment, had snuck some wheat over to a wine press to thresh it. Now, normally, threshing wheat would be done either in the field or on a threshing floor. But threshing wheat involved a lot of commotion. You had to bundle the wheat, beat the wheat, blow away the chaff, bag the kernals…and Gideon didn’t want to draw any unneeded attention. And the wine press was perfect for hiding what he was doing, because it had a stone wall that came about up to your hip. So Gideon could be working with his hands near the ground where no one could see what he was doing, but still keep an eye out for the Midianites.

And no doubt, as Gideon was working he was probably feeling super depressed…and asking himself things like, ‘What has happened to my country that I’m afraid to do even a simple thing like thresh wheat out in the open?’ Just as Gideon is probably thinking these thing, the Angel of the Lord suddenly came to him with encouraging news at the turn of the tide. And the Angel said, “The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor!” (6:12) But of course, Gideon wasn’t feeling very encouraged. So Gideon, still not knowing who he was talking to, replied to the Angel and said, “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.” (6:13) Gideon was saying what was on his heart and what a lot of us tend to think sometimes when times are tough…yah yah we’ve heard all the stories that our parents told us about a big and powerful God and all the miracles that He’s done…but where are those miracles now? Why isn’t He helping me when I need it? And the angel answered Gideon and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” (6:14)

Gideon was a little taken aback. Wait a second, this guy wants me to lead a big fight against the Midianites? Like what Othniel and Ehud and Deborah did all those years ago? Me? And Gideon answered, and said, “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.” (6:15) Back in those days, people thought that only important people from important families and backgrounds could do important things. So, because Gideon was from the weakest clan in his tribe and he himself was probably the youngest or the poorest in his immediate family, Gideon couldn’t even imagine himself doing anything important like that. But of course, God is not limited by our imaginations, and the Angel replied to Gideon and said, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.” (6:16) And when the Angel said this, Gideon’s ears perked up…surely I will be with you…that sounds an awful lot like what God had said to Jacob in his dream at Bethel, and what God had said to Joshua right after Moses had died, and what God had said to Moses at the burning bush. Was it possible that this person that Gideon was talking to was…the Angel of the LORD? Was the Angel the LORD appearing to him like a man like He did with Abraham all those years ago? Or like he did with Jacob when he wrestled with God? Or like he did with Joshua when God appeared to him like a soldier? Is that what was is going on here?

So, Gideon, starting to get the idea about who he was talking to…but not quite sure yet…said to the Angel of the LORD, “If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who talks with me.  (18)  Do not depart from here, I pray, until I come to You and bring out my offering and set it before You.” (6:18-19) Gideon wanted proof of who the Angel was…and the Angel agreed. So, Gideon went off and prepared a meal…complete with meat, bread and soup…and came back to give it to the Angel who was still sitting under the terebinth tree. Then the Angel said, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” (6:20) And Gideon did so. And then the Angel took the staff He was holding and touched the food with it. And all of a sudden, a fire burst out of the rock and instantly burned up Gideon’s offering. The sudden flash of light from the fire probably made Gideon shield his eyes for a second. And when Gideon looked back, the Angel had disappeared! And Gideon, now a bit scared, said, “Alas, O Lord GOD! For I have seen the Angel of the LORD face to face.” (6:22) Because Gideon hadn’t known that he’d been talking to God, he wondered if he’d made some mistake. I mean…he hadn’t taken off his sandals or anything! Knowing how Gideon was feeling, God spoke to him to calm him down, and said, “Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die.” (6:23) And then Gideon, feeling like this had been an important moment for him and for all of Israel, built a small altar right there under the terebinth tree. Gideon’s prayers were being answered…and change was coming!

But before change could come, before Gideon could declare war on the Midianites, it turns out that Gideon first had to declare war on idol worship. As you kidzos know, idol worship and worshiping false gods was the reason why the Israelites were in this mess to be begin with. In fact, right in Gideon’s hometown, his own father, Joash, had setup a huge wooden idol to Baal…complete with an altar and everything. So, first things first. And that very same night after the Angel had visited him, God came to Gideon and said, “Take your father's young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the wooden image that is beside it;  (26)  and build an altar to the LORD your God on top of this rock in the proper arrangement, and take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down.” (6:25-26) God wanted Gideon to take the stones from the altar to Baal and rearrange them into an altar to God. And then the wooden idol of Baal was to be cut down and used as kindling to offer a burnt sacrifice. Oh boy…well that was definitely one way of declaring war on idol worship! And even though Gideon knew that the people of the town sure weren’t going to like this, right away Gideon obeyed God and got to work. And that very night, while the town was sleeping, Gideon did as God had commanded…he demolished the alter, cut down the idol, assembled an altar to God, and used the wooden idol as kindling to make an offering to God.

Of course, in the morning, the men of the city woke up, and you can just imagine these guys getting up and…yawn…alright time to make my morning offering to Baal. Ah…I love Baal so much. Nothing makes me feel so good as making that offering to Baal every morning. Let’s get the front door open here and….ah! Baal has been…burned to a crisp…and it looks like it was used as…kindling! What happened? Who did this!?!? The angry men of the town asked around…and of course it was eventually discovered that Gideon had done it. And the men went to Gideon’s father, Joash, and said, “Bring out your son, that he may die, because he has torn down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the wooden image that was beside it.” (6:30) They were going to kill Gideon!

Despite Joash having been the one to have built the altar to Baal in the first place, Gideon’s father wasn’t going to turn his son over to the angry mob. And we don’t know if it’s because Gideon had told his father about the Angel, or if he mainly didn’t want his son to die, or if Joash was just getting tired of getting no help from Baal. Whatever the reason Joash decided to turn things back on the mob, and said, “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!” (6:31) Joash got the angry men to stop and think about it a little bit. Ya know…what we really need right now is protection…protection from the Midianites. That’s what Baal is supposed to be doing for us. But if Baal can’t even protect himself from being cut down by one random guy in the middle of the night…then how can Baal possibly protect us from the Midianites? These seemed to be good questions, and they seemed to make a big impression on the men of the town of Ophrah, because not only did they not kill Gideon…but they became some of Gideon’s most loyal followers in the days to come.

And all this didn’t happen a moment too soon. Because almost immediately, the Bible says, “Then all the Midianites and Amalekites, the people of the East, gathered together; and they crossed over and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel.” (6:33) The yearly invasion of Israel had begun. Would Gideon get over his fear of being unimportant and lead the Israelites against the invaders? Would God deliver the Israelites out of the hands of the Midianites as He’d done with the invasions of the past? Well, we will find out all about it…next time.