Gideon and the Three Hundred

Context

For seven years, Midian and its allies had oppressed Israel. When the Israelites planted crops, raiders swept in, destroyed the harvest, and took away their livestock. Families hid in caves and mountain shelters, and the nation became desperately poor.

When Israel cried out to God, he first sent a prophet to remind them that he had rescued them from Egypt and given them this land. Their trouble was not only military: they had disobeyed God and turned to other gods. Into this fearful and divided nation, God called an unlikely deliverer.

Story

The angel of the Lord came to Ophrah and sat beneath an oak belonging to Joash. Nearby, Joash’s son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress, hiding the grain from the Midianites.

“The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”

Gideon answered with questions. If the Lord was with Israel, why had all this happened? Where were the wonders their ancestors had described? It seemed to Gideon that God had abandoned them.

The Lord sent Gideon to rescue Israel. Gideon protested that his family was weak and that he was the least in his father’s household. But God’s answer rested on his own presence: he would be with Gideon.

Gideon asked for a sign. He prepared an offering, and when the angel touched it with his staff, fire rose from the rock and consumed it. Gideon was terrified when he realized who had spoken to him, but the Lord assured him of peace. Gideon built an altar there and called it “The Lord Is Peace.”

That same night, God told Gideon to tear down his father’s altar to Baal and the Asherah pole beside it. Gideon obeyed, but because he feared his family and the townsmen, he took ten servants and did the work at night. When the townsmen discovered what had happened, they demanded Gideon’s death. His father, Joash, answered that if Baal truly was a god, Baal could defend himself.

Soon the Midianites and their allies gathered in the Valley of Jezreel. The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he sounded a trumpet. Men from several tribes answered his call. Yet Gideon still sought reassurance. Twice he asked God for a sign involving a wool fleece—first wet while the ground remained dry, and then dry while the ground was wet. God answered both requests.

Gideon’s army camped above the Midianite force, but God said there were too many Israelites. If they won with such numbers, they might boast that they had saved themselves. Gideon told anyone who was afraid to return home. Twenty-two thousand left, while ten thousand remained.

God said the army was still too large. At the water, he selected only the three hundred men who brought water to their mouths with their hands. Everyone else was sent home. God promised to deliver Midian through those three hundred.

That night, God told Gideon to go down toward the enemy camp. If he was afraid, he could take his servant Purah and listen to what the Midianites were saying. Gideon went with Purah and overheard a man describe a dream in which a loaf of barley bread rolled into the camp and overturned a tent. Another man interpreted the dream as a sign that God had given Midian into Gideon’s hands.

Gideon worshiped God, returned to his men, and told them to rise. He divided the three hundred into three groups. Each man carried a trumpet and an empty jar with a torch hidden inside.

At the beginning of the middle watch, they surrounded the camp. At Gideon’s signal, they blew their trumpets, shattered the jars, raised the torches, and cried out:

“The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!”

The three hundred held their positions while panic swept through the camp. The Lord turned the enemy’s swords against one another, and the Midianite force fled. Israelites from several tribes joined the pursuit. The men of Ephraim blocked the river crossings, captured the Midianite commanders Oreb and Zeeb, and killed them. They continued pursuing Midian and brought the commanders’ heads to Gideon beyond the Jordan.

What We Learned

• God’s response to Israel included both correction for their disobedience and merciful deliverance from oppression.
• Gideon was not fearless or naturally confident. God called him amid his questions and based the mission on one promise: God would be with him.
• Gideon obeyed even while afraid, first by confronting idolatry close to home and then by facing Midian.
• God reduced the army to three hundred so Israel could not claim that its own strength had won the victory.
• The three hundred followed their instructions, but the decisive action belonged to God, who threw the enemy camp into confusion.