“And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. “
Hebrews 11:32-34(NIV)
I recently read this scripture and thought it might be fun to take a look at the people mentioned. The first person mentioned is Gideon. I will paraphrase some of the scriptures because it is several chapters. I’ll leave a link at the bottom so you can read it.
Who is Gideon
“Oh yeah………I know him. He’s the guy that leaves his Bible in hotel rooms. It must be his, because his name is on it.” I heard someone say that before. Probably a comedian. https://www.rd.com/article/why-hotel-rooms-have-bibles/
The first time Gideon is mentioned is in the book of Judges. The Israelites were misbehaving as usual and been under the power of the Midanites.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Midianites
“They {The Midianites} engaged in pastoral pursuits, caravan trading, and banditry, and their main contacts with the Israelites were from the period of the Exodus (13th century BCE) through the period of the Judges (12th–11th century BCE).”
From above webpage-parenthetical mine
Gideon Gets a Visitor
Gideon is out working when he receives an interesting visitor.
“The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.”
Judges 6:11 (NIV)
No one really knows who “The angel of the Lord” is. There are several theories. Some say it is Christ, some say it is an actual angel, others say it is one of the Trinity. I’ll say it is someone important and leave it at that.
The angel says to Gideon that “the LORD is with him”. Gideon replies that if it is so, why are they under the Midianites? Why is all this bad stuff happening? The angel tells him that God is sending him. Gideon asks how can he save them?
Show Me a Sign
Then Gideon does something I find interesting. He asks God to show him a sign.
When I read/hear this scripture, I remember that when Jesus was in the desert, he was tested.
“Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. ‘If you are the Son of God,’ he said, ‘throw yourself down. For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”Jesus answered him, ‘It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
Matthew 4:5-7 (NIV)
That has bothered me, but I guess God gave Gideon a pass or something. I won’t take you down that rabbit hole, maybe I’ll come back to testing God in another post.
Gideon asks for a sign.
“Gideon replied, ‘If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me.'”
Judges 6:17 (NIV)
He made some food for the angel and put it on a rock. The angel touched the rock with his staff and it all went up in a huge flame! Gideon then declares that the angel is who is says he is.
Tearing Down the Altar
The angel tells Gideon to tear down the altar built to Baal and build a proper altar to God. Gideon does this but does it in the middle of the night. The next morning the Baal worshipers are upset that Gideon tore down their altar so they are going to kill him.
The Baal worshipers gather up other people and they are all going to war with Gideon. Gideon sends messengers for other people to come to fight with him, then he and asks for another sign.
“Gideon said to God, ‘If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised— look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.‘ And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water.
Then Gideon said to God, ‘Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.’ That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.”
Judges 6:36-39 (NIV)
Gideon FINALLY believes that God is going to help him. I can’t fault Gideon though. I doubt God all the time. I’m not picking up any rocks to throw at Gideon, but I would like to think after I saw an angel that made my food turn into fire, I’d be a believer.
Gideon the Fighter
This next part is so funny to me. I crack up when I read it. This is God talking to Gideon:
“Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’ So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.”
Judges 7:3 (NIV)
Twenty-two thousand men said “Yep…………I’m outta here. Have fun fighting.”
Gideon has the men fighting with him drink water and watches the way they drink it (yeah this part is weird). If they drink like a dog, they stayed with Gideon to fight and if they cupped the water they got sent home. Don’t ask me about this I have no idea.
The next parts of the scripture are basically Gideon fighting and getting plunder. He took all of his loot and had it made into a sleeveless shirt and put it on display where he lived. People started worshiping the shirt, which caused a lot of problems.
“Gideon son of Joash died at a good old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.”
Judges 8:32 (NIV)
The End. So what do you think? Did you learn about Gideon? I hope I made the re-telling entertaining.
If you would like to read the scriptures, here is a link. It starts in Judges 6-8. The link is for the New International Version, but you can click on the right on the webpage and change to a different version.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges%206&version=NIV
If you like what you see, please like, share, and pass it along! You can subscribe to the blog and you can find us on Pinterest and Facebook!
