Gideon’s Fleece

Gideon is chosen by God to save Israel from the Midianites, but doubts his fitness for the task.

Bronze Age ?3000 – ?1050 BC

Introduction

This post is number 3 in the series The Story of Gideon

Gideon is numbered among Israel’s ‘Judges’, charismatic leaders of the ancient tribes of Israel after they escaped from slavery in Egypt and settled in the land of Canaan, sometime before the 11th century BC. Their task was to free Israel from the ever-present temptation to adopt the religions of the indigenous peoples.

by Clay Lane

NOT long after the Israelites escaped from Egypt and settled in Canaan, their new home was invaded by the Kingdom of Midian. For seven years their crops and herds were destroyed or seized by the invaders, but the greatest indignity they suffered was that altars and groves sacred to Baal, the Midianites’ imaginary god, were set up on their lands, and there was just such a grove on the lands of Joash.*

One day, a stranger approached Joash’s son Gideon, and told him that God had chosen him to save Israel. Gideon doubted his fitness for such a task; but what he did not doubt was that the stranger had been angel of God. So that night, Gideon crept out and felled the sacred grove, built an altar, and offered a bullock to the God of Israel.

Next morning the townspeople saw the ruined grove, and their council men, in fear of the Midianites, demanded that Gideon pay with his life.

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Joash lived in Ophrah of the Abi-ezrites, a few miles southwest of Shechem (very close to modern-day Nablus) in Manasseh. See A Map of the Twelve Tribes of Israel at Wikimedia Commons, where Shechem is marked Siquem.

The Kingdom of Midian lay in what is now the northwest of Saudi Arabia, on the eastern shore of the Red Sea.

Précis

In the time before Israel was ruled by Kings, Gideon was inspired by God to rebel against the Midianites who had overrun Manasseh and other Israelite tribes. In obedience to an angel, he felled a Midianite idol on his father’s lands, bringing calls for Gideon to be put to death.

Jigsaws

Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.

Midian invaded Israel. God told Gideon to drive the Midianites out. Gideon did not feel equal to the task.

Clay Lane The Copybook