In Gideon’s time, the Israelites had once again embraced the idolatry of their neighbors, and God used the Midianites to punish them for seven years. The Midianites ravaged their farmlands, destroying crops and killing everything in sight “like swarms of locusts” (Judges 6:5).
This time, when the Israelites cried out for help, an angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon and commanded him to save Israel:
“Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” —Judges 6:14
Gideon resisted, suggesting that he was too insignificant to save Israel and then asking for a sign. The angel of the Lord touched his staff to some meat and bread, and it caught fire. Then the angel of the Lord disappeared. This was the first of many times that Gideon asked God for a sign and received one.
Shortly thereafter, God told Gideon to destroy his father Joash’s Asherah pole (an idol used to worship Baal) and replace it with an altar to the Lord. Because he was afraid, Gideon did it at night. When everyone wanted him dead for this act, Joash said, “If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar.” Gideon then became known as Jerubbaal. (Both names are used throughout Judges.)
Later, Israel’s Midianite enemies gathered forces, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon (Judges 6:33–34). He summoned the tribes of Israel, and as Gideon prepared to fight the Midianites, God said:
“You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’” —Judges 7:2
And so God gradually whittled Gideon’s army down from 32,000 men to 300. The Midianite and Amalekite armies camped in the valley below them, “thick as locusts,” and “their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore.”
Understandably, Gideon was afraid, so God told him to sneak into the camp and listen to what the troops were saying. There he found a man who was telling his friend about a dream predicting Gideon's defeat of the enemy. This gave Gideon the confidence he needed to execute his battle plan. His men surrounded the camp, and when Gideon gave the signal, they all broke jars, blasted trumpets, raised torches, and shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon.” Then God caused the Midianite soldiers to turn on each other, and they fled. Gideon pursued the two kings of Midian, routed their armies, captured them, and executed them.
After this victory, the Israelites attempted to make Gideon their king, butGideon refused, proclaiming: “The Lord will rule over you” (Judges 8:23). But as a favor, Gideon asked them all to give him one of their gold rings, and he had them melted down and made into an ephod—a garment used in oracle-related rituals. While Gideon lived, the Israelites enjoyed forty more years of peace. And when he died, they abandoned his family and returned to worshiping Baal.
