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One-sentence summary: The Lord calls a man named Gideon to deliver Israel.
(And of course) the children of Israel do evil again in the sight of the Lord, and they are delivered into Midian for seven years. And they are forced to make strongholds for themselves, dens and caves in the mountains. Also, the Amalekites and people from the east would come with the Midianites and destroy their produce, so they become impoverished. They cry out to the Lord, so the Lord sends them a prophet, who tells them that they have not obeyed the voice of the Lord. The Angel of the Lord comes and sits under the terebinth tree where a man named Gideon is threshing wheat at a wine press to hide it from the Midiantites. And the Angel appears to him and says, "The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor." Gideon asks why all this has happened and where are all God's miracles that he heard about. He says God has forsaken them and delivered them into the hands of their enemies. But the Angel tells him, "Go in this might of yours. You shall save Israel from the hand of the MIdianites. Have I not sent you?" But Gideon asks, "How can I save Israel?.. My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the weakest in my father's house." The Lord answers that He will be with him and says he will defeat the Midianites "as one man." Gideon asks the Angel for a confirmation, so he asks him to wait so that he may bring an offering, and the Lord agrees. So Gideon prepares a goat and unleavened bread and brings it to the Angel under the tree. The Angel tells him to lay the meat and bread on the rock and pour out broth over it. Then, the Angel touches it with his staff, and fire come out of the rock and consumes the offering. Then, Gideon understands whom he has been speaking with. He wonders aloud that he has seen the Angel of the Lord face to face. But the Angel speaks peace to him and says he will not die. Gideon builds an altar and calls it "The Lord is Peace."
That very night, the Lord speaks to him and tells him to get a bull from his father and to tear down the altar of Baal, to cut down the image beside it, and to build an altar to the Lord on top of the rock and then offer a sacrifice atop it with the wood of the image. So Gideon takes ten servants, but he does it by night for fear of his father and the men of the city. In the morning, the men of the city see it, and they ask who has done this thing. They hear it is Gideon, so they tell Gideon's father to bring him out so he may die. But his father says, "Would you plead for Baal?... Let the one who would plead for him be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him plead for himself, for his altar has been torn down!" Then, all the Midianites, Amalekites, and people of the east cross over toward Israel, but the Spirit of the Lord comes upon Gideon, and he blows a trumpet, and he sends messengers to some of the tribes, and they come up to meet him. Gideon asks the Lord if He will save Israel by his hand as He has said, it will be that when he puts a fleece of wool on the threshing floor, if there is dew on the fleece only but not on the ground the next morning, it will be a sign that the Lord will surely do as He has said. The next morning, he wrings the fleece that is full of water. Then, Gideon asks God for one more sign with the fleece. He says that may the fleece only be dry but the ground wet the next morning, and it is so.
Then, Gideon and all the people with him rise early and encamp at Mt. Gilead. The Lord tells him that there are too many people for him to deliver the Midianites to, or else the people think it is by their own victory. So he tells him to tell all those who are fearful to go home. 22,000 return, and 10,000 remain, but the Lord says it is still too many. He tells him to bring them down to the water to test them, and he will tell Gideon whom to bring. The Lord tells Gideon that whoever laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps, he is to set apart, and also those who get down on their knees. Those who lap are 300, and the rest get down on their knees to drink. the Lord says he will save Israel by the 300, and to let all the others go home. The people take provisions and trumpets in their hands. The camp of Midian is below them in the valley, and on the same night, the Lord tells Gideon to arise and go down against the camp. He says that if he is afraid, he may bring a servant to spy and hear what they say, which will encourage him. So he goes with his servant to the outpost of the camp. All the people are lying in the valley "as numerous as locusts," and their camels are "without number like the sand." He hears a man telling another man a dream. In the dream, a loaf of barley bread fell into the camp of Midian and struck a tent so that it overturned and collapsed. The other man says, "It is the sword of the Lord and Gideon... Into his hand God has delivered Midian and the whole camp." When Gidoen hears the dream and its interpretation, He worships. He returns to Israel and tells them to arise because the Lord has delivered the camp into their hands. Then, he divides the 300 men into groups of three and puts a trumpet in each hand with empty pitchers and torches inside the pitchers. Gideon tells them to follow his lead, and that when he blows the trumpet, they are to blow theirs and cry out, "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!" They blow the trumpets and break the pitchers, with torches in their left hand and trumpets in their right and cry out, and the whole army flees before them. And the Lord sets their enemies' swords against themselves. And some other tribes of Israel pursues those who flee. And Gideon sends messengers to Ephraim to seize them.
Thoughts/discussion questions:
The Lord does not see as man sees, but He sees what we can be- what He created us to be. He sees "the beginning from (the vantage point of) the end." How do you see yourself? We only need to believe what the Lord has said of us.