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The Call of Gideon and the Signs of Faith

Judges 6:1-40

6
Chapter 6
1 And the sons of Israel did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD gave them into the hand of Midian for seven years. 2 And the hand of Midian prevailed over Israel. Because of Midian the sons of Israel made for themselves the caves that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. 3 And so it was that whenever the Israelites planted crops, Midian and Amalek and the people of the East would go up against them. 4 And they encamped against them and destroyed the produce of the earth as far as your coming to Gaza, and they did not leave life in Israel, sheep, ox, or donkey. 5 for they and their livestock will go up, and their tents, and they will come like locusts in multitude, and to them and to their camels there is no number, and they will come in the land to destroy it. 6 And Israel became very impoverished because of Midian, and the sons of Israel cried out to the LORD. 7 When the sons of Israel cried out to the LORD concerning the matter of Midian. 8 And the LORD sent a man, a prophet, to the sons of Israel, and he said to them, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I myself brought you up from Egypt, and I brought you out from a house of slaves." 9 I saved you from the hand of Egypt and from the hand of all your oppressors. I drove them out from before you and gave you their land. 10 And I said to you, “I am the LORD your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are dwelling, but you did not obey my voice.” 11 And the angel of the LORD came and sat under the oak at Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, and his son Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress to hide from the Midianites. 12 The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, "The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor." 13 And Gideon said to him, "Alas, my Lord! Is the LORD with us? Why has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian." 14 The LORD turned to him and said, "Go in this your strength and you shall save Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?" 15 And he said to him, "Please, my lord, how will I save Israel? Look, my thousand is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father's house." 16 And the LORD said to him, "For I will be with you, and you will strike Midian as one man." 17 And he said to him, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, then do for me a sign that you are speaking with me." 18 Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my offering and set it before you." And he said, "I will sit until you return." 19 Gideon went and prepared a kid of the goats and an ephah of flour into unleavened bread. He put the flesh in the basket and put the broth in the pot. He brought it out to him under the oak and presented it. 20 And the angel of God said to him, "Take the flesh and the unleavened bread, set them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And he did so. 21 The angel of the LORD touched the flesh and the unleavened bread with the tip of the staff that was in his hand. Fire rose up from the rock and consumed the flesh and the unleavened bread. Then the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight. 22 Gideon saw that he was the angel of the LORD. And Gideon said, "Alas, Lord GOD! For now I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face." 23 And the LORD said to him, "Peace to you. Do not fear; you will not die." 24 And Gideon built an altar there to the LORD, and he called it The LORD Is Peace. To this day it still stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. 25 And that night the LORD said to him, "Take your father's bull, the second bull seven years old, tear down your father's altar of Baal and the Asherah beside it, and cut it down." 26 And you shall build an altar to the LORD your God on top of this stronghold, in the proper arrangement. And you shall take the second bull and offer up a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you will cut down. 27 Gideon took ten men from his servants and did as the LORD had spoken to him. But when he feared his father's house and the men of the city from doing it by day, he did it by night. 28 And the men of the city rose early in the morning, and behold, the altar of Baal had been torn down, the Asherah that was upon it had been cut down, and the second bull had been offered up on the altar that had been built. 29 They said one to another, "Who has done this thing?" They inquired and searched and said, "Gideon son of Joash did this thing." 30 The men of the city said to Joash, "Bring out your son so he can die, because he tore down the altar of Baal and because he cut down the Asherah pole that was upon it." 31 And Joash said to all who stood against him, "Will you dispute for Baal? Will you save him? The one who disputes against him should be put to death by morning. If he is God, let him dispute for himself, because his altar has been torn down." 32 And he called him Jerubbaal that day, saying, "Let Baal contend against him, for he has broken down his altar." 33 And all Midian, Amalek, and the sons of the East gathered together, crossed over, and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. 34 The Spirit of the LORD clothed Gideon. He blew the ram's horn and sent word to Abiezer after him. 35 He sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and he cried out to them also. He sent messengers in Asher, in Zebulun, and in Naphtali, and they went up to meet them. 36 And Gideon said to God, "If you will save Israel by my hand as a savior, just as you have spoken." 37 Look, I am putting the wool fleece on the threshing floor. If dew is on the fleece alone, and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said. 38 And it was so. He rose early the next morning, squeezed the fleece, and wrung dew from the fleece—a full bowl of water. 39 And Gideon said to God, "Please do not burn your anger at me, and I will speak just this once. Please let me test just this once with the fleece: Please let there be dew on the fleece alone, and on all the earth let there be no dew." 40 And God did so in that night, and there was dryness on the fleece alone, and on all the earth there was dew.