Gideon

It has been said that sometimes the best leaders are the ones who were at first reluctant to do so. Perhaps one of the best Biblical examples of a reluctant leader is Gideon, God’s warrior and judge who helped defeat the Midianites in the Judges chapters 7 and 8.

God’s Introduction

We are introduced to Gideon in Judges 6:11 and following, when the Angel of the Lord appeared to him underneath a terebinth tree. The Angel of the Lord greeted Gideon as follows: “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” (Judges 6:12). After questioning how God’s people could be so severely oppressed if God was with them, Gideon then minimized himself, stating that he was from the weakest clan of Manasseh and referred to himself as the least in his father’s house (Judges 6:15). But God saw something in Gideon that Gideon refused to see in himself – that he possessed the ability to lead God’s people to victory over the Midianites with God’s help.

Gideon’s Identification

Not only do students of the Bible identify Gideon as a reluctant warrior leader, but he is also a great example of someone who fought against the sin of idolatry. After God persuaded Gideon with a miracle in Judges 6:20-22, the Angel of God then instructed Gideon to tear down his father’s altar to Baal and build a true altar to God in its stead (Judges 6:25ff). Because of fear of pushback from the men of the city and his father’s household, Gideon decided to accomplish this task at night instead of during daylight (Judges 6:27). This likely gives insight to Gideon’s weakness which led to his reluctance – a tendency toward cowardice (although Gideon overcame this cowardice by going ahead and doing what God said). It takes courage to do the right thing even in the presence of fear. After earning the nickname Jerubbaal for this act (Judges 6:32), Gideon gathered an army to face the encroaching Midianites.

After this, Gideon, again showing his reluctant nature, asked God for a sign – fleece on a threshing floor that would be made wet with dew while the rest of the ground around it would remain dry (Judges 6:36ff) and it was so. Gideon then asked for one more sign, that the next morning the fleece would be dry with the ground around it wet with dew (Judges 6:39). That night, God did as Gideon requested. The next day, as Israel’s army gathered, God began to successively weed out most of the troops. First, He sent home all troops who were fearful and afraid, resulting in the troops decreasing from 32,000 men to only 10,000 men (Judges 7:3). Next, God then had the remaining troops go down to drink water. Three hundred men lapped water from their hands like a dog, while the rest got down on their knees to drink. God chose the three hundred men who lapped water from their hands to be the ones to fight the Midianites (Judges 7:5-7).

Interestingly, God told Gideon if he was afraid, to take Purah his servant with him to spy on the Midianite camp, which he did (Judges 7:10-11). There he found an army of Midianites, Amalekites, and people of the east, as numerous as locusts (Judges 7:12). But Gideon finally became convinced that the Lord was with him, and he came up with a plan to cause mass confusion in the Midianite camp – dividing his three hundred men into three companies that would surround the Midianites in the middle of the night, with each man blowing a trumpet and carrying a lantern, creating the impression of a much larger army carrying out a surprise attack at night (Judges 7:16ff). The resulting confusion caused the Midianites to turn their swords against each other and then flee, with the Israelites pursuing them and defeating them (Judges 7:22ff).

Our Impression

The main lesson to be learned from the life of Gideon is that God can accomplish great things with His people, and can do so against seemingly impossible odds. In the words of Christ from Matthew 19:26: “with God all things are possible.”