Gideon: Faith vs. Proof

When the Jews committed Idol worship, God gave them to the hands of the Midianites for 7 years. At harvest time the Midianites would steal all the Jews’ grain, destroyed their crops, and stole their animals. Zevach and Tsalmuna were the kings of Midian. Midian was the son of Adraham and Keturah, and from him descended the numerous and wealthy nomadic tribes which occupied the plains east of Moab. The name belongs, to the tribes on the south-east of the Gulf of Akabah. Moses himself had lived for forty years among them; but the Israelites had been commanded to maintain extreme hatred against the nation because of the dishonourable worship of Baal-peor, to which, under the insistence of Balaam, the Midianites had tempted them.

When the Jews cried out to God to free them from the hands of the Midianites, he chose Gideon. An angel went to Gideon while he was under the terebinth and the angel told Gideon what God wanted from him. Gideon didn’t believe the angel and was uncertain about God’s care for Israel and himself. He also didn’t understand why God would choose him since he is the youngest person in the youngest tribe, the Tribe of Manasseh, and he is insignificant.

The angel came to Gideon and told Gideon that the Lord is with him and he must go and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Gideon wanted proof from the angel that he was telling the truth so the angel got Gideon to go get flesh and unleavened cakes. When Gideon brought them to the angel, the angel put fourth the end of his staff, touched the flesh and unleavened cakes and a fire went up and consumed them. Gideon now believed the angel after he sees fire consume the food he prepared. Gideon was also put at ease by God that He will protect Gideon and God won’t let him die.

Gideon’s Leadership Style

Gideon was similar to a military leader. He gathered troops (*too many troops), he sent messengers to Monashe and he got all the local troops to follow him.

*Before going into battle with the Midianites, Gideon assembled 32,000 troops but God told him that was too many troops. So God told Gideon to send troops home who were scared, and 22,000 troops left leaving Gideon with 10,000 troops. God told Gideon that that was still too many and to get rid of some more he must tell them to go down to the water and tell them to drink. Those who drink from their hands will fight with him and those who go down on their hands and knees will be sent home. This left Gideon with 300 troops to fight against Midian with.

Early in the morning, Gideon and all his troops camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. During the night God told Gideon to go down against the camp because He was going to give it into his hands. He said that if Gideon was scared to attack then he should go down to the camp with his servant and just listen to what they are talking about. After he hears them talking he will be motivated to attack. So Gideon and his servant Purah go down and hear them Midianites and the Amalekites talking about a dream one of them had and their interpretation of it. After hearing the interpretation of the dream Gideon was motivated to attack, he gathered his troops and defeated the Midianites

Themes

Attraction and Power

Gideon fought power, he didn’t want the power. He turns down leadership. He is the youngest in the youngest tribe, he thought he was unworthy. The theme of power is shown because he didn’t want the power. He was only interested in salvaging the Jewish people but he’s not on a power trip.

Faith

Gideon has a constant dialogue with God about his mission. Usually when someone gets a mission, they just go, but every step along the way he’s always fearful of taking the next step and God has to help him through it. At the end, he has perfect faith and belief that God will be with him the whole way, like God has to hold his hand the entire time. He is able to go to war with only 300 men because he has perfect faith that God will be with him the whole time. The commentary insists that this must have put the faith of Gideon to a severe test, since the Midianites were 135,000 in number, and Gideon’s forces only 300. It was a trial of faith; but small numbers were essential for the method of victory by which God intended that the deliverance should be achieved. When God tells him to go down to the Midianites camp and attack, but he is scared to go so God tells him to just sneak down and listen to what the people are saying and that will strengthen him.

Gideon vs. Samson

Leadership Style

Samson was independent and his own man, he came up with excuses to kill as many Philistines as possible. He ties the foxes together to burn down the Philistines wheat fields. They punished Samson’s wife and father-in-law for what he did, so then he goes and kills more Philistines. Then the Philistines attack Yehuda because of Samson, then the 3000 men come to Samson to hand him over to the Philistines. In no way, was he a leader or did he show leadership. Gideon is a leader because he gathered men and all the troops. Even though it says Samson judged the people for 20 years, it does indicate how he judged them. In this case, he managed to subdue the Philistines to keep them off the backs of the Jewish people for 20 years, in his own way. So he helped the Jewish people but not in a leadership way, he did it on his own.

Personality

Gideon was a doubter and was insecure but ended up being a strong military leader. Samson was confident but was a very bad leader. Samson wanted to help the jewish people but he knew he couldn’t do that in a war, so he did it in a war which he knew he was able to, so he was actually smart.

Achievements

Samson succeeded for 20 years, and Gideon got rid of Midian. Gideon won the war despite having a huge disadvantage in numbers