Gideon's Small Army

Long ago, in a land of wheat fields and grapevines, there lived a man named Gideon, who was very good at hiding.

In those days, enemies called the Midianites kept coming into the land like a swarm of locusts, with camels too many to count. They took all the food. God's people hid in caves in the mountains, and they cried out to the Lord for help. Gideon was hiding too, beating out his wheat inside a winepress, a big stone pit for squashing grapes, where the Midianites wouldn't see him. Suddenly, the angel of the Lord appeared and said to him, "The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!"

Mighty? Gideon didn't feel mighty at all, hiding down in a grape pit! He said his family was the poorest in his tribe, and he was the least important one in his family. But the Lord said to him, "Surely I will be with you."

Then God's Spirit came on Gideon, and he blew a trumpet to call the men of Israel. Thousands of soldiers came to follow him. But Gideon still wasn't sure. So he laid a woolly sheepskin, called a fleece, on the ground and asked God for a sign. He asked God to make the fleece wet with dew, but keep the ground around it dry. The next morning, the fleece was so wet that Gideon squeezed out a whole bowl of water!

Then Gideon asked for one more sign, a dry fleece on wet ground. And God did that too. God was very patient with Gideon.

Gideon now had thirty-two thousand soldiers. But God said something surprising. "The people who are with you are too many." God didn't want anyone to think they had won the battle all by themselves. So Gideon told anyone who was afraid that they could go home. Twenty-two thousand men went home! That left ten thousand. But God said, "There are still too many people."

God had Gideon bring the men to the water. Most knelt down to drink, but three hundred scooped up water in their hands and lapped it. And God said he would save Israel with just those three hundred. Only three hundred! And down in the valley, the enemy camp had more camels than the sand on the seashore.

That night, while the crickets sang, God told Gideon it was time. God knew Gideon might still be afraid, so he told him to sneak down to the enemy camp with his helper, Purah, and listen. They crept to the edge of the camp and heard a soldier telling his friend about a dream. He had dreamed that a round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the camp, rolled into a tent, and knocked it flat!

His friend said the dream meant that God was giving Gideon the victory. When Gideon heard that, he worshiped God. Then he hurried back to his men, full of courage.

He gave every man a trumpet, and an empty clay jar with a burning torch hidden inside. He told them to watch him. When he blew his trumpet, they would all blow theirs and shout, "For the Lord and for Gideon!" In the middle of the night, his three groups crept to their places all around the enemy camp. Then Gideon blew his trumpet.

Three hundred trumpets blared! Three hundred jars smashed! Three hundred torches blazed in the dark! The men shouted with all their might, and each one stood still in his place, holding up his torch. God filled the enemy camp with confusion, and the whole army ran away! God had given Gideon's little army the victory, just as he promised.

This story teaches us that God can make us brave, even when we feel small. We don't have to be the biggest or the strongest. When God is with us, that is enough.