The Growing Faith of Gideon

Breaking the pitcher that concealed his torch, Gideon blew his trumpet. Immediately, torchlights began to appear in a circle around the enemy encampment. At the same time, trumpet blasts and shouts of men seemed to come from every direction (Judges 7:19-20).

This is how Gideon, with only 300 men, began his campaign against an enemy “as numerous as locusts” (verse 12). In fact, the combined forces of Midianites, Amalekites and “people of the East” included 135,000 troops (Judges 8:10).

Gideon did not always have the kind of faith needed to attack a numerically superior force, but was, like his fellow Israelites, fearful. How could a previously timid young man embark on such a hazardous task?

The book of Judges tells us about the growing faith of Gideon.

“Mighty man of valor”

The Bible introduces us to Gideon as a young man threshing wheat by a winepress. To the ancient reader, the significance of Gideon’s choice of a place to work would be obvious, but to us today, it may not be so evident.

A winepress in ancient Israel was generally connected to a wine vat carved into stone, allowing the workers to collect the juice from the grapes they crushed. In essence, these vats were large holes in the ground into which the liquid would drain.

Winnowing wheat required a more open space to take advantage of any breeze. Although wheat could be threshed in a pit, to do so would require later moving it to an open space for winnowing. The usual practice, therefore, was to thresh and winnow at the same place.

Looking at Gideon’s remarkable life and how God worked with him should comfort all of God’s people today. Gideon, however, “threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites” (Judges 6:11). This choice may have been practical under the circumstances, yet it was anything but bold.

That’s why there is some irony in the way the “Angel of the LORD” addressed Gideon: “The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor” (verse 12). In the Bible, this expression is sometimes used to describe men of wealth rather than military prowess, but even so, these words might still seem ironic.

An offering and the growing faith of Gideon

When Gideon encountered the “Angel of the LORD,” he was skeptical and apprehensive, disputing the message. Instead of believing that God was with him, Gideon countered, saying, “The LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites” (verse 13).

The title “Angel of the LORD” is sometimes applied directly to God. The visitor, now identified in the text as “the LORD,” again spoke of Gideon’s might. As He reassured Gideon, He confirmed His own identity by saying, “Have I not sent you?” (verse 14).

Gideon tried a second time to convince his visitor that he was not qualified to save Israel, claiming that his clan was the weakest or poorest in Manasseh, and that he was an inconsequential member of the family (verse 15). Gideon was not poor, however. As the story unfolds, the reader learns that he had at least 10 servants (verse 27).

Despite Gideon’s protests, the Lord did not back down, repeating His promise to be with Gideon and assuring him that he would “defeat the Midianites as one man” (verse 16). At this point, Gideon gave in, but asked for a sign (verse 17), something more than verbal assurances.

Gideon then left to prepare a meal for his visitor. The word translated as “offering” in verse 18 could refer to a gift of hospitality to a human visitor, or it could describe an offering to God. According to Barnes’ Notes, this “double sense” of the word “suits the doubt in Gideon’s mind as to who his visitor might be.”

The size of the offering, whether given as a matter of hospitality or as an offering to God, was particularly impressive in this time of scarcity. This offering, like Gideon’s servants, tells us that he was not as poor as he claimed to be.

The offering was consumed in a sudden blaze ignited by the Angel of the LORD when He touched His staff to the meat and bread. At that moment, Gideon finally “perceived that He was the Angel of the LORD” (verse 22).

Gideon’s first assignment and his growing faith

God did not throw Gideon directly into combat after providing the first sign to confirm His identity. Instead, He gave the young man a task to perform in his own city of Ophrah—to tear down the altar of Baal and the accompanying Asherah, a wooden image of a female goddess associated with Baal.

Gideon fulfilled his duty on the very night God commissioned him (verse 25), demonstrating his belief after witnessing the miracle of the offering. Even as he obeyed, though, he chose to act at night “because he feared his father’s household and the men of the city” (verse 27).

His fear was not an unfounded one. Once the people discovered who had destroyed their altar and image, they wanted Gideon to pay with his life (verse 30). Gideon’s father, Joash, convinced the bloodthirsty rabble that if Baal truly were a god, he himself could take vengeance on Gideon (verse 31).

God showed this “mighty man of valor” that He truly was with him. Gideon escaped the wrath of the idol-worshipping people in his city.

The dew, the fleece and Gideon’s faith

On the heels of the destruction of the altar of Baal, the Midianites and their allies crossed the Jordan River to raid Israel again (verse 33). Gideon, filled with God’s Spirit, called together the men of his clan, the Abiezrites; his tribe, Manasseh; and the men of the neighboring tribes of Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali (verses 34-35).

Why not all the tribes? The Midianites had encamped in the Jezreel Valley, so it was natural for Gideon to summon the tribes closest to that fertile farmland.

Gideon was prepared to obey God and fight the invaders, but again he sought reassurance. He asked God to perform two miracles with the nightly dew and a fleece of wool that he left on the threshing floor (verses 36-40).

In the morning, as Gideon had asked, the fleece was saturated with moisture, but the ground was dry. The next morning, again as Gideon had requested, the fleece was dry, but the ground was wet. Fleece by its nature would hold moisture, so the second miracle would have had more of an impact.

Even so, the newly formed army was not a confident one. Their choice of a location for their encampment hints at their fear, particularly if this site was named after they had gathered there. The well of Harod (Judges 7:1) means “fountain of trembling” (Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance).

Gideon had determined to obey God, even with an army that was trembling at the prospect of fighting such an intimidating force. He may still have had lingering fears of his own, but there is no hint that he tried to avoid his God-given task.

Purging the army of the Lord

What God asked Gideon to do next seems surprising. He directed the young leader to allow all the men who were “fearful and afraid” to leave (Judges 7:3). The result was dramatic. Two-thirds of the army, or 22,000 men, left.

This action goes against standard military planning, but it was based on a principle God commanded to prevent the contagion of fear from spreading throughout the ranks of the army (Deuteronomy 20:8).

With only about 10,000 men remaining, Gideon would be outnumbered by a ratio of more than 13 to 1. To defend from a fortified position against a numerically superior force is one thing, but to attack would seem to be an outrageous idea.

God wasn’t done, though.

Telling Gideon that “the people are still too many” (verse 4), God directed him to cull his forces further. He was left with just 300 men (verses 7-8). We don’t know what doubts and fears may have run through Gideon’s mind that night, but he was probably close enough to the Midianite encampment to see thousands of flickering campfires in the valley.

The enemy’s dream and Gideon’s faith

We may not know what was in Gideon’s heart that night, but God knew. He understood the limitations of the young leader’s courage, and He had prepared a means of bolstering it.

God commanded Gideon to travel to the Midianite camp so that he would “hear what they say; and afterward . . . be strengthened to go down against the camp” (verse 11). From his concealed position so close to the camp, Gideon could see an army as “numerous as locusts” and equipped with camels (verse 12).

What was important, though, was the conversation Gideon overheard. One Midianite soldier was telling his comrade a dream about a loaf of barley bread rolling into camp and overturning a tent (verse 13). The comrade interpreted the dream, in Gideon’s hearing, as “the sword of Gideon” destroying the Midianite force (verse 14).

To hear these words from the mouth of the enemy, and especially to hear his own name, gave Gideon the assurance he needed. He acted immediately, first worshipping God, and then assembling his 300 men for a unique battle.

The faith of Gideon in action

After dividing his force into three companies to attack the Midianites “on every side” (verse 18), Gideon gave explicit instructions for everyone to take up a trumpet in one hand and a torch, concealed by a pitcher, in the other (verse 16). This meant his troops didn’t have a sword or spear in their hands when the battle began.

It seems that Gideon’s strategy was to create the impression of a much larger force attacking. Only leaders, according to The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, “would give signals on the trumpets; so three hundred trumpets normally represented a sizable army” (Vol. 3, p. 427).

At the same time, the sudden breaking of pitchers revealed 300 torches surrounding the enemy encampment. And the men all shouted, “The sword of the LORD and of Gideon!” (verses 18, 20).

It’s interesting that the Midianite interpreter of his comrade’s dream had identified the loaf of barley bread not as the army of Israel, but as “the sword of Gideon” (verse 14). Perhaps the news of this dream had begun to spread around the camp while Gideon traveled back to his own encampment to organize the attack.

Barnes’ Notes points out that the Midianites would have perceived that they were surrounded, and “being in darkness, as soon as the confusion of the fight began they would mistake friends for foes, and fleers for pursuers” (p. 435).

The strategy worked. The enemy army viciously attacked itself.

It was now clear to Gideon and his small army that God had delivered the enemy force into their hands. Victory was theirs, not through their own power, but through God’s. All that was left was the “mopping up” action, and for that, Gideon called for all the men of Ephraim, Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali to join in the fight.

The final action of this war took place on the other side of the Jordan River. The narrative tells us that Gideon’s force “routed the whole army” (Judges 8:12). The word translated as “routed” comes from a Hebrew word better rendered as “terrified.”

“The entire conflict,” according to Expositor’s, “began at ‘the spring of Harod’ (7:1), where Gideon’s men ‘trembled with fear’ . . . How fitting that it should end with a terror-stricken Midian!” (p. 432, note on verses 11-12).

The faith of Gideon remembered

The story of Gideon is one of the longest stories in the book of Judges, and it paints a picture of an imperfect man. The last event of his life recorded for us is not a flattering one, but that is not within the scope of this article.

Gideon, though imperfect, is a man remembered for his faith and his courage. The defeat of the Midianites, accomplished through Gideon, was a milestone in Israel’s history (Psalm 83:11; Isaiah 9:4). Gideon himself is named among the faithful (Hebrews 11:32).

Looking at Gideon’s remarkable life and how God worked with him should comfort all of God’s people today. We could undoubtedly glean a number of lessons from his story, but what seems to stand out more than any other is that God used a flawed man.

Although God calls us to become holy (Leviticus 19:2), He knows our limitations. Stated more poetically, He “knows our frame” (Psalm 103:14).

Since God works with imperfect humans—and we are all imperfect—we can be confident that just as God gave Gideon time to grow in faith, He will also give us time to grow.

Study more in the article “How to Grow in Faith.”