Gideon’s hometown of Ophrah of the Abi-ezrites lay close to the city of Shechem, the principal city of the tribe of Manasseh. The remains of the ancient city can still be seen here in the shadow of the modern Israeli city of Nablus, which lies thirty miles north of Jerusalem. Nablus was included in the British Mandate for Palestine that formed the legal basis of the State of Israel, but was annexed by the Transjordan in the Arab-Israeli War of 1948. Israel regained the city in the Six-Day War of 1967, and in 1995, granted administration of Nablus to the Palestinian Authority.
Part 1 of 2
NOT long after the Israelites escaped from Egypt and settled in Canaan, their new home was invaded by the Kingdom of Midian. For seven years their crops and herds were destroyed or seized by the invaders, but the greatest indignity they suffered was that altars and groves sacred to Baal, the Midianites’ imaginary god, were set up on their lands, and there was just such a grove on the lands of Joash.*
One day, a stranger approached Joash’s son Gideon, and told him that God had chosen him to save Israel. Gideon doubted his fitness for such a task; but what he did not doubt was that the stranger had been angel of God. So that night, Gideon crept out and felled the sacred grove, built an altar, and offered a bullock to the God of Israel.
Next morning the townspeople saw the ruined grove, and their council men, in fear of the Midianites, demanded that Gideon pay with his life.
Joash lived in Ophrah of the Abi-ezrites, a few miles southwest of Shechem (very close to modern-day Nablus) in Manasseh. See A Map of the Twelve Tribes of Israel at Wikimedia Commons, where Shechem is marked Siquem.
The Kingdom of Midian lay in what is now the northwest of Saudi Arabia, on the eastern shore of the Red Sea.
Précis
In the time before Israel was ruled by Kings, Gideon was inspired by God to rebel against the Midianites who had overrun Manasseh and other Israelite tribes. In obedience to an angel, he felled a Midianite idol on his father’s lands, bringing calls for Gideon to be put to death. (50 / 60 words)
Part Two
The Valley of Jezreel in Israel, seen from the top of Mount Meron in Upper Galilee. At 3,963 ft, Mount Meron is Israel’s highest peak outside the Golan Heights (Mount Hermon is higher at 9,232 ft, of which the highest point lying in Israel is 7,300 ft). It was here that the camp of the Midianites and their allies lay. For more statistics on Israel’s geography, see Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
BUT Gideon’s father Joash defied the city councillors. He told them that if Baal felt offended, he must fight his own wars; Joash would not give up his son. The row escalated, and before long a Midianite army had encamped in the valley of Jezreel,* and Gideon had gathered loyal men from Manasseh and other neighbouring tribes, ready for battle.
Yet Gideon had always doubted his fitness to lead Israel, and now sought confirmation of God’s favour. He laid a fleece on the ground overnight, and promised that if the dew settled on the fleece only, and not on the ground, he would know that God was with him.* Next morning, Gideon squeezed a bowl of dew out of the fleece, though none lay on the ground.
Just to be sure, Gideon repeated the experiment the next night. When he woke to see dew on the ground but not on the fleece (which is what he asked for this time), he knew God was with him.
The Valley of Jezreel lies just to the south of Nazareth; in Gideon’s day, it was right in the north of Manasseh. See A Map of the Twelve Tribes of Israel at Wikimedia Commons.
In Christian belief, the fleece is taken as an allegory of the Virgin Mary, on whom the Son of God came down as the dew, filling her but leaving the rest of the world still ‘dry’. Among the names given to her son was Emmanuel, ‘God with us’.
Précis
Gideon’s father Joash refused to give up his son for punishment, and Gideon went on to drive out the Midianites. Yet he doubted his worthiness, so before the battle he asked for a sign from God: that overnight dew would settle on a fleece but nowhere else. Assured of God’s favour, he routed the enemy. (55 / 60 words)
