The Deliverers

After the Israelites conquered the Promised Land, they followed God as long as Joshua and the elders were alive. After Joshua died, the Israelites disobeyed God and failed to drive out the rest of the Canaanites. These Canaanites worshiped their gods and the Isrealites began to worship these gods instead of the One True God. During this time, the Israelites had no king, so everyone did what they thought was right for them.

As a result of this disobedience, God punished His people Israel by allowing them to be mistreated and defeated by the people from neighboring countries. These enemies would steal anything of value and destroy and kill until the Israelites were miserable. Eventually, the Israelites would repent, call out to God, and beg Him to rescue them.

Then God would provide a deliverer who would rescue them from their enemies and bring peace to the land. But every time the people would forget about God later on, and start worshiping idols again. Then the cycle would start all over again.

One time when the Israelites quit obeying God and started worshiping idols, God allowed the Midianites to trouble them. These enemies conquered them and took all of their crops for seven years. Life was so difficult that people would hide in caves so the Midianites would not find them. Finally, the people cried out to God to save them.

God raised up a man named Gideon to deliver them. God sent His angel to Gideon when he was secretly harvesting grain so the Midianites would not find him. The angel told Gideon that God had chosen him to save Israel. The angel also told him to tear down his father's idol.

Gideon was afraid of the people, so he waited until night, then he tore down the idol and smashed it to pieces. Then he built an altar to God where the idol used to be and sacrificed an offering to God.

The next morning the people saw that the idol had been torn down and they were very angry. They went to Gideon's house to kill him, but Gideon's father said, "Why are you trying to help your gods? If they are gods, let them protect themselves!" So Gideon was saved.

Then the Midianites came to steal from the Israelites. There were so many of them that they could not be counted. Gideon called the people together to fight them. Gideon was scared, so he asked God for two signs so that he could be sure that God would use him to save Israel.

First, he laid a cloth on the ground and asked God to let dew fall only on the cloth and not on the ground. God did that. The next night, he asked that the ground be wet but the cloth dry. God did that too. Then Gideon believed that God would help them win the battle.

32,000 Israelites came to Gideon. God told Gideon he had too many soldiers. 22,000 men were scared to fight the Midianites, so Gideon sent them home and only 10,000 remained. God told Gideon that he still had too many men. So Gideon sent all of them home except for 300 men.

Gideon gave each of the 300 men a horn, a clay pot and a torch. That night, they spread out and surrounded the place where the Midianites were sleeping - it was a huge area because there were so many of them. The 300 men had the torches in the pots so they could not be seen.

Then, at the same time, they all broke the pots that were hiding the torches, blew their horns and shouted.

God threw the Midianites into confusion, so they attacked each other and started killing each other.

Immediately, the rest of the Israelites were called from their homes to come help chase the Midianites. They killed many of them and chased the rest of them out of their land. God saved Israel that day.

The people wanted to make Gideon their king. Gideon wisely refused their offer, but he asked them for some of the money that each of them had taken from the enemy. Gideon got a lot of money.

Then Gideon did a foolish thing. He made an idol with the money, and the people turned away from God again and started worshiping Gideon's idol.

So, God again punished Israel for their sin and allowed their enemies to defeat them again. Finally, the people cried out again to God. God sent another deliverer.

The people followed God for a time, but then they sinned and worshiped idols again. This cycle continued for a long time. Many deliverers saved Israel from their enemies. But the Israelites always forgot God and began worshiping idols again. God wanted to give the Israelites a godly king who would lead them and encourage them to follow God all the time.

But the people asked God for a king like all the other nations had - one who was tall, mighty and could lead them into battle. God did not like this request, but He gave them what they wanted - a king.