Gideon Picks His Men

After a time, Israel fell into the hands of some people called the Midianites. And one day an angel of the Lord came to a man called Gideon and said to him "The LORD is with you, you mighty brave man". and the angel told Gideon that he would save Israel from the Midianites. But Gideon wondered how this would be, as he was from a very poor family. But the LORD said to Gideon "I will be with you..."

And so after a little time, Gideon and all the people who were with him went to battle with the Midianites...but the LORD said to Gideon, "There are too many people with you for me to give you the battle..they will say that they had won the battle by their own strength. So you go and tell them that whoever is afraid should go home." And so 22,000 people went home. And that left 10,000 people with Gideon.

But again the LORD said to Gideon, "There are still too many people, bring them down to the water and I will show you who will stay with you and who will go." So Gideon brought the people down to the water and the LORD said to him, "every one who drinks the water by putting their hand to their mouth you will set by themselves, also everyone who bows down you will set by themselves." And there were 300 men who drank by putting their hand to their mouths. And the LORD said to Gideon, "By these 300 men will I give you the Midianites."

And so the 300 men took food and trumpets and went with Gideon. And Gideon divided the 300 men into three groups, and he gave each man a trumpet, and a pitcher with a lamp inside it. And then he told them what to do.

So Gideon and his 300 men surrounded the camp of the Midianites when they were asleep, and they blew their trumpets and broke their pitchers, so that they each had lamps in their left hands, and a trumpet in their right hand and they shouted "THE SWORD OF THE LORD, AND OF GIDEON!" and all the Midianites ran and cried, and fled, and killed each other with their swords, because the Lord had given them such confusion.

And so Gideon and his 300 men were given the victory, just as the LORD had promised.

Memory Verse: Judges 7:20 "The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon."

Questions:
1. What did the angel say to Gideon when he first came to him?
2. How many men were with Gideon at the beginning?
3. Why did the LORD say there were too many men?
4. How did they cut the number of men?
5. Describe how they won the battle.

Answers:
1. The LORD is with you, you mighty brave man.
2. 32,000 men
3. Because they would say they won by their own strength, and not by the LORD.
4. First the ones who were afraid went home, that left 10,000, then they went to the water and the ones who drank by putting their hand to their mouth went with Gideon, those were 300 men.
5. They each had a trumpet and a pitcher with a lamp in it. They surrounded the camp when the men were sleeping and blew their trumpets and broke the pitchers so that the men were suddenly awaken and thought they were surrounded. They were very frightened and killed each other because God had confused them so much.

Vicki C. Gross/Oct.'02