Gideon the Trivial Judge

Israel lived in peace for a time, worshiping God for his rescue of their lives but slowly the worship of idols again invaded their worship and as it did, so did the darkness of oppression. Midianites soon began pillaging and plaguing the Israelites, so much so that they needed to hide their food under tents and in wine presses. In one of these wine presses stood the man who God would use to save Israel, Gideon, a man who teaches us that God can use the weakest and most self-doubting person to accomplish His will and save His people.

In our last episode we heard how God worked through the wisdom of Deborah and the courage of Barak to free the Israelites from Canaanite oppression. We also saw that God used a foreign woman named Jael to defeat the Canaanite general Sisera. It was a story of how God can work through unlikely people to bring about His will and how even the most insurmountable obstacles can be overcome when we trust God for the outcome. Today we’ll hear about another Judge that God raises up to free His people – a man who wouldn’t have made anyone’s list of candidates to lead Israel in battle. And through the story of Gideon we’ll see once again that God can use even the small and the weak to accomplish great things.