The land rested for 40 years.

 

 

 

Then the children of Israel did bad again and bowed down to bad ones.

 

 

 

When they refused to turn back to God, their Maker, He let them be taken by a bad king who was hard on them for seven years.

The bad ones stole all the food that they grew on their land and stole their cows and sheep and were so mean that the children of Israel hid in caves in the mountains.

 

 

 

The children of Israel were so hurt and sad that they cried to God.

 

 

When they cried to Him, He heard them and sent a prophet to tell them God's words.

He said, I brought you out of Egypt from being slaves and gave you this land and said, Do not be afraid of the gods of these people. But you have not obeyed Me.

 

The angel of the Lord showed Himself to a man named Gideon of the children of Israel. Gideon was pounding his wheat in a winepress to hide from the bad ones.

 

 

 

He said to Gideon, The Lord is with you, O mighty warrior.

Gideon said, If the Lord is with us, why are all these bad things happening to us? Where are all His miracles that our fathers told us about?

 

 

 

 

 

The Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hands of the bad ones.

 

 

The Lord told him, Go in your strength and save Israel from them. I am sending you.

 

 

 

Gideon asked the Lord, How can I save them? I am nothing.

 

 

 

The Lord answered, I will be with you. And you will strike them down as if they were just one man.

Then Gideon said to God, If it is really You talking to me and blessing me like this, stay until I bring You a present.

When Gideon brought the offering, the angel was still there. He told Gideon to put the offering on the rock that was there beside them.

Then the angel of the Lord touched the offering with the staff that was in His hand and fire came up from inside the rock and ate up the offering. Then the angel of the Lord disappeared.

 

So Gideon realized that it was God who had been there and he said, I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.

The Lord said to him, Peace, it’s ok, don’t be afraid, you’re not going to die. So Gideon built an altar there and called the name of the altar God is peace.

That night the angel of the Lord came to Gideon and said, Take your father’s young bull and throw down the altar to the bad god that your father has, and cut down the grove of trees beside it where they worship it and build an altar on top of this rock the right way and make a right offering.

Gideon was afraid of the men of the city, so he waited until it was dark and then did what God told him. He took the bull and pulled down the altar and cut down the trees in the grove.

The men of the city were mad and wanted to kill Gideon because he had taken down their altar to the bad one, but Gideon’s father said, If he is a god, let him defend himself.

Two big armies gathered to fight against Israel in a valley. But the spirit of the Lord came on Gideon and he blew the trumpet to gather Israel’s army. Some of the families came to fight.

Then Gideon said to God, If you are really going to save Israel by my hand like you told me, show me this is true by making this sheepskin be wet in morning while the ground around it is all dry. So God did it. The sheepskin was full of water but the ground was dry.

Then the next night Gideon said, Please don’t be mad at me, but show me again that you are going to save Israel by my hand by making the sheepskin dry and the ground around it all wet. So God did as Gideon asked. The sheepskin was dry and the ground was wet all around it.

So the people got up early and went to line up for the battle.

 

God said to Gideon, This is too many people to fight this battle. If they win with so many people they will think they did it without My help and get puffed up. Send home all those that are afraid. So 22,000 of the warriors, the ones who were scared, went home.