Instances Of Decision : Gideon

And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son GIDEON threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.

And GIDEON said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.

• Bread

And GIDEON went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it.

• Prayer

And when GIDEON perceived that he was an angel of the LORD, GIDEON said, Alas, O Lord GOD! for because I have seen an angel of the LORD face to face.

Then GIDEON built an altar there unto the LORD, and called it Jehovahshalom: unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

Then GIDEON took ten men of his servants, and did as the LORD had said unto him: and so it was, because he feared his father's household, and the men of the city, that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night.

And they said one to another, Who hath done this thing? And when they inquired and asked, they said, GIDEON the son of Joash hath done this thing.

• Armies
• Trumpet

But the Spirit of the LORD came upon GIDEON, and he blew a trumpet; and Abiezer was gathered after him.

• Faith
• Miracles
• Prayer

And GIDEON said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said, Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said. And it was so: for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. And GIDEON said unto God, Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew. read more And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground. show less

• Prayer

And GIDEON said unto God, Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew.

Then Jerubbaal, who is GIDEON, and all the people that were with him, rose up early, and pitched beside the well of Harod: so that the host of the Midianites were on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley.

And the LORD said unto GIDEON, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me.

And the LORD said unto GIDEON, The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there: and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go.

• Dog

So he brought down the people unto the water: and the LORD said unto GIDEON, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink.

And the LORD said unto GIDEON, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place.

• Dream

And when GIDEON was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along.

And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else save the sword of GIDEON the son of Joash, a man of Israel: for into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host.

And it was so, when GIDEON heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation thereof, that he worshipped, and returned into the host of Israel, and said, Arise; for the LORD hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian.

• Armies

When I blow with a trumpet, I and all that are with me, then blow ye the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say, The sword of the LORD, and of GIDEON.

So GIDEON, and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch; and they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers that were in their hands.

• Gideon
• Sword

And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the LORD, and of GIDEON.

And GIDEON sent messengers throughout all mount Ephraim, saying, Come down against the Midianites, and take before them the waters unto Bethbarah and Jordan. Then all the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and took the waters unto Bethbarah and Jordan.

• Captive

And they took two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeeb; and they slew Oreb upon the rock Oreb, and Zeeb they slew at the winepress of Zeeb, and pursued Midian, and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to GIDEON on the other side Jordan.

And GIDEON came to Jordan, and passed over, he, and the three hundred men that were with him, faint, yet pursuing them.

• Retaliation

And GIDEON said, Therefore when the LORD hath delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into mine hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.

And GIDEON went up by the way of them that dwelt in tents on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and smote the host: for the host was secure.

And GIDEON the son of Joash returned from battle before the sun was up,

• Captive

Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, Rise thou, and fall upon us: for as the man is, so is his strength. And GIDEON arose, and slew Zebah and Zalmunna, and took away the ornaments that were on their camels' necks.

Then the men of Israel said unto GIDEON, Rule thou over us, both thou, and thy son, and thy son's son also: for thou hast delivered us from the hand of Midian.

And GIDEON said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the LORD shall rule over you.

And GIDEON said unto them, I would desire a request of you, that ye would give me every man the earrings of his prey. (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.)

• Temptation

And GIDEON made an ephod thereof, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel went thither a whoring after it: which thing became a snare unto GIDEON, and to his house.

• Forty

Thus was Midian subdued before the children of Israel, so that they lifted up their heads no more. And the country was in quietness forty years in the days of GIDEON.

And GIDEON had threescore and ten sons of his body begotten: for he had many wives.

And GIDEON the son of Joash died in a good old age, and was buried in the sepulchre of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

And it came to pass, as soon as GIDEON was dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and went a whoring after Baalim, and made Baalberith their god.

• Ingratitude

Neither shewed they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, namely, GIDEON, according to all the goodness which he had shewed unto Israel.