Study Desk

So the Israelites did something very evil before the Lord . They began serving the false god Baal.

It was the Lord , the God their ancestors worshiped, who had brought the Israelites out of Egypt. But they stopped following him and began to worship the false gods of the people living around them. This made the Lord angry.

But the Israelites did not listen to their judges. The Israelites were not faithful to God—they followed other gods. In the past, the ancestors of the Israelites obeyed the Lord 's commands. But now the Israelites changed and stopped obeying the Lord.

The Lord saw that the Israelites did evil things. They forgot about the Lord their God and served the false gods Baal and Asherah.

Ehud went to King Eglon. The king was sitting all alone in the upper room of his palace. Then Ehud said, "I have a message from God for you." The king stood up from his throne. He was very close to Ehud.

Deborah sent a message to a man named Barak and asked him to come meet with her. Barak was the son of a man named Abinoam. Barak lived in the city of Kedesh, which is in the area of Naphtali. Deborah said to Barak, "The Lord , the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go and gather 10,000 men from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun. Lead them to Mount Tabor.

On that day God defeated King Jabin of Canaan for the Israelites.

"Listen, kings. Pay attention, rulers. I will sing. I myself will sing to the Lord . I will make music to the Lord , to the God of the Israelites.

The mountains shook before the Lord , the God of Mount Sinai, before the Lord , the God of Israel!

"God chose new leaders to fight at the city gates. No one could find a shield or a spear among the 40,000 soldiers of Israel.

The Lord sent a prophet to them. He said, "This is what the Lord , the God of Israel, says: ‘You were slaves in the land of Egypt. I made you free and brought you out of that land.

Then I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God. You will live in the land of the Amorites, but you must not worship their false gods.' But you did not obey me."

The angel of God said to Gideon, "Put the meat and the bread on that rock over there. Then pour the broth on it." Gideon did as he was told.

Then Gideon realized that he had been talking to the angel of the Lord . So he shouted, "Oh, Lord God ! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!"

Then build the right kind of altar for the Lord your God. Build it on this high ground. Then kill and burn the bull on this altar. Use the wood from the Asherah pole to burn your offering."

Then Joash spoke to the crowd that was standing around him. Joash said, "Are you going to take Baal's side? Are you going to rescue Baal? If anyone takes Baal's side, let him be put to death by morning. If Baal really is a god, let him defend himself when someone pulls down his altar."

Then Gideon said to God, "You said that you would help me save the Israelites. Give me proof.

Then Gideon said to God, "Don't be angry with me. Let me ask just one more thing. Let me test you one more time with the sheepskin. This time let the sheepskin be dry, while the ground around it gets wet with dew."

That night God did that very thing. Just the sheepskin was dry, but the ground around it was wet with dew.

The man's friend knew the meaning of the dream. He said, "Your dream can only have one meaning. Your dream is about that man from Israel. It is about Gideon son of Joash. It means that God will let Gideon defeat the whole army of Midian."