The history of the Jewish people is full of examples of how they forgot God and fell into paganism, for which God deprived the Israelites of His help and delivered them into the hands of neighboring pagan nations. The afflictions brought them to their senses, and they returned to the truth. To the repentant Israelites, the Lord sent deliverers known as judges, who executed God's judgment on earth.
After the death of Joshua, the Israelites fell into idolatry, and the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Midianites, who oppressed the people for seven years. The Israelites, asking for protection from God, received a deliverer in the person of Gideon, the youngest son of Joash from the tribe of Manasseh, who lived in the city of Ophrah in Palestine.
Gideon, threshing wheat in a winepress, met the Angel of the Lord, who commanded him to gather an army and go against the enemy. The new judge began the deliverance by eradicating idolatry, destroying the altar of Baal and cutting down the idol of Asherah, and setting up an altar to the true God in its place.
The inhabitants of Ophrah were outraged by Gideon's actions, but his father, a former priest, urged them not to take revenge: 'If Baal is a god, let him fight for himself.' The people heeded Joash's admonition and left Gideon alone, giving him the nickname 'Jerubbaal.'
The Midianites and Amalekites again came into Palestine, and Gideon gathered thirty-two thousand warriors. Before the battle began, he asked God for signs, which were given to him: dew on the fleece and dryness on the ground, and then the opposite.
So that the Israelites could see God's help, the Lord commanded Gideon to send away the fearful, and twenty-two thousand men returned home. Gideon divided the remaining men into three groups, giving each one a trumpet and a lamp in a pitcher. At night, the Jews surrounded the enemy camp, and at the signal, they broke the pitchers, blew the trumpets, and shouted: 'The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!' The Midianites, frightened, began to kill each other and fled.
Gideon returned home with a great spoil. The fame of the victor spread throughout the land, but he refused the royal power, knowing that this miracle was accomplished by God, and that He alone is the king of Israel.
In peace and tranquility, Gideon lived to a ripe old age. His life became a prefiguration of the greatest event in the history of mankind: the Passion of the Son of God, whose love saved all nations of the Earth from death and granted eternal life.
