Israel again did evil, and God gave them into Midian’s hand for seven years. Midian oppressed them so severely that Israelites hid in mountain caves and strongholds. Whenever Israel sowed, Midian, Amalek, and eastern peoples came like locusts, camped in the land, and destroyed its produce, livestock, and transport animals.
When Israel cried out, God sent a prophet to remind them of the exodus and of the command not to fear the gods of the Amorites. They had not obeyed. Then an angel came to Ophrah and found Gideon son of Joash threshing wheat in a winepress so that Midian would not see it.
The angel called him a mighty warrior and said God was with him. Gideon asked why suffering had come if God was with them, recalling the stories of the exodus. God sent him to save Israel from Midian. Gideon said his clan was weak in Manasseh and he was least in his father’s house. God promised to be with him and said he would strike Midian as one man.
Gideon asked for a sign and prepared a young goat and unleavened bread. The angel told him to place them on a rock and pour out the broth. Fire came from the rock when the angel touched the offering with his staff, and the angel vanished. Gideon feared because he had seen the angel, but God told him peace and said he would not die. Gideon built an altar there and called it The LORD Is Peace.
That night God commanded Gideon to tear down his father’s altar of Baal, cut down the Asherah beside it, build an altar for God, and offer a bull. Gideon did it with ten servants at night because he feared his family and town. In the morning the townspeople demanded his death. Joash answered that if Baal was a god, Baal could contend for himself. Gideon was then called Jerubbaal.
Midian, Amalek, and eastern peoples gathered in the Valley of Jezreel. God’s Spirit clothed Gideon, and he blew a trumpet to summon Abiezer. He sent messengers through Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and their men came up.
Gideon asked for a fleece sign: if dew lay only on fleece while the ground was dry, he would know God would save Israel by his hand. In the morning he wrung a bowl full of water from the fleece. He then asked once more that the fleece be dry while dew covered the ground. That night it happened exactly so.