Ministering to the nations about the good news that is Jesus Christ.

The children of Israel had settled in the land of Canaan. They began to worship idols that the people of Canaan served. Because of their disobedience, God allowed the Midianites to treat them badly. God sent an angel to a man named Gideon. The angel told Gideon that God had chosen him to deliver the Israelites. Gideon was not sure this was so, and asked God for signs or miracles to prove that God was really with him.

Gideon started out with an army of 32,000 men. God said to tell all who were afraid to go home. 22,000 left! The next test was to have these men get a drink of water. Some of them got down on their knees and put their faces in the water. These were rejected. Some took water in their hands and lapped it out of their hands as a dog laps water. These were chosen. There were 300 of them. What a small army! God did not want them to think they had won the battle all by themselves.

Gideon and his small army surrounded the Midianite army which was down in a valley. Each man had a trumpet in his right hand and a pitcher with a lighted torch in his left hand. When Gideon gave the signal, each man blew on the trumpet, broke the pitcher to let the torch shine, and shouted, "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!"

The Midianites thought they were surrounded by a huge army and became so confused that they killed one another. Gideon, with God's help, had won the battle with 300 men. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.