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Welcome to the Bible study podcast episode talk about Gideon coming from the book of Judges.

And Gideon is one of my favorite, if somewhat obscure, people in the Bible.

If you open your Bible to Judges 6, we deal with the story of Gideon. Judges is an interesting book.

It's after the people of Israel have entered into the land of Canaan and before they have elected a king, which happens later on in the book of 1st Samuel.

And there's a pattern that's evident in the book of judges, and that is that the people forget about God.

They turn their back on him, and he removes his protection from them, and some foreign people come in and oppress them.

And so they cry out to the Lord, and the Lord appoints a judge, and the judge drives out whoever is oppressing them.

And as long as that judge is alive,

they remember God, that judge dies, and they again forget God and turn away and turn to other

gods. And this is not the first time that it happens in the book of Gideon, nor is it the last time.

But Gideon, the story starts here in Judges 6.

Again, the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them

into the hands of the Midianites.

Because of the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters

for themselves in mountain clefts, caves, and strongholds.

Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and

other eastern peoples invaded the country. They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the Midianites, Amalekites, and other eastern peoples invaded the country.

They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys.

They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts.

It was impossible to count the men and their camels.

They invaded the land to ravage it.

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