Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Yesterday we met Israel's fifth judge Gideon. He was full of self-doubt, but God

used him to win the war against the Midianites. Today we opened with the tribe of Ephraim

having the strangest complaint of all.

They're mad they weren't invited to the war.

They seem to pride themselves on being warriors.

It's part of their identity, so they feel insulted that Gideon only had them come in as backup yesterday in Chapter 7.

But they calm down a bit when Gideon praises their previous military victories.

Then Gideon and his crew head across the Jordan River into the area of the trans-jordan tribes.

They're trying to capture two of the Midianite king so they can finish off the war.

Gideon asked some of the people in East Manassa to feed his army and they deny him.

He's from West Manassa so these guys technically are from the same tribe, but they offer no support.

And he promises to destroy their town of Sucketh.

Then he moves on to Penule, a city in Gad, which is the neighboring tribe to the south,

and they deny him food too, so he promises to destroy their local tower. His anger is warranted because these

are fellow Israelites and they're supposed to help each other out, especially in war efforts,

but Gideon's response does seem a bit extreme, like he's still operating out of

insecurity and has something to prove.

Even though he just had a military victory, he never wielded a sword, he just smashed a jar and blew a trumpet and now he's

been twice rejected by his own people in front of his army. But Gideon

persists even hungry he chases down the two Midianite kings, Siba and Salmuna.

He captures them, kills them, and steals their crescent ornaments.

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