"O Israel, trust thou in the Lord: He is their help and their shield!"
When the human arm fails, there is help in the Lord Jehovah; and He can drive out the most dreaded foe.
A solitary man, who was of the tribe of Mana.s.seh, and who had got his name of Gideon, or _the hewer_, from his stature and his great strength, was threshing wheat by a winepress in Ophrah. His father had had a large farm, with smiling cornfields and sunny meadows; and Gideon had seen the day when he had ploughed with his yoked oxen, and when his patient animals had trodden out for him heaps of precious corn, and there was no sign of lack to any. But now, what a change had come! Instead of well-stored barns, he had only a little wheat, which he had contrived to conceal from the Arab invaders; and, instead of its being trodden out by plump oxen, he was glad to beat it with a stick, not possessing even the poor man"s flail, and hiding in a winepress, where no one would expect to find him.
Striking only gentle blows lest he should be discovered, and sorrowfully contrasting the present with the past, his heart sank within him, when raising his head he was startled to find that he was no longer alone.
Close beside him, under an oak-tree, sat One who appeared to be a traveller resting, with his staff lying beside him. He was, however, no traveller, but that wondrous Being who in the Old Testament is so often called the _Angel of the Lord_; and He had come to the help of Israel.
"The Lord be with thee, thou mighty man of valour," he said, addressing Gideon. But Gideon"s sad heart gave no responsive throb. Tall and powerful as he was, and strong as was his arm, he felt as he thought of the fierce Arab sheiks but like a puny dwarf, who must sit down helplessly and suffer.
"Thou shalt go in this thy might that I have sent thee," the heavenly visitant continued; "and thou shalt save Israel from the Midianites."
"But, my lord," remonstrated Gideon, in conscious weakness and deep humility, "how shall I ever be able to save Israel? I but belong to the tribe of Mana.s.seh, that has never taken the lead amongst the Twelve, and even of my father"s family I am not an important member."
Gideon thought that to overcome the terrible invader G.o.d must needs raise up some tall giant, big as Og, the King of Bashan. But he was soon to learn that the weak things of this world are used to confound the mighty.
"_I_ will be with thee," the Angel of the Lord said, "and thou shalt smite the hosts of Midian as one man."
The wondrous Being, in His great condescension, gave Gideon a sign that He would fulfil His word, and by his hands save Israel from the dreaded foe. He touched with his staff the rock on which Gideon had placed his offering; and fire came out and consumed both the flesh and the sweet cakes, and then He disappeared.
Then Gideon blew his trumpet, and the Israelites came out of their holes, and rallied round him in great numbers. But still his heart failed; for he could not recall his truant thoughts from the wolf-like Arab chiefs, nor help contrasting his half-starved men who had suffered so long from cruel oppression and famine with their strong sons of the desert.
In his self-distrust he asked for two signs more, and G.o.d gave them to him. First, a fleece of wool was saturated in the night with dew while the ground all around was dry; and the next night the fleece was dry while the ground was wet.
Thus re-a.s.sured, Gideon a.s.sembled his followers for the battle; but by G.o.d"s directions their number was reduced to only three hundred.
"By these three hundred men," G.o.d said, "will I save Israel, and deliver the Midianites into thine hands."
Gideon encamped, with his three hundred men, by the spring of Jezreel, on the slope of Mount Gilboa; while, on the north side of the valley, but farther down the descent to the Jordan, was drawn up the host of Midian.
From the height on which he stood Gideon could see the Midianites below, spread over the land like countless gra.s.shoppers. Only three hundred weak men to face the wild Arabs with whom the valley was teeming! Would his little handful of followers indeed be able to overcome them? he wondered within himself. For though he believed G.o.d, who had brought Israel through the Red Sea, still deep down in his heart, and unexpressed, was a misgiving. And G.o.d, who does not scorn the littleness of a sincere man"s faith, but rather tries to increase it, gave him, unasked and unexpected, another sign.
"Go down to the host," G.o.d said to him in the night; "for I have delivered it into thine hand. But, if thou art afraid, go down first with Phurah, thy servant, and hear what they say; and then shall thine heart be strengthened for the battle."
So Gideon took Phurah, his servant, crept softly down the slope of the mountain, and went along, under cover of the darkness, till he came close enough to the outside of the Midianites" camp to hear any conversation that might be going on.
The Arab host lay wrapped in deep sleep, whilst, all around, their reposing camels were couched on the ground; and not a sound was to be heard.
Presently, in one of the tents, in which lay two Midianites, there was a slight movement. Gideon heard that one of them was waking the other, and he drew near to listen.
"I have had such a dream," the disturbed sleeper said to his companion, when he had roused him. "I dreamed that a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and, rolling against a tent, overturned it, so that it lay on the ground."
And his companion, who understood the dream better than himself, replied in low tones, that told how great was his fear:--"This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon; for into his hand hath G.o.d delivered Midian and all the host."
The two weary men turned over and fell asleep again, trying to forget the warning that they had received of the fate that awaited them. But Gideon brightened up. His faith waxed strong, and he grasped his sword tightly, feeling that whilst it was his sword it was pre-eminently "the sword of the Lord."
He knew well the meaning of the dream--that the small round cake of barley, which was inferior to wheat, and was a symbol of weakness, was his own weak, insignificant self; and that, just as this tiny cake upset a tent thousands of times bigger than itself and firmly fastened to the ground with strong cords and long pegs, so by his weak arm the mighty host, that now lay asleep, would be overthrown.
Re-ascending the valley he gave orders to his men, went down, and fell upon the unsuspecting host, and with his few followers gained one of the greatest victories ever won by the Israelites.
Before long, the proud kings, Zeba and Zalmunna, and their two fierce princes, the Raven and the Wolf, with all their followers, lay in the silence and helplessness of death; and the land, that had been so long and so cruelly oppressed was freed from the formidable Arab invaders.
H. D.
BIBLE EXERCISES FOR SUNDAY AFTERNOONS.
13. Where does Jesus tell us that those who do the will of G.o.d are to Him as brother, sister, and mother?
14. Where are we told that a brother is born for adversity?
15. Where is G.o.d said to be "slow to anger"?
16. From what pa.s.sage in the New Testament is it seen that John the Baptist followed the custom of the Jewish rabbis in giving his disciples a form of prayer?
17. Where are we told that an angry man stirs up strife, while one who is slow to anger appeases it?
18. Where do we read that he who is slow to anger is better than the mighty?
19. Where in the Bible is Adam called "the son of G.o.d"?
20. From what pa.s.sage in the New Testament do we see that Rahab became the mother of the line from which David sprang?
21. Where does G.o.d call the rainbow "My bow"?
22. Where are rainbows mentioned in the New Testament?
23. What women are mentioned as ministering, with others, to the temporal wants of Jesus?
24. Where are we a.s.sured that the Keeper of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps?
ANSWERS TO BIBLE EXERCISES (1-12. _See p. 20_).
1. The Feeding of the Five Thousand (St. Matt, xiv. 15-21; St Mark vi.
35-44; Luke ix. 12-17; St. John vi. 5-14.)
2. Shechem (Judges ix. 34, 45).
3. Eleven; the leper healed on our Lord"s descent from the Mount of Beat.i.tudes (St. Matt. viii. 1-4; St. Mark 1. 40-45; St. Luke v. 12-15); and the ten lepers, on the borders of Samaria and Galilee (St. Luke xvii. 11-19).
4. It was given to him by David, who had received it from G.o.d (1 Chron.