Chapter 18 Disturb the enemy late at night

Disturb the enemy late at night Sisera believed her, and soon fell asleep. Jael took a tent nail and pierced Sisera's eye, killing him.Then she ran to Bala's army and reported what she had done. The war was over, Jabin lost his commander and was forced to sue for peace.Once again the Jews were victorious, and they were proud of Deborah and Jael, and gave them great honor. It is a pity that a peaceful life seems to be detrimental to people's mental health. According to Moses' teaching, belief in God requires self-examination at any time; but when life is comfortable, when people don't care about anything except pleasure, of course they don't pay attention to faith aspects of things.

Stories that have been handed down to this day show that after the defeat of Sisera, people forgot the great God who guided the Jews in the desert.Young people ignore the contract, eat, drink and have fun, muddle through, and don't think about tomorrow's affairs. Let's look at the story of Micah of the village of Ephraim.Micah stole his mother's money, but when his mother found out, she not only forgave him, but also melted down the gold and silver and cast it into a statue, which she gave to her precious son. Micah was so fascinated by this shining golden image that he built a small shrine in his home and asked the Levites to be his private priests to preside over the ceremonies for him.That way, he doesn't have to go to the classroom.

This is a great violation of the covenant that Jehovah revealed to Moses.The other Jews were terrified, even though they were not religious. But Micah doesn't care, he has money and can do whatever he wants. But one day, some people from the Dan tribe who were looking for a new pasture broke into Micah's house, and they brought Micah's idol back to the village. The Levite, seeing that the golden statue was robbed, followed him to the tribe of Dan and continued to be a priest. Jehovah was rightly angry, and it was not long before the people felt his indignation. He instigated the Midianites to invade the land of Judea, and they would come on time every summer, plunder the grain in the field, and run amok in the Jewish villages.When the Jewish villagers saw the Midianites approaching, they hid in caves.Sometimes they have to hide in caves for winter.Finally, the Jews despaired and gave up farming.The famine began to spread, and people were already starving to death.

Some bold ones were still plowing. Among them was a man named Joash, whose son was Gideon.Joash was not loyal to the covenant law of his country, and he also worshiped the gods of the local people, but his son Gideon, like Joseph and Deborah, could predict the future, and he firmly believed in Jehovah. His father built an altar to the sun god Baal, and young Gideon (due to a dream that angels ate his sacrifice) woke up in the middle of the night and smashed down the ugly old idol and built an altar to Yahweh on it. In the morning, the villagers found the rubble, and after finding out what had happened, they ran to Joash's house and quarreled, demanding that Joash punish his son.

Fortunately, Joash was a sensible man, and he said that if Baal was really powerful, he would kill Gideon.But after a few weeks, Gideon was alive and well.Neighbors changed their minds.Gideon, also known as Jerub-Baal, the man who destroyed the altar of Baal, became a hero and became famous. When the Midianites became more and more rampant and the Jews had to choose to fight back or perish, Gideon became their leader and he gathered an army on the ancient plain of Jezreel.Training, preparation for battle, but the soldiers are not motivated.They have no interest in war, they want to go back to their comfort zone.Would rather starve to death than suffer.

Gideon asked if they wanted to go home.Many people exclaimed "Yes, the sooner the better!" Gideon left a few thousand people behind, and these seemed to be relatively reliable, and the others were released home.But he could not trust those who remained, and he asked the Lord to give him a token to show his support.He put some wool outside his tent, and the next morning when he picked up the wool, it was covered with dew, but the grass underneath was dry, which showed that the LORD was with him in the coming battle, and he could Let go of the prep work. Gideon led the soldiers on a long-distance march. Everyone was tired and thirsty. When he came to the river, he found that only about 300 of the thousands of people had military knowledge. , others plunged into the river like cattle.

Gideon kept the three hundred, and the others went away.Otherwise, they will only cause trouble when the war is fought. The three hundred loyal soldiers accepted the task, and Gideon gave each of them a shofar and a bunch of torches, which were hidden in clay pots to obscure the light of the fire. At midnight, Gideon and his men attacked the Midianites. They blew their horns as they ran, and broke the clay pots with one order.In the dark night, so many torches suddenly appeared that the Midianites were so frightened that they fainted.Fleeing in all directions, thousands of people were killed or injured.

Gideon became the recognized uncrowned king and remained judge.