Miriams Schooling and Other Papers | Page 4

such strength was there in its
tones. These men had been idolaters, and it might have been thought
that to turn them all would have taken years of persuasion; but no, at
the simple sound of the trumpet the religion of Baal vanished.
Gideon was now at the head of a great host; he had been favoured with
visions from the Most High; the angel of the Lord had appeared to him;
he had burnt the image; and yet now, when the army was round him,
fear fell upon him again, and he doubted if he could save Israel, or if
God would keep His promise. So it always was with him, as I have
already said. He therefore prayed for another sign, and the Lord did not
rebuke him, as a man would have done if his promise had been

mistrusted. Gideon's test was strange; he did not pray that he might see
the angel again, for the thoughts that came into his mind were always
strange, not like those of other men, and were unaccountable even to
himself. That night the fleece of wool on the ground was wet and the
earth was dry. He prayed yet again, and still God was tender to him, for
He knows the weakness of the creatures He has made. This time the
fleece was dry and the earth was wet, and Gideon thereupon rose up
early with all the host, and moved towards the host of Midian, till he
came in sight of them as they lay in the valley by the hill of Moreh.
But the Lord would not have so many to do His work, and most of
them were afraid and useless. He therefore commanded Gideon to send
away all who were frightened, and ten thousand only were left. These
ten thousand were still too many, for most of them were impatient, not
able to restrain themselves, and likely to fail, either through fear or
foolhardiness, in the stratagem the Lord designed. He therefore
commanded Gideon, when they were all thirsty, to bring them down to
the water. Nine thousand seven hundred were in such a hurry to reach it
that they dropped on their knees to drink, but three hundred were
collected and patient, and were content to lift their hands to their
mouths. The three hundred were kept and the rest sent home. That night
God, the ever merciful, had promised Gideon to deliver the Midianites
into His servant's hands, and had confirmed His promise by miracle,
but nevertheless He directed Gideon to go down to the camp, so that he
might hear a man's dream and its interpretation, and be further
strengthened in his faith. Gideon went down and listened at a tent door;
and when the dream was told, how a cake of barley bread tumbled into
the host of Midian, and came unto a tent and smote it that it fell, all fear
departed, and he rose up and went back to the three hundred, and cried
to them, "Arise; for the Lord hath delivered into your hand the host of
Midian."
Forthwith he divided his three hundred into three bands, and each man
took an empty pitcher and placed a torch inside it. In the dead of the
night they marched to the camp, this little three hundred, and placed
themselves round it. Then Gideon broke his pitcher and showed his
torch, and all the others did likewise, and shouted, "The sword of the

Lord, and of Gideon."
The host cried and fled, for a terror from the Lord descended on them,
and turned their own swords against them. When they were defeated all
Israel went out after them, and there was great slaughter, and Oreb and
Zeeb, two princes of Midian, were slain.
As soon as the victory was achieved, and while he was yet in pursuit,
the men of Ephraim turned upon him and abused him because he had
not taken them with him to fight the battle against the Midianites, but
never had they lifted a finger to save themselves before Gideon
appeared. When, however, he had caught and destroyed Zebah and
Zalmunna, the two Midianitish kings, and had chastised Succoth and
beaten down the tower of Penuel, Israel came to him and asked him to
rule over them, but he would not. He cared not to be king. He
remembered with what difficulty he had believed the angel and the
promise, the sickly faintness which had overcome him on that night
before the Midianitish overthrow. Whatever he had done had not been
his doing, but the Lord's; and how did he know that the Lord's help
would continue? The thought of being king, and of having a set office,
perhaps without the Lord's assistance, was too much for him. He