The Call of Gideon: The forty years of peace under Deborah’s leadership passed quickly, and before long the Israelites found themselves in bondage again, this time to the Midianites. The reason for their bondage? As always, “they did evil in the eyes of the LORD.” But here the intensity of Israel’s enslavement was much worse than ever before, so much so that any semblance of normal life was lost. The downward spiral toward chaos hastened to its goal.

But God set aside his anger, and in his compassion he sent Israel a leader to free them from their bondage. That leader was Gideon, who appears as anything but a Herculean freedom fighter in this passage. Once again we come face to face with God’s amazing grace, which ever causes him to act on behalf of his people and to use the weak and insign…