16-01

After Joshua died, the Israelites disobeyed God

Joshua led the people well, so they obeyed God as Joshua did until he died. But when he was no longer alive to lead them, they began to disobey God.

they did not drive out the rest of the Canaanites

While Joshua was alive, the Israelites defeated all the large Canaanite armies. However, many Canaanite people and cities remained in the land. The Israelites did not finish driving them out of the Promised Land.

The Israelites began to worship the Canaanite gods

Before the Israelites came to the Promised Land, God had warned them that they would begin to worship false gods if they did not drive out the Canaanites (See: 14:03).

everyone did what they thought was right for themselves

The people did what they thought was right, instead of doing what God told them was right. Unfortunately, many of the things that they wanted to do were actually sinful.

16-02

a pattern that repeated many times

Each time the Israelites asked God to help them, he rescued them from their enemies. But their children would not remember that God had saved their parents. So they would sin against God just as their parents had done. This same thing happened with every generation.

16-03

a deliverer

God sent many of these deliverers. After each one defeated Israel’s enemies, the deliverer ruled over Israel until they died.

16-05

threshing grain

The grain was wheat, which has a head of many small grains, or seeds, on the top of a thin stalk. Grain is separating the seeds of the plant from the stalks by beating the heads of grain. The seeds are food, but the stalks are not.

in a hidden place

People normally thresh grain on a high, open place where the wind can blow away the chaff of the wheat that people cannot eat. However, Gideon was so afraid of the Midiantes that he was in a secluded place where it would be difficult to separate out the grain.

16-06

Gideon’s father had an altar dedicated to an idol

Gideon’s own father worshiped false gods rather than Yahweh, the true God.

The first thing God told Gideon to do was to tear down that altar

God would not help Gideon rescue Israel until he destroyed the altar of the idol that his family worshiped.

Gideon was afraid of the people

The Israelites who lived around Gideon also worshiped idols. Gideon was afraid that they would be angry with him if he destroyed the altar where his father worshiped idols.

he waited until nighttime

Because Gideon was afraid of the people, he tore the altar down at night when no one would see him do it and try to stop him.

He built a new altar to God

Gideon not only destroyed his father’s altar so he could not worship the false gods, but he also built an altar to God and worshiped God by sacrificing an animal on it.

16-08

came again to steal from the Israelites

The Midianites would come to Israel at harvest time when there would be a lot of food for them to steal.

16-09

a sheepskin

This is the skin of a sheep that has all of the wool on it. Wool is a very thick and curly hair that would hold a lot of water.

the ground be wet but the sheepskin dry

Gideon did not yet trust God enough to believe the first sign. So he asked God to do the opposite thing—make the ground wet instead of the skin, and the skin dry instead of the ground. He wanted to be sure that the first sign did not happen by itself.

16-10

God told him this was too many

This was more soldiers than God wanted for this fight. If that many soldiers fought and won, they would think that they won the battle with their own strength, and they would not know that God did it.

300 soldiers

The Midianite army was so many of them that they could not be counted (See: 16:08). God planned to cause Gideon to defeat all of them with only 300 soldiers.

16-11

you will no longer be afraid to attack them

Even after God gave Gideon the two miraculous signs, he was still afraid of the Midianites.

Gideon went down to the camp

Gideon secretly went down near the enemy camp in the dark. He found a place where he could hear them, but they could not see him.

something he had dreamed

God had caused one of the Midianites to have a strange dream. He also caused another Midianite soldier to understand that the dream meant that Gideon would defeat them. God did this so that Gideon would hear them and trust God enough to attack the Midianites.

16-13

A sword for Yahweh and for Gideon!

This was the battle cry of Gideon’s soldiers. This means: We fight for Yahweh and for Gideon! They yelled this out to encourage themselves, and to scare the Midianites.

16-14

they started attacking and killing each other

The Midianites wanted to attack the Israelites, but because God caused them to be confused, they attacked each other instead.

many other Israelites

This refers to the other Israelite soldiers that Gideon previously sent home (See: 16:10).

16-15

wanted to make Gideon their king

The Israelites had not yet had a king. Instead, God was their king. Gideon knew that they should not have a human king.

a large amount of gold

Even though each person gave Gideon only a small piece of gold, there were so many Israelites that the total amount of gold was very large.

16-16

the people started worshiping it as if it were an idol

Gideon made the garment to honor God, but it became a problem for him. He and the people soon began to worship the garment as an idol. In this way, the Israelites followed the same pattern as before. They worshiped idols instead of God, and God, therefore, allowed their enemies to defeat them.

16-18

a king like all the other nations had

Other nations had a king. Israel wanted to be like them and have a king too.

God did not like this request

God knew that they were rejecting him as their ruler and were choosing to follow a human leader instead.