The call to the army: (Judges 6:33-35)

Gideon is still in hiding when the situation worsens, as his enemies set up a camp to attack. Then, right there, at the worst possible moment, the Spirit of God comes upon him. The change is so great that fear no longer dominates him. Though he was on the run and threatened, he blew the trumpet to gather an army to battle against the Midianites and, strangely enough, people began to come from everywhere. Abiezrites join him. Who were they?

They were the people from his own family, from the tribe of Manasseh. And the rest of the tribe joined him. And so did Asher, Naphtali, and Zebulun. They were all willing to fight. Why didn’t they fight before? People follow a leader and emulate his courage.

And perhaps the people realised that if Baal couldn’t destroy them, they had a “strong deity”. From despicable, death-threatened miscreant to respected leader… only God can make such a transformation of someone’s reputation. He worked on the people’s perception of Gideon. It was He Himself who did the networking that made Gideon well-known and everyone wanted to work with him.

Continued tomorrow…

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