Altar of Palace of Agrippas

Gideon Destroys Altar of Baal and Prepares for Battle

And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said unto him, Take thy father's young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it: And build an altar unto the LORD thy God upon the top of this rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down.

Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the LORD had said unto him: and so it was, because he feared his father's household, and the men of the city, that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night. And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was cast down, and the grove was cut down that was by it, and the second bullock was offered upon the altar that was built.

And they said one to another, Who hath done this thing? And when they enquired and asked, they said, Gideon the son of Joash hath done this thing. Then the men of the city said unto Joash, Bring out thy son, that he may die: because he hath cast down the altar of Baal, and because he hath cut down the grove that was by it.

And Joash said unto all that stood against him, Will ye plead for Baal? will ye save him? he that will plead for him, let him be put to death whilst it is yet morning: if he be a god, let him plead for himself, because one hath cast down his altar. Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal, saying, Let Baal plead against him, because he hath thrown down his altar.

Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east were gathered together, and went over, and pitched in the valley of Jezreel. But the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet; and Abiezer was gathered after him. And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh; who also was gathered after him: and he sent messengers unto Asher, and unto Zebulun, and unto Naphtali; and they came up to meet them.

And Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said, Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said. And it was so: for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water.

And Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew. And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground. (Judges 6:25-40)

The Book of JUDGES "Judges" is the Hebrew term used to refer to those whom God raised up to lead His people during the period between the conquest of Canaan and the monarchy. There were thirteen judges during this period, but only eleven are mentioned in the Book of Judges (the ministries of Eli and Samuel are recorded in 1 Samuel).   Although these eleven judges had a tremendous impact on the nation of Israel, none of them ruled over all of the twelve tribes. In fact, some of them were at work at the same time in different areas of the country. For this reason, the length of time that the judges ruled could not be arrived at by simply adding the number of years that each judge ruled. The most commonly accepted figure for this is 350 years (see note on Gen.15:13 -16). The Book of Judges contains an introduction (chaps. 1, 2), narrative accounts of the judges who led the people (chaps. 3 -16), and a conclusion which describes the social and spiritual state of the people (chaps. 17 -21). The introduction and conclusion are not chronologically linked to the narrative accounts. Samuel is considered the most likely one to have written the Book of Judges, and internal evidience points to its being written during his lifetime. It is inferred from the phrase, "in those days there was no king in Israel" (Judg. 17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25), that at the time of the writing, there was a king.   Thus, it is obvious that it was written after Saul took the throne. Also, one can be sure that this book was written before Solomon's reign because the Canaanites had not yet been driven out of Gezer (Judg. 1:29, cf. 1 Kgs. 9:16). Furthermore, it may be concluded that it was written before David conquered Jerusalem (Judg. 1:21, cf. 1 Chr.11:4 -7). This is supported by the implication in the Book of Judges that Sidon, rather than Tyre, was still considered the capital of Phoenicia (Judg. 1:31; 3:3; 10:6; 18:28, cf. 2 Sam. 5:11). The Book of Judges recounts the sad events of Israel's apostasy. It was common in Israel during the time of the judges, for every man to do "that which was right in his own eyes." (Judg. 17:6; 21:25).   God had to remind them again and again that He was the one true God, because they repeatedly indulged in the idolatry and immorality of the Canaanites among whom they lived.   The main section of the book reflects a cycle from which Israel Seemed unable to escape -Israel falls into apostasy, God sends an oppressor, Israel repents, God sends a deliverer, there is peace and prosperity, and then Israel falls away again. During the times of "rest" that Israel experienced, the Lord caused Israel's enemies to fight among themselves. [Source for Introduction of chapter: Hebrew Greek Key Study Bible KJV edited by Spiros Zodhiates, Th.D. AMG Publishers, Chattanooga, TN 37422]