Part 5

"Stand by the door," he said, "and if any one ask if I am here, say 'No.'" Then Sisera fell asleep, for he was weary with fighting and running so far; and when he was asleep, then Jael went very softly, took a large nail and a hammer, and hammered the nail into Sisera's head and down into the ground.

After this war forty years passed most happily and safely. The Israelites lived in the fear of God, and he kept them in peace and gave them rest from their enemies.

But when the forty years were passed, the Israelites again loved evil; and again, too, sorrows and punishments came upon them.

First, the Midianites came to be their enemies. They came in great numbers; they brought their camels and their cattle with them, and pitched their tents in the land of the Israelites. The Israelites left their pleasant houses and fields, and ran to hide in dens and caves, for fear of the cruel Midianites.

The pleasant land became barren and desolate. Then the Israelites cried again to the Lord, for they knew that He could deliver them, and He alone.

God sent an answer to them by a prophet: "Thus saith the Lord, 'I brought you safely out of Egypt and delivered you from the cruel Egyptians, and drove away your enemies, and gave you the land of Canaan for a possession; and I commanded you to obey and serve Me, and not to worship the idols of the people who live near you; but you have not obeyed My command.'" Then the prophet went away. THE STORY OF GIDEON.

Now, there was a man (living at Ophrah,) whose son was named Gideon. Gideon was a true servant of the Lord; but his father was an idolater and a worshipper of Baal. One day Gideon was threshing wheat in a hidden place, lest the idolaters should see him and come and take his corn from him. Gideon's heart was full of sorrowful thoughts as he threshed the wheat; but, as he looked up, he saw an angel near him, sitting beneath an oak. And Gideon heard him say, "The Lord is with thee."

When Gideon heard the angel speak, he looked up with wonder. "Is the Lord with us?" he cried. "Then why does He let the Midianites come and destroy us? Why does He not work miracles for us, as He did for our fathers, and deliver us from our enemies?" But the angel said again, "Go now, I send thee to save Israel from the Midianites."

Gideon was frightened; he had faith, but his faith was weak and small. He could not believe that he could save Israel.

"How can I save my brethren?" he said. "I am poor; all my family are poor, and I am least in my father's house." But the angel said again, "I will be with thee; I will give thee power to smite the Midianites."

Gideon wondered. Could it be an angel that was talking to him? An angel could give him power to conquer his enemies!

"Wilt thou give me a sign that I may know who thou art?" he asked. "Stay till I come again, and bring my offering with me."

Then Gideon hurried away and made ready a kid and cakes of flour. He put the flesh into a basket and the broth into a pot, and brought all out to the oak tree where the angel waited.

Now, the angel did not need food to strengthen him, but he accepted Gideon's offering, and told him to lay the flesh and cakes upon the rock, and to pour out the broth. Gideon hardly knew why, but he obeyed; and then the angel of the Lord touched with his staff the flesh and the cakes, and fire came out of the rocks and consumed them.

The angel went away. Gideon knew not how or where; but he knew who the angel was. Then Gideon cried with fear, "O, Lord God! for I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face."

And a voice answered, "Peace be unto thee; fear not, thou shalt not die;" and Gideon named the place, "Jehovah-shalom," or "The Lord send peace;" and he built an altar there to the Lord.

Again the angel of the Lord God spoke to him. "Take thy father's bullock and throw down the altar of Baal which thy father has. Build there an altar unto the Lord and offer the bullock in sacrifice upon it."

Now, Gideon's family all worshipped this Baal, and they would be very angry if the idol altar was thrown down; it might be they would kill Gideon. But Gideon rose and went at once to destroy Baal's altar, lest the men of the city should try to prevent him if he waited until morning came.

When the people rose next day, they wondered to see Baal's altar thrown down, the new altar to God ready built, and a bullock offered upon it. "Who did all this?" they asked. Gideon was not afraid to confess the truth. He was bold, because he knew God was with him. But the people were angry with Gideon. "Bring out thy son," they said to Joash, "that we may slay him!"

Before Gideon began to fight, he prayed; "Give me now a sign, that I may know that Thou wilt be merciful to the Israelites. I will put a fleece of wool upon the ground to-night; in the morning I will look at it, and if I see the fleece wet with dew, and all the ground dry, then I shall know that Thou dost promise to save us from our enemies."

Gideon put the fleece of wool upon the ground, for God had heard his prayer. In the morning, when Gideon looked at it, it was so wet that he wrung from the fleece a bowlful of water, though there was no dew upon the ground.

The next night Gideon again tried the fleece. "To-night let the fleece alone be dry, and all the ground wet, and then I shall know that Thou wilt save Israel," he prayed. The next morning all the ground was wet with dew, and the wool alone was dry. And now Gideon was convinced. He asked no further proof.

Gideon had many thousand men to fight with him. But God wished to teach the Israelites that He alone could save them. So he told Gideon to say to the soldiers, "Those who are afraid may return home and not come into the battle." Gideon did as he was told; and 22,000 of the soldiers, struck with fear, went away, leaving only 10,000 to meet the foe. But God said, "I do not want even so many; if all these soldiers go the Israelites will say that their own power and courage gained the victory. Bring the 10,000 men down to the water and let them drink. Notice the men who lap the water like a dog and put them on one side; and the men who kneel down to drink water, put on the other side; and I will tell thee whom I will choose to fight against the Midianites."

Gideon obeyed. He brought the soldiers to the water and told them to drink. Three hundred of them lapped, putting their hands to their mouths; but most of them stooped down on their knees to drink. Then God said, "By the 300 men who lapped the water will I save you; let all the others return home."

Gideon had a very, very small army now. The Midianites were in great numbers, the Israelites only 300. It was the night before the battle. To-morrow Gideon and his army must fight against their cruel enemies, the Midianites.

When Gideon was lying down to rest, and his 300 soldiers by him, he heard a voice calling to him. Was it an enemy come to kill him and his little army? No, it was the voice of God. "Arise, go down to the army of the Midianites," the voice said. "If thou fear to go alone, take Phurah, thy servant, with thee. Go, and hear what the Midianites are saying; for afterwards thou shalt feel strengthened to go down to the army."

So Gideon and his servant, Phurah, went as God had commanded. The tents of the Midianites and the Amalekites covered the whole valley. The soldiers were sleeping in the tents, and their camels lay by them. So many were they that Gideon could not count them. But the Midianites were not all asleep; some were making ready for the morrow, some were talking; but none of them saw Gideon and his servant.

There were two men, Midianites, talking together, and Gideon and Phurah went near to them. "I dreamed," said one, "that I saw a cake of bread tumble into the hosts of the Midianites; I saw it fall upon a tent, and the tent was overturned and thrown down." "That cake," his friend answered, "is Gideon, the commander of the Israelites; he will fall upon us and destroy our army, because God is with him."

When Gideon heard this tale, he rejoiced. He now felt sure of the victory. Then he and Phurah went back to the Israelites, and Gideon said, "Arise, for God gives the Midianites into our hands."

Then Gideon divided his army into three companies, and gave to every man a trumpet and a pitcher, with a lamp in every pitcher. They had no swords, nor spears, nor bows, nor arrows. Then Gideon said, "Come with me and do as I do. When I blow the trumpet, you must blow too, and cry, 'The sword of the Lord and of Gideon.'" It was still night when Gideon went again with his soldiers to the camp of the Midianites. The soldiers stood around the camp, and when Gideon commanded, they blew with the trumpets, and broke the pitchers, and cried aloud, "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon." The Midianites heard the noise and the shout, and were struck with fear. They knew not what to do. They ran like mad men. They fell one upon another, killing their own friends, and fathers, and brothers; and those who were not killed fled away; and the Israelites followed after these and killed them.

The Israelites were grateful for what Gideon had done for them. "Come and rule over us," they said, "and be our king, and we will serve and obey thee." But Gideon was not an ambitious man; he wanted neither power, riches, nor possessions. So, when the Israelites asked Gideon to be their king, he said, "No, I do not wish to rule over you; the Lord only is your king; obey Him. But give me if ye will the earrings and gold chains that were taken from the enemies."

"Yes, we will willingly give them," the people said. And they spread out a large garment and threw into it all the earrings and chains they had, and with them purple garments and many more beautiful things. Gideon made them into an ephod like Aaron's ephod; and this he took into his own city Ophrah. The ephod Gideon made in remembrance of his victory. After Gideon was dead, the Israelites again forgot God, and worshipped idols.

Once Samson made a feast at Timnath; and when the company were all talking merrily together, he said, "I will give you a riddle to guess; if you guess right, I will give you thirty sheets and thirty garments; but if you cannot guess, you shall give me thirty sheets and thirty garments." Then the people said, "Tell us the riddle, and we will try to guess it." So Samson said, "Out of the eater came forth meat; and out of the strong came forth sweetness." Now, the eater was the strong lion; and the meat was the sweet honey Samson found in it; but no one knew the story of the lion, and they could not guess the riddle. They tried six days, and then they called in their friend, Samson's wife, and said, "Ask Samson to explain the riddle to thee, else we will burn thee and thy father's house with fire."

The woman then begged so hard and long for her husband to tell her that, at last, he explained the riddle to her; and she forthwith went and told the Philistines. Then they came to Samson and said, "What is so strong as a lion, and what is so sweet as honey?" But Samson quietly said, "My wife told you, else you could never have guessed my riddle."

Samson was obliged, however, to give what he had promised to the men who found out the riddle. But he got the garments in a strange way. He went down to Askelon and killed thirty men of the Philistines and took from them the things he wanted to give to the men who told the riddle. Soon after, Samson's wife went away from him, and it was then that Samson began his war upon the Philistines. He caught 300 foxes and tied firebrands to their tails, and drove them into the corn fields belonging to the Philistines. All the corn and vineyards and olives were burned of course.

Then the Philistines asked, "Who did this?" The people said, "Samson did it, because his wife has been taken away." Then the Philistines went and burned Samson's wife and her father with fire. Samson was now still more angry. He killed a great number of the Philistines, and then went to the top of a rock and lived there alone.

The Philistines now went to fight against Judah. "We must have Samson, and bind him, and take him prisoner," they said. The people of Judah were frightened; they ran to Samson and said, "We are come to bind thee; we will not kill thee; but we will give thee into the hands of the Philistines." Then they bound him with two new ropes and led him away. But Samson had strength to break the ropes, and he soon escaped; then, picking up the jawbone of an ass, which he found on the way as he ran, he killed 1,000 men of the Philistines with it.

After this slaughter, Samson was most thirsty. He cried to God and asked for water, that he might not die of thirst. Then water sprang up like a well, and Samson drank and became strong again.

Samson had been raised up to deliver his country from the Philistines, and so to him was given great strength, and boldness and courage to do it.

Soon after, Samson went to Gaza. The people heard he was there, and they waited quietly for him all night. "In the morning we shall kill him," they said. But Samson arose in the night and went to the gate of the city, and took it up, and the posts, and the bar, and carried them upon his shoulders to the top of the hill near Hebron.

Samson had now another wife. Her name was Deliah. The Philistines needed very much to know wherein Samson's great strength lay. So they went to Deliah and said, "Ask Samson what makes him so strong. Learn how we can bind him; and we will each give thee 1100 pieces of silver." Deliah did not love her husband as she loved money; so she went to Samson and begged him to tell her what made him so strong. Samson did not mean to tell her; so he deceived her, and said, "Let them bind me with seven fresh green withes." Deliah told the Philistines, and they brought the withes, and she bound Samson with them, while the Philistines were hiding in the room.

Then Deliah cried, "The Philistines are upon thee, Samson!" Samson bounded up, broke the withes, and the defeated Philistines ran away. Again Deliah asked Samson to tell her what made him so strong; and he said, "Let them bind me with new ropes." Deliah bound him with the ropes and cried again, "The Philistines are upon thee, Samson!" Then Samson sprang up, broke the ropes like little threads, and escaped again.

Then Deliah said, "Now do not deceive me; but tell me the truth. How can I bind thee?" He said, "Weave the hair of my head with the web." when Samson was asleep, Deliah wove his hair and fastened it most strongly. Then she said, "The Philistines are upon thee!" And he awoke, bounded up, and went away with the pin, and the beam, and the web.

Then Deliah said, "Why hast thou deceived me these three times? Tell me now where thy great strength lies." Samson was tired of his wife's asking him so often; so he said, "I am a Nazarite to God! I have never shaven my head; but, if my hair is cut off, then I shall become weak like other men."