[S]ince we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. . . .

Hebrews 12:1-2

The Evolution of a Hero

GIDEON

For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them.

Judges 6:3

They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey.

Judges 6:4

For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. Judges 6:5

And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord.

Judges 6:6

Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah. . . .

while . . . Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.

Judges 6:11

(Winepress Pic)

And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.”

Joshua 6:12

A Recognition of True Identity

And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us?

And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’

But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

Joshua 6:13

And the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?”

Judges 6:14

A Release of Resentment and an Acceptance of Responsibility

And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.”

Judges 6:15

And the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you. . . .”

Judges 6:16

A Willingness to Receive Assistance

An Initial Act of Courage

(no matter how small)

So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night. Judges 6:27