Gideon Appointed Under Jehovah’s Banner

That banner was unfurled over a dark moment in Israel’s history. At the time, the Midianites covered the land like a blanket of innumerable grasshoppers (Judges 6:5). Israel had been greatly plundered and oppressed because of the Midianites. What was particularly stinging about the oppression was the fact that this situation was on account of their own sin. That is plain from Judges 6:1 where we read that “the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD.” For their sin of turning from...