Midian has oppressed Israel for years. Raiders repeatedly enter the land, destroy crops, and leave the Israelites hiding in caves and strongholds.

Gideon is threshing wheat in a winepress to conceal it when an angel addresses him as a mighty warrior and tells him that he will save Israel from Midian.

Gideon questions both the state of Israel and his own qualifications. His clan is weak, and he considers himself the least in his family.

After signs confirming the call, Gideon gathers an army. But God says the force is too large, because Israel might boast that its own strength produced victory.

Thousands are sent home. A further test at the water reduces the force to only three hundred men.

Gideon is still afraid, so he is allowed to approach the Midianite camp secretly. There he overhears a soldier describing a dream that another man interprets as a sign of Gideon’s coming victory.

Encouraged, Gideon divides the three hundred into groups. Each man carries a trumpet and a jar containing a torch.

At Gideon’s signal they blow the trumpets, smash the jars, reveal the torches, and shout. Panic spreads through the Midianite camp.

The enemy turns on itself and flees. What looked like an impossibly small force becomes the means of deliverance, making it difficult for Israel to credit the outcome to conventional military power.