XVIII THE ALTAR OF BAAL

OMETIMES the Children of Israel fought with the people who lived in the Promised Land, as Barak fought with Sisera in the Great Plain. Sometimes they made friends with them and learned their ways; and that was worse than war, because their ways were very bad. They called God Baal, and they thought that there were many Baals, one for each place. They believed that Baal sent the sun and the rain and made things grow in the fields, and they told the Children of Israel that if they wished the sun to shine and the rain to fall they must build altars to Baal and say their prayers to him. And some of the Children of Israel did so. They forgot God and served Baal. But the men who served Baal thought that Baal did not care whether they were good or bad, and so they did not care either.

Now, after the battle of the Great Plain there was peace for many years. And the Children of Israel had farms and pastures in the plain. There were wide fields of wheat and barley, and droves of sheep and oxen. Then the Midianites came.

The Midianites were wild people who lived in the deserts beyond the Jordan. They had no cities to dwell in, but wandered about from place to place, riding on swift camels, sleeping in tents, and stealing cattle. And some of them came over and saw the Great Plain, how it lay shining in the sun, with the river winding in and out between the pleasant farms. And they went back and told the others, and pretty soon, when the harvest was ripe, there came a great army of Midianites. They had two kings, named Zebah and Zalmunna, and two princes, named Oreb, “the Raven,” and Zeeb, “the Wolf.” The kings and the princes wore red cloaks, and had gold chains around their camels’ necks; and all the dark-faced men who rode behind them had great rings of gold hung in their ears.

Over the Jordan they came, like swarms of locusts, and settled down upon the Great Plain. They trampled upon the farms, and stole the wheat, and drove away the sheep and oxen. Before they came the land looked like the Garden of Eden, but after they went away it was like a desolate wilderness. And the Children of Israel were poor and hungry and miserable. And the next year, when they planted the fields again and the barley and the wheat were ripe and ready for the harvest, over came the Midianites and destroyed the farms as they had done before. And so on, year after year, until the Children of Israel hid themselves in dens among the mountains and in caves among the rocks. And it seemed as if God had forgotten them.

But in a village beside the Great Plain there was an altar of Baal. It was made of large stones piled together, and was on the top of a cliff, and a grove of trees stood around it. And one morning the people of the village waked as usual and looked up towards the altar of Baal, and, behold, it was broken down. Not one stone lay upon another. And all the trees of the grove were cut down. And in the place of the old altar was a new one, made like an altar of God, and on it burned a great fire made of the wood of the sacred trees. So they asked who had done this thing, and they found that a young man named Gideon had done it. And they laid hold upon Gideon, intending to put him to death because he had destroyed the altar of Baal.

But Gideon said, “I have had a message from the Lord. Yesterday I was threshing wheat, in a secret place among the rocks to hide it from the Midianites. And behold, there was a man, like an angel, sitting under an oak, who said to me, ‘The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.’

“And I said, ‘How can the Lord be with me when He has forgotten us all? Oh, my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? The Lord has cast us off and has delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.’

“And the man said to me, ‘Go in this thy might, and save Israel from the Midianites.’

“And I answered, ‘O Lord, how shall I save Israel? My family is the poorest in my tribe, and I am the least in my family.’

“But he said again, ‘Go and save Israel. I will be with thee.’

“And even then I could not believe that the Lord had chosen me. I hardly knew whether I was awake or dreaming. And I said, ‘Wait here,’ and I ran and fetched meat and bread in a basket and broth in a pot, and gave them to the man to eat, and he told me to put them on the rock. And so I did, and he put forth the end of the staff which he had in his hand and touched them, and, behold, the rock blazed with fire and the bread and the meat and the broth were consumed, and in the smoke the angel disappeared.

“Then I knew that I had seen a vision from the Lord. This is why I went last night and pulled down Baal’s altar, and built the Lord’s altar in the place of it.” And Gideon’s father said, “Let Baal look out for himself.”

So the people of the village, and of the country round about, knew that the Lord had called Gideon, and that he would save them from the Midianites. And they turned away from serving Baal and served God, and waited to see what would happen next.