Who Am I?

     My name means “great warrior.  I lived in the village of Ophrah and was alive during the Old Testament period.  I was a farm who God called “a mighty man of valor”.  An angel of the Lord visited me while I was secretly threshing wheat.  God promised to be with me and promised to save Israel from the Midianites.  I asked Him for a sign and then built an altar.  God told me to tear down my father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.  I was afraid of the men in town so I did this at night so they would not see me.  The men of the town found out it was me and went to my father, demanding I be turned over to them.  They changed my name to Jerub-Baal, meaning “let Baal contend with him” because I broke the altar.  The Spirit of the Lord came upon me and I was to fight the Midianites.  I tested God by putting out a wool fleece and told him “If You will save Israel by my hand as you have promised; look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor.  If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.”  And it happened!  Just like that!  I squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew – a whole bowlful of water!!!  I still wasn’t quite sure so I asked God to do it again, only this time making the ground wet and the fleece dry.  And He did it again!  The fleece was the only thing dry and all the ground was covered with dew. 

     Early one morning my men and I camped at the spring of Harod because we were going to fight the Midianites.  God told me I had too many men with me.  He was afraid Israel would boast their own strength would save them instead of me.  So I told the men that those who were afraid could turn back and twenty-two thousand men left, leaving only ten thousand behind.  God told me there were still too many.  This time I took the men to the water and told them to drink.  Those who got on their knees to drink were sent to their tents.  That left only three hundred men.  During the night we went to the camp of Midian.  I took Purah with me to the edge of the camp to listen to what the men were saying and was encouraged by their talk.  So I went back to my men and we divided into three companies and attacked the camp.  Fear came upon the Midianites and they rain, turning on each other. 

     The Israelites wanted me to rule over them but I would not.  I went back home where I watched my family grow.  I had seventy sons of my own because I had many wives.  One of my sons was Abimelech.  When I died at a good old age, I was buried in the tomb of my father in Ophrah.

     Now that I have told you about myself, can you guess who I am?