The Garden of Eden 11

The Garden of Eden 11

Now Sisera, when he saw that he was defeated and that his chariot was

stuck fast in the mud, leaped down in great haste and ran for his life.

And as he ran he came to a tent away off among the hills, where a man

lived whose name was Heber and his wife’s name was Jael. Heber had no

 

[Illustration: JAEL TAKES THE TENT PIN]

 

part in the battle of the day. He lived by himself, and was neither on

the side of Barak nor on the side of Sisera. While the others were

fighting he was in the distant pastures tending his sheep, and his wife

was at home alone. So Sisera came breathless and weary with running, and

Barak was following him far behind. And Jael came out to meet Sisera,

and she asked him to come in and hide. “Turn in, my lord,” she said,

“turn in to me: fear not.” So he went in. And he said, “Give me, I pray

thee, a little water to drink; for I am thirsty.” And she opened a

bottle and gave him milk to drink. And he lay down in the tent, and she

covered him with a mantle, so that he was hid. And he said, “If anybody

comes to the tent, and asks, ‘Is there any man here?’ you must say,

‘No.’” Then he went to sleep, for he was very tired.

 

Then Jael took one of the big wooden pins which held the ropes of the

tent, and in her other hand a workman’s mallet, and when Sisera was

sound asleep she went to him softly, and drove the pin straight through

his head. And Barak and his men came running by in pursuit of Sisera:

and Jael came to the tent door, and said, “Come here, and I will show

you the man whom you are seeking.” And Barak came in, and there was

Sisera dead. This, you understand, was a long, long time ago, when

people did not know so much as we know now about the difference between

right and wrong: and it was in the midst of war, when very dreadful

things are done. Anyhow, Sisera was dead, and the Children of Israel

were delivered from the Canaanites.

 

 

 

 

XVIII

 

THE ALTAR OF BAAL

 

 

Sometimes 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.

 

 

 

 

XIX

 

THE BATTLE OF THE LAMPS AND PITCHERS

 

 

One day the word was brought to Gideon that the Midianites were coming.

King Zebah and King Zalmunna, and Oreb the Raven and Zeeb the Wolf, with

thousands of fierce men on camels, were on the march. On they came

across the Jordan, and like locusts they began to spread over the Great

Plain.

 

And Gideon said to himself, “Did I dream about the angel, or was it

true? Did he sit beneath the oak, and tell me that God wished me to

fight the Midianites? did he strike fire out of the rock and go up in

the smoke?” And Gideon said, “I will make sure. To-night I will spread

out a fleece of wool and ask God for a sign. If in the morning the

fleece is wet with dew while the earth around it is dry, then I will

know that the Lord has sent me.” So he spread the fleece upon the

ground, and when he rose up early the next morning, the ground was dry

and the fleece was so wet that he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a

bowlful of water.

 

But still he was not satisfied. “Perhaps,” he said, “it only happened

so.” And he asked for another sign. “To-night let the fleece be dry and

all the ground be wet.” And in the morning so it was. The ground was wet

with dew, but not a drop had fallen on the fleece.

 

Then Gideon blew a trumpet and called the people together, and sent

messengers all about the country to call the fighting men, and there was

a great army. But when Gideon came to see the army he did not like the

soldiers’ looks: it seemed to him that they were frightened. He was

afraid that when they saw the Midianites they would run away. And he

made a speech. “To-morrow,” he said, “there will be a hard battle. The

Midianites are many in number and very fierce. Perhaps you would like to

go home. If you are afraid, if your knees are trembling, that is the

best thing to do. Go straight home to-day.” And twenty-two thousand men,

with trembling knees and pale faces, drew a long breath of relief and

went home as fast as their legs could carry them. And there were left

ten thousand.

 

But Gideon did not like the looks of the ten thousand. Now there was a

spring in that place. The water came clear and cold out of Mount Gilboa

and became a river. And across the river were the Midianites in their

tents as far as the eye could see. And very early in the morning Gideon

brought the ten thousand to the river and the spring and bade them

drink; and as they drank he watched them. Most of them threw themselves

upon the ground beside the water and put their lips to the stream and

drank; and if there had been any Midianites hidden in the bushes they

could have shot the drinkers with arrows, for they were off their guard.

But three hundred took up water in their hands and drank, with their

other hands holding their weapons and their eyes wide open. These three

hundred Gideon chose, and sent the others home.

 

So the three hundred waited with Gideon for the going down of the sun.

And when it was dark, and the lights were out in the camp of the

Midianites, Gideon took his armor-bearer, and they two went alone, very

softly, and crept about among the tents of Midian. The Midianites lay in

the valley like grasshoppers for multitude, and their camels were

without number, like the sand by the seaside. And as Gideon and his