They had called for him to come, but hoped he would be kind and forgiving. Instead, he arrived like a tornado on a hot Indiana afternoon, leaving a wake of fear through all the towns, a terror that stripped the vestige of hope from the land.

His message was clear, identical on every street corner, delivered with the whine of the violated and accented with the power of vengeance. Their cries for help had awakened a giant, and He was not happy.

"This is what the LORD, the GOD of Israel says...," the prophet quoted as if he had just come from the Divine throne. Old men shivered at his voice, and little children clutched mother's skirts like chicks hoping mother's wings would protect them from an attacking hawk.

He always spoke only five lines, forcing them home with crooked fingers that drew blood from each heart.

Quoting God:

1. "I brought you up out of slavery in Egypt.

2. I rescued you from the Egyptians and from all who oppressed you.

3. I drove out your enemies and gave you their land.

4. I told you, ‘I am the LORD your God. You must not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you now live.'

5. BUT YOU HAVE NOT LISTENED TO ME."

No one breathed till he moved to the next corner. Then they pointed fingers at each other, slowly realizing that they should be fearing themselves more than the Midianites. If "sin" was "distance from God," then they were the problem!

The Midianites had started it all, slipping over the hillsides and stealing crops. That had been seven years ago—just a few marauders stealing a small portion of the harvest. But the next year those few had brought friends, and now swarms of camel-riding terrorists regularly stripped the land and its people bare.

It had become so awful that the people had cried out to God. To the God they had forgotten. First they cried because of the Midianites. They cried because of the prophet. Then, finally, they cried because of their sins.

That was the day Gideon—son of Joash, son of Abiezer, the weakest in Israel's weakest clans—crept to his father's winepress with a basket of scraggly wheat, ready to be threshed.

And that was when God, finally, could speak directly to one who was ready to hear.

Please read Judges 6:1 through 7:25, and discuss the following questions:

1. How is your family (and church family) like and different from the Israelites?

2. Who are the terrorists in your community today?

3. How does the prophet's five-point message speak to you personally?

4. What must happen so you can be "one who is ready to hear?"

Dick Duerksen is the "storyteller" for Maranatha Volunteers International. Readers may contact Dick at dduerksen@maranatha.org.