* The children of Israel had settled in the land of Canaan.  They began to worship idols that the
    people of Canaan served.  Because of their disobedience, God allowed the Midianites to treat
    them badly.  God sent an angel to a man named Gideon.  The angel told Gideon that God had
    chosen him to deliver the Israelites.  Gideon was not sure this was so, and asked God for signs 
    or miracles to prove that God was really with him.

 * Gideon started out with an army of 32,000 men.  God said to tell all who were afraid to go
    home. 22,000 left!  The next test was to have these men get a drink of water.  Some of them
    got down on their knees and put their faces in the water.  These were rejected.  Some took 
    water in their  hands and lapped it out of their hands as a dog laps water.  These were chosen.
    There were  300 of them.  What a small army!  God did not want them to think they had won 
    the battle all  by themselves.

 * Gideon and his small army surrounded the Midianite army which was down in a valley.  Each
    man had a trumpet in his right hand and a pitcher with a lighted torch in his left hand.  When
    Gideon gave the signal, each man blew on the trumpet, broke the pitcher to let the torch
    shine, and shouted, "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!"

 * The Midianites thought they were surrounded by a huge army and became so confused that
    they killed one another.   Gideon, with God's help, had won the battle with 300 men.

 * Years later, the Israelites again needed to be delivered from their enemies.  An angel of God
    appeared to the wife of a good man named Manoah and told her that she would have a son. 
    The son was to never drink any wine, nor was he to have his hair cut.  This was called the
    Nazarite vow.  So Samson observed the vow and the Spirit of God came upon him.  He was
    very strong.  He was so strong that once he fought a battle with only the jawbone of a donkey.
    He killed a lion with his bare hands, and on one occasion, he carried the big heavy gates of a 
    city to the top of a hill.

 * But Samson loved a woman named Delilah.  His enemies used Delilah to defeat him.  They told
    her if she could find out the reason for his strength, they would give her a lot of silver.  He told
    her three things which were not true.  He first told her that he would be weak if they tied him
    up with new bowstrings, but he broke them.  Then he said he would be weak if they tied him 
    with  new ropes.  But this was not true either.  Then he told her to weave his long hair in the
    loom where they wove fabric, but this did not make him weak.

 * Finally, he told her that the secret of his strength was because of his vow and his long hair. 
    She  made him go to sleep and the Philistines came and shaved off the seven locks of his
    long hair. He was so weak when he awoke, he could not defend himself.  They took him
    prisoner,  blinded him, and caused him to work like a slave.

 * Later when his hair had grown back, he prayed to God for  strength again, and was able to
    push down the building where the Philistines had brought him in to make fun of him.  He died
    with the Philistines when the building collapsed.

  These stories of the Judges of Israel can be found in the book of Judges, chapters 6 and 7,
  and also in chapters 13-16.