Bible Heroes, Creative Writing Ficlet Project

Shamgar's family was hungry. They were always hungry. It was becoming a way of life– and that wasn't okay with Shamgar. Year after year the Philistines marched right into Israel’s land– into his plot of land– and they would take everything. His wheat, his barley, his rye– all his crops in fact– there was nothing they wouldn't pilfer, poach and pack away with them back to Philistia. All year he and his family would toil in their fields, plowing, planting and praying that this year they would be able to eat well - that this year the Philistines would leave. Them. Alone. Israel had no king. There was no government, but the Word of the Lord from the Prophet Moses was meant to be the guiding standard of the nation. However, each tribe since the death of Joshua and the elders had pretty much governed themselves. The people had fallen away from the Law of Moses into the idolatrous practices of the surrounding nations. By doing so, they had stepped away from God's protecti...

“The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!” A thrill ran through Gideon as the bold shout resounded through the chill night air. Three hundred men all told made up the count of his tiny army. Split into three companies, a hundred men to a company, they had surrounded the Midianite camp by night. Now they stood in their places, blowing thundering blasts on their trumpets and shouting the battle cry in synchrony. As their commander, Gideon stood hearing the pitchers of his men break, and seeing the torches within blaze forth brightly with intense excitement beating within his chest. He couldn't help but wonder at the incredible change that God had wrought in his life since the day that the Angel had appeared to him. On that day, he hadn't even known immediately that the man he'd been speaking with had been an Angel. He hadn't realised until afterwards. When he'd brought to the stranger he'd assumed to be a prophet something to eat, the man had bidden him pour out the f...