Judges 6
The children of Israel spent time enough hiding like bandits from the Midianites that they built up defensive caves in the mountains as places of resort (something like Tora Bora in Afghanistan).
I wonder if the altar of Baal and the grove belonged to Gideon’s father of if they were just located on his land. I like the response of Joash when the ken of the city demanded that Gideon be put to death for throwing down the altar of Baal and raising an altar to the Lord in it’s place and cutting down the grove and using the burning the wood as common wood for a sacrifice to the Lord. Obviously Joash was no strong supporter of Baal because he simply said that if Baal were god he should have power to plead his own case and that any who would defend Baal should be put to death rather than Gideon. I think the men asking for Gideon to be killed really supported the image of Baal in the belief that having a god recognized by the midianites would gain some favor or else the belief that throwing down the altar of such a god would incur the wrath of the Midianites.
Because he threw down that one altar the people were willing to follow Gideon. That sounds to me like a weak people desperate for any real leadership.
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