Today, we're going to show you
Gideon's Cave and Gideon's Spring. (Sergio) Wow, so excited. Are you excited? I'm excited. ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ (Sergio) It is an incredible place
with an incredible story. This is the place where Gideon
had victory over 135,000 troops. Wow, do you see this? That's Givat HaMoreh and that's where
the enemy army was. And Gideon and his soldiers up here. And then they would go down
into the spring to drink. There were only 300 men
against 135,000 men. Seems impossible,
yet Gideon had the victory. Imagine 135,000 troops
right in front of you right there. It's scary. And you're what.. 300? ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ I can't take the steps. (Sergio) We're going to show you
the location, the water, and the topography
of the event that took place with Gideon and his 300 men. And as a bonus we're going to share
with you something about this water that is so fascinating. I mean, when we found out,
our mind was just blown away. So, stay tuned. - Let's go?
- Let's go. (Sergio) Wow, so this is cool. When was the last time you've been here? I remember being here as a child. - And that's it.
- Oh, wow. I don't remember the place very well. Wow, so excited. - Are you excited? Cool.
- I'm excited. There's a shaded spot right there. Alright, let's park right there. Wow, we're here. So exciting. (Sergio) Wow. - Look up there.
- Oh, it's beautiful. ♪ (fun music) ♪ So Rhoda was here
when she was a little girl. We've got to find pictures of that. (Rhoda) The river. Do you remember the river? I do. (Rhoda) Babe, look at those trees. Look, they have those cotton
and pom-pom things and then spikes all the way through. It really hurts, you don't wanna... Oh, I see the cave. - Do you see the cave? Whoa!
- I do. Hey, there's another one up there. Yeah, it's just so cool. What happened at these very waters
is absolutely fascinating, isn't it? - Miraculous.
- It is incredible. It's described in the <i>Book of Judges,</i>
Chapter 7, and it's centered around
a man named Gideon. (Sergio)<i>You most likely know this story.</i> <i>But in case you don't,
here's a quick 60-second recap.</i> <i>The Book of Judges, Chapter 6,
tells us the Israelites did evil</i> <i>in the eyes of the Lord."</i> <i>And so God had given them into the hands
of their old enemy, the Midianites,</i> <i>the Amalekites, and a few
other peoples of the East.</i> <i>So the Israelites lived
under heavy oppression.</i> <i>But after seven years, when the people
cried out to the Lord,</i> <i>God promises to deliver them
from their enemy.</i> <i>And so He chooses a man
by the name Gideon to lead an army</i> <i>that will defeat the Midianites.</i> <i>Gideon, despite being terrified,
listens to God's calling</i> <i>and summons an army
of 32,000 Israelites.</i> <i>But God tells Gideon,
"You have too many men,"</i> <i>because if they win, the people will boast
against the Lord and claim victory</i> <i>by their own strength,
forgetting to give the glory to God.</i> <i>So how does God make this army smaller?</i> <i>He tells them, "Anyone who trembles
with fear may turn back and leave."</i> <i>And 22,000 men go home.</i> <i>So Gideon is left
with a little army of 10,000.</i> But that's not the end of the story. Then God tells Gideon,
"Well, that's still too many." Yes, 10,000 is still too many
to go with the war, so what did He tell Gideon to do? He tells, "Take the men to the stream
of Harod and have the men be tested how they're going to drink the water." And so Gideon and his 10,000 men are up on that mountain, came down to this very stream. And here's what happens next. What happens? Some guys go into the water, kneel down
and suck right into the water, while the other group of guys do this. And so the guys that drank like this,
from their hands, were 300 guys. And the rest were sent home. And that is fascinating. Now Gideon is left with 300 men to go
against an army of 135,000 men. <i>That is an odd of one to 450.</i> <i>One Israelite against 450 enemies.</i> That's insane. <i>(Rhoda) And what happens next?</i> <i>God puts fear into the Amalekites army</i> and they are completely afraid of Gideon. <i>And God gives the victory to Gideon
and his small army.</i> And the way God gives them
the victory is awesome. God splits Gideon's 300 men
into three groups. <i>And he gives them torches,
trumpets, and pitchers.</i> <i>They break the pitchers, the vases,
and they blow the trumpets,</i> and the military of the Midianites
get scared thinking there is a giant force
surrounding them, <i>and they run away
and they fight each other</i> <i>because they're from different cultures,
different grounds,</i> <i>there's the Amalekites, Midianites,
and they don't know who is who,</i> they fight, and it's one big chaos, Gideon wins, Israel wins,
they capture the kings, a huge deliverance, it's unbelievable. It's quite a remarkable story,
really, it is. If you still haven't read it,
you got to read <i>Judges</i>, Chapter 7. - Unbelievable.
- (Rhoda) It's quite remarkable. You know how you drank
from the water there. - Yeah.
- And it comes from this one. - Yeah.
- There's a dead bird and poop from the pigeons all over. (Rhoda) Dead bird, you drank that. Yeah, I'm sure you'll be okay. - You know what's really interesting?
- What? How did Gideon feel? What did he see when he saw
the Midianites and the enemies up across the hill?
Because from here, you can really see across the field. But they didn't stay here. - They actually stayed up that hill.
- Mountain, yeah. On the mountain, so if Gideon and his men
were up on the mountain, what did they see?
Could they see the enemy? - You want to check it out?
- I've never been up there. That's a lot of stairs. - Alright, let's do it.
- It's a lot of stairs. Let's do it. ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ I can't take the steps. ♪ (intense music) ♪ Wow. Wow, do you see this? This is it, so that's Givat HaMoreh and that's where the enemy army was. And they would be settled
all over there in the valley and this reservoir wouldn't have been here
because that's man-made, And Gideon and his soldiers up here
on the Mountain of Gilboa. (Sergio) Imagine 135,000 troops
right in front of you right there, it's scary. And you're what... 300?
These guys, probably-- It's scary. This is the first time
I ever went on top of this hill. - Yeah, me too.
- Up in Harod... ... and I've never imagined
Givat HaMoreh so close. I knew always where it is. I didn't think that visually
it is so close. (Rhoda) It is very close, I didn't imagine
it would be so close either. (Sergio) No wonder Gideon was afraid
and God had him go down to the camp, - down to the troops to hear them--
- Talk about the dream. So they got encouraged and say, "God
is delivering us," because it just seems-- not just possible.
It just seems impossible. - Yeah, impossible.
- Is there a bigger word than impossible? I don't think so. If there is a bigger word than impossible,
that's what it is. Yeah. At the beginning of this video,
we told you that we're going to share something interesting about this water. And here it is. ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ The source of this water
where it bubbles up under the mountain comes from inside the mountain
but where does it originate from? Apparently, they originate from
the hometown of Gideon. <i>(Sergio) Wait, what?</i> <i>Let's head to Wikipedia.</i> <i>In the Harod Spring page,
under the Geography section,</i> <i>it actually states, "the source
of the spring comes from</i> <i>fresh rainwater that percolate
into the limestone hills of Samaria</i> <i>and collect in an underwater reservoir
beneath the areas of the cities of Nablus</i> <i>and Jenin.</i> <i>And according to Charles Foster Kent,
Gideon's hometown Ophrah</i> <i>is in the same area.</i> <i>Then the water incline north,
towards the valleys</i> <i>and emerges from a natural cave
known as Gideon's Cave.</i> Isn't that incredible? This water comes from Gideon's hometown, It ends up here, that is so cool. <i>(Sergio) Cool, indeed.</i> <i>And what's even cooler is the photo
we found on Wikipedia of this spring</i> <i>from over 100 years ago.</i> <i>Both Rhoda and I were shocked to see
how much larger the pool of water was</i> <i>as it truly helps you imagine
the 10,000 men lapping for water.</i> And another striking detail we found
in this photo is the bare hills of the Gilboa Mountain. There is not a single tree, which means all the trees
you see in the park today must be new. Wow, this place is so, so beautiful. - Isn't it just incredible?
- It is such a cool place. If you guys find yourselves in Israel,
you should check this place out. I mean just take a day to relax,
enjoy the waters and have a picnic or whatever but it's a beautiful place
to come to and enjoy. Absolutely, wow, well thanks for watching. If you enjoy this episode, like the video
and subscribe below. And we'll see you next time, Lord willing. Wait, you didn't swim. - Oh.
- Are you going to swim? Ooh, well it was kind of cold. - Yeah. Yeah.
- Really cold. - And there's that bird over there.
- Yeah, yeah, you shouldn't. - Yeah.
- I don't recommend it.
