Gideon
6
📚And the children of Israel did evil 📖 in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD delivered them into the hands of Midian 📖 for seven years. 2 📚And Midian had the upper hand against Israel; and because of the Midianites the children of Israel made for themselves the dens which are in the mountains, and caves and strongholds. 3 📚And it so happened that when Israel sowed seed, the Midianites would come up, and the Amalekites, and the eastern peoples would come up against them, 4 📚and would camp against them and destroy the produce of the ground as far as Gaza, and leave no supply of food for Israel, no sheep or ox or donkey. 5 📚For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, and they would come as numerous as grasshoppers 📖; for both they and their camels were beyond counting. And they would enter the land to destroy it. 6 📚And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; and the children of Israel cried out 📖 to the LORD. 7 And it came about, when the children of Israel cried to the LORD because of the Midianites, 8 📚that the LORD sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘I brought you up from Egypt and led you out of the house of bondage, 9 📚and I rescued you from the hands of the Egyptians and from the hands of all who oppressed you, and drove them out from before you and gave you their land. 10 📚And I said to you, I am the LORD your God. Do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But you have not obeyed my voice.’ ”
6:8-10 This time God, instead of immediately raising up a deliverer, sent a prophet to remind them of His grace and power and the people’s sins. See Ex 20:1-6. Instruction was needed as much as or more than deliverance.⚜
Gideon wants a sign
11 📚And the angel of the LORD 📖 came and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. And his son Gideon was threshing wheat near the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites. 12 📚And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you 📖, you mighty warrior 📖”.
13 📚And Gideon said to him, “Oh my Lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all of this happened to us 📖? And where are all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites”.
14 📚And the LORD 📖 looked at him and said, “Go in this strength of yours, and you will save Israel from the hands of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?”
15 📚And he said to him, “Oh my Lord, how 📖 will I save Israel? See, my family is poor in Manasseh and I am the least 📖 in my father’s household”.
16 📚And the LORD said to him, “I will certainly be with you, and you will strike down the Midianites as one man”.
17 📚And he said to him, “If now I have found grace in your sight, then show me a sign 📖 that it is you talking with me. 18 📚Please do not leave here until I come back to you and bring out my offering and place it before you”.
And he said, “I will wait 📖 until you come back”.
19 📚And Gideon went in and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes with an ephah 📖 of flour. He put the meat in a basket and put the broth in a pot and brought them out to him under the oak and presented them.
20 📚And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes and lay them on this rock and pour out the broth”. And he did so. 21 📚Then the angel of the LORD stretched out the end of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire 📖 came up out of the rock and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the LORD departed from his sight.
22 📚And when Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the LORD, Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face 📖”.
23 📚And the LORD said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear. You will not die”.
24 📚Then Gideon built an altar 📖 there to the LORD and called it Jehovah Shalom 📖. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
25 📚And it came about on the same night that the LORD said to him, “Take your father’s young bull, the seven year old second bull, and throw down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah grove that is by it,
26 📚and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of this rock, in the ordered way. And take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which you cut down”.
27 📚Then Gideon took ten of his male servants and did as the LORD told him. But it was like this: he did not do it in daylight, because he was afraid 📖 of his father’s household and the men of the city; so he did it at night.
28 And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, see, the altar of Baal was thrown down and the grove by it was cut down and the second bull was offered on the altar that was built.
29 And they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And when they made a search and inquired, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing”.
30 📚Then the men of the city said to Joash, “Bring out your son to die 📖, because he has thrown down the altar of Baal and because he has cut down the grove that was by it”.
31 📚And Joash said to all who stood against him, “Will you plead for Baal? Will you save him? May the one who pleads for him be put to death while it is still morning. If he is a god, let him plead for himself, because someone has thrown down his altar 📖”. 32 📚Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal 📖, saying, “Let Baal plead against him, because he has thrown down his altar”.
33 📚Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the eastern peoples gathered together and crossed over and camped in the valley of Jezreel 📖. 34 📚But the Spirit of the LORD came on Gideon 📖, and he blew a trumpet 📖; and the Abiezerites were called out to follow him. 35 📚And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh 📖, who was also called out to follow him. And he sent messengers to Asher and to Zebulun and to Naphtali; and they came up to meet them.
Gideon wants a second sign
36 📚And Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, 37 📚see, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; and if the dew comes only on the fleece, and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said”. 38 📚And it happened like that. For he got up early the next day and squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew from the fleece, a bowl full of water.
39 📚And Gideon said to God, “Let not your anger burn against me, and I will speak just once more. I pray you, please let me test with the fleece just once more. Now let the fleece be dry and let there be dew all over the ground”.
6:2-3 Midian was not strong enough alone to subjugate Israel. Midian had allies in the Amalekites and other peoples in the region. And God was working against Israel because of its sins (v 1).⚜
40 And God did so that night. For only the fleece was dry and there was dew all over the ground.
6:36-40 Gideon should have believed the promise and the sign God had already given (vs 14,16,21). But God did not rebuke Gideon for asking for another sign. He was willing to stoop to Gideon’s weakness and meet his need of further assurance. He knew that by nature Gideon was a fearful and cautious man (vs 15,27; Jud 7:10). Ps 103:13-14 is always true.⚜