Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 6:11

And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which [was] in Ophrah, that [pertained] unto Joash the Abi-ezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide [it] from the Midianites.

11 24. The call of Gideon. Sequel of 2 6a

11. the angel of the Lord ] i.e. Jehovah Himself in manifestation; see on Jdg 2:1. Closely parallel are the appearances in Jdg 13:3-23 and Genesis 18 J; the Angel or Messenger appears in human form, and in the end is recognized as Jehovah; cf. also Gen 16:7-14 J, Gen 32:24-30 J (cf. Hos 12:4 f.), Exo 3:2-6 E. Here the Angel shews himself in the guise of a ‘traveller unknown,’ resting under a tree, with a staff in his hand. Both here and in ch. 13 the thought and language contain much in common with the narratives of J in the Pentateuch.

the oak ] Marg. terebinth, Hebr. ’lh; it is better to keep the rendering oak for the Hebr. ’allh, ’alln. The terebinth or turpentine tree bears a resemblance to the oak, but it grows singly, not in clumps. The terebinth at Ophrah was no doubt a sacred tree, hence the Angel appeared under it; for the same reason Jehovah appeared ‘among the terebinths of Mamre’ Gen 18:1; cf. Gen 13:18 J. Sacred trees are still to be met with in Palestine (Curtis, Primitive Sem. Religion To-day, pp. 90 ff.).

in Ophrah ] called O. of the Abiezrites in Jdg 6:24, Jdg 8:32, to distinguish it from the Benjamite Ophrah Jos 18:23 , 1Sa 13:17. The town probably lay to the S. of the Great Plain and not far from Shechem (ch. 9), but the site is unknown. The tree, not Ophrah, was the property of Joash; in the parallel account, Jdg 6:25-32, it is the local altar which belonged to him. Abiezer was a clan of Manasseh, Num 26:30, Jos 17:2.

the winepress ] where the grapes were trodden. It was a tank or trough (Hebr. gath) excavated in the rock, and connected by a drain with the wine vat (Hebr. yeeb Jdg 7:25), into which the juice ran. As the threshing-floor ( Jdg 6:37) was always situated in an exposed place, Gideon had to use the winepress in order to escape notice, and there the corn could only be ‘beaten out’ with a stick in small quantities at a time; cf. Rth 2:17.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

An oak – The oak, indicating it as a well-known tree, still standing in the writers days.

There was another Ophrah in Benjamin Jos 18:23. This Ophrah was in Manasseh, and was the village of Joash, the head, apparently, of the family of Abiezer, which was one of the families of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh Num 26:30.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Jdg 6:11-24

There came an Angel of the Lord . . . Gideon threshed wheat.

Gideons angelic visitor

I. That a man, when actively and unostentatiously doing his duty, is best fitted for the reception of heavenly visitants.

II. That, however unconscious of the fact a man may be, God is really quickening him when he is on the path of duty.

III. That afflictions are not always proofs of the divine displeasure, but are frequently sent as incentives to increased exertion on our part.

IV. That Gods thoughts are not as our thoughts.

V. That we should not foolishly and profanely call on God to show us fresh individual signs.

VI. That we should offer of our best to God.

VII. That our earthly offerings are cleansed by their consecration to Gods service.

VIII. That the first step in righteousness is to purify the heart from its false idols, and that the second step is to set up in it an altar to the true God.

IX. That our earliest efforts towards goodness wilt, probably meet with opposition from our companions.

X. That when we are attacked by the scorners, help rises often from the most unexpected quarters.

XI. That religion should not be a hindrance to the performance of our duty, or to the enjoyment of any innocent pleasure, but an incentive to both duty and pleasure.

XII. That the first result of an angelic visitant to the soul of man, in whatever way through the Holy Spirits action that visitant may come, is fear; the second result is peace; and the third is immortality.(R. Young, M. A.)

Gideons interview with the angel

Amongst the various important lessons which the history of Israel sets before us, none are more plainly marked than this, viz.

I. Sin carries its own punishment. Seven years did this bondage and misery continue. In all that time we do not hear one cry of repentance, nor see one act of faith in the true God, on the part of Israel. They hardened their heart under the sore affliction, and stiffened their neck under the galling yoke. Their sustenance was gone, their enemies held them in cruel subjection, and yet the cause of all the calamity was fostered and maintained; Israel worshipped Baal instead of Jehovah. Oh, how hard the heart becomes when it is in Satans keeping! But at last, being convinced that no other means would bring relief, they cried unto the Lord.

II. As the first verse of this chapter connects the sin with the punishment, so the seventh verse connects the prayer with the answer: It came to pass, when Israel cried unto the Lord because of the Midianites, the Lord sent a prophet. He might have said by the voice of that prophet, It is now too late to cry for deliverance. The door of mercy has been standing open during the seven years of your captivity, and ye would not enter; now it is shut, and ye cannot. But Israels God was a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and of great goodness. And now whose history is this? Is it the history of the perverse and rebellious Israelites only? No, it is your history and mine. It is the history of that sin-distressed soul who is now perhaps weeping to hear it told. Yes, says the penitent man, it is the account of my past life: I served other gods, I went astray, I did very wickedly year after year; I hardened myself even against His chastening hand; and it was of His mercy that I was not then consumed. But He let me alone, one year after another; till at length I began to think that for all these things God would bring me into judgment; I cried unto the Lord, and He heard me. He might have frowned me from His presence; He might have upbraided me for my long rebellion; but like the tender father of the prodigal son, He welcomed me back. But when God had heard the cry of penitent Israel, and had determined to come down to deliver them, what were the means taken for this purpose? It is a national concern: shall not the chief men of the nation receive the first intimation of it? It is a matter of general importance: shall not immediate publicity be given to it? No, the Lords way is not as ours; He is pleased to do it in a manner which shall show that He can raise up any instrument, and work by any means, in order that the pride of man may be abased, that the glory of the deliverance may be all His own, and that He alone may be exalted. He comes to a poor humble individual; and the beginning of the mighty work which He was about to perform is told us in these simple words: There came an angel of the Lord, and sat under an oak that was in Ophrah. We mark next some points in Gideons character.

1. His consistency and decision. Notwithstanding his retired situation, he had testified, it seems, against the prevailing idolatry; and even in his fathers house had kept himself from his fathers sins. Let it comfort those who are serving God alone in their families to think of Gideon and Gods favour towards him. You are not alone; and greater is He that is with you than they that are against you.

2. Mark, next, Gideons ardent patriotism. He does not distinguish himself from the rest of Israel, though God does. He identifies himself with his country. His thoughts were bent upon the welfare of Israel, as his prayers were offered up for it. It would be well if we were to endeavour, in our individual capacity, while walking humbly with our God, to serve the land in which we live. We may not be called to fight her battles, but we can pray for the peace of our Jerusalem. We may not be called to high public situations in life, but we may do private good, both temporal and spiritual. We have all a talent to exercise and to account for. Oh, see to it, that by your means your country is in some measure benefited.

3. Lastly, we are told from whence Gideons might and valour were derived: The Lord looked on him, and said, Go in this thy might, and I will be with thee; and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. The Lord looked on him. Oh! what a look was that! what a smile of encouragement cast on Gideon by his God! what a token of love! what a communication of strength and faith! Go in this thy might, says the angel, I will be with thee. Gideon need not any longer doubt or hesitate, after such encouragement as this. It is the word of the Lord; and Gideon has only to cast himself upon it in simple faith, and to act according to its precepts. May we be as sensible of our own insufficiency as Gideon was of his: and, at the same time, as strong as he was in the Lord, and in the power of His might, and may the Lord look upon you as He did upon Gideon, in mercy! (F. Elwin.)

Gideons triumph

I. the distress of Gods people is caused by their own sin. God turns His forces against those who forget Him, and makes use of those who are His own foes to punish His own people.

II. God can always raise up instruments to accomplish his purposes when he needs.

III. The utility and the strength depend on the call of God.

IV. Humility is the distinguishing mark of the brave. How seldom do men deprecate their own importance! To form a low estimate of our own abilities not only keeps us from the danger of pride with its attendant snares, but is a test of character. It is not the learned who are proud, nor the skilful, nor the wise. The empty head, like the empty drum, makes the most noise.

V. The service of God demands unrestricted devotion to His cause.

VI. however valuable the services of the agent may be, God claims, as His just due, the glory of the transaction.

VII. We cannot doubt of success when God takes a matter in hand, and gives His promise of aid. (Homilist.)

Gideons call to service

This ancient history carries us back to a period when Gods Israel was in poverty and want. It was not the action of laws passed in the interests of landowners which led to their misery; it came through the oppression of a foreign foe, whose merciless treatment of the people scarcely left them the means of life. They did evil in the sight of the Lord may be written across the history of most suffering and sadness. This is the tap-root of much of our suffering and inconvenience. This is the poison which destroys our life.

I. the text says it was an angel which came to call Gideon.

II. Notice how the angel found Gideon engaged when he came to call him. The angel found Gideon at work. Work is honourable. God has often put honour upon the lowly worker. Let no man say that work is degrading, that work is low; to be an idler, to be a drone, is to be dishonoured.

III. See the angels estimate of Gideon. The angel addressed Gideon as thou mighty man of valour. What! A man in apparent poverty; a man threshing a bit of wheat with his own strength; a man having to prepare his very food in secret, lest it should be stolen; that man called by the angel a mighty man of valour! Poor, yet valiant! Ah, but you say, that belongs to an old world time. We have altered all this now. Yes, indeed, we have made some changes, and changes which have not always been for the better. We call men noble now who are often ignoble. It is about time that we recognised to the full that poor men may be valiant men, and that lowly men may be noble men. Tis only noble to be good. Thousands of people, like Gideon, toil in secret, and are not known to fame, but are among the valiant and the mighty. Earths scroll has no page for their names in golden writing, but the angels of God have written them down in the Lambs book of life in heaven.

IV. Gideons complaint to the angel. I suppose we all find it easy to thank God and see God with us when all goes well. But wait until the lark sinks songless to his nest, and the path of life becomes a wearisome journey, filled with stones and thorns; wait until sickness, sorrow, and bereavement enter the dwelling; wait until the man stands in the darkness of a foggy night of pain, loss, and despair; how does he act then? How did you act when you were in this condition? Were you any better than Gideon? Could you see the Lord in it? And yet few things are more true in the experience of good men than the presence of God and the love of God in the loss and pain. (C. Leach, D. D.)

The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.–

The man of valour

1. That valour does not despise lowly but necessary occupations.

2. That valour is not incompatible with caution.

3. That valour may have its misgivings.

4. That valour may walk in the darkness of the Divine hidings.

I. Valour is a Divine gift.

II. Valour is developed by the Divine presence.

III. Valour is more enlarged by the Divine vision.

IV. Valour feels a sublime awe. Fear God in order to be delivered from all false human fear.

V. Valour is prompt to obey. Moral hindrances must be removed before material success can be secured.

VI. Valour braves the consequences. Duty is ours, results are Gods. (W. Burrows, B. A.)

Invisible might

I. Valour unknown. Gideon was pronounced by the angel who appeared unto him as a mighty man of valour. But did Gideon know his own might? It would seem that, as a valorous man, he was as much unknown to himself as he was unknown to Israel or to his enemies. His valour was real, but untried. His valour was living, but dormant. His valour was mighty, but un-exercised. Oft, too, is valorous faith unknown until it is tried. Great occasions make great men. Great trials make great believers. Faith as a grain of mustard-seed is as strong in its principle as is the faith which moves a mountain. But it needs growth and development. Unconscious strength is often the most potent. You cannot cast him down who is already low. You cannot rend him from the Rock of Ages who is resting on Christ as the chief of sinners. There is unspeakable comfort in the fact that this man of valour was unconscious of his might until the angel revealed to him his secret power. Many a faint-hearted believer is overcoming the world (1Jn 5:4-5) unconsciously to himself. His might is hidden, but it is no less real.

II. Valours weakness. The sun is often under a cloud. So is faith. The cloud, however, does not change the nature of the sun. Nor do beclouding dispensations, which chill the soul, affect the true nature of its faith. The Christian is often a paradox to himself. He is weak and strong at the same moment. When I am weak, then am I strong, said one of the greatest believers. It is the nature of faith, not the quantity, which determines the character, said an eminent divine; and he added, Samson was a riddle to me till I unriddled myself. He was an inconsistent believer. Gideon is named with Samson among the mighty believers in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. We shall now see his inconsistent weakness. The causes of it are laid open before us.

1. He was now walking by sight, and not by faith. He could see no tokens of the Lords presence; and therefore, in reply to the salutation, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour, he said, in the weakness of unbelief, Oh! my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? Once suffer doubt to hint at the bare possibility that it may not be exactly true in all cases, at all times, that God is not a man, that He should lie, and faith will lose its foothold, and stumble.

2. Gideon overlooked Gods justice and mans sin. Why then is all this befallen us? The reason was patent. Surely Gideon could not have closed his eyes to all the idolatry in the land! The chastisement of the Lords people may often be traced up to the same cause. Does the afflicted child of God ask, Why is all this befallen me? He need not question the cause. It is not because the Lord is not with him. Far from it. It is the true vine that is purged. The barren fig-tree is plucked up by the roots and cast away. But there is some evil permitted, some idol worshipped, some idolatrous altar erected.

3. Hard thoughts of God were mixed with Gideons faith. Now the Lord hath forsaken us, he murmured. Was this true? The Lord had just sent a prophet to them, in answer to their prayer (verses 7, 8). Israel had forsaken the Lord, but the Lord had not forsaken Israel. His rod over them proved that He had not given them over to their sins.

4. False humility was another ingredient in the weak faith of Gideon. Thou shalt save Israel, said the Lord: have not I sent thee? This twofold promise should have been enough for any emergency. What could a creature need more? But Gideon, instead of fixing his eye of faith upon the Lord alone, began to think of himself. And he said, in reply, 0 Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my fathers house (verse 15). Wherein would his confidence have been placed had his family been the richest in Manasseh and he the greatest in his fathers house? There was a leaning to the arm of flesh in all this. Proud humility is a fearful bane of the soul. It apes the most retiring and modest graces of the Spirit; but it usurps the throne and sovereignty of Jehovah. Under its mask Satan robs believers of their comfort and the Church of their zeal. Were the creature made nothing, and Jehovah everything, what Goliath could resist the sling and the stone of the veriest stripling?

III. But now we turn and behold valours might. Gideon was a mighty man of valour notwithstanding all the weakness of his faith. We naturally ask, wherein was his might? What was its source? In himself he was as weak as a babe.

1. The Lords presence was one great source of valours might. The Lord is with thee. Surely I will be with thee. Here was might irresistible. No enemy can withstand the presence of the Lord.

2. The Lords look was another source of valours might. The Lord looked upon Gideon, and said, Go in this thy might. The Lords look of grace and love imparts strength to the soul.

3. The Lords promise was one chief source of valours might. Faith lives upon promise. It is its food and daily sustenance. It is the very sinew of its might. Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. Thou shalt save Israel. These were the promises with which Gideon was to wage war and overcome. Promise is to faith what the rope is to the drowning man. Faith begins to rise from despair to hope by promise. Promise, descending into the heart of faith, rises like water to its own level, and upbears the reposing soul to the very throne and bosom of God. Promise, like light issuing from the sun, cannot be polluted by earths contamination. It is pure in whatever degree it shineth. It cometh from one source, and tendeth to one end.

4. The command of the Lord, no less than promise, was the warrant of faith, and a chief source of valours might. Go, saith the Lord. Have not I sent thee? The Captain of our salvation speaks as one having authority. Who can resist His will? Does He say, Go? Who, then, shall be able to let, or hinder, the servant in doing his Masters behest? Does he say, Go, without providing grace and strength equal to the need of going? True faith is an obedient grace. Let but the Lord issue His command, and faith will answer, Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth. (G. A. Rogers, M. A.)

If the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us?–

Gideons attitude partly right and partly wrong

He was right in refusing to believe God was present if things went on just as if He were not present, but he was wrong in not seeing what it was that prevented God from being present. He was right in arguing, What God was, He is; why then does He not do for us what He did for our fathers? He was right in debating with himself, and asking Is this what it means to be Gods people? What is the use of living at this price? But he was wrong in thinking that the fault lay with God, and not with himself; wrong in not seeing his very obvious duty, which, until he performed, God could not be expected to work for Israel. Just so we are right in refusing to accept a religion which makes no practical difference upon us; right in impatiently throwing aside the mere traditional assurances whereby men soothe sinners and promise them deliverance; right in looking straight at the facts of our own experience, and testing religion by its power on ourselves; but we often add to this the mistake of Gideon, and fall out with God for not interfering more powerfully in our behalf, when it is we ourselves who are preventing Him from so interfering. You wait for God to do something, while He is waiting for you. If you are not able to use Gods strength, if you might as well be heathen for all the moral help you get from God, then depend upon it there is something wrong in your conduct towards God, some plain duty you are neglecting. (Marcus Dods, D. D.)

Gideons lament

Can we not catch some echoes of Gideons complaint in the thoughts that are cherished among ourselves? That God wrought wonders once, that He raised up men to open new views of His truth and of His will and thus renewed the Churchs strength, and sent her forth conquering and to conquer–all this we hold, of course. We call the man who doubts it an infidel or a heretic. But the man who believes that similar things may take place in our day, who believes, for instance, that God makes His will as plain in ways suited to our time as He did in other ways at former times–does not such a man run great risk of being called an enthusiast or a fool? That any man now may be guided in actual fact, and guided unerringly, by God in common life, or that things going on among us may be as important and as Divine as what was done in any former age, is an assertion that few would dare to make. If we are sensible of the strange contradiction implied in our thus demanding credence for such things in the past as we deny the very possibility of in the present, we shall the better understand Gideons state of mind when the angel of the Lord appeared to him. (W. Miller, M. A.)

How to treat doubters

God be with you! said the stranger. Gideon flung down his flail. God be with us? Dont talk nonsense, man! Would I be skulking in this wine press, would we Hebrews be cowering before those pagan Midianites, if God were with us? They say God was with us when we came out of Egypt, and that He did great miracles when Joshua conquered this land. Ah! if that is true, then He has gone away and left us now. Dont talk to me about God, when facts prove that there is no God with us. How do you think a modern minister of the orthodox type would have treated a man who had spoken in that fashion about God? Not as the angel treated Gideon. I fear the modern minister would have said, Here is a most dangerous, blasphemous sceptic, all wrong in his views, full of heretical, unsettling, dangerous feelings and ideas; and he would have sought to argue with him and to put him right. What did the angel? He looked at him, knew he was wrong in blaming God in that fashion, but also that he was right to refuse to accept a religion that had lost all its nobility and bravery, that had no backbone in it. The angel said: Go in this thy might, thy spirit that cannot tolerate this degradation of Gods people, that rises against this wrong; go thou, and be the leader in Jehovahs name, and set things right. The Church would be a good deal wiser if it always took care to distinguish between the doubt of corruption and worldliness, the cold, callous, sneering doubt, and the doubt of a brave young heart that doubts because religion is so poor an affair, that doubts because of the great wrongs in the world, because of the deeds of evil that sin works, that doubts precisely because it is crying for the reality. We should go to every such man and say: My brother, you are not an infidel; you are called to be a religious man beyond the common. You are not an atheist. God has hold of you, and wants you for Himself. Go and do something heroic, and show that Gods religion is the mightiest force. Go and demand the reality, and win a victory for God and His kingdom such as the world has never seen yet. (Prof. G. A Smith.)

Brotherhood illustrated by Gideons reply

There is here an example of largeness in heart and mind which we ought not to miss, especially because it sets before us a principle often unrecognised. Iris clear enough that Gideon could not enjoy freedom unless his country was free, for no man can be safe in an enslaved land; but many fail to see that spiritual redemption in like manner cannot be enjoyed by one unless others are moving towards the light. Truly salvation is personal at first and personal at last; but it is never an individual affair only. Each for himself must hear and answer the Divine call to repentance; each as a moral unit must enter the strait gate, press along the narrow way of life, agonise and overcome. But the redemption of one soul is part of a vast redeeming purpose, and the fibres of each life are interwoven with those of other lives far and wide. Spiritual brotherhood is a fact but faintly typified by the brotherhood of the Hebrews, and the struggling soul to-day, like Gideons long ago, must know God as the Saviour of all men before a personal hope can be enjoyed worth the having. As Gideon showed himself to have the Lord with him by a question charged not with individual anxiety but with keen interest in the nation, so a man now is seen to have the Spirit of God as he exhibits a passion for the regeneration of the world. Salvation is enlargement of soul, devotion to God, and to man for the sake of God. If any one thinks he is saved while he bears no burdens for others, makes no steady effort to liberate souls from the tyranny of the false and the vile, he is in fatal error. The salvation of Christ plants always in men and women His mind, His law of life, who is the Brother and Friend of all. (R. A. Watson, M. A.)

Providence not to be judged from a narrow point of view

Crossing the great deep at night, lying sleeplessly and perhaps painfully in your berth, longing for the light without much hope that it will bring you comfort, what hear you? The surge of the water, the moan of the wind, and the tinkle of a bell. That bell has no sooner told its tale of time than a voice in a sing-song tone says, Alls well, alls well! It is the man on the look-out. You say: How can all be well when I am not sleeping? How can all be well when I am sick and in pain? How can all be well when I am not at home, and the children are longing for me? There is a higher law than your sleeplessness, your pain, and your childs desire for your presence. Within those limits you are right–all is not well–but in the higher sphere, that takes in a larger area and commands a wider outlook, alls well, alls well. So it is with this marvellous mystery, this strange providence. I am sick, and tired, and heart-broken, misunderstood, and belied, and slandered, and ill-fed, and battered down, saith the Christian man, but the angel on the look-out says, Alls well, alls well! The vessel has her face straight home, and the sea is yielding to give her passageway. Alls well, alls well. (J. Parker, D. D.)

The Lord looked upon him.–

The look of God

I. The chief features of such looks.

1. An implied promise (Jer 24:6).

2. An implied encouragement.

3. An implied help.

II. The chief conditions for their bestowal.

1. Cultivation of various graces–love and obedience, contrition and reverence, godliness, hope, and uprightness.

2. Attitude of expectancy. If God is looking down to bless us, we must look up to meet His gaze. Our attitude must be, As the eyes, etc. Our determination must be, In the morning will I, etc. Then our history will be, They looked unto Him, etc.

III. The chief purpose of these looks–accompanied by a command: Go. Do you ask, where? Go anew and daily in faith and penitence, to a Fathers footstool, and as by faith you know He is looking graciously on you in Christ, go to the discharge of your daily duties in the might of His strengthening grace, and the Lord will go before you. Go through the obstacles which have hitherto impeded you. (Homilist.)

A look, a word, and a question

I. What a look was that which the Lord gave to Gideon! He looked him out of his discouragements into a holy bravery. If our look to the Lord saves us, what will not His look at us do? Lord, look on me this day, and nerve me for its duties and conflicts.

II. What a word was this which Jehovah spake to Gideon! Go. He must not hesitate. He might have answered, What, go in all this weakness? But the Lord put that word out of court by saying, Go in this thy might. The Lord had looked might into him, and he had now nothing to do but to use it, and save Israel by smiting the Midianites. It may be that the Lord has more to do by me than I ever dreamed of. If He has looked upon me He has made me strong. Let me by faith exercise the power with which He has entrusted me. He never bids me idle away my time in this my might. Far from it. I must go, because He strengthens me.

III. What a question is that which the Lord puts to me, even as He put it to Gideon! Have not I sent thee? Yes, Lord, Thou hast sent me, and I will go in Thy strength. At Thy command I go, and, going, I am assured that Thou wilt conquer by me. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Go in this thy might . . . have not I sent thee?—

Gideons commission

I. The sanction given: The Lord looked upon him. Oh, what a mercy ! His father might have looked upon him long enough, and surnamed him Jerubbaal or what he pleased, but it would have been no use unless the Lord had looked upon him. But there are many senses in which the Lord looks upon His people, and upon His enemies too. He looked upon the affliction of His people in Egypt: I have looked upon them, and have come down to deliver them. He looked upon David in all his affliction. Then, again, you will remember how the Lord looked upon Peter. What a significant and expressive look! But, to put these matters a little more into form, mark, first of all, that Gideon seemed as if he would avoid all lookers-on. He was withdrawn from observation. Some of the sweetest seasons in which God looks upon His people are when they are retired. And hence the direction given by our blessed Lord, But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, etc. Now just look again at this great sanction from above. While Jehovah looks from His high throne upon the objects of His love to inspire them for His special work and for the great objects to which He has appointed them, He withdraws their affections from other objects and leads them forth with an ardent desire to glorify God in His work.

II. The command: Go in this thy might. Why, I do not know that Gideon had confessed to possess any might; on the contrary, he had concealed himself from time to time from all those very enemies he was about to vanquish. He said unto the Lord, Wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my fathers house. Well, now, if I first of all view this as typical of Christ, did not He spring from a poor family? Yet He was the Captain of the Lords host. But–mark this–all glory to His name, it was His own essential might. I beseech you, lose not sight of this all-important fact, to which, I think, Gideons history points typically–that Christ had the whole matter with regard to the salvation of His Church entrusted to His care; therefore is it written, that He hath laid help upon one that is mighty and exalted–one chosen out of the people. I come to the secondary view–I mean the sending of Gods own servants; because, while I allow no efficiency whatever to be ascribed to them, yet are they instrumentally employed for the express purpose of saving Israel out of the hands of the Midianites. Now, have you not Omnipotence pledged in your personal experience? If you have not you have got no experience at all. It was Omnipotence that broke your hearts, and subdued you at the feet of Jesus. God humbles the sinner thus; He lays us low, strips us of all confidence, makes us deeply conscious of creature-weakness and insufficiency, so as not to be sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; and then we get the pledge of Omnipotence on our side. We may well go forth thus to the war armed with strength–Go in this thy might. Well, but how could it be said to be his? Why, what is freer than a gift? It was given him–it was his might–in this thy might. No man is strong but he who is strong in Jehovahs might.

III. The promise of success: And thou shalt save Israel from the hands of the Midianites–cruel and vexatious, always to be wanting the territories of Israel. I must here refer you back again to the commandment of God at an earlier period than this with regard to these Midianites. After Balaam had instructed Balak how to seduce Gods Israel, the commandment came from the Lord, Vex the Midianites and smite them, for they vex you with their wiles. Here we might include in this vast multitude, like grasshoppers for number, all the opposers of Gods gospel, all the enemies of His Cross. But to bring this matter nearer home. The Midianites that every Christian has to contend with he finds in his own camp, in his own tent, within his own heart. Now mark the simple process of the war. I do not read that there was a weapon of war in any of their hands, but they were to go forth under the simple direction of Gideon. Now look at their weapons. Each man was to have a trumpet, a pitcher and a lamp inside. Pretty things to go to war with, truly! Well, then, but while we glance at the simplicity of the means thus employed, and the cry that went forth, The sword of the Lord and of Gideon! mark that the Midianites all fled. (J. Irons.)

Gideons might

In Gideons attitude of mind a human observer would have seen nothing but weakness, and yet God saw might. The Divine eye penetrated to the very depths of Gideons spirit and character, and saw in his seeming weakness the very qualities out of which spiritual heroes are made. For in spiritual achievements a man is mighty in proportion to his capacity to receive Divine help, just as a steam-engine is mighty in proportion to its capacity to receive and utilise the largest possible amount of steam. Gideons might, then, consisted–

1. In his whole-hearted loyalty to God. He was evidently among the few who remained true to Jehovah. And his first act was to strike a blow at the idolatry of the land. The first condition of spiritual strength and success is to give our hearts to God in profound loyalty. There is an idolatry of the spirit which must be put away before we can do any work for God.

2. In his humble dependence upon God. Gideons touching confession of his own insufficiency reminds us that this spirit is characteristic of the great men of the Bible–Moses (Exo 3:11), Jeremiah (Jer 1:6-7), Paul (Eph 3:8). Out of conscious weakness these men were made strong for the work to which they had been called. God has often chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.

3. In his profound faith in God. Gideon is mentioned in Heb 11:1-40 as one of those who through faith . . . out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. God tenderly nourished it by giving signs of encouragement–sacrifice consumed, wet and dry fleece, visit to the Midianites camp–until it was strong enough to venture on the perilous enterprise with the little band of three hundred men.

4. In his consciousness of a Divine mission. Have not I sent thee? (verse 14). This is Gods answer to human weakness shrinking from a difficult and dangerous task. When a man realises this he possesses a might not his own (Joh 17:18). There was not only a Divine commission, but also a promise of the Divine presence: Surely I will be with thee (verse 16). But still something more was needed, and that was the touch of the Spirit. The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon. (J. T. Hamly.)

Gods call, and the response to it

It is the call of God that ripens a life into power, resolve, fruitfulness–the call and the response to it. Continually the Bible urges upon us this great truth, that through the keen sense of a close personal relation to God and of duty owing to Him the soul grows and comes to its own. Our human personality is created in that way, and in no other. There are, indeed, lives which are not so inspired and yet appear strong; an ingenious, resolute selfishness gives them momentum. But this individuality is akin to that of ape or tiger; it is a part of the earth force, in yielding to which a man forfeits his proper being and dignity. Look at Napoleon, the supreme example in history of this failure. A great genius, a striking character! Only in the carnal region, for human personality is moral, spiritual, and the most triumphant cunning does not make a man; while on the other hand from a very moderate endowment put to the glorious usury of Gods service will grow a soul clear, brave, and firm, precious in the ranks of life. Let a human being, however ignorant and low, hear and answer the Divine summons, and in that place a man appears, one who stands related to the source of strength and light. And when a man, roused by such a call, feels responsibility for his country, for religion, the hero is astir. Something will be done for which mankind waits. (R. A. Watson, M. A.)

Gideons obedience to Gods call

Gideon, observe, was not unwilling to go forward in the cause of God and Gods people; on the contrary, he was most ready to do so; but without an outward call he never would have taken the lead. Nevertheless, when the call was repeated and so made plain, no account was made of difficulties. In full view of them Gideon determined to obey. Now he evidently had no suspicion yet of the supernatural character of his visitor. It was not, therefore, any sign from heaven that compelled him to crush down his hesitation. It was the inward voice of conscience, awakened by what he believed to be an ordinary communication from God, that led him on. He asked, indeed, for a sign from heaven, but it was to strengthen him to keep his resolution, not to enable him to form it. Here was the true spirit of faith. Here was the root of the success that came so gloriously afterwards. Submission, consent when once Gods will is known; resolution to do that will in spite of difficulties–that is the spirit to which signs are given; that is the spirit by which success is won. The man or the Church that makes visible success, or signs of any kind, a condition of bending all their energy to the doing of Gods will, is not among those by whom deliverance is wrought or the families of the earth blessed. To those who yield, like Gideon, to the will of God so soon as it is made clear, signs of acceptance and encouragement come thereafter, and often come with but small delay. (W. Miller, M. A.)

Surely I will be with thee.–

The Divine afflatus

Whatever ground there was for taking exception to Gideons faith in God, this, at all events, there seems to be every reason to believe, that he had learned to refer all success to the presence and blessing of the Lord. The language he employs (Jdg 6:13) necessarily implies this. But still much required to be done before he should be qualified to act the distinguished part for which he was destined; and accordingly we are informed (Jdg 6:14) that by some method here unexplained–some secret and mysterious afflatus of the Spirit imparted on that occasion–it pleased the Lord to make up what was wanting in his faith, and in whatever else was still manifestly defective. The Lord looked upon him! Ah! who knows what was in that look! It was not a look of anger or displeasure. It was not a mere look of compassion, nor of benevolence and favour. There seems to have been something above nature in it, not unlike that memorable glance with which Jesus smote Peter to the heart, so that he rushed out of the house and wept bitterly; the influence which accompanied the look which the Lord cast on Gideon was of a different character, indeed, but it was not less potential. It was Gideons commission. Along with it seems to have come all the wisdom, all the might, all the valour, all the strategic skill which he needed in order to fit him for the grand expedition in which he was soon to act so prominent a part. Let us learn the following important practical lessons:–

1. The Lord often anticipates the desires of His people, and grants them what they need even before they ask it. Indeed, in every case He may be said, in one sense, to give before we ask, because if He did not by His Holy Spirit vouchsafe unto us grace to pray, which of us would ever pray for grace? But if He is so ready to grant before we ask, how much more is He ready to grant when we do ask in faith all things whatsoever we require.

2. A lowly sense of our own deserts is at once a sign that exaltation is at hand, the way to it, and the occasion of it. Diffidence, humility, modesty, unobtrusiveness, are among the highest recommendations in the sight of God. He resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Before honour is humility, and pride goeth before a fall.

3. If we be indeed of the true Israel of God, we may rest assured that the Lord will be with us, and cause us to triumph over all our foes.

4. It is unbecoming the Christian to be too anxious or too careful about the designs of God concerning him. To Gideons question, Wherewith shall I save Israel? no explicit answer, it will be remembered, was vouchsafed. His curiosity was rebuked as a sign of remaining unbelief. Let us repose like little children in the bosom of the Fathers promise. (W. W. Duncan, M. A.)

Thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.–

War

What shall we say as to the moral character of this transaction? We must not let our affection or veneration for old traditions blind us to the difficulty of the question. But common sense has suggested to me one or two considerations. First of all, our judgment is apt to be prejudiced here, because men in our time, we English people in particular, have come to think rather falsely about war. A profounder apprehension of the lovely Christlike spirit of our religion, coupled with a good many less worthy influences, such as the peaceableness and security of our sea-girt life in these isles, have all combined to give us a great horror of war; not because of the sin and iniquity of it, but because it means wounds and bloodshed, and robbery of our property and death. Now indubitably every rational man will say that, were our world free from selfishness and sin, war could not exist in it. Therefore it has its roots in iniquity. Nevertheless, like many other things that are evils in themselves, war may be used, under Gods providential government of the world, to cure worse evils, acting remedially like the surgeons knife, and bringing renewed life to the nation and the individual. In the second place, I wish to add another consideration. I venture to say that all of us, in our historical judgment and in our ethical and religious teaching, probably have fallen into error, in that we overvalue mere physical human life. If anything is manifest in this world, it is that the material life counts for very little in Gods sight; that the material life is mere scaffolding, the machinery by which or the platform on which the mental, moral, and ethical life is to be built up. Over and over again, in the pathological history of our human race, we find that God has sacrificed millions of lives to compel men to be pure and dignified in their bodily and moral habits. Apply this to war. Though it be a scourge and an exterminator, it has nevertheless a wonderful potential force in it to produce bravery, courage, ability of every description. War may thus be used to elevate the moral and mental worth of our race. I fear it is our tendency in the present day to make too much of physical comfort and physical life. On that account we recoil unduly when God has wrought out benefit for our race as a whole through terrible trial, affliction, discipline, suffering, and self-sacrifice; as, for example, by wars in which cruel despotisms, tyrannous, inferior, and sanguinary races have succumbed before superior moral or mental worth. I am afraid, too, we do not deal out fair measure to our predecessors. We are ready to censure these Hebrews for the cruel treatment they often meted out to prisoners of war. We are apt to say that the men who did such things could not, along with such a low moral character, have possessed a lofty, pure revelation of God or a knowledge of His character. But that is too hasty a judgment. Similarly we take a socialist book, describing life in the last generation, or in the present generation, in our England; we read the history of the horrors that produced the Factory Acts–how the wealthy capitalist lived in luxury, and grudged a diminution of his income that would have made the condition of workshops and the hours of labour such as would have averted the premature death of their operatives, of men, women, and children, until Parliament stepped in. We say those men who occupied the position of capitalists were fiends. But they were nothing of the kind; some of them were even eminent Christians. But Christianity had got into cursed blindness and ignorance on these points, and they belonged to their day and generation. At present, are we so very far above them? Is it not the fact that constantly you have great outbreaks of small-pox or scarlet fever spreading death in a hundred households which are due solely to carelessly scamped work? Have we not the horrors of the East End, and the City, and so on? But are we therefore all bad men? Not so. We are Christians in process of growing. These are evils we are only waking up to discover, the sins we have inherited, the Canaanites we have to destroy. If we apply the same measure to the Hebrews, we see that there was a real progress, a real working for good in a society that, in certain moral aspects, was low and degraded. Then again, as a matter of fact, the God that made our world has made this law, that wherever sin of a certain type and degree has come in, the retribution of moral obliquity and degradation has come in also, in the shape of annihilation at the hands of a superior race. That seems a cruel, hard thing; but nevertheless so it is. Moreover, to make it more mysterious, the conquering race is not always a superior race in the perfect sense. But we have not that complication here, for all old history testifies that the most blighting curse of false religion and the vilest sensuality of our world in these days lay in the religion of those Canaanites. Even classic, pagan writers say that blank atheism would have been better than that. Wherever Phoenicians established their colonies and their places of worship they introduced nameless vices and uncleannesses, and dignified them with the name of religion. And where these things were introduced they spread, so much so that the end of the great Roman empire was hastened, its old martial strength was rooted out, by the corruption that came in a direct line from that old Canaanitish religion. To justify what was done, therefore, we do not need to say that the conquerors were perfect and immaculate. All we need to be able to say is, that it was a deserved retribution, and that it was better for our world that Canaan should pass into the hands of the Hebrew nation, which has done the grandest moral and religious work for the world. (Prof. G. A. Smith.)

Shew me a sign that Thou talkest with me.–

The sign

When the Lord Jesus had risen from the dead, and first appeared to His disciples, they believed not for joy, and wondered. Their doubts, however, were soon removed by the sign which the Lord afforded them (Luk 24:41-43). We may well imagine that the feelings of Gideon were not altogether dissimilar to those of the disciples of our Lord, when the angel looked upon him and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee? These tidings were so welcome, and yet so marvellous, that Gideons faith staggered. He believed not for joy, and wondered. And then he sought a sign, to satisfy himself that he was in a waking state, that his senses were not deceiving him, and that the angel was not a mere phantom called up by a heated imagination. Shew me a sign that Thou talkest with me. Now, the sign which was given to Gideon was not altogether unlike in character to the sign which our blessed Lord gave to His disciples on His resurrection-morn. In both cases the emblems of peace and friendship were presented. In both cases the offering was accepted. In both cases it was consumed. Now, do not we need some sign that the Lord talketh with us, and hath come down to save us from the hand of our enemies? Our enemies are many and powerful. We need not now some audible voice, nor midnight dream, nor open vision, to assure us of pardon and salvation. Jesus Himself has given us a sign. We see it on Calvarys hill. Let us draw near and see this great sight.

I. Mark that this sign which Gideon received, was an appeal to the senses. Man is a compound being. God deals with him as such. There is not a faculty nor a gift with which man is endowed to which God does not appeal in the great matter of salvation. This is an important consideration. We are too apt to regard the atonement as a mere matter of faith. We believe it is something more; something greater, and something less. Gideon wished for a sign which his own hands could handle and his own eyes could see. God granted him this sign–a sign, be it remembered, of greater things promised. Now it is just this sign, or this appeal to the senses, which appears in the atonement of our Lord. One voice throughout the whole life and death and resurrection of Jesus seems to say, Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself (Luk 24:39). It is true that our own individual eyes have not seen Him, nor have our own ears heard Him speak, nor have our own hands handled His pierced side, but our fathers have had all these their senses satisfied–they saw, they heard, they handled, they believed, and they were saved. And is not this enough? Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed. Do we not receive the testimony of credible witnesses upon other matters of bygone fact? Through the senses of others, who lived ages ago, we embrace the facts recorded of ancient sages, of conquerors, of emperors. The great and the noble dead live over again in our minds. We should be held incredulous and inexcusable were we to throw aside all credible history because our own eyes could not test its accuracy. And what excuse shall we find in heaven if we reject or slight the testimony of others on the matter of salvation? But if, on the contrary, we embrace the sign which God has given us, and rely upon the wondrous facts of which they are signs, we then set to our seal that God is true. This is believing. This is acting faith in God. We trust God. We honour God. Our senses harmonise with the faculties of our soul.

II. We notice that this sign which the Lord gave unto Gideon was a confirmation of promises. The promises made to this mighty man of valour were of a twofold nature, as emphatically expressed in the fourteenth verse, The Lord said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. The Lords presence and the Lords deliverance were united. They always are so. They are inseparable. If the Lord be not with us, in vain shall we go forth against the Midianites. But if the Lord be with us, none can prevail against us. Salvation, both present and eternal, is included in the promise, I will be with thee. It is just this promise and blessing which are embodied in the name Jesus which bears the same interpretation as Immanuel, God with us.

III. The sign vouchsafed to Gideon was also an evidence of things not seen. It was an appeal to sense to strengthen faith. It proved to him that He who appeared as a man under the oak which was in Ophrah was none other than the Angel of the Lord–even the Angel of the everlasting covenant! It proved, moreover, that Gideon was called of God to deliver Israel. Oh, that he might succeed in the attempt! He had no riches, no name, no influence, no soldiers; but no matter, the Lord was indeed with him, and that was enough. He would now act up to the title which the Lord had given him, as a mighty man of valour, and Israel shall be delivered by the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. Now it is just this faith in an unseen presence and in an unfelt power which saves the soul from spiritual Midianites. Divine power alone is equal to cope with Satanic might. The sinner who wars against his sins, his lusts, his evil passions, his corrupt nature, in his own strength, soon proves his folly and his weakness. As regards all spiritual conquests, one word should at once check the vain conceit of the sinner, and strengthen the faith of the child of God: Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. Look you, then, for any sign that the Lord is with you–that He will deliver you, and make you victorious over all your enemies? Behold that sign upon the hard rock of Calvary! Behold it in that mysterious fire which arose therefrom! Behold it in the utter consumption of the sacrifice! Behold it in the ascent of the Lord Himself from off the altar to His throne of glory! What further sign can you need? (G. A. Rogers, M. A.)

Gideons sacrifice accepted

Give me a sign that Thou talkest with me. It may be said that this hesitation was Gideons infirmity. Connecting it, however, with the circumstance of its being himself that was called forth to the mighty work of Israels deliverance, I cannot but consider it as an evidence of his humility. Would to God that all our scruples with regard to engaging in the service of God arose from the same cause! What is the reason that, when we ask the co-operation of many in some labours of the Lords vineyard, they all, with one accord, begin to make excuse? Is it a humbling sense of their own unfitness for the work? If it were, we have an encouraging text in the Word of God, with which we might do away the difficulty: I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me. But when one goes to his farm, and another to his merchandise–in short, when men seek their own, and not the things which are Jesus Christs–how opposed are their characters to Gideons, whose only scruple about the work of God was, What am I, that I should deliver Israel? And would to God that when humility does appear to be the source of objections to the engaging in the promotion of the cause of religion, that humility were, like Gideons, real genuine humility, and not the cloak of hypocrisy, not a covering to conceal idleness and indifference.

I. On the circumstance which forms the text we may make two observations, viz., the manner in which the angel tried Gideons faith, and the manner in which he displayed his own power and Godhead.

1. We notice the manner in which the angel tried Gideons faith. He said, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes and lay them upon this rock; and pour out the broth. This was intended to make way for a miracle; that Gideons faith in the God who wrought it might, after this trial, become strong, according to the work which he was shortly to undertake. It will be remembered that Elijah made way for the miracle which God was about to work for the confusion of Baals prophets, by placing the sacrifice in the most unlikely state for consumption by fire. It seems to have been for the same purpose that the angel commanded Gideon to lay the flesh upon the cold rock, and to pour out the broth. All suspicion and all possibility of the comnmnication of fire were to be done away. Gideon obeys, looking for the sign, and wondering how it shall be given,

2. The manner in which the angel displays his great power and Godhead. He does not offer up prayer for fire from heaven on the sacrifice, as Elijah did. He himself communicates the fire, and makes the sacrifice. How sweet the thought, that when the Christian presents his sacrifice of praise, and prayer, and thanksgiving, there is one who, as his Mediator, can make it acceptable; one who ever liveth to make intercession, even Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever!

II. Having made these remarks on the circumstance, let us observe the effect which it had upon Gideons mind and conduct. The effect which it had upon his mind was this: he said, Alas, O Lord God! for because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face. There was so much of the majesty of the Godhead in the miracle which the angel had wrought, that the Divinity beamed, as it were, through the appearance of His manhood. Gideon was afraid. It was a received opinion among the Jews that any vision of the Divine glory would be fatal, in consequence of what God had declared to Moses. When Moses said unto the Lord, I beseech Thee shew me Thy glory, the Lord said unto him, Thou canst not see My face; for there shall no man see Me and live. But it may be asked, How was it that Gideon survived the sight? If it had been said to Moses, No man shall see My face and live, how did Gideon live? The answer will open to us some precious gospel truths. Gideon saw the glory of God, indeed, but it was in the face of Jesus Christ. No man, says St. John, hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. In other words, whenever there has been a manifestation of Jehovah to His creatures, it has been by Jesus Christ, the second person in the ever-blessed Trinity; and it is by His having tabernacled in our flesh that the awful majesty of Jehovah has been softened into mildness and peace and love. The believers rejoicing is that Jesus is the brightness of the Fathers glory ; and therefore he can look upon it and live; yea, live by looking upon it, and because he looks upon it. Look unto Me, and be ye saved, O all ye ends of the earth. Mark here the answer of God to Gideon. The Lord said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not; thou shalt not die. We do not now wonder at this gracious answer, after taking into consideration the character of the angel from whom it came. Was it not from Him who made peace by the blood of His Cross, who is called our peace and the Prince of Peace? Yes, it was an answer that fitted His priestly and His mediatorial character. But does the impenitent sinner see nothing in this passage which is calculated to affect his mind? Let him think of this–that he shall one day see the Angel before whom Gideon trembled; shall see Him as Gideon saw Him, face to face; but mark, not veiled, as He was then, in the appearance of a man; not disguised in the garb of lowly human nature, but in the glory which He had before the world was. And mark His character then. He shall come, not to touch a sacrifice, not to work a miracle, not to confirm the faith of an individual, as in the case of Gideon; but to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe. He shall come to be our Judge. We come now to show, in the last place, the effect which this circumstance had upon Gideons conduct. Then Gideon built an altar unto the Lord, and called it Jehovah-shalom. This he did to commemorate the event. It was a day much to be remembered by Gideon, both on his own account and Israels; and therefore he built this altar. The name which he gave it is beautifully descriptive of the circumstance: The Lord is my peace; taking that comfortable assurance which God gave him for the motto to inscribe on it, Peace be unto thee! It is remarkable that holy men in former times seem to have been uniformly careful to record their mercies. We may take shame to ourselves for want of a closer imitation. Does the God of battles bless our arms and give us victory? We build a monument to the glory of the conqueror, whom God has honoured as the instrument; but where are the hearts in which an altar of praise is built unto the Lord, and on which is written, The Lord is my banner? Does God restore a dear child from the brink of the grave and give him, like Isaac, to his parents arms again? The parent clasps him to his breast, and says, This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found; but how seldom does he remember the mercy by a commemoration of it, like Abrahams Jehovah-jireh, Does God, give and preserve to our use the kindly-fruits of the earth, so as in due time we may enjoy them? We begin to pull down our barns and build greater; and to say to our souls, We have much goods laid up for many years; eat, drink, and be merry! But how few, from Dan to Beersheba, from one end of the country to the other, how few look upon fields white unto the harvest, and count the sheaves which God has ripened for them, with thankful hearts, and say, We will raise an Ebenezer, for hitherto the Lord hath helped us! But there is one character who does record His mercies, and that is the man whose mercies have been of a nature which have effected a change in his heart; melting and subduing what was before hardness, and impenitency, and unbelief, into contrition and gratitude and love. To such a soul this commemorative word of Gideon is a cordial: Jehovah-shalom: the Lord is my peace. (F. Elwin.)

The Christians peculiar state

I. The Christians privilege. It is to find grace in the sight of the Lord.

1. A partaking of the Divine nature. Those who have found grace in Gods sight have received His grace in their heart. If we are accepted of God we are united to Him by faith in His Son. We become one with Him–are created anew–conformed to the Divine image and bear the image of the heavenly.

2. A reception of the Divine fulness. He is emphatically called the God of all grace. He has all the treasures of grace we stand in need of; so that if we find favour with Him–if we are interested in His love–He will communicate to us every blessing we require. What are all the treasures of the world compared with the durable riches and righteousness which He has to bestow?

3. The enjoyment of the Divine presence: In Thy sight. There is no grace to be found but here. We may find favour with men, but only grace–free favour–with God. We have free access into His presence. We approach His very throne, and He bids us come near.

II. The Christians doubts: If now I have found grace in Thy sight. There are seasons when the most eminent saints have been led to doubt of their interest in God. Happy is the man that feareth alway. Let us refer to some of those things that occasion the believers doubts.

1. The greatness of the privilege. When we take a review of the vast privileges enjoyed by our finding grace in His sight, and think of our depravity and vileness under a sense of our unworthiness, we exclaim, Surely such mercy cannot be for me!

2. The imperfection of our graces. If I have found grace in Thy sight, why do I not more closely follow them who through faith and patience inherit the promises? Why am I not more fervent in prayer? Why not more delighted in Gods house? Why do I so little prize the privilege of communion with Him?

3. The withdrawings of Gods countenance. There are seasons when the believer is called to walk in darkness, and God hides His face. Without Gods presence, the Word is a dead letter, ordinances are a blank, all the means we may use are insipid.

4. The apostasy of false professors. Then the thought occurs in the mind–perhaps after all I am deceiving myself with the profession of godliness, while I have never felt its power, and I mistake the excitement of natural feelings for the operation of a Divine principle–perhaps, after in outward appearance reaching the very gate of heaven, I shall be thrust down to hell. But is there no way of ascertaining the fact?

III. The Christians desire. Gideon asked a sign. Show me a sign that Thou talkest with me. And God gave it him. Christians have a sign beyond all visions, tokens, voices, or any outward manifestation. There are three ways in which God shows His people a sign–

1. By the workings of His providence.

2. By the communications of His grace. Thus He speaks peace to the soul–calms the spirit–gives us a sense of pardoning mercy.

3. By the witness of His Spirit (Rom 8:16). There are many ways in which this sign is given by the Spirit. It is done by sealing home pardon to the soul–by more deeply impressing on our souls the Divine likeness–by pouring out a spirit of prayer–by implanting divine principles–by giving filial dispositions and tempers–inspiring heavenly desires and affections–conferring the graces of the Spirit, and making us bring forth the fruits of the Spirit–causing the Spirit to dwell in us as in a temple, and assuring us of Gods favour.

Conclusion:

1. Let those who have not found grace seek the possession of it. Seek to be good rather than great–the grace of God more than the favour of man.

2. Let those who have found grace seek the assurance of it. It is attainable–the way is open. And remember, though you may be as safe, you cannot be as happy without it. (E. Temple.)

Bring forth my present, and set it before thee.–

Gideons sacrifice

He did not want to be rash and hasty, and do what he might be very sorry for after wards. He thought strongly that this was an angel, but he was not sure yet. His thoughts had been so set upon the thing, that he even thought he might be dreaming. If now I have found grace in thy sight, he said, give me a sign that thou talkest with me. Or again, this might be somebody tempting him and leading him into a trap. So he asked the stranger to stay while he got ready a present for him, as Abraham had done for the three angels who came to him. If this is an ordinary man he will give him food in a hospitable fashion as Easterns do, and then send him on his way–if it is God, he will offer Him a sacrifice. That is why he put the broth in a pot, he kept it for the libation or drink offering, if it should really prove that this was the angel of the Lord. So when the angel said, Lay the flesh and the cakes on the rock, and pour out the broth, it was as much as saying, Offer me a sacrifice. Gideon was satisfied directly. Here was the test he had been looking for and wanting to know about. So he obeyed: he poured out the broth as a drink-offering, and the angel touched it, and fire came out of the rock and burnt it up. Then he knew that God was on his side. Now you will see from this, I think, wherein the excellence of his character lay. On the one hand he was not rash, ready to throw his life away for nothing; on the other he was not a laggard, throwing away opportunities when he got them. Now I think you will see the power of this text. He put his broth in a pot for two reasons–

(1) He did not want to be deceived; but–

(2) He wanted to be ready.

Rash men do things in a hurry which they are sorry for afterwards, but rashness is better than indifference, carelessness, indolence. Sad indeed it would have been for him if he had turned a cold ear to what the angel had told him, if he had prepared no sacrifice, had gone on threshing his wheat and taken no heed to Gods message. He would have lived and died with Gods will towards him unfulfilled. You and I have all of us Gods work to do; you have yours, I mine. The world does not know what it is, we do not know ourselves, except in part. We know present duties, but life is not mapped out in full before any of us. But happy is that servant who knows Christs present will, who has taken pains to learn it, and not only so, but who is ready to fulfil it. Duties which conscience tells us are duties, how ready we are to find excuses to avoid them, and to follow our own pleasure. Gideon had his wheat to thresh; let greater men than he go forth and fight the Midianites. If he had said so, would that have been a strange, unusual case? Would it not have been very like what we have done before now? For the will of God–we must surely have learned that by this time–is very often quite contrary to our own inclinations. Duty says one thing, self-indulgence says another. By all means let us have caution and steadiness, but let not caution be an excuse for doing nothing. Gideon putting his broth in a pot is an everlasting example to us to be ready for Gods living sacrifice. (The Weekly Pulpit.)

There rose up fire . . . and consumed the flesh.–

The witness of Divine fire and the altar of Divine peace

I. The Divinely-ordered offering.

1. What, then, are the offerings that are required? Gideon here offered the flesh, the unleavened cakes, and the broth. These are simply the sustenance of the natural human life. Taken and assimilated by man, they become portions of his earthly frame. Nowadays, God expects us to make a spiritual offering unto Him of all the energies of our life.

2. The man was ordered to make the offering in an especial manner: Lay them upon this rock. There is nothing trivial in the record of Gods manifestations to man. The offerings of man to God, before they can lead him on to peace, must be based upon the At-one-ment between man and God.

II. The Divine acceptance of mans offering.

1. That fire which came forth out of the cleft of the rock in Ophrah is still burning in the deep recesses of the Rock of Ages, ready to come forth in response to the obedient devotion of man. On Calvary, in the self-sacrifice of the God-man, we behold the eternal law of Divine love fulfilling itself. The Church has again and again passed through its hours of coldness and darkness. But in Gods good time the fire of revival has kindled, and she has spoken to the hearts of men with power. This sign of fire is given to the individual soul no less than to the Church. He who gives himself to God, laying the devotion of his whole soul upon Christ, offering daily in His name the prayers, the praises, the alms, the pure feelings, the chastened thoughts, and all the energies of charity, will find assurance that God talketh with him. He will find his mind brightened by the light of heavenly thoughts and eternal hopes, and his heart fired by the impulses of a Divine love.

2. In this passage we may see the purpose and ultimate destiny of religious forms. The forms of the offering which Gideon made were not unimportant. The Divine voice recognised their value, and directed the manner in which they were to be presented. It was not until they had been duly presented that the fire came forth. When forms of worship, beautiful music, and august ceremonial express faith and reverence for the majesty of Christ they are offerings laid upon the rock, and are means of quickening spiritual life. But in using them let us look beyond the means to the end, until the forms are in our sight lost to view in the realities of spirit.

III. The impressions left by the manifestation upon the mans soul.

1. This vivid manifestation of the Divine presence to the soul was but for a short time. On earth man cannot bear the brightness of the supernatural visions of truth, save during brief moments. The overpowering splendours of the theophanies have in mercy been transient.

2. The angel departs, but he leaves his footprints on the soul. This spiritual intuition of the Divine presence given to Gideon soon passed away, but its influence on his heart and mind never died.

IV. its objective results in his outward action. The vision soon passed away. But it wrought a mighty change in Gideons life and career. That change is briefly but fully recorded in the announcement that he now built an altar unto the Lord. The altar implies the sacrifice. In building an altar unto the Lord he pledged himself to sacrifice henceforth unto the Lord. On what principle did he take this momentous step? In the name of what truth did he build this altar? He called it Jehovah-shalom; that is, Jehovah the author of peace. So in our own day, the object of the messenger of God is to constrain men to build this altar of peace. (Henry T. Edwards, M. A.)

Peace be unto thee.–

The assurance of peace vouchsafed to Gideon

Already Gideon had received what ought to have been a sufficient assurance of the Divine favour, for his offering had been accepted, and of this he had received the clearest evidence in the issue of fire from the rock. But the sense of acceptance which this sign was well fitted to inspire was overborne by the indefinite sense of fear, which prostrated him in the dust. But mark how tenderly and sympathisingly the Lord, if not now in a bodily form, at least with audible voice, replies to his cry, and reassures the trembling man. And may we not here recognise the voice of that very Saviour–the Angel of the everlasting covenant, the Prince of Peace, who said to the winds and waves of the sea of Galilee, as they threatened to swallow up His disciples, Peace be still, and who after His resurrection appeared to them again and again saying, Peace be unto you? We may indeed! Never does He allow any one who really fears the Lord to remain long in so deplorable a state as that in which Gideon is described to have been. Never does He break the bruised reed, or quench the smoking flax. It gives Him no satisfaction to see any of His creatures overcome by slavish terror and alarm from whatsoever cause. And when, in any ease, the soul and the affections are found to yield to constitutional weakness of that kind, who so ready as He with encouraging assurances such as that which He addressed to Gideon, Peace be unto thee; fear not. He would have us to reflect that the grand end for which He came into this world was to banish all terrors from the guilty breast, to restore tranquillity to the most tempest-tossed bosom. Fear not, says He; thou shalt not die! Death temporal, indeed, still holds its stern dominion over all the families of men. But death eternal has been abolished, and life and immortality have been brought to light. Thou shalt surely die, was the doom pronounced on all, in consequence of the entrance of sin into our world. But listen to the gospel bells as their sweet, harmonious sounds come softened by distance over the waters of time. What do they say? Thou shalt not die; surely thou shalt not die. The Angel of the everlasting covenant whispers it amid the silence of the night, adding, Because I live, ye shalt live also. And in His hands are the keys of life and of death, of death and of hell. (W. W. Duncan, M. A.)

Fear not: thou shalt not die.–

Death impossible

There is no such thing as death. Change, transition, promotion–anything, everything, except an end. This is the great law of Christianity; and the word eternity is the logical condensation of the mighty truth. Nature changes all the time. Nations alter and seemingly disappear. We ourselves pass on, and up; but nobody, nothing whatever, inevitably disappears. But, oh, how hard it is for us all to learn this comfortable and sublime lesson!

1. The little boy or girl grows up to a man or a woman, and we say complainingly, We have lost our child! No! We have not lost our child. The child is there, with a fresh body and a matured soul. And the man or woman grows into old age, and all previous life seems to be wiped out and lost. Oh, no! not wiped out, not lost, but prolonged, ripened, illustrated. We have simply the boy or girl, or man or woman, further advanced, and acting on the stage of life with a new costume; but the same actors, after all, are behind the dress. Then again, these dear ones vanish from our sight, and we say, They are gone, they are dead, they are no more: it is an irreparablee loss. But they are not gone–no more in the flesh, but alive with God and they are not lost, but transplanted, glorified, crowned, and it may be right at our side after all, although unseen by mortal eyes. No more lost than was the boy or girl who became a man or woman, than was the man or woman in full vigour of life who became worn out by old age. They have only taken one step more. Mortals cry, A man is dead: Angels cry, A child is born. One way of looking at it, it was death; but another way of looking at the matter, the Christian way, it was birth. And so, ever and for ever, not destruction, but creation.

2. Nations alter and seemingly disappear; but are they really gone, or with us in a newer, better, and holier shape? I believe that there has been a telephonic, telegraphic, and electric influence, ever since the days of Adam to the present hour, by which all past history is present life, and every nation seemingly dead is living again in Asia, Africa, Europe, and America, so that the races of to-day are but the great-grandchildren of the races of the past, and you and I have something in our bones and blood of Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Judaea, Phoenicia, India, and Persia, so that nations never really die, but are changed, transmitted, reorganised, improved, by marriage, by birth, by intermingling of races, by time, by the grace of God; so that, in a certain philosophical sense, I am not only an American, but a Roman, a Grecian, a Persian, a part of everybody and everything that ever has been, and a part, by transmission, century after century, of everybody and everything that ever will be; and thus there is an everlasting unity of flesh, and the unity of God and the unity of humanity are great and mighty and twin realities. Do not forget the prayer of Jesus–that those who were His might be one with Him, as He was one with God.

3. Once more, nature changes all the time. Yes; but nature never dies, Do those leaves that you tread on an October or November day perish? Are they annihilated? Is their work done, and is our farewell to them a finality? Oh, no! They will go into the hungry earth, and, through many changes, at last will fall into your hands in the shape of a luscious peach, or rosy apple, or juicy pear, or else as a violet or rosebud or japonica will bless your eyes, cheer your heart, and somehow spiritually say, We do not die, we have never perished: we are blessing the world for ever and ever; and like you, O mortals, we are immortal.

4. What do our great writers and thinkers say about death? Beecher: Dying is life. Bryant: Death is a deliverer. Walter Scott: Is death the last sleep? No, it is the last final awakening. Dr. Adam Clarke: Death to a good man is but passing through a dark entry, out of one little dusky room of his Fathers house into another that is fair and large, light-some and glorious, and divinely entertaining. Goethe: In the death of a good man eternity is seen looking through time. But hear the Lord Jesus Christ: Mat 9:24; Joh 11:25; Joh 14:2; Mat 22:32; Luk 23:43. (C. D. Bradlee.)

Jehovah-shalom.–

Jehovah-shalom: the Lord our peace

The theme presented by this text is, the peace which the gospel brings. It is a great mercy to have the gospel of peace, but it is a far greater mercy to have the peace of the gospel.

I. The nature of this peace. We call it in our form of benediction The peace of God. It is so called with great propriety, because it is the peace which God has designed and provided. It was arranged for in the far-back ages of eternity, when the stupendous plan of our redemption in Christ Jesus was determined upon. The peace which Jehovah-Jesus gives is not the peace of exhaustion, nor the peace of satisfied sensualism, nor the peace of mental torpor and inaction, nor the peace of apathy, nor the peace of death–no; but it is the peace which attends pardon, and renewal, and consecration, and activity, and life, in its fullest and most perfect plan. An incident in Grecian history illustrates the nature of this peace. Thrasybulus was one of the chief men of Athens about the year 400 B.C. He came to the head of affairs after many political changes, which had left behind them great bitterness of feeling. To prevent the existence of heartburnings, and to secure peace among the Athenians, Thrasybulus exerted his influence to secure the passage of a law, which they called Amnestia, from the Greek word signifying no recollection, or no memory, and from which our word amnesty comes. This law provided that all former wrongs should be forgotten, and the people pledged themselves henceforward to live lovingly and peaceably towards each other, and as if all the wrongs and offences of the past had never taken place. Among men, with such infirmities as cling to us, it may be very easy to make a law like this, but it must be very hard to carry it out. Yet this is a fair illustration of the peace which the gospel brings to us. It is a peace founded on an act of amnesty. But this act is fairly and fully carried out.

II. The foundation of this peace. This peace rests on the atoning work of Christ, He made peace, says the apostle, through the blood of His Cross (Col 1:20). And in another place the same apostle teaches us to connect the thought of this peace with the blood of the everlasting covenant (Heb 13:20). There are depths in the ocean, we are told, which no tempest ever stirs; they are beyond the reach of all the storms which sweep and agitate the surface of the sea. And there are heights in the blue sky above to which no cloud ever ascends, where no tempest ever rages, where all is perpetual sunshine, and nothing exists to disturb the deep serene. Each of these is an emblem of that peace which Jesus imparts to His people. The foundation of God standeth sure, says the apostle. But we must have a clear knowledge of what this foundation is, and that we are certainly built upon it, if we would have the full enjoyment of the Christians peace. A young minister in Wales, having to spend a night in a very exposed locality, slept at a farm-house, situated on the highest point of land in that part of the country. After he had retired to rest, the wind rose suddenly, and blew a tempest. He thought he felt the house rock, as the tempest beat upon it in its fury, and he feared it would fall. He could not sleep; so he rose and sat by the fire to be ready for the worst. But the morning dawned at last, and the house stood unharmed. When the family assembled the minister told of his fears, and expressed his wonder that they could sleep securely amidst the peltings of such a storm. Why, said he, I was afraid every moment the house would fall. Oh, said the farmer, I never have a fear of the house falling–for I know that it is founded upon the rock.

III. The influence exerted by this peace.

1. It is an extensive influence. It sweeps through the whole circle of our relationships. It is the peace of God, and peace with God. It is peace with the angels and all holy beings. It is peace with the providence of God, and all the complicated mechanism of its far-reaching agency. If I possess this peace, then, go where I will, I need not fear. A traveller met an aged Christian once, who lived alone in a cottage, on the top of a mountain, far away from any human habitation. Are you not afraid, said he, to live in this lonely place? What have I to be afraid of, was the reply, when Providence is my next-door neighbour? And then the circle of this peace contracts itself to the bosom of every believer. Its centre is here; its circumference widens out to the farthest boundaries of the universe. If I am at peace with God, then I may go forth in the path of duty, anywhere, without a fear, for all the universe is at peace with me. But are there not evil men and evil spirits who are at peace with no one? True, there are. May they not work me ill, through the wrath that is in their hearts? They would, indeed, if they could. But they are never, for one moment, beyond the clear knowledge and efficient control of that Providence whose everlasting purposes control all agencies and accidents, converting them to good.

2. It is a protecting influence. The apostle Paul brings out this view of the matter very clearly when he says, The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ (Php 4:7). The word rendered keep, has a military aspect, and denotes to guard or garrison the soul. A garrison is put into a fortress or citadel for its defence and protection, And this is what the peace of God is designed to do for our souls. God intends that we shall find protection in it. Somewhere in the East there is said to be a tree which is a non-conductor of electricity. The people in that region are aware of the fact, and when the terrible thunderstorms come, which prevail in those parts, they flee for safety to this tree, and always find it there. What a beautiful emblem of that protection vouchsafed to all who seek peace beneath the shadow of the Cross!

3. And then it is a comforting influence which this peace exerts. It is the key-note which must be struck in our bosoms before we can know anything of the joy and comfort of the heavenly world. That quaint old writer, Quarles, imagines the possibility of our gaining the possession of earth, and air, and sea, and sky, yea of all things, apart from the presence or the peace of God, using the two terms as interchangeable, and then winds up his comparison in this impressive way–

Without Thy presence earth gives no refection;

Without Thy presence sea affords no treasure;
Without Thy presence airs a rank infection;
Without Thy presence heavens itself no pleasure;
If not possessed, if not enjoyed in Thee,

Whats earth, or sea, or air, or heaven to me?

To have this peace is to have our wills moving in harmony with the Divine will; it is to have our affections subordinated and controlled by the holy law of God; it is to have our desires elevated–our fears of trouble and death subdued–and our hopes of immortality strong, and bright, and abiding.

4. And then it is a peace that is useful in its influence. Jesus called attention to this feature of its influence when He said, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Those who really possess this peace will go on their way cultivating the things that make for peace. The spirit of peace, when properly exercised in the paths of daily life, has a power to turn evil into good, in a thousand ways more mighty than any magician with his fabled wand has ever claimed to exercise. If this peace is ours, let us try to show, in our lives, its elevating and satisfying power. Let all our aims and influences be in the interests of peace. But, if we are not Christians, there is no peace for us. No peace with our own consciences–no peace with God–no peace with the universe. How can we remain another hour in such a state? It is possible to make peace now: to-morrow it may be too late for ever. (R. Newton, D. D.)

One war over and another begun

.–

I. Gideons sigh for peace; for he loved not war, but pined for quiet. He called the name of the altar Jehovah-shalom, which the margin reads, The Lord send peace. You see, therefore, that deeper down in his spirit than any desire for warlike honour there was a yearning after peace. He wanted not the spoils of princes; he only desired to plough, and sow, and reap in peace.

1. And do you wonder at it, when the ills of war were all around? The Bedouin styled the valley of Jezreel the meadows of God; how grievous to see those fat pastures trodden down by the feet of the invaders! Ah, little can you and I imagine of the horrors of war. If we saw battle with our own eyes we should with burning fervour cry, Send us peace in our days, good Lord.

2. Moreover, he had not only seen war, but he sighed for peace because he was himself feeling the mischief of it. The dread of the conflict had come to his own mountain farm at Abi-ezer. Let us bow our heads and thank God that He has long blessed this favoured isle with unbroken peace; and as an act of thankfulness to God let us set our faces against the war-spirit which so readily inflames our fellow countrymen.

3. The way of peace was sufficiently well known to Gideon; the prophet of the Lord had indicated to the people that the only way of peace was for Israel to return unto Jehovah, her God. Much is gained when we know this, if our knowledge leads to practical action.

4. While Gideon was meditating and working, an angel appears to him and gives him the assurance that with him at least God was at peace. We know how sweet the is assurance that being justified by faith we have peace with God. It is well with us when we are assured that the Lord is with us, our helper, our shield, our portion for ever and ever.

5. But there arose in his mind a grave anxiety. His was a very careful, thoughtful soul, for he was a man of prudence, large-hearted, far-seeing, and given to look at things coolly and steadily; and there arose in his heart a question serious and vital, Is this the voice of God to me, or am I deluded? Is God at peace with me, or am I like the rest, plunged in a horrible warfare against the living God? Therefore he puts a question, and he asks a sign that he might make sure of what he was about. In spiritual matters you and I had need be sure. If we have peace within our spirit let us make certain that it is the peace of God; for still are there voices that cry, Peace, peace, where there is no peace. Still do siren songs charm men to ruin with their dulcet notes; still does the fatal river flow most smoothly as it approaches the dreadful cataract.

II. From Gideons longing desire to obtain peace with God and then peace for his country we turn to look a little further into Gideons fear which he met with in the way of peace. An angel appeared to him–so saith the text in the Authorised Version; but in truth it was the angel of Jehovah, and this should have comforted him, even as it has comforted us. Why was Gideon afraid?

1. Not because he was a coward–you will scarcely meet with a braver man in all Scripture than this son of Joash–but because even brave men are alarmed at the supernatural. He saw something which he had never seen before–an appearance celestial, mysterious, above what is usually seen of mortal men; therefore, as he feared God, Gideon was afraid. When the living God draws very near to a soul, even though it be in the person of Christ Jesus, that soul is struck with awe, and trembles before the Lord. It cannot well be otherwise.

2. Gideon had been ill-taught by tradition. There was a rumour abroad, which was derived from truth and yet was false, namely, that no man could see a heavenly being and live. The tradition was an accretion to the truth and a corruption of it. We may not see the face of God, but we may see Jesus; in fact, we live because we see Him. Beware of the moss which grows upon a truth.

3. Gideon was in a state of mind in which he could be easily cast down. He was a brave man, but long affliction had cast a tinge of sadness over him. And you, dear heart, if you are seeking after peace with God, I should not wonder if fear follows fear, and yet no fear drives you from looking unto the Lord. It is but natural that you should be overawed, but oh, be not despairing, for there is the surest reason for hope. Still look to Jesus, and He will surely in His due time send you a blessed deliverance.

4. Gideons greatest fear arose out of a sign which he had himself asked for. He said, Show me a sign, and when he had that sign, namely, Gods coming to him, then it was that he was afraid. Be very chary how you ask for signs, for they may work your discouragement rather than your comfort. We cry aloud, Show me a token for good, and when the token is given we are amazed at being heard, and fall to fearing more sadly than before. Therefore pray for such boons with bated breath, and say twice over concerning such things, Nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.

5. Gideon had one truth before him which ought to have prevented all his fears, for the Lord had spoken to him and said, Go in this thy might. How could he die if he was to deliver Israel?–he must be a live man to do that; and yet, you see, he forgets to reason for his own comfort, but takes care to argue for his fears. Have I never seen you doing this? I have often caught myself at it–refusing to use my logic for the strengthening of my faith, but perverting reason in order to assist my unbelief. Is not this foolish and wicked?

III. Gods comfort of His servant.

1. The Lord said unto him, Shalom–peace be unto thee; fear not, thou shalt not die. The Lord would not have His Gideons disturbed in mind. If we are to trouble the enemy we must not be troubled ourselves. He wants His workers to be full of comfort while they labour.

1. Notice the great power of God in speaking home the truth. Suppose I salute you with Brethren, peace be to you. That would be a sweet word; but when the Lord says it you feel the peace itself.

2. The Lord also cheered him with Fear not. Oh, that charming word; as full as it is short–Fear not. It is the death-knell of fear, the life of hope. If we once hear it as Gods fiat in our soul it makes us leap over a wall or break through a troop. Doubts and fears flee away like spectres of the night when the sun arises. Gideon feared himself, feared his own unfitness and unworthiness, feared in the awful presence of God; but the Lord said, Fear not, and Gideons heart grew calm.

3. Then the Lord added, Thou shalt not die, thus meeting the special form of his dread. This is what the Lord says to every poor trembler who is holding to Him by the desperate grip of faith, Thou shalt not die. Thou shalt not die the second death: thou hast no sin to die for, for I have laid thy transgressions on My only begotten Son; thou shalt not die, for Jesus died. Thy spiritual life cannot expire, for thy life is hid with Christ in God, and because Jesus lives thou shalt live also.

IV. Gideons memorial. His fears being banished, and being at perfect peace, Gideon now goes to work. Are any of you questioning whether you are saved or not? Do not go out preaching yet, for you may, perhaps, put others into bondage. Are any of you half afraid that you are not at peace with God? Be careful what you do! Strive after peace, lest you weaken your testimony. God would have His people be at peace with Him, and know that they are so, for if they are fretted within and worried in reference to their God, how can they fight the battles of life? When Gideon is fully at peace what does he begin to do for God? If God loves you He will use you either for suffering or service; and if He has given you peace you must now prepare for war. Will you think me odd if I say that our Lord came to give us peace that He might send us out to war? Gideons first work was to go and cut down his fathers sacred grove, which stood on the top of the hill, and enclosed an altar to Baal. A splendid clearance was made that night. Now, cries he, over with that detestable altar to Baal. Some people would have said, Spare it as a fine piece of antiquity. Yes, and leave it to be used again! I say, down with it, for the older it is the more sin it has caused, and the more likely is it that it will be venerated again. Gideon cast down every stone, and it was bravely done. But see, by the Lords bidding he piles a new altar of earth, or unhewn stone; and when that is done he fetches his fathers bullock and slays it for a sacrifice. How steadily they went about this re-establishment of the pure faith! If God has given you peace, go home and begin your reform. I would preach up the overthrow of every sin. Down with every idol. Have you one left? Over with it and present a sacrifice to God, Every true Christian should pass a reform bill at home and carry it out. But to pull down is not enough. Plenty of people can do that. Gideon, as we have seen, builds an altar to Jehovah. When you are at perfect peace with God, think what you can do for Him; think of a new plan of work, or consider how to do the old work better; advance any part of Divine truth that has been forgotten, any ordinance that has been neglected, any virtue that has been despised. Especially make prominent Christ Jesus, the Altar and Sacrifice so dear to God. When he had built his altar he called it Jehovah-shalom, which was done by way of thanksgiving for peace received. It was a psalm in two words; it was a song of one verse infinitely sweet. Jehovah-shalom: the Lord our peace. Moreover, it was a prayer, as the margin puts it, Jehovah, send peace. If you have peace with God, let your next prayer be, Lord, give peace to all Thy people. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Gideons altar

I. The first thing is the great discovery which this man has made, and in the rapture of which he named his altar–that the sight of God is not death, but life and peace. Can you write upon the memorial of your experiences–The Lord is my peace? Have you passed from hearsay into personal contact? Can you say, I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee? Do you know the further experience expressed in the subsequent words of the same quotation–Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes? And have you passed out of that stormy ocean of terror and self-condemnation into the quiet haven of trust in Him in whom we have peace with God, where your little boat lies quiet, moored for ever to the Rock of Ages, to Jehovah, who is Peace?

II. We may look upon this inscription as suggesting the thought that Gods peace is the best preparation for, and may be experienced in the midst of, the intensest conflict. In the inmost keep of the castle, though the storm of war may be breaking against the walls, there will be a quiet chamber where no noise of the archers can penetrate, and the shouts of the fight are never heard. Let us seek to live in the secret place of the Most High; and in still communion with Him keep our inmost souls in quiet, while we bravely front difficulties and enemies. You are to be Gods warriors; see to it that on every battlefield there stands the altar Jehovah-shalom.

III. We may say that that altar, with its significant inscription, expressed the aim of the conflict and the hope which sustains in the fight. The true tranquillity of the blessed life is the prize of conflict. David, the man of war from his youth, prepares the throne for Solomon, in whose reign no alarms of war are heard. If you would enter into peace you must fight your way to it, and every step of the road must be a battle. The land of peace is won by the good fight of faith. But Gideons altar not only expressed his purpose in his taking up arms, but his confidence of accomplishing it, based upon the assurance that the Lord would give peace. It was a trophy erected before the fight, and built, not by arrogant presumption or frivolous under-estimate of the enemys strength, but by humble reliance on the power of that Lord who had promised His presence and assured triumph. So the hope that named this altar was the hope that war meant victory, and that victory would bring peace. That hope should animate every Christian soldier. Across the dust of the conflict the fair vision of unbroken and eternal peace should gleam before each of us, and we should renew fainting strength and revive drooping courage by many a wistful gaze. We may realise that hope in large measure here. But its fulfilment is reserved for the land of peace which we enter by the last conflict with the last enemy. Every Christian mans gravestone is an altar on which is written Our God is peace, in token that the warrior has passed into the land where violence shall no more he heard, wasting nor destruction within its borders, but all shall be deep repose, and the unarmed, because unattacked, peace of tranquil communion with, and likeness to, Jehovah our peace. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Jehovah-shalom

I. Gideons fear. Gideons fear was traditional. It was a commonly received opinion that no man could receive a direct manifestation from heaven and live. Ever since the fall of Adam in paradise man has ever shunned and dreaded the immediate presence of Jehovah. If the righteous thus fear and thus tremble when the Lord revealeth Himself unto them in love and peace, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear, when He cometh forth from His place and sweareth that He will by no means clear the guilty?

II. Gideons fear removed. There was more than a mere salutation in those words, Peace be unto thee. Gideon would never have found heart to have built up his memorial altar and called it Jehovah-shalom if peace itself had not entered his heart when those words entered his ears. And what is that which now quells the fears of the trembling sinner? What is that which assures him of peace, takes away his alarms, and imparts to his soul holy confidence that he shall not die? This altar, Jehovah-shalom, is an altar which many a grateful, loving heart has built up high above all the storms and tempests of life, and all the dread fears of death. And what has done all this? Whence the joy of saints? Whence the peace which passeth all understanding? What is that which opens the heart to peace and assures the soul of endless life? There is but one grand means–there is but one grand channel. It is not far off. You need take no long and perilous journey to obtain it. Say not in thine heart, Who shall bring Christ down? etc. But if men turn a deaf ear to this word of the gospel; if they stand trembling or hardened in the presence of God, alike unfit to live or to die–if they listen to the voice of gain or pleasure; if they turn a more ready ear to the sounds of sin or temptation than they do to the words of the Most High–is it any wonder that they are strangers to peace? What have they to do with peace as long as they reject or neglect the word of the Prince of Peace?

III. The altar which Gideon built.

1. What a memorial of Gideons faith was it! As soon as the Lord had spoken words of promise Gideon raised his altar, not only in remembrance of the promise, but as an evidence that he trusted in it. The greatest act of man towards God is faith–a reception of His Word, and a reliance upon it. All things are possible to him that believeth.

2. This altar was, moreover, a memorial of Gideons hope. Hope maketh not ashamed! How sweet, how precious, is the Christians hope. It is no vain wish or mere fervent desire of the mind. It is a grace of the Holy Spirit, which He alone enkindles in the heart. It is the crowning grace of all. Ah! this would be a dreary world without hope! When earthly hope vanishes and despair enters the heart, no mere human, no extraneous help, will raise a man above himself. And what is the soul without hope–this faith-imparted, faith-nourished hope? And if true believers–real Christians–Gods own children–need more of this hope which maketh not ashamed–if their faith at times fail to bring joy and peace in believing–what are we to say, what are we to think of some who are living without God and without hope in the world? I say to them, in all heartfelt sincerity, Blind credulity you have much, but true faith you have none.

3. Gideons altar was, lastly, a memorial of his gratitude. He could never look upon that altar without recalling to his mind the wonders of the past. Thus many a memorial of gratitude has been raised by pious and loving hearts. What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits towards me? was Davids grateful inquiry. Gratitude welled up in Jacobs full heart at Bethel when he vowed a vow, saying, If God be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, so that I come again in peace, then shall the Lord be my God, and this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be Gods house; and of all that Thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto Thee. Ye are not your own, saith the apostle Paul, for ye are bought with a price. Ah! let this purchase be valued–let this price he estimated–let imagination attempt to conceive its infinite magnitude and endless consequences, and then ask, what memorial can be commensurate with that deep sense of fervent love and gratitude which should overflow the heart. (G. A. Rogers, M. A.)

Jehovah-shalom

I. We have a far-sighted man looking to the result rather than to the means. Gideon called his altar Jehovah-shalom –the Lord send peace. As he was going to war we would have supposed him to inscribe, The Lord send victory, the Lord send success. But the Holy Spirit prompted him to write peace. There is wonderful power in this. What are all our battles, all our struggles, but a means to an end? That end is peace. How much wiser and how much better would it be if we were to look at the issue!

II. We have a brave man renouncing his own prowess. The Lord send peace. The very message of the angel was calculated to make Gideon self-opinionated. He was favoured with a vision of God. He was appointed to be the Divine vicegerent. But instead of doing what we should expect, he renounced all pretensions to any superiority, and was only overwhelmed by a consciousness of the honour reposed in him. True greatness and true humility always go together. The great man is humble and the humble man is great. It is a mark of superior minds to realise how small they are.

III. We have a pious man engaging in war. War is a terrible scourge; one of the most fearful developments of the passions of men. But it has been permitted by God, and even ordered under His arrangements. What the Almighty directs man need not fear to undertake. God works His purposes by the scourges of earth, and He employs mans passions as His instruments of purification. The few who are sacrificed in war are only as a grain of sand in comparison to those who are sacrificed in sin.

IV. We have a lesson as to our own conduct; that is, ever to invoke the blessing of God on that which we undertake. When we go forth to duty, or pleasure, or any engagement whatsoever, we should rear our altar to the Lord, and pray that He will send peace and prosperity. And the necessity for this is not taken away because we are doing the Lords work, at the Lords bidding, and under the Lords direction. To teachers, preachers, and evangelists this truth is a very serious one. (J. J. S. Bird.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 11. There came an angel of the Lord] The prophet came to teach and exhort, the angel comes to confirm the word of the prophet, to call and commission him who was intended to be their deliverer, and to work miracles, in order to inspire him with supernatural courage and a confidence of success.

Ophrah] Or Ephra, was a city, or village rather, in the half tribe of Manasseh, beyond Jordan.

His son Gideon threshed wheat] This is not the only instance in which a man taken from agricultural employments was made general of an army, and the deliverer of his country. Shamgar was evidently a ploughman, and with his ox-goad he slew many Philistines, and became one of the deliverers of Israel. Cincinnatus was taken from the plough, and was made dictator and commander-in-chief of the Roman armies. There is a great similarity between his case and that of Gideon.

Threshed wheat by the winepress] This was a place of privacy; he could not make a threshing-floor in open day as the custom was, and bring either the wheel over the grain, or tread it out with the feet of the oxen, for fear of the Midianites, who were accustomed to come and take it away as soon as threshed. He got a few sheaves from the field, and brought them home to have them privately threshed for the support of the family. As there could be no vintage among the Israelites in their present distressed circumstances, the winepress would never be suspected by the Midianites to be the place of threshing corn.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

In Ophrah, to wit, in Manasseh; for there was another Ophrah in Benjamin, Jos 18:23. The Abi-ezrite; of the posterity of Abi-ezer; of whom see Jos 17:2; 1Ch 7:18. See Jdg 8:27,32.

Threshed wheat; not with oxen, as the manner was, Deu 25:4; but with a staff, to prevent discovery.

By the wine-press; in the place where the wine-press stood, not in the common floor.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

11. there came an angel of theLordHe appeared in the character and equipments of a traveller(Jud 6:21), who sat down in theshade to enjoy a little refreshment and repose. Entering intoconversation on the engrossing topic of the times, the grievousoppression of the Midianites, he began urging Gideon to exert hiswell-known prowess on behalf of his country. Gideon, in replying,addresses him at first in a style equivalent (in Hebrew) to”sir,” but afterwards gives to him the name usually appliedto God.

an oakHebrew,“the oak”as famous in after-times.

Ophraha city in thetribe of Manasseh, about sixteen miles north of Jericho, in thedistrict belonging to the family of Abiezer (Jos17:2).

his son Gideon threshed wheatby the wine-pressThis incident tells emphatically the tale ofpublic distress. The small quantity of grain he was threshing,indicated by his using a flail instead of the customary treading ofcattlethe unusual place, near a wine-press, under a tree, and onthe bare ground, not a wooden floor, for the prevention of noiseallthese circumstances reveal the extreme dread in which the people wereliving.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And there came an angel of the Lord,…. This was not the prophet before mentioned, as Ben Gersom thinks, but an angel of God, as expressed, and not a created one, but the Angel of Jehovah’s presence, the Word and Son of God, and who is expressly called Jehovah himself, Jud 6:14

and sat under an oak; or stayed there a while, as Kimchi interprets it, seeing, according to his observation, angels are not said to sit, but stand:

which was in Ophrah, that pertaineth to Joash the Abiezrite; which shows that this Ophrah is different from a city of this name in the tribe of Benjamin, Jos 18:23 for the oak that was in it, under which the angel sat, belonged to Joash an Abiezrite, a descendant of Abiezer, son of the sister of Gilead, who was the son of Machir the son of Manasseh, Jos 17:2, it is called by Josephus h Ephra, and by Jerom i Ephrata:

and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites; lest they should take it away, and bereave his father’s family of their sustenance, as they were wont to do, wherever they could find it; and all circumstances attending this affair were on this account; he threshed it himself, this he chose to do, and not trust his servants, lest it should be discovered; and he beat the wheat out with a staff, that it might be more silently done, and not with oxen, which was the usual way of treading out corn, who, bellowing k, would discover it; and this was done not on a threshing floor, but where a winepress stood, where there could be no suspicion of such work being doing.

h Antiqu. l. 5. c. 6. sect. 5, 7. i De loc. Heb. fol. 90. K. k Vid. Homer. Iliad. 20. ver. 495, 496, 497.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Call of Gideon to Be the Deliverer of Israel. – As the reproof of the prophet was intended to turn the hearts of the people once more to the Lord their God and deliverer, so that manner in which God called Gideon to be their deliverer, and rescued Israel from its oppressors through his instrumentality, as intended to furnish the most evident proof that the help and salvation of Israel were not to be found in man, but solely in their God. God had also sent their former judges. The Spirit of Jehovah had come upon Othniel, so that he smote the enemy in the power of God ( Jdg 3:10). Ehud had put to death the hostile king by stratagem, and then destroyed his army; and Barak had received the command of the Lord, through the prophetess Deborah, to deliver His people from the dominion of their foes, and had carried out the command with her assistance. But Gideon was called to be the deliverer of Israel through an appearance of the angel of the Lord, to show to him and to all Israel, that Jehovah, the God of the fathers, was still near at hand to His people, and could work miracles as in the days of old, if Israel would only adhere to Him and keep His covenant. The call of Gideon took place in two revelations from God. First of all the Lord appeared to him in the visible form of an angel, in which He had already made himself known to the patriarchs, and summoned him in the strength of God to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Midianites (Jdg 6:11-24). He then commanded him, in a dream of the night, to throw down his father’s altar of Baal, and to offer a burnt-offering to Jehovah his God upon an altar erected for the purpose (Jdg 6:25-32). In the first revelation the Lord acknowledged Gideon; in the second He summoned Gideon to acknowledge Him as his God.

Jdg 6:11-24

Appearance of the Angel of the Lord. – Jdg 6:11. The angel of the Lord, i.e., Jehovah, in a visible self-revelation in human form (see Pentateuch, pp. 106ff.), appeared this time in the form of a traveller with a staff in his hand (Jdg 6:21), and sat down “ under the terebinth which (was) in Ophrah, that (belonged) to Joash the Abi-ezrite.” It was not the oak, but Ophrah, that belonged to Joash, as we may see from Jdg 6:24, where the expression “Ophrah of the Abi-ezrite” occurs. According to Joash Jdg 17:2 and 1Ch 7:18, Abiezer was a family in the tribe of Manasseh, and according to Jdg 6:15 it was a small family of that tribe. Joash was probably the head of the family at that time, and as such was the lord or owner of Ophrah, a town (Jdg 8:27; cf. Jdg 9:5) which was called “Ophrah of the Abi-ezrite,” to distinguish it from Ophrah in the tribe of Benjamin (Jos 18:23). The situation of the town has not yet been determined with certainty. Josephus (Ant. v. 6, 5) calls it Ephran. Van de Velde conjectures that it is to be found in the ruins of Erfai, opposite to Akrabeh, towards the S.E., near the Mohammedan Wely of Abu Kharib, on the S.W. of Janun (Me. pp. 337-8), close to the northern boundary of the tribe-territory of Ephraim, if not actually within it. By this terebinth tree was Gideon the son of Joash “ knocking out wheat in the wine-press. ” does not mean to thresh, but to knock with a stick. The wheat was threshed upon open floors, or in places in the open field that were rolled hard for the purpose, with threshing carriages or threshing shoes, or else with oxen, which they drove about over the scattered sheaves to tread out the grains with their hoofs. Only poor people knocked out the little corn that they had gleaned with a stick (Rth 2:17), and Gideon did it in the existing times of distress, namely in the pressing-tub, which, like all wine-presses, was sunk in the ground, in a hole that had been dug out or hewn in the rock (for a description of cisterns of this kind, see Rob. Bibl. Res. pp. 135-6), “ to make the wheat fly ” (i.e., to make it safe) “ from the Midianites ” ( as in Exo 9:20).

Jdg 6:12

While he was thus engaged the angel of the Lord appeared to him, and addressed him in these words: “ Jehovah (is) with thee, thou brave hero.” This address contained the promise that the Lord would be with Gideon, and that he would prove himself a mighty hero through the strength of the Lord. This promise was to be a guarantee to him of strength and victory in his conflict with the Midianites.

Jdg 6:13

But Gideon, who did not recognise the angel of the Lord in the man who was sitting before him, replied doubtingly, “ Pray, sir, if Jehovah is with us, why has all this befallen us? ” – words which naturally recall to mind the words of Deu 31:17, “Are not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?” “ And where,” continued Gideon, “ are all His miracles, of which our fathers have told us? … But now Jehovah hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. ” Gideon may have been reflecting, while knocking the wheat, upon the misery of his people, and the best means of delivering them from the oppression of the enemy, but without being able to think of any possibility of rescuing them. For this reason he could not understand the address of the unknown traveller, and met his promise with the actual state of things with which it was so directly at variance, namely, the crushing oppression of his people by their enemies, from which he concluded that the Lord had forsaken them and given them up to their foes.

Jdg 6:14

“ Then Jehovah turned to him and said, Go in this thy strength, and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have not I sent thee? ” The writer very appropriately uses the name Jehovah here, instead of the angel of Jehovah; for by his reply the angel distinctly manifested himself as Jehovah, more especially in the closing words, “ Have not I sent thee? ” ( , in the sense of lively assurance), which are so suggestive of the call of Moses to be the deliverer of Israel (Exo 3:12). “ In this thy strength, ” i.e., the strength which thou now hast, since Jehovah is with thee-Jehovah, who can still perform miracles as in the days of the fathers. The demonstrative “ this ” points to the strength which had just been given to him through the promise of God.

Jdg 6:15

Gideon perceived from these words that it was not a mere man who was speaking to him. He therefore said in reply, not “pray sir” ( ), but “ pray, Lord ” ( , i.e., Lord God), and no longer speaks of deliverance as impossible, but simply inquires, with a consciousness of his own personal weakness and the weakness of his family, “ Whereby (with what) shall I save Israel? Behold, my family (lit., ‘ thousand,’ equivalent to mishpachah: see at Num 1:16) is the humblest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house (my family).”

Jdg 6:16

To this difficulty the Lord replies, “ I will be with thee (see Exo 3:12; Jos 1:5), and thou wilt smite the Midianites as one man, ” i.e., at one blow, as they slay a single man (see Num 14:15).

Jdg 6:17-19

As Gideon could no longer have any doubt after this promise that the person who had appeared to him was speaking in the name of God, he entreated him to assure him by a sign ( , a miraculous sign) of the certainty of his appearance. “ Do a sign that thou art speaking with me, ” i.e., that thou art really God, as thou affirmest. , or , is taken from the language of ordinary life. At the same time he presents this request: “ Depart not hence till I (go and) come to thee, and bring out my offering and set it before thee; ” and the angel at once assents. Minchah does not mean a sacrifice in the strict sense ( , sacrificium ), nor merely a “gift of food,” but a sacrificial gift in the sense of a gift presented to God, on the acceptance of which he hoped to receive the sign, which would show whether the person who had appeared to him was really God. This sacrificial gift consisted of such food as they were accustomed to set before a guest whom they wished especially to honour. Gideon prepared a kid of the goats ( is used to denote the preparation of food, as in Gen 18:7-8, etc.), and unleavened cakes of an ephah (about 221/2 lbs.) of meal, and brought the flesh in a basket and the broth in a pot out to the terebinth tree, and placed it before him.

Jdg 6:20-21

The angel of the Lord then commanded him to lay the flesh and the cakes upon a rock close by, and to pour the broth upon it; that is to say, to make use of the rock as an altar for the offering to be presented to the Lord. When he had done this, the angel touched the food with the end of his staff, and fire came out of the rock and consumed the food, and the angel of the Lord vanished out of Gideon’s sight. “ This rock,” i.e., a rocky stone that was lying near. The departure of the angel from his eyes it to be regarded as a sudden disappearance; but the expression does not warrant the assumption that the angel ascended to heaven in this instance, as in Jdg 13:19-20, in the flame of the sacrifice.

Jdg 6:22

In this miracle Gideon received the desired sign, that the person who had appeared to him was God. But the miracle filled his soul with fear, so that he exclaimed, “ Alas, Lord Jehovah! for to this end have I seen the angel of the Lord face to face.” is an exclamation, sometimes of grief on account of a calamity that has occurred (Jos 7:7), and sometimes of alarm caused by the foreboding of some anticipated calamity (Jer 1:6; Jer 4:10; Jer 32:17; Eze 4:14, etc.). Here it is an expression of alarm, viz., fear of the death which might be the necessary consequence of his seeing God (see Exo 20:16-19, and the remarks on Gen 16:13). The expression which follows, “ for to this end,” serves to account for the exclamation, without there being any necessity to assume an ellipsis, and supply “that I may die.” is always used in this sense (see Gen 18:5; Gen 19:8; Gen 33:10, etc.).

Jdg 6:23-24

But the Lord comforted him with the words, “ Peace to thee; fear not: thou wilt not die. ” These words were not spoken by the angel as he vanished away, but were addressed by God to Gideon, after the disappearance of the angel, by an inward voice. In gratitude for this comforting assurance, Gideon built an altar to the Lord, which he called Jehovah-shalom, “the Lord is peace.” The intention of this altar, which was preserved “unto this day,” i.e., till the time when the book of Judges was composed, is indicated in the name that was given to it. It was not to serve as a place of sacrifice, but to be a memorial and a witness of the revelation of God which had been made to Gideon, and of the proof which he had received that Jehovah was peace, i.e., would not destroy Israel in wrath, but cherished thoughts of peace. For the assurance of peace which He had given to Gideon, was also a confirmation of His announcement that Gideon would conquer the Midianites in the strength of God, and deliver Israel from its oppressors.

The theophany here described resembles so far the appearance of the angel of the Lord to Abram in the grove of Mamre (Gen 18), that he appears in perfect human form, comes as a traveller, and allows food to be set before him; but there is this essential difference between the two, that whereas the three men who came to Abraham took the food that was set before them and ate thereof – that is to say, allowed themselves to be hospitably entertained by Abraham – the angel of the Lord in the case before us did indeed accept the minchah that had been made ready for him, but only as a sacrifice of Jehovah which he caused to ascend in fire. The reason for this essential difference is to be found in the different purpose of the two theophanies. To Abraham the Lord came to seal that fellowship of grace into which He had entered with him through the covenant that He had made; but in the case of Gideon His purpose was simply to confirm the truth of His promise, that Jehovah would be with him and would send deliverance through him to His people, or to show that the person who had appeared to him was the God of the fathers, who could still deliver His people out of the power of their enemies by working such miracles as the fathers had seen. But the acceptance of the minchah prepared for Him as a sacrifice which the Lord himself caused to be miraculously consumed by fire, showed that the Lord would still graciously accept the prayers and sacrifices of Israel, if they would but forsake the worship of the dead idols of the heathen, and return to Him in sincerity. (Compare with this the similar theophany in Judg 13.)

Jdg 6:25-32

Gideon Set Apart as the Deliverer of His People. – In order to be able to carry out the work entrusted to him of setting Israel free, it was necessary that Gideon should first of all purify his father’s house from idolatry, and sanctify his own life and labour to Jehovah by sacrificing a burnt-offering.

Jdg 6:25-26

“ In that night,” i.e., the night following the day on which the Lord appeared to him, God commanded him to destroy his father’s Baal’s altar, with the asherah-idol upon it, and to build an altar to Jehovah, and offer a bullock of his father’s upon the altar. “ Take the ox-bullock which belongs to thy father, and indeed the second bullock of seven years, and destroy the altar of Baal, which belongs to thy father, and throw down the asherah upon it. ” According to the general explanation of the first clauses, there are two oxen referred to: viz., first, his father’s young bullock; and secondly, an ox of seven years old, the latter of which Gideon was to sacrifice (according to Jdg 6:26) upon the altar to be built to Jehovah, and actually did sacrifice, according to Jdg 6:27, Jdg 6:28. But in what follows there is no further allusion to the young bullock, or the first ox of his father; so that there is a difficulty in comprehending for what purpose Gideon was to take it, or what use he was to make of it. Most commentators suppose that Gideon sacrificed both of the oxen-the young bullock as an expiatory offering for himself, his father, and all his family, and the second ox of seven years old for the deliverance of the whole nation (see Seb. Schmidt). Bertheau supposes, on the other hand, that Gideon was to make use of both oxen, or of the strength they possessed for throwing down or destroying the altar, and (according to Jdg 6:26) for removing the and the to the place of the new altar that was to be built, but that he was only to offer the second in sacrifice to Jehovah, because the first was probably dedicated to Baal, and therefore could not be offered to Jehovah. But these assumptions are both of them equally arbitrary, and have no support whatever from the text. If God had commanded Gideon to take two oxen, He would certainly have told him what he was to do with them both. But as there is only one bullock mentioned in Jdg 6:26-28, we must follow Tremell. and others, who understand Jdg 6:25 as meaning that Gideon was to take only one bullock, namely the young bullock of his father, and therefore regard as a more precise definition of that one bullock ( vav being used in an explanatory sense, “and indeed,” as in Jos 9:27; Jos 10:7, etc.). This bullock is called “the second bullock,” as being the second in age among the bullocks of Joash. The reason for choosing this second of the bullocks of Joash for a burnt-offering is to be found no doubt in its age (seven years), which is mentioned here simply on account of its significance as a number, as there was no particular age prescribed in the law for a burnt-offering, that is to say, because the seven years which constituted the age of the bullock contained an inward allusion to the seven years of the Midianitish oppression. For seven years had God given Israel into the hands of the Midianites on account of their apostasy; and now, to wipe away this sin, Gideon was to take his father’s bullock of seven years old, and offer it as a burnt-offering to the Lord. To this end Gideon was first of all to destroy the altar of Baal and of the asherah which his father possessed, and which, to judge from Jdg 6:28, Jdg 6:29, was the common altar of the whole family of Abiezer in Ophrah. This altar was dedicated to Baal, but there was also upon it an asherah , an idol representing the goddess of nature, which the Canaanites worshipped; not indeed a statue of the goddess, but, as we may learn from the word , to hew down, simply a wooden pillar (see at Deu 16:21). The altar therefore served for the two principal deities of the Canaanites (see Movers, Phnizier, i. pp. 566ff.). Jehovah could not be worshipped along with Baal. Whoever would serve the Lord must abolish the worship of Baal. The altar of Baal must be destroyed before the altar of Jehovah could be built. Gideon was to build this altar “ upon the top of this stronghold, ” possibly upon the top of the mountain, upon which the fortress belonging to Ophrah was situated. , “ with the preparation; ” the meaning of this word is a subject of dispute. As occurs in 1Ki 15:22 with , to denote the materials out of which (i.e., with which) a thing is built, Stud. and Berth. suppose that maaracah refers to the materials of the altar of Baal that had been destroyed, with which Gideon was to build the altar of Jehovah. Stud. refers it to the stone foundation of the altar of Baal; Bertheau to the materials that were lying ready upon the altar of Baal for the presentation of sacrifices, more especially the pieces of wood. But this is certainly incorrect, because maaracah does not signify either building materials or pieces of wood, and the definite article attached to the word does not refer to the altar of Baal at all. The verb is not only very frequently used to denote the preparation of the wood upon the altar (Gen 22:9; Lev 1:7, etc.), but is also used for the preparation of an altar for the presentation of sacrifice (Num 23:4). Consequently maaracah can hardly be understood in any other way than as signifying the preparation of the altar to be built for the sacrificial act, in the sense of build the altar with the preparation required for the sacrifice. This preparation was to consist, according to what follows, in taking the wood of the asherah , that had been hewn down, as the wood for the burnt-offering to be offered to the Lord by Gideon. are not trees, but pieces of wood from the asherah (that was hewn down).

Jdg 6:27

Gideon executed this command of God with ten men of his servants during the night, no doubt the following night, because he was afraid to do it by day, on account of his family (his father’s house), and the people of the town.

Jdg 6:28-29

But on the following morning, when the people of the town found the altar of Baal destroyed and the asherah upon it hewn down, and the bullock sacrificed upon the (newly) erected altar (the bullock would not be entirely consumed), they asked who had done it, and soon learned that Gideon had done it all. The accusative is governed by the Hophal (for see Ges. s. 63, Anm. 4), according to a construction that was by no means rare, especially in the earlier Hebrew, viz., of the passive with (see at Gen 4:18). “ They asked and sought,” sc., for the person who had done it; “ and they said,” either those who were making the inquiry, according to a tolerably safe conjecture, or the persons who were asked, and who were aware of what Gideon had done.

Jdg 6:30-31

But when they demanded of Joash, “ Bring out (give out) thy son, that he may die,” he said to all who stood round, “ Will ye, ye, fight for Baal, or will he save him? (‘ye’ is repeated with special emphasis). “ whoever shall fight for him (Baal), shall be put to death till the morning. ” , till the (next) morning, is not to be joined to , in the sense of “very speedily, before the dawning day shall break” ( Bertheau), – a sense which is not to be found in the words: it rather belongs to the subject of the clause, or to the whole clause in the sense of, Whoever shall fight for Baal, and seek to avenge the destruction of his altar by putting the author of it to death, shall be put to death himself; let us wait till to-morrow, and give Baal time to avenge the insult which he has received. “ If he be God, let him fight for himself; for they have destroyed his altar, ” and have thereby challenged his revenge. Gideon’s daring act of faith had inspired his father Joash with believing courage, so that he took the part of his son, and left the whole matter to the deity to decide. If Baal were really God, he might be expected to avenge the crime that had been committed against this altar.

Jdg 6:32

From this fact Gideon received the name of Jerubbaal, i.e., “ let Baal fight (or decide,” since they said, “ Let Baal fight against him, for he has destroyed his altar.” , is formed from = or and . This surname very soon became an honourable title for Gideon. When, for example, it became apparent to the people that Baal could not do him any harm, Jerubbaal became a Baal-fighter, one who had fought against Baal. In 2Sa 11:21, instead of Jerubbaal we find the name Jerubbesheth, in which Besheth = Bosheth is a nickname of Baal, which also occurs in other Israelitish names, e.g., in Ishbosheth (2Sa 2:8.) for Eshbaal (1Ch 8:33; 1Ch 9:39). The name Jerubbaal is written by the lxx, from which in all probability Philo of Byblus, in his revision of Sanchuniathon, has formed his , a priest of the god .

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

The Call of Gideon.

B. C. 1249.

      11 And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.   12 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.   13 And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.   14 And the LORD looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?   15 And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.   16 And the LORD said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.   17 And he said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then show me a sign that thou talkest with me.   18 Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present, and set it before thee. And he said, I will tarry until thou come again.   19 And Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it.   20 And the angel of God said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so.   21 Then the angel of the LORD put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the LORD departed out of his sight.   22 And when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the LORD, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord GOD! for because I have seen an angel of the LORD face to face.   23 And the LORD said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die.   24 Then Gideon built an altar there unto the LORD, and called it Jehovah-shalom: unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abi-ezrites.

      It is not said what effect the prophet’s sermon had upon the people, but we may hope it had a good effect, and that some of them at least repented and reformed upon it; for here, immediately after, we have the dawning of the day of their deliverance, by the effectual calling of Gideon to take upon him the command of their forces against the Midianites.

      I. The person to be commissioned for this service was Gideon, the son of Joash, v. 14. The father was now living, but he was passed by, and this honour put upon the son, for the father kept up in his own family the worship of Baal (v. 25), which we may suppose this son, as far as was in his power, witnessed against. He was of the half tribe of Manasseh that lay in Canaan, of the family of Abiezer; the eldest house of that tribe, Josh. xvii. 2. Hitherto the judges were raised up out of that tribe which suffered most by the oppression, and probably it was so here.

      II. The person that gave him the commission was an angel of the Lord; it should seem not a created angel, but the Son of God himself, the eternal Word, the Lord of the angels, who then appeared upon some great occasions in human shape, as a prelude (says the learned bishop Patrick) to what he intended in the fulness of time, when he would take our nature upon him, as we say, for good and all. This angel is here called Jehovah, the incommunicable name of God (v. 14, 16), and he said, I will be with thee.

      1. This divine person appeared here to Gideon, and it is observable how he found him, (1.) Retired–all alone. God often manifests himself to his people when they are out of the noise and hurry of this world. Silence and solitude befriend our communion with God. (2.) Employed in threshing wheat, with a staff or rod (so the word signifies), such as they used in beating out fitches and cummin (Isa. xxviii. 27), but now used for wheat, probably because he had but little to thresh, he needed not the oxen to tread it out. It was not then looked upon as any diminution to him, though he was a person of some account and a mighty man of valour, to lay his hand to the business of the husbandman. He had many servants (v. 27), and yet would not himself live in idleness. We put ourselves in the way of divine visits when we employ ourselves in honest business. Tidings of Christ’s birth were brought to the shepherds when they were keeping their flocks. The work he was about was an emblem of that greater work to which he was now to be called, as the disciples’ fishing was. From threshing corn he is fetched to thresh the Midianites, Isa. xli. 15. (3.) Distressed; he was threshing his wheat, not in the threshing-floor, the proper place, but by the wine-press, in some private unsuspected corner, for fear of the Midianites. He himself shared in the common calamity, and now the angel came to animate him against Midian when he himself could speak so feelingly of the heaviness of their yoke. The day of the greatest distress is God’s time to appear for his people’s relief.

      2. Let us now see what passed between the angel and Gideon, who knew not with certainty, till after he was gone, that he was an angel, but supposed he was a prophet.

      (1.) The angel accosted him with respect, and assured him of the presence of God with him, v. 12. He calls him a mighty man of valour, perhaps because he observed how he threshed his corn with all his might; and seest thou a man diligent in his business? whatever his business is, he shall stand before kings. He that is faithful in a few things shall be ruler over many. Gideon was a man of a brave active spirit, and yet buried alive in obscurity, through the iniquity of the times; but he is here animated to undertake something great, like himself, with that word, The Lord is with thee, or, as the Chaldee reads it, the Word of the Lord is thy help. It was very sure that the Lord was with him when this angel was with him. By this word, [1.] He gives him his commission. If we have God’s presence with us, this will justify us and bear us out in our undertakings. [2.] He inspires him with all necessary qualifications for the execution of his commission. “The Lord is with thee to guide and strengthen thee, to animate and support thee.” [3.] He assures him of success; for, if God be for us, who can prevail against us? If he be with us, nothing can be wanting to us. The presence of God with us is all in all to our prosperity, whatever we do. Gideon was a mighty man of valour, and yet he could bring nothing to pass without the presence of God, and that presence is enough to make any man mighty in valour and to give a man courage at any time.

      (2.) Gideon gave a very melancholy answer to this joyful salutation (v. 13): O my Lord! if the Lord be with us (which the Chaldee reads, Is the Shechinah of the Lord our help? making that the same with the Word of the Lord) why then has all this befallen us? “all this trouble and distress from the Midianites’ incursions, which force me to thresh wheat here by the wine-press–all this loss, and grief, and fright; and where are all the miracles which our fathers told us of?” Observe, In his reply he regards not the praise of his own valour, nor does this in the least elevate him or give him any encouragement, though it is probable the angel adapted what he said to that which Gideon was at the same time thinking of; while his labouring hands were employed about his wheat, his working head and daring heart were meditating Israel’s rescue and Midian’s ruin, with which thought he that knows the heart seasonably sets in, calls him a man of valour for his brave projects, and open him a way to put them in execution; yet Gideon, as if not conscious to himself of any thing great or encouraging in his own spirit, fastens only on the assurance the angel had given him of God’s presence, as that by which they held all their comfort. Observe, The angel spoke in particular to him: The Lord is with thee; but he expostulates for all: If the Lord be with us, herding himself with the thousands of Israel, and admitting no comfort but what they might be sharers in, so far is he from the thoughts of monopolizing it, though he had so fair an occasion given him. Note, Public spirits reckon that only an honour and joy to themselves which puts them in a capacity of serving the common interests of God’s church. Gideon was a mighty man of valour, but as yet weak in faith, which makes it hard to him to reconcile to the assurances now given him of the presence of God, [1.] The distress to which Israel was reduced: Why has all this (and all this was no little) befallen us? Note, It is sometimes hard, but never impossible, to reconcile cross providences with the presence of God and his favour. [2.] The delay of their deliverance: “Where are all the miracles which our fathers told us of? Why does not the same power which delivered our fathers from the yoke of the Egyptians deliver us out of the hands of the Midianites?” As if because God did not immediately work miracles for their deliverance, though they had by their sins forfeited his favour and help, it must be questioned whether ever he had wrought the miracles which their fathers told them of, or, if he had, whether he had now the same wisdom, and power, and good-will to his people, that he had had formerly. This was his weakness. We must not expect that the miracles which were wrought when a church was in the forming, and some great truth in the settling, should be continued and repeated when the formation and settlement are completed: no, nor that the mercies God showed to our fathers that served him, and kept close to him, should be renewed to us, if we degenerate and revolt from him. Gideon ought not to have said either, First, That God had delivered them into the hands of the Midianites, for by their iniquities they had sold themselves, or, Secondly, That now they were in their hands he had forsaken them, for he had lately sent them a prophet (v. 8), which was a certain indication that he had not forsaken them.

      (3.) The angel gave him a very effectual answer to his objections, by giving him a commission to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Midianites, and assuring him of success therein, v. 14. Now the angel is called Jehovah, for he speaks as one having authority, and not as a messenger. [1.] There was something extraordinary in the look he now gave to Gideon; it was a gracious favourable look, which revived his spirits that dropped, and silenced his fears, such a look as that with which God’s countenance beholds the upright, Ps. xi. 7. He looked upon him, and smiled at the objections he made, which he gave him no direct answer to, but girded and clothed him with such power as would shortly enable him to answer them himself, and make him ashamed that ever he had made them. It was a speaking look, like Christ’s upon Peter (Luke xxii. 61), a powerful look, a look that strangely darted new light and life into Gideon’s breast, and inspired him with a generous heat, far above what he felt before. [2.] But there was much more in what he said to him. First, He commissioned him to appear and act as Israel’s deliverer. Such a one the few thinking people in the nation, and Gideon among the rest, were now expecting to be raised up, according to God’s former method, in answer to the cries of oppressed Israel; and now Gideon is told, “Thou art the man: Go in this thy might, this might wherewith thou art now threshing wheat; go and employ it to a nobler purpose; I will make thee a thresher of men.” Or, rather, “this might wherewith thou art now endued by this look.” God gave him his commission by giving him all the qualifications that were necessary for the execution of it, which is more than the mightiest prince and potentate on earth can do for those to whom he gives commissions. God’s fitting men for work is a sure and constant evidence of his calling them to it. “Go, not in thy might, that which is natural, and of thyself, depend not on thy own valour; but go in this thy might, this which thou hast now received, go in the strength of the Lord God, that is, the strength with which thou must strengthen thyself.” Secondly, He assured him of success. This was enough to put courage into him; he might be confident he should not miscarry in the attempt; it should not turn either to his own disgrace or the damage of his people (as baffled enterprises do), but to his honour and their happiness: Thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites, and so shalt not only be an eye-witness, but a glorious instrument, of such wonders as thy fathers told thee of. Gideon, we may suppose, looked as one astonished at this strange and surprising power conferred upon him, and questions whether he may depend upon what he hears: the angel ratifies his commission with a teste meipso—an appeal to his own authority; there needed no more. “Have not I commanded thee–I that have all power in heaven and earth, and particular authority here as Israel’s King, giving commissions immediately–I who am that I am, the same that sent Moses?” Exod. iii. 14.

      (4.) Gideon made a very modest objection against this commission (v. 15): O my Lord! wherewith shall I save Israel? This question bespeaks him either, [1.] Distrustful of God and his power, as if, though God should be with him, yet it were impossible for him to save Israel. True faith is often weak, yet it shall not be rejected, but encouraged and strengthened. Or, [2.] Inquisitive concerning the methods he must take: “Lord, I labour under all imaginable disadvantages for it; if I must do it, thou must put me in the way.” Note, Those who receive commissions from God must expect and seek for instructions from him. Or rather, [3.] Humble, self-diffident, and self-denying. The angel had honoured him, but see how meanly he speaks of himself: “My family is comparatively poor in Manasseh” (impoverished, it may be, more than other families by the Midianites), “and I am the least, that have the least honour and interest, in my father’s house; what can I pretend to do? I am utterly unfit for the service, and unworthy of the honour.” Note, God often chooses to do great things by those that are little, especially that are so in their own eyes. God delights to advance the humble.

      (5.) This objection was soon answered by a repetition of the promise that God would be with him, v. 16. “Object not thy poverty and meanness; such things have indeed often hindered men in great enterprises, but what are they to a man that has the presence of God with him, which will make up all the deficiencies of honour and estate. Surely I will be with thee, to direct and strengthen thee, and put such a reputation upon thee that, how weak soever thy personal interest is, thou shalt have soldiers enough to follow thee, and be assured thou shalt smite the Midianites as one men, as easily as if they were but one man and as effectually. All the thousands of Midian shall be as if they had but one neck, and thou shalt have the cutting of it off.”

      (6.) Gideon desires to have his faith confirmed touching this commission; for he would not be over-credulous of that which tended so much to his own praise, would not venture upon an undertaking so far above him, and in which he must engage many more, but he would be well satisfied himself of his authority, and would be able to give satisfaction to others as to him who gave him that authority. He therefore humbly begs of this divine person, whoever he was, [1.] That he would give him a sign, v. 17. And, the commission being given him out of the common road of providence, he might reasonably expect it should be confirmed by some act of God out of the common course of nature: “Show me a sign to assure me of the truth of this concerning which thou talkest with me, that it is something more than talk, and that thou art in earnest.” Now, under the dispensation of the Spirit, we are not to expect signs before our eyes, such as Gideon here desired, but must earnestly pray to God that, if we have found grace in his sight, he would show us a sign in our heart, by the powerful operations of his Spirit there, fulfilling the work of faith, and perfecting what is lacking in it. [2.] In order hereunto, that he would accept of a treat, and so give him a further and longer opportunity of conversation with him, v. 18. Those who know what it is to have communion with God desire the continuance of it, and are loth to part, praying with Gideon, Depart not hence, I pray thee. That which Gideon desired in courting his stay was that he might bring out some provision of meat for this stranger. He did not take him into the house to entertain him there, perhaps because his father’s house were not well affected to him and his friends, or because he desired still to be in private with this stranger, and to converse with him alone (therefore he calls not for a servant to bring the provision, but fetches it himself), or because thus his father Abraham entertained angels unawares, not in his tent, but under a tree, Gen. xviii. 8. Upon the angel’s promise to stay to dinner with him, he hastened to bring out a kid, which, it is likely, was ready boiled for his own dinner, so that in making it ready he had nothing to do but to put it in the basket (for here was no sauce to serve it up in, nor the dish garnished) and the broth in a vessel, and so he presented it, v. 19. Hereby he intended, First, To testify his grateful and generous respects to this stranger, and, in him, to God who sent him, as one that studied what he should render. He had pleaded the poverty of his family (v. 15) to excuse himself from being a general, but not here to excuse himself from being hospitable. Out of the little which the Midianites had left him he would gladly spare enough to entertain a friend, especially a messenger from heaven. Secondly, To try who and what this extraordinary person was. What he brought out is called his present, v. 18. It is the same word that is used for a meat-offering, and perhaps that word is used which signifies both because Gideon intended to leave it to this divine person to determine which it should be when he had it before him: whether a feast or a meat-offering, and accordingly he would be able to judge concerning him: if he ate of it as common meat, he would suppose him to be a man, a prophet; if otherwise, as it proved, he should know him to be an angel.

      (7.) The angel gives him a sign in and by that which he had kindly prepared for his entertainment. For what we offer to God for his glory, and in token of our gratitude to him, will be made by the grace of God to turn to our own comfort and satisfaction. The angel ordered him to take the flesh and bread out of the basket, and lay it upon a hard and cold rock, and to pour out the broth upon it, which, if he brought it hot, would soon be cold there; and Gideon did so (v. 20), believing that the angel appointed it, not in contempt of his courtesy, but with an intention to give him a sign, which he did, abundantly to his satisfaction. For, [1.] He turned the meat into an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto himself, showing hereby that he was not a man who needed meat, but the Son of God who was to be served and honoured by sacrifice, and who in the fulness of time was to make himself a sacrifice. [2.] He brought fire out of the rock, to consume this sacrifice, summoning it, not by striking the rock, as we strike fire out of a flint, but by a gentle touch given to the offering with the end of his staff, v. 21. Hereby he gave him a sign that he had found grace in his sight, for God testified his acceptance of sacrifices by kindling them, if public, with fire from heaven, as those of Moses and Elias, if private, as this, with fire out of the earth, which was equivalent: both were the effect of divine power; and this acceptance of his sacrifice evidenced the acceptance of his person, confirmed his commission, and perhaps was intended to signify his success in the execution of it, that he and his army should be a surprising terror and consumption to the Midianites, like this fire out of the rock. [3.] He departed out of his sight immediately, did not walk off as a man, but vanished and disappeared as a spirit. Here was as much of a sign as he could wish.

      (8.) Gideon, though no doubt he was confirmed in his faith by the indications given of the divinity of the person who had spoken to him, yet for the present was put into a great fright by it, till God graciously pacified him and removed his fears. [1.] Gideon speaks peril to himself (v. 22): When he perceived that he was an angel (which was not till he had departed, as the two disciples knew not it was Jesus they had been talking with till he was going, Luke xxiv. 31), then he cried out, Alas! O Lord God! be merciful to me, I am undone, for I have seen an angel, as Jacob, who wondered that his life was preserved when he had seen God, Gen. xxxii. 30. Ever since man has by sin exposed himself to God’s wrath and curse an express from heaven has been a terror to him, as he scarcely dares to expect good tidings thence; at least, in this world of sense, it is a very awful thing to have any sensible conversation with that world of spirits to which we are so much strangers. Gideon’s courage failed him now. [2.] God speaks peace to him, v. 23. It might have been fatal to him, but he assures him it should not. The Lord had departed out of his sight, v. 21. But though he must no longer walk by sight he might still live by faith, that faith which comes by hearing; for the Lord said to him, with an audible voice (as bishop Patrick thinks) these encouraging words, “Peace be unto thee, all is well, and be thou satisfied that it is so. Fear not; he that came to employ thee did not intend to slay thee; thou shalt not die.” See how ready God is to revive the hearts of those that tremble at his word and presence, and to give those that stand in awe of his majesty assurances of his mercy.

      3. The memorial of this vision which Gideon set up was a monument in form of an altar, the rather because it was by a kind of sacrifice upon a rock, without the solemnity of an altar, that the angel manifested his acceptance of him; then an altar was unnecessary (the angel’s staff was sufficient to sanctify the gift without an altar), but now it was of use to preserve the remembrance of the vision, which was done by the name Gideon gave to this memorial, Jehovah-shalom (v. 24)–The Lord peace. This is, (1.) The title of the Lord that spoke to him. Compare Gen. xvi. 13. The same that is the Lord our righteousness is our peace (Eph. ii. 14), our reconciler and so our Saviour. Or, (2.) The substance of what he said to him: “The Lord spoke peace, and created that fruit of the lips, bade me be easy when I was in that agitation.” Or, (3.) A prayer grounded upon what he had said, so the margin understands it: The Lord send peace, that is, rest from the present trouble, for still the public welfare lay nearest his heart.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

Gideon Called, vs. 11-24

The next incident in Israel’s history is introduced by the appearance of an angel in the tribe of Manasseh in Canaan, in the family portion of the Abiezrites. He sat under an oak tree near the winepress of a man named Joash of the town of Ophrah. Joash’s son, Gideon, was threshing the wheat at the winepress to conceal it from the marauding Midianites, who would have stolen it. Hopefully they would not suspect the threshing of wheat at the winepress.

Suddenly the angel, who was actually the Lord (see verse 14), appeared to Gideon and hailed him as a mighty man of valor, and stated that the Lord was with him.

The ensuing conversation between Gideon and the angel reveal the godly character of Gideon. It is noted that:

1) Gideon was a man of meditation, for he had been considering the apostate condition of Israel;

2) he was a man of the word, for he knew how the Lord had blessed Israel;

3) he was a man of prayer, for he sought the reason the Lord seemed to have forsaken Israel;

4) he was a man of humility, for he considered himself of no consequence in his tribe, city and family.

All these things together perfectly fitted Gideon for the purpose to which the Lord was calling him. These were the “might” of Gideon, in which, said the Lord, if Gideon would go he would deliver Israel. This would be all Gideon would need to defeat Midian, (Lu 14:11).

Gideon was reluctant to receive the call and asked to find grace in the Lord’s sight that he might prove Him by a sign. He would go and bring a present to the Lord. The Lord consented to tarry, so Gideon went in and prepared a meal for Him; a kid goat and unleavened bread. He brought out the food in a basket and the broth from the cooking in a pot, and placed it on a rock at the Lord’s direction. He then poured out the broth on it, and the angel of the Lord touched it with the end of his staff. Fire came out of the rock and devoured it, and the angel disappeared from Gideon’s sight.

Gideon had not realized unto this point to whom he was talking. Probably he thought it was another prophet of the Lord, but now he knew he had been face to face with an angel of the Lord. He was afraid, for men of those days expected to die in the presence of the Lord. However, the Lord spoke to Gideon, telling him that he would not die, and extending peace to him. Gideon built there an altar, which he called Jehovah-shalom, which means “the Lord is our peace.” It remained as a memorial to Israel of the peace the Lord brings to those who believe, unto the day the Book of Judges was written.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

CHAPTER 6.Jdg. 6:11-24

THE UNSEEN FRIEND

CRITICAL NOTES. Jdg. 6:11. There came an angel of the Lord.] Rather, the angel of the Lord came. The reference being to one particular person known already by that name (ch. Jdg. 2:1-5). He almost always personated Jehovah, or speaks in His name (Exo. 23:20-22; Ex. 3:23; Exo. 14:19). He is generally supposed to have been the Messiah, the Son of God, anticipating the appearance He was to make in human form in the fulness of time. He had other names, such as angel of His presence (Isa. 63:9). Angel of the covenant (Mal. 3:1). Some think also that the Shechinah, and the glory of the Lord are names of the Messiah.

Sat under an oak]. Sat down under the oak, or terebinth treeone special tree of that kind, noted perhaps for its size, its umbrageous character, and its convenient position, so that it formed a suitable public meeting place. Some think there was a grove, or cluster of trees. Such a tree, of magnificent proportions, and wide-spreading branches, would afford a most grateful shade in a land of so much sunshinecomp. the palm-tree under which Deborah sat in performing her functions, as a prophetess (ch. Jdg. 4:5); also the juniper tree under which Elijah rested (1Ki. 19:4). Certain trees were certainly of great importance in those times (Jos. 24:26; Gen. 35:4). A well was also an object of great importance, as in the case of the well Harod (ch. Jdg. 7:1); the well of Hagar (Gen. 16:14); the well of Bethlehem (2Sa. 23:15-16); and Jacobs well (Joh. 4:6).

Which was in Ophrah]. So described to distinguish it from a place of the same name in Benjamin (Jos. 18:23; 1Sa. 13:17). This Ophrah was a small town in the south-west of Manasseh, in the hill country, and near to Shechem. It was inhabited by a branch of the Abi-ezerite family, or clan. It appears to have been a secluded spot, in a rugged country, with rocks all round. Abiezer was a son of Gileads sister (1Ch. 7:18). The name is given as Jeezer in Num. 26:30, but Abi-ezer in Jos. 17:2, and also here.

That pertained to Joash the Abi-ezrite.] Joash, the father of Gideon, was head of the clan or house of Abi-ezer. The little town of Ophrah was Gideons place of birth, of residence, and of burial (ch. Jdg. 6:11-24; Jdg. 8:32).

His son Gideon.] The name means hewer or feller, which well corresponds with what he did in hewing down the image of Baal; also with his being a man of great muscular strength, and a warrior. But for what reason he got the name, we are not told. Some think it was given him prophetically, He was the youngest son of the family, perhaps the only son now left (ch. Jdg. 8:18-19). He was the fifth judge in Israel.

Threshed wheat.] It was customary in those times, and in early times generally, for those who owned property to engage, both themselves and the members of their family, in manual labour connected with their establishments. The ancient Roman senators did the same, Cincinnatus, Curius, Scipio, etc. to beat out with a sticknot to thresh in the strict sense (Deu. 24:20; Isa. 27:12).

By the wine-press.] The usual manner of threshing wheat was to do it on open floors, or in places in the open field, that were rolled hard for the purpose with threshing carriages or threshing shoes, or else with oxen, which they drove about over the scattered sheaves to tread out the grains with their hoofs. Only poor people knocked out the little corn that they had gleaned with a stick (Rth. 2:17), and Gideon did it so now, showing the extreme distress which prevailed in the laud when a family such as his were reduced to adopt such an expedient as this. He beat it out in the pressing tub ; which like all wine-presses was either sunk in the ground in a hole dug out, or else was a hollow scooped out in the rock (Keil). In either case, the purposes of concealment would be served. The men of the desert would not expect to find wheat in the wine-press; being in a pit, or hollow of the rock, it was not likely to be discovered; oxen not being employed in the process, there would be no lowing heard; and there being no machine, there would be no hum-drumming noise such as it usually makes.

to make it safe from, lit. to make it fly from (Exo. 9:20). Threshing was usually performed by oxen (Deu. 25:4) upon floors (2Sa. 24:18) prepared for the purpose. At this season the operation of Gideon could be done in the wine-press, for the vintage season was four months after the wheat harvest.

Jdg. 6:12. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him.] It had already been said, he came and sat down under the oak. Now it is said, he appeared. This implies something more than a stranger coming within sight. It seems to intimate that he made a revelation of himself to him. The Hebrew word used justifies this rendering; for is only used when the invisible Divine nature becomes visible (Cassel). It also corresponds with the fact, that after the interview he vanished out of sight. The angel who came forward to withstand Balaam was for a time invisible to him (Num. 22:23; Num. 22:25; Num. 22:27 with Jdg. 6:31; Jdg. 6:34; 2Ki. 6:17). Gideon was the only judge to whom the angel of the Lord had yet appeared in calling him to his special work.

The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.] This, though a common form of salutation (Rth. 2:4), seems to have been spoken with significance in the present instance. The angel speaks of Gideon in a manner which appearances seem to justify. He was a young man, of noble countenance, of muscular build, and great natural strength; like the son of a king (ch. Jdg. 8:18). Perhaps, too, in this statement there is some slight intimation of the destiny or work reserved for Gideon; q. d., Jehovah has marked thee out as His instrument for doing a great work, being naturally so well fitted for carrying it out, and he is now with thee and in thee for this purpose.

Jdg. 6:13. O my Lord, if Jehovah be with us, why is all this befallen us? Gideons heart was sad, because of the loss of his own brethren (ch. Jdg. 8:18-19), as well as because of the national calamities. But one thing encouraged him to speak out his mind with confidence to this stranger. He struck the right key-note in addressing a true Israelite. When the whole land was full of Baal, it was a relief to hear a voice raised in honour of Jehovah; and Gideon thought he recognised in this utterance of the stranger the true ring. It was the vein in which Gideons heart loved to go out. Doubtless he had loved to think of the bright days of old when Jehovah was held to be Supreme, and all went well. And often must he have wished to find some congenial spirit with whom he could hold intercourse about the melancholy state of religion, throughout all the coasts of Israel. He was a man of the type referred to in Eze. 9:4; Mal. 3:16-17; Isa. 62:1; Isa. 62:6-7. He therefore felt that this stranger, from the few words he had let fall, was a friend of the right stamp. But he did not know, nor suspect, at this stage, that he was addressed by a person of mysterious dignity.

His language means simply, O sir! how can you say Jehovah is with us, when all this has happened to us? It is impossible that our true King can be among us, when things are brought to the very last extremity! The wave of desolation that is passing over the land is clear proof of the absence of our God; for what god can contend with the God of Israel? His arm is never shortened that it cannot save, etc. (Isa. 59:1). But it is as He threatened in Deu. 31:16-17. How can we for a moment suppose that the Lord is with us, when He has delivered us into the hands of the Midianites?] into the grasp of (lit. the palm of the hands). The word here translated forsaken means the same as castaway (Rom. 11:2). Because they were brought so low as to burrow in the ground like beasts, and hide themselves in dens and in caves. Gideons reply is significant, as showing what his heart was full of at the time, and God, who looks especially at what is passing in mens hearts, saw that from the state of his heart, he was a man of the right stamp to undertake the work of the peoples deliverance.

Jdg. 6:14. And the Lord looked upon him] i.e., He turned round with expressive gesture, and said in the attitude and tone of giving him a solemn charge. Not the angel, but Jehovah (as in Jos. 6:2). This charge to go and deliver Israel manifestly implied the assumption of a prerogative, which belonged only to Israels Godthe Keeper and Shepherd of Israel. The closing words specially imply this () have not I sent thee? (Act. 7:38). This phrase is a strong assertion of the fact, that the speaker had commissioned him. It is the same as saying, Does not my statement, now solemnly made, bear witness to the fact that thou art commissioned? (ch. Jdg. 4:14; Jos. 1:9).

From the hand of Midian.] From the grasp.

Go in this thy might, and thou shall save, etc.] This is the formal commission given by the Keeper of Israel to him whom He had chosen for His instrument in effecting their deliverance. He now has a duty laid down for him to discharge. This involves a responsibility for himself, and a call to others to assist him in the work. Two things had been referred to as constituting a source of great strength. Jehovah was with him, and as regards his natural equipment as a man, he was a mighty man of valour. Both these are included in the phrase, this thy might. It might be said he had an additional source of strength in the fact, that Jehovah had now formally commissioned him. For this necessarily conveyed a promise, that He would in all respects qualify him sufficiently for the performance of the work. He sends none a warfare on their own charges (1Co. 9:7). His God would command his strength, and would make perfect that which concerned him. His own natural strength, though a small matter compared with the special Divine resources, which would be open to him, would yet not be despised; for it was Gods natural gift, and in its place would go for something.

Jdg. 6:15. O my Lord! wherewith shall I save, etc.] Rather, O Lord God. He now addresses the stranger as Jehovah; believing from His speech, and whole manner, that he is a Divine person in human form. As such an idea seems too grand for any man to comprehend in a single moment, and as Gideon expressed no great surprise at the discovery made, we are disposed to think that here, as in many other parts of Scripture (as Peters Sermon on the day of Pentecost, Act. 2:14-36; Act. 2:40; Peters Sermon in the house of Cornelius, Act. 10:34-43; Pauls Address on Mars Hill, Act. 17:22-31in all which, as well as other places, we have only the heads of the sermon delivered, and not the full verbatim report), we have only an abridgment or outline of what was actually said. It is enough, if the statement given conveys an infallibly accurate conception of what took place, although the whole of what was uttered is not recorded. If more had been said on this occasion than is here given, the discovery of the Divinity of the speaker may have come more gradually on Gideon, than seems to have been the case from what we read in the page.

Gideon does not question the ability of the speaker to accomplish the salvation of Israel. He is only full of doubts, about his own miserable qualifications for the task. To choose me for so great a work seems passing strange. I am the last person in all Israel to be thought of. Manasseh, my tribe, itself has less influence than the others, for it is only a half tribe, to the west of Jordan. My family, or house, is among the poorest in Manasseh. And I am the least in my fathers house. I am in every way disqualified for so vast an undertaking. Doubtless the thought often crossed his mindO that Israel were free! How cheerfully would I assist, were but an opportunity given, for lifting the nightmare from off my nation! I would lay my life on the altar, did I but see how the Church of God could be restored to freedom and honour. Now the answer comes, which solves the difficult problem, I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man, i.e., as easily as thou couldst smite one man, or, at one blow. This was He who had been a wall of fire around Israel hitherto, and who had wrought all the miracles, which the fathers spoke so much of to the children. It was He who fainteth not, neither is weary, in turning round the wheels of Providence. Thus assured, Gideon questions no longer the possibility of the work being done.

My family is poor] lit, my thousand (Num. 1:16) is the humblest in Manasseh, referring to the divisions and sub-divisions made in Exo. 18:25; Mic. 5:2; Deu. 33:17. These were tens, fifties, hundreds, and thousands. The thousand meant the expansion of the family so as to include several sub-divisions.

I am the least in my fathers house.] The person of least influenceas being the youngest, and his name therefore coming in at the bottom of the roll on all occasions. Also perhaps because of his singular modesty and disinterestedness, as he seems to have underrated his own qualities, and spoken highly of the merits of others. He was in the family of Joash, what David was in the family of Jessethe least respected boy in the family circle. But God chose them both to do His work.

Gideon had hesitation, but it was the hesitation of modesty and self-distrust, not the hesitation of unbelief. He did not question Gods power, but his own. Compare with the hesitation of Moses (Exo. 3:11, etc., Jdg. 4:1-14); of Barak (ch. Jdg. 4:8); of Saul (1Sa. 10:21-22); of Joshua (Jos. 1:1-10); of Jonah, (Jon. 1:1-3); of Jeremiah (Jer. 1:6); of Amos (Amo. 7:14-15). The least fit are usually the most forward, and the most fit are the most backward, to undertake great offices (ch. Jdg. 9:8-15). True humility is the usual companion of true greatness (2Co. 2:16; 2Co. 3:5; Eph. 3:8). (Pulpit Com.)

Jdg. 6:17. If now I have found grace in Thy sight, show me a sign. ]A miraculous sign. Gideon thought if the mysterious stranger would but eat and drink with him, it would be a conclusive proof of two things: first that he was really human, and next that he was friendly in his intentions (Luk. 24:41-43; Act. 10:41; Joh. 21:9-13). But beyond that he was anxious for some decided proof that God had really called him to this work. He wished doubtless to see some work done which only God could do, to prove that it was really Jehovah that was calling him to this work, and it was no delusion. To none of the other judges was such favour shown. But the circumstances were such, as to necessitate a special degree of encouragement, to be given to him who should act the part of a deliverer. The tide of sin was strong, and the infliction of judgments was heavy. Gideon would have many a hard battle to fight all around him, as well as in the open field against the stern foe. He must know that the God who had done wonderful things for His people aforetimes still lived, and that His love to Israel was as strong as ever it had been in all the ages of the past.

The phrase, found grace in Thy sight, is common in Scripture (Gen. 18:3; Gen. 33:10; Exo. 33:13; 1Sa. 27:5; Est. 7:3).

Jdg. 6:18. Depart not hence, etc., till I come and bring my present]offering, or sacrifice. The word minchah may stand for either. The Sept. and Vulg. render it sacrifice. We understand it rather to mean a gift offered to God as King, a meat offeringsuch food as was given only to the specially favoured guests (Speak. Com.). It was a kind of eucharistic gift presented to God as King (Lev. 2:1-6), the unbloody meat offering. In Gen. 4:3-5 it means sacrifice generally. To have accepted a meat offering at Gideons hands, would have been to confer on him the honour of His friendship, and the favour of His protecting shield.

Jdg. 6:19. Gideon made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes.] Here are two things in which Gideon showed especial respect to the stranger. He gave him a kid. Animal food is never provided except for visitors of superior rank, when a kid, or a lamb, and sometimes even a calf, is killed (Gen. 18:7). The other circumstance is, that the ephah was generally the quantity used for a whole household of ten persons, being nearly a bushel of flour (Mat. 13:33). It was equal to tenomers, yet one omer was the daily portion of manna allowed to one person, as being amply sufficient to supply all wants (Exo. 16:16). To present a whole ephah to one person therefore was a mark of the deepest respect; and more especially at such a time as this, when great scarcity prevailed all over the land.

Unleavened cakes.] Not soured, but sweet. Also these were quickly prepared, and were best suited as an offering to God (Gen. 19:3; Exo. 12:39; 1Sa. 28:24; Lev. 2:11).

Presented it.] Set it before the stranger, and awaited his commands (Amo. 5:25). In this interview with the angel, Gideon did not wish any others to be present, and so to dispense with assistants he put the flesh into a basket, and the broth into a pot, and brought it out himself.

Jdg. 6:20. Angel of God.] Elohim, not Jehovah. Yet it is the same person who is spoken of, implying that both are one. This rock] or stone, used as an altar on which any thing was laid that was presented to Godan unhewn rock (Exo. 20:25).

Pour out the broth] as a drink offering (Gen. 35:14). (Speak. Com.)

Jdg. 6:21. End of the staff that was in his hand]that which a traveller carries with him (Gen. 32:10; Exo. 12:11). The sign of fire was given (Lev. 9:24; 1Ch. 21:26). This was the answer to the request made in Jdg. 6:17. It implied the acceptance of Gideons offering (Gen. 15:17; 2Ch. 7:1; 1Ki. 18:38). It had also a deep symbolical meaning.

Jdg. 6:22. Alas! O Lord God!] lit. O Lord Jehovahan exclamation sometimes of vexation and disappointment (as Jos. 7:7), and sometimes of apprehension that some terrible issue is to come out of what is happening (Jer. 4:10; Eze. 4:14; Jer. 32:17). Here it expresses dread at having seen the angel Jehovah, or God Himself, which according to the popular belief, no man could do, and continue to live. This belief seems to have had for its foundation, Exo. 33:20. But what was really seen on this occasion, and indeed on all other occasions, was not the actual Person of Jehovah, but only the appearance of a man personating Jehovah (Gen. 32:24; Gen. 32:30-31; Joh. 1:18; Joh. 14:9; ch. Jdg. 13:21). (See also Exo. 20:19; Exo. 33:20; Deu. 5:24-26; ch. Jdg. 13:18).

For because I have seen.] Lit. for therefore, an idiomatic phrase, which is only a strong form of using the word because (Lias). Others translate it for to this end have I seen an angelthat I might die (Keil). The former sense, which indeed is that of the A. V. seems better (Gen. 33:10).

Jdg. 6:23. The Lord said, Peace unto thee, etc.] He said, probably by vision, or some audible voice, not by inward suggestion so likely, Peace is meant, not Trouble, by this visit. It has been given to comfort you (Jer. 29:11). You are mistaken in your fears. Comp. Joh. 20:21; Joh. 20:26; Gen. 21:17; Genesis 16; Dan. 10:12; Dan. 10:19; Mat. 28:5; Luk. 2:10; Luk. 24:36-38).

Jdg. 6:24. Built an altar unto the Lord. etc.] Partly out of gratitude for the sparing of his life; partly to mark the spot as sacred, where so glorious a Person had stood; partly to express his sense of the honour that had been done to him; and chiefly perhaps, to consecrate the place where he had received a Divine commission to become the saviour of his people. He manifestly did not intend to make this altar a spot, on which sacrifices might be regularly offered in Divine worship. This would have been expressly condemned as being against the fixed law appointed for Divine worship in Israel. Only in the place which God should specially choose to put His name there, was it allowable to offer sacrifices in the way of regular worship (Deu. 12:5-6; Deu. 12:11-14). The mere semblance of departure from this rule was denounced as a great trespass of Divine law (Jos. 22:16; Jos. 22:19; Jos. 22:28). But any place where God appeared was in some sense sacred, and Gideons object appears to have been as described above. It was especially a memorial and witness of the theophany vouchsafed to him, on the occasion of Gods sending him forth to be the saviour of His people.

JehovahShalom.] JehovahPeace. Comp. the names, Jehovah-jireh, (Gen. 22:14); Jehovah-nissi (Exo. 17:15); Jehovah-Tzidkenu (Jer. 23:6); Jehovah-Shammah (Eze. 48:35). Here the phrase means simply, The Lord, is peaceor peaceful. It is similar to the New Testament name of Godthe God of peace. But that is a fixed and permanent name, denoting the settled attitude of God in dealing with guilty men, now that the great propitiation has been made. In Old Testament times, the light shed on Gods character was more flickering. The force of the title on this occasion was, that the Divine visit made to Gideon was one of peacepeace to himself, and peace to Israel. Jehovahs anger was now turned away, and now He was to bless His people with peace (Isa. 12:1; Psa. 29:11).

MAIN HOMILETICS.Jdg. 6:11-24

THE VISIT OF THE UNSEEN FRIEND

Israels darkest night had come. Her last star had gone down, and a pitiless storm swept through all her borders. The enemy had come in like a flood, and swallowed up her every possession. Her beautiful land was turned into a wilderness. Her cornfields were wasted; her fig trees were barked; her vines and olives stripped bare; her harvest fruits were destroyed; and her children were compelled to burrow in the ground for habitations, or to flee to the mountain crags, or to dens and caves, in their search for shelter from their marauding foe. For seven long years, this sinning people lay helpless and bleeding, under the heel of the oppressor, learning the sad lesson, that the greatest enemy of man is man.

But mans extremity is Gods opportunity. Though no sign in the horizon indicates that help is at hand; though the heavens do not thunder against the oppressor, and the stars in their courses do not fight against him, though no powerful army comes to the rescue, Israel is yet not without a Friend in this hour of extreme peril. one who, though unseen, has been a deeply interested witness of the tragic scene, now steps forward to act the part of a Friend in this emergency. Silently, as the dew falls, and unobserved, he shows himself. As a traveller, staff in hand, but of princely form and expressive countenance. He enters into conversation with one of Israels disconsolate sons; a few simple words are spoken; a command is given; a flash of fire springs out of the hard rock, and the stranger disappears. But, during that short interview, a rift begins to appear in the clouds of Israels distresses. And though, for a moment the secret is kept, soon it appears, that a movement has begun, which will quickly put another colour on the whole course of events. It gets whispered that He who walks on the waters, and gathers the winds in His fists, has already sent forth the wordBe still! and ere long there must be a great calm! Such is the matter we have now to consider. Though it was the visit of only one friend, His presence to Israel at this time was invaluable. The sheep, however numerous, can do nothing against the attack of the lion without the Shepherd. Little children, in an emergency, are helpless without the presence of father and mother.

1. The Unseen Friend.
1. Who He was. The angel of the Lord appeared to him (Jdg. 6:12). It might be read, the angel-Jehovah. It was manifestly not one of the ordinary heavenly messengers, who, however superior they way be to men, and however brilliant they may be both in wisdom and prowess, yet dare not assume the prerogative of Deity, or speak in the name of Jehovah. But this is always done by him who is styled the angel-Jehovah. The name Jehovah is given him interchangeably with that of the angel of the Lord (comp. Jdg. 6:11-12; Jdg. 6:20-22 with Jdg. 6:14; Jdg. 6:16; Jdg. 6:15). None, however, could claim to speak and act as God, and show that he possessed the power of God, but He who really was God. Only one Person corresponds with this descriptionthe second Person of the glorious God-head, who was, in the fulness of time, to become God manifest in the flesh, and who now by anticipation, at special seasons, made needful revelations to His Church.

He is sometimes called The Messenger or Angel of the Covenant (Mal. 3:1), The Angel who redeems from all evil (Gen. 48:16), and The Angel of His Presence (Isa. 63:9).

This friend of His people, if still unseen, is no longer unknown, for He was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, etc. (Joh. 1:14). In the man Christ Jesus, we have one who is all, and more, in these New Testament times, than the unseen Guardian was to the church of old. In Him we have not an angel, but a man associated with the Divine name, Who is at once bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, and yet is also the Mighty God, and the everlasting Father,whose appearances are no longer shadowy and vanishing, but are for ever fixed in the form of a man at the helm of universal power, far above all principality, and power, and might, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. We must know Who He is, where He is, and what power He has to preserve every one of His people, till they reach the world of glory.

2. The relation which He bore to Israel. That this angel was something more than a mere spectator of the sufferings of Gods people, however sympathetic, is abundantly manifest from the accounts given of Him in the different places where He appeared.

(1.) It was this angel Jehovah that appeared in the flame of fire in a bush, when Moses was called to arise and deliver Israel from bondage (Act. 7:30). It was He who announced His presence by saying, I am the God of the Fathers, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and who gave as the reason for His coming down, I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people, and I am come down to deliver them. Thus He stands to Israel in the close relation of being their God, and claiming them for Himself as His special property. He was their Owner or Possessor.

(2.) But He was also their Redeemer, for it was the same Divine Person who spake to Moses at the bush, who also sent him to Pharaoh with the message, Let my people go that they may serve me; it was He who sent all the plagues on Egypt, who destroyed the first-born of that country, and brought out Israel with a high hand, who went before them in the pillar of cloud, dried up the sea for them to pass over, went in behind Israel to protect them from the Egyptians, and finally brought the waters on Pharaoh and all his host, so that they were drowned in the sea (Exo. 3:10; Exodus 6; Exodus 7-11; Exo. 12:29-42; Exo. 13:21-22; Exo. 14:19-31).

(3.) He also became their Lawgiver. For we are told (Act. 7:38) it was from this same angel that Moses received the lively oracles to give unto us, on Mount Sinai. Then He appeared clothed with all the Majesty and authority of the Supreme Jehovah, and exhibiting a special jealousy for all His Sovereign rights in His own Person. We hear of Him also (4 as their Guardian Angel, specially appointed to take charge of this people, during their wilderness journey, to conduct them to their journeys end, and to put them in possession of the promised inheritance (Exo. 23:20-23). The language is used by God the Father, My name is in Him, implying that He, too, is God. This arrangement was confirmed in Exo. 32:34; Exo. 33:2). But there is a marked difference in the two passages quoted; in the one case it is Mine angel shall go before thee, in the other it is, I will send an angel before thee. In the former case, it is the special angel, the angel-Jehovah, that is referred to, who has no compeer among the angels of God; in the other case, it is one out of the common class of angels. Moses fully appreciated the vast difference, and prayed earnestly that He who represented Gods presence might be sent, and no other. Only one could take this placethe Son of God, the Second Person of the Godhead, whose office it is to reveal the Father, and therefore to represent His presence (Exo. 33:12; Exo. 33:14-15). The language my presence is emphatic; it is the same as saying, He who represents my presence shall go with thee. Hence the reference in Isa. 63:9, The Angel of His presence.(See Henderson in loco.)

It was specially in His capacity of Guardian Angel that He now appearedas the Keeper of Israeltheir great Friend, who had them in charge, to lead and guide them, to defend them from all enemies, Gen. 48:16, and bestow on them all the blessings of the covenant; but also to see that they should act as an obedient people, and keep the covenant of their God. The relation was thus most intimate and manifold.

To the Church of God on earth in these latter times, the Saviour is intimately allied. With every member of it, He becomes personally and intimately associated on the day when he receives Christ as his Saviour. He then gives himself to Christ, and Christ in all His fulness gives himself to the believing, penitent sinner. From that moment they become one, and are more intimately allied than brothers of the same family circle. Jesus is ever afterwards known as that sinners friend, his Redeemer, his Lord and Master, his Guide through Life, his Guardian in danger, his Keeper at all times, his Shepherd to provide him with pasture, and prevent him from wandering, and his Bestower of all the gifts and graces contained in the everlasting covenant.

3. His constant presence with them. Though seldom seen, He was ever present with this people to bless them, and to do them good. Being His redeemed ones, and chosen for Himself as His peculiar people, He took the deepest interest in them, and in terms of the promise made, followed them to the place of the appointed rest. In fidelity to the trust given Him by Jehovah, He watched over them every moment, lest any hurt should arise to objects so beloved; and, in all their journeyings, He bore them as on eagles wings (Isa. 27:3; Deu. 32:9-11; Exo. 19:4; Isa. 63:11-14). All through the trackless desert He guided them, with sleepless eye caring for them, Himself unseen (Psa. 107:2-7), saving them at one time from such enemies as the Amalekites (Exo. 17:13-14), again from the fiery flying serpents (Num. 21:8), again from the curse of Balaam (Num. 22:31-35; Num. 23:5; Num. 23:16; do. 23), and again from the armies of two mighty kings on the threshold of the territories of the Canaanites, Sihon and Og. He also dried up the Jordan before them, and appeared as the Captain of the Lords host, when the wars against the Canaanites were about to begin (Jos. 5:13-15). It was by His mighty power also, that all these nations were slain before the sword of Joshua (Psa. 44:3).

Jesus still goes personally with every one of His people, every step of the way, on to the place of the promised rest, Himself unseen, but not the less really taking charge of His redeemed ones, treating them substantially in the same manner, and acting on the same principles as of old. His language is, Lo! I am with you alway unto the end. He is the Beginner and the Finisher of their faith (Mat. 28:20; Heb. 12:2; Heb. 13:5; Psa. 73:24; 2Ti. 4:18).

4. The rarity of His appearances. It might be thought if He was so closely allied to this peoplemore intimately related than father to children, brother to brother, or husband to wifethen it is singular He should so seldom show Himself. If His presence is so essential to the safe conduct and the comfort of His people, why does He not oftener look through the window, showing Himself through the lattice (Son. 2:9)? Nay, if, in point of fact, He is always near, why does He not give unmistakeable signs of His presence? How much might not the consciousness of His presence do to cheer His people under their sorrows, to lighten their burdens, relieve their anxious fears, and enable them to run with patience the Christian race! Yet we hear of His appearing only once to Joshua on the threshold of His great work, only once, too, at the time when the people were left without a leader, to see if they could of themselves obey the covenant of their God (ch. Jdg. 2:1-5), and now a third time after a lapse of more than 200 years when the whole nation was brought to the brink of ruin. Why should it be so?

(1.) These visits were too precious to be often repeated. It is but glimpses of glory that can be expected on earth. It is not the normal state of things to make revelations of the Divine brightness in such a world as this. It would be a departure from the fixed rule to do so. The cases are therefore strictly exceptional; and even the glimpses which are given are made only to the people of God. There was only one Mount of Transfiguration scene permitted to the disciples in this world, and that quickly came and quickly vanished. This earth is too polluted a spot for any long continued enjoyment of the Divine presence.

(2.) The rule in the present state, is to walk by faith, and not by sight. This rule is necessary for putting the soul through a most healthful discipline, and enabling it to learn lessons which it could learn so well in no other way. It becomes the means of acquiring a degree of self knowledge from experience, which it never could arrive at otherwisethe knowledge of its entire spiritual helplessness, its want of a righteousness of its own, its innate treachery, its difficulty of loving God, and trusting in Him when unseen, and many other things of a very humbling character. It leads to a gradual exposure of the human heart to itself. It is also the appointed means of our justification before God, through the merits of the Saviour, and so illuminates the fact, that we deserve no manifestations of Gods brightness whatever. Hence, till we learn this lesson thoroughly they are but sparingly made. It is also the means of producing our sanctification, of enabling us to overcome all opposition to our entrance into heaven, and preparing many of the materials of the joy of that state. (1Pe. 1:7; 2Co. 4:18).

(3.) Our sins and backslidings prevent many visits. (Isa. 59:2; Hos. 5:15; Hos. 6:1, etc.) From those who obey not His voice, but cast His laws behind their backs, He hides His face, and they receive little or no manifestations of His favour, as in the passages quoted (see also Isa. 57:17; Isa. 1:15). This was realised often in the days of the Judges, and never more than during the period referred to in this chapter. On the other hand, His secret is with them that fear Him, etc. (Psa. 25:14); to the man who walks before Him with a perfect heart He reveals Himself, as to Moses (Exo. 33:11, also 1823). The meek He will teach His way. To that man will I look, even to him that is poor, etc. (Psa. 25:9; Isa. 66:2). To the man that keepeth His commandments, He will manifest Himself to him (Joh. 14:21; Gen. 18:17; Gen. 18:19).

5. His appearance at the proper moment. He saw all His peoples affliction at the hands of these cruel sons of the desert, and though they were punished less than their iniquities deserved, His heart was yet touched with pity for them, and long ere the full cup of merited suffering was emptied, He appeared as He did to Moses in the bush, to tell them how in all their afflictions He was afflicted, and that now in His love He was come to redeem them. At that point, when they had bitter trial of the severity of the rod on the one hand, but had not yet experienced any wholesale destruction of human life on the other, though nearing that point, the angel appears. His heart yearned over them, as if they had received at the Lords hand double for all their sins (Isa. 40:2). At the moment when the metal was beginning to consume, He at once snatches it from the fire. Already a famine seems to have begun (Rth. 1:1), and had the terrible incubus from the desert continued to rest longer on the land, the people must soon have perished in tens of thousands. But just then He appeared for their rescue, according to the multitude of His loving kindnesses (Isa. 63:7). He who sent out a strong west wind, and swept off the swarms of locusts that covered the land of Egypt, so that there remained not one in all the coasts (Exo. 10:19), now does a similar thing with these barbarous hordes (Jdg. 8:10; Jdg. 8:12; Jdg. 8:28).

The Jews have a proverb that, when the tale of bricks is doubled, then comes Moses. The Redeemer of Israel cannot see the destruction of His people. He never departs from this ruleI will correct thee in measure. I will not make a full end of thee. Other nations were mere common property. His people were His jewels. I gave Egypt for thy ransom, etc. I have engraven thee on the palms of my hands.

6. The purpose of His appearance. He came to rid the land of the enemy and grant salvation to His people. In that people, notwithstanding their present apostasy, He saw the church of the living God, the only people that represented the true God in all the earth, the people whose history carried in it the germ of a great Divine plan, to be revealed to future ages, by which the Divine glory would be far more brightly illustrated than in any other manner, down through unending time. Through this people the name of Jehovah should become known and worshipped, among all nations, in the future of the worlds history. But now all their prospects as a nation were placed in great jeopardy. Wherefore He looked, but there was none to help; He wondered that there was none to uphold; therefore His own arm brought salvation, etc. (Psa. 63:5). He appears on their behalf, according to the jealousy He bears to his great name. Formerly He came as a reprover of their sins (ch. Jdg. 2:1-5). Now He comes to raise up a deliverer, whom He will employ as an instrument to save them from all the consequences of their sins.

The land has first to be purged of its sins. Till that is done, the finger of Jehovah will not be uplifted for salvation. The work of reformation must be proved to exist. Baals altars must be thrown down, and the altar of Jehovah erected in their place. It must be made visible, that the name of Jehovah is again accepted as that of the God of Israel. Battle must also be bravely given to the terrible foe, that brooded like a nightmare over the rich plains of Israel. For an undertaking so difficult, no ordinary qualifications were required. The whole power, indeed, came from the Divine Deliverer Himself. Yet, as God is always pleased to work by means, He employs the fittest instrument that can be found.

Notwithstanding all our sins, it is wonderful how often our gracious Redeemer appears for our salvation, when, for many strong reasons, we might have expected Him to come for our destruction (see Psa. 106:43; Psa. 106:45; Psa. 78:37-38).

7. His manner of revealing Himself. He comes in a tone, or manner suited to the conduct, or condition of the people at different times. There is design and meaning in the manner, as well as in the expressed purpose of revealing Himself. Now, there are no lightnings in His hands. He is not compassed about with dark clouds. No earthquake heralds His coming. The earth does not shake and tremble at His goings. The pestilence does not go before Him, nor do burning coals spring up under His feet. He comes like the small rain on the tender herb. As a wayfaring man, leaning on His staff, as if wearied with His journey, and sitting down to rest. He comes peaceably, and not in anger. He disturbs not a leaf on the tree, though it were easy for Him to scatter the everlasting mountains, and cause the perpetual hills to bow. All the power of omnipotence slumbered in His arm; the strength of many armies lay in His word. But He keeps back His resources out of sight, He hides His power from observation to see whether men will trust His word. He will make no vain show of His resources, but put forth only the one atom of His power, which is needed to justify faith in His Divine character.

8. His personal character.

(1.) He is Almighty. There are no cases of distress too hard for our heavenly friend to remove. He is able to make the worm Gideon thresh the mountains and to make the hills as chaff. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Gideons faith was not difficult to awaken. It was kindled at once, when he saw the fire spring up from the rock, and consume the sacrifice. He believed that behind that there was infinite strengththat, indeed, this was He who had done all the wonders from the days of the land of Egypt. Neither should more proof be needed to believe in the resources of the Captain of our Salvation, when, besides many other evidences, we behold this one, that He is able to pour out the Spirit from on high, the universal Comforter of the church of Christ. This is the greatest of all the forms of power which God puts forth. Then he creates the soul anew.

(2.) He is faithful. He never forgets nor forsakes the objects of His charge, though centuries had now passed since first He received it, when this people became a free nation. During that long period His faithfulness did not fail, but, amid all the lights and shadows of that greatly chequered history, this covenant-keeping Friend was at his post, and brought His charge safely through every peril according to the terms of his trust. Those whom the Father gave me I have kept, and none of them is lost (Joh. 10:28-29; Joh. 6:39; 2Ti. 1:12; 2Ti. 4:8; do. 18).

(3.) He is tender. It is not His manner even to break the bruised reed. He does not now break forth into a severe reprimand of Gideon, for seeming to find fault with Gods Providence in allowing His people to suffer so much while He stood aloof from them. Though Gideon was charging his God foolishly, He yet knew that at heart he was an Israelite indeed, but was overwhelmed with sorrow at the condition of affairs in the land. There were also other wounds made in Gideons heart, and now bleeding afresh, arising from the loss of his brothers at Mount Tabor, who were there barbarously slain by Zebah, and Zolmunna. These wounds he now tenderly upbinds (Psa. 147:3). Instead of upbraiding, He speaks to him good and comfortable words. The Lord turned and looked upon Peter. How tenderly He deals with the weak side in His disciples character, his unsteadfastness to his Master in the hour of peril!

(4.) He is full of sympathy. He felt the afflictions suffered by the various tribes, as if they had been His own. His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel. He was now virtually saying to them anew, he that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of mine eye. The pain of the members of the body goes at once to the head, the fountain of sensation (ch. Jdg. 10:16; Zec. 2:8). I have seen the affliction of my people, have heard their cry, and know their sorrows, and now I am come down to deliver them. It is as if He could not enjoy His repose in heaven, while His people were suffering such cruelties on earth. When they are persecuted, it is He that bleeds. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? This truly is a Friend in need, and a Friend indeed.

(5.) He is unchanging. His general character is given, as being without variableness, or shadow of turning. He is the same trustworthy Friend now that He was in the days of Joshua, when He brought the people into the land, or as in the days of Moses, when He led such a large congregation safely through all the perils of the wilderness. Having loved His own, who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

Nor death, nor life, nor earth, nor hell,

Nor times destroying sway,

Can eer efface us from His heart,

Or make His love decay.

Mine is an unchanging love,
Higher than the heights above,
Deeper than the depths beneath,
Free and faithful, strong as death.

(6.) He is undying. He carried them all the days of old, and still while generation after generation dies, He lives on through all ages the ever-present, ever interested, ever-watchful Protector of His Church. For three centuries already He had led this people through all changes, and still to this day, He was as much as ever mighty to save. His name at first, when He took this people by the hand, was given as the great I amthe ever-living, self-existent One. And now as far on as the days of Gideon, He is still the Lord of Hosts, strong and mighty in battle. David sings of Him as One of whose years there is no fail. Isaiah adores Him as The Everlasting Father. Jeremiah rejoices in His love as an everlasting love. Micah hails Him as One, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. And when he changed His form from angel to man, we find Him in the latest ages of the sacred record, walking in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, as One like unto the Son of Man, proclaiming as He looks towards the limitless future, Behold, I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of hell and of death (Rev. 1:13; Rev. 1:18). Through all time, His language to His people is, Because I live, ye shall live also.

II. The instrument of His choice.

Though God could accomplish His purposes among men, without the intervention of any human instrumentality, it is His fixed rule to act in all ordinary cases by the use of means. Even in cases where miraculous power is employed, this rule is not departed from; for the miraculous power is employed only to do what ordinary means could not do, or it is put forth in special cases to prove that the power comes directly from God. But where ordinary means can serve every purpose, these only are employed; and, when selected, they are always of the fittest. God always honours the use of natural means, for it is the order He has laid down in His creation, and He must respect His own arrangements. Miracle is therefore the exception; natural means the rule. Hence, on this occasion, Gideon was chosen to act as an instrument in Gods hand in doing the work. He was chosen because of his natural qualifications fitting him for the work; and other qualifications were specially given to him to render him still more qualified.

1. He was selected by the Angel-Jehovah Himself. (p. 143). This appears at once from reading the narrative without any confirmatory statement. It was the angels express command, that gave Gideon the right to act as a saviour to his people, and this too made him responsible for fulfilling this mission. He was not merely an extraordinary character created by extraordinary times. Several have been so raised upsuch as Buonaparte, Washington, Alfred, Cromwell, Knox, and others. But the heroes of Israel were nothing without the Divine aid and guidance of Him who called them to the work. They were always held in the hand of another, and had to obey the will of that other. There was only one real Deliverer, in all the ages of that unparalleled historythe Angel-Jehovah. As held by Him, Israels heroes were invincible under any possible circumstances; as acting of themselves, they were weak, and as other men. If then all the power really came from the Angel-Jehovah, manifestly He must choose His own instrument. The commonly received rule, vox populi, vox Dei, does not apply here.

2. He was taken from a very unlikely place. Othniel was taken from the tribe of Judah, Ehud from Benjamin, and Barak from Naphtali. For the most part God finds His instrument at hand, where the danger is to be met. He does not need to bring him from afar, for anyone close at hand He can make serviceable for His purpose. The danger now to be met, was partly in the tribe of Issachar, and partly in that of cis-jordanic Manasseh. Of all places in the land, in this half-tribe of Manasseh idolatry was the most rampant; and precisely here was the instrument of the angel found. No places suffered more from the inroads of these spoilers, than those which formed the richest portions of this tribe, and none had so determinedly put aside the name of Jehovah, and addicted themselves to the worship of Baal. The old Canaanites had continued in Megiddo, Dor, Ibleam, Taanach, and Bethshean (ch. Jdg. 1:27). All over this district the altars of Baal were upreared, and there were none zealous enough, or powerful enough to deal with this public scandal, among the people who were pledged in every way to worship only Jehovah. In the heart of this country Gideon was found. It might be said, can any good thing come out of idolatrous Manasseh? and the answer might well be given, Come and see! It is like Saul of Tarsus being taken from among the Pharisees, or Dionysius the Areopagite taken from Athens. He who could raise up an Obadiah in the court of Ahab and Jezebel, can also bring forth a man to fell the image of Baal all over the land, from the very headquarters of idol-worship in his day.

3. In what circumstances did the Angel find him? It is always an important question to ask, where a man is found, or how situated, when God calls him, in the case of conversion from sin to God, at the day of death, or some special occasion of duty when a stern act of self-denial is required. Moses when called was in the backside of the desert, a most lonely spot; David was found following the ewes; Elisha was ploughing in the field with oxen; the Apostles were washing and mending their nets; and Gideon was threshing wheat. Similarly Cincinnatus, Curius, Scipio (Roman Senators) were called from agricultural pursuits to occupy high positions in the StateJoseph was even called from a prison to occupy the seat next the throne in Egypt. These were all doing their duty in some humble station meekly and uncomplainingly, content with the lot which God had marked out for themfaithful in that which is least. So it was with Gideon. But his thoughts were not in his work. They were with the Church of God, its sorrowful present and its dark future. If any work was to be done for that Church, he was just the man to throw his whole heart into it.

4. The immediate reason of the Divine visit. Most probably in answer to prayer. In the severely abridged account given of all circumstances in the Book of God, it is little wonder if we do not hear much of Gideons private exercises before his God. But we can hardly suppose such a man of faith and zeal for the cause of God, to be other than a wrestler with God in secret, that he would arise and plead the cause that was his own. Partly in answer to these prayers did the angel come to him. Also his concern was deep at the low state of true religion in the land. Most of those around him were hasting after other gods. Jehovahs altar was deserted; Israel had fallen into the sins of the old Canaanites; and now the tide of judgment had come up in all her borders to such a degree, as to threaten the extinction of the nation. Gideons heart was wrung with grief when he saw Jehovahs name so much dishonoured (Psa. 119:136; Psa. 119:158). Often must he have sighed and cried in prayer, as he thought of all the abominations done in the land. If he could but see a way, he was heartily prepared to lay himself on the altar, to devote himself for the emancipation of his country, and for the re-establishment of the worship of God in the land. On the principle, therefore, that God honours them that honour Him, he is now chosen of God to do the greatest work which that age admitted of, in rescuing his bleeding country from ruin, and restoring the name Jehovah to honour and worship all over the land.

5, His personal fitness for the work. His good qualities were manifold, all marking him out as a suitable agent.

(1.) His physical qualities. These, though inferior to others, are yet in their place important. God does not despise any gifts or faculties, with which He Himself has endowed a man. It was an element of fitness for the work on this occasion, that Gideon was a mighty man of valour; that he was of princely appearance, was physically strong, and able to go through much bodily hardship; and, further, that he was skilful in the use of weapons, and a chivalrous champion in the field. That a bold and dauntless spirit was needed to meet the emergency was most manifest. One who would skulk behind the bush, and conceal himself from all danger, was of no service whatever. Neither could he be Israels leader on such an occasion as this, who could not bravely set his face against terrible odds, and who, though faint with toil, could not yet pursue. But Gideon was robust and muscular, of sinewy, iron frame, and firm nerve. And his whole bearing in this remarkable juncture was marked by intrepid courage and invincible resolution.

(2.) His mental qualities. These are of a higher order, and pre-eminently needed in the conducting of a great enterprise. We do not say he was a man of more than average learning, just as he was not a kings son, nor a prince of the tribe to which he belonged. To be pre-eminent in rank or learning was not essential. But the possession of great natural shrewdness, of sound judgment, and quick discernment; ability to grasp at once the full magnitude and great difficulty of the work before him; the possessiou of wisdom and tact bow best to lay out the few resources within his reach; constructive power in arranging the best plan, or order of battle; fertility in devising expedients and manuvres, and ways of taking advantage of all the shifting scenes and incidents of the crisis; especially the power of managing men, inspiring hearts with courage and hope to which they had long been strangers, wakening up even the faint hearted to a pitch of enthusiasm, to have the soldiers thoroughly in harmony with their leader, and to gain their entire confidence, and to be able to bring the whole force to bear as one man on the object which is sought to be gainedall these qualities Gideon did possess in an eminent degree, and so was eminently the man for the occasion on this side of his character.

(3.) His moral qualities. These are higher still, and in these Gideon yet more excelled. To be able to rise with the occasion, to realise the worth of the precious interests with which he was entrusted, to appreciate the value of the right moment when it occurred, and to lose not a moment in seizing it, to lose himself in the greatness of his duty, and have no other thought but nobly to discharge it, to be daring and dashing in his movements, while yet full of caution and self-restraintthese are the features which distinctly mark the man of Gods selection on this occasion. Who could have thought that the same man should have been so humble, diffident, and shrinkingso overpowered with a consciousness of his own weakness, putting himself down as less than the least in all Israel, and entirely losing sight of himself in his sympathy with his suffering brethren, and the sacred cause now almost lost, which had been committed to their hands? Yet, these are the very features of character, which fit a man for true greatness in the Church of God. Before honour is humility.

Though so disinterested and unselfish as to suppose that the angels salutation did not apply to him personally, when He said The Lord is with thee but rather to the people of Israel as a whole, and so he repliedwith us; and though he entirely passed over the flattering allusion to his being a mighty man of valour, yet, with all this low estimate of himself, when summoned to do work for his God, he rises to the strongest conviction of the sacredness of his duty, and becomes fearless and defiant of danger, when he has reason to believe that his God is with him ordering the battle.

(4.) His religious qualities. These are highest of all. Pre-eminent among these was the fact of his deep sorrow for the sins of the land. This was distinctive of such men as Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, and David, who did so much in their day to bring down a Divine blessing on the land when it seemed to be forsaken of its God. Now it appears to have been so with Gideon. That there should have been so much of Baal, and so little of Jehovah, in Israel in these past years, appears to be the undertone of his lamentation in his first answer to the angel. And the same spirit comes out more decidedly when, in obedience to the Divine command, at great risk to himself, he cut down the grove and the image of Baal. His readiness to obey the Divine call, when assured that he really was called of God, is most beautiful. For his only objection is, not that the sacrifice was too great to make, involving in all probability the loss of life itself, but that he was so weak an instrument to be taken into Gods hand. He was able to do so little. So glorious a cause would suffer by being put into such unworthy hands. But when assured that he was really called, he readily obeysa pleasing contrast even to the case of Moses, who seemed for a time most unwilling to enter on the duty which God imposed upon him (see Exo. 4:10-14). Gideon seemed never to murmur at any measure of self-sacrifice, which his call to this duty would entail upon him. His whole manner seemed to say, Here am I send me!

He had true loyalty to the God of Israel. Though all besides should follow Baal, and though Baals altar should be raised in his fathers house, and be acknowledged by all its inmates, he would bow the knee only to Jehovah. He was not ashamed of the name of his God, neither was he afraid, though he should stand altogether alone. If it must be so, he shall be

Faithful found among the faithless, faithful only he.

But his chief characteristic of all, was his faith in the God of Israel as his own God. It was the entire trust he placed in his God, and the full confidence he had in Him that enabled him to face the huge mountain of difficulty that lay before him. His case was greatly like that of the stripling king, who was first brought into notice by his faith, when he said to the doughty giant, Thou comest to me with sword and spearI come to thee in the name of the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. (1Sa. 17:45). Gideons heart was given to the God of Israel, and he seemed never to doubt but that He could repeat in his own day all the wonders of the old time, were He but to decide so to do. It was certainly a splendid illustration of faith, and one most glorifying to God, for a man to set himself to the task, without a murmur, simply at Gods call, of advancing with a handful of 300 men, to meet a host of warriors numbering 135,000, and hope firmly that he would gain a complete victory because the God of Jacob had promised to give His presence. His confidence in his God carried him over all the fear he might naturally cherish from man.

III. Lessons taught by the interview.
1. True mourners for sin are sure to meet with God as a Comforter sooner or later. (Mat. 5:4; Isa. 57:18; Jer. 31:18-20.)

2. No case of suffering in this world is so extreme, as to have no comforts left. Gideon lost much by the avalanche of ruffianism, that rolled in upon him from the desert, but still he has some wheat left to thresh, and still has provision enough to set before a distinguished stranger. If temporal things were all swept away together, God is still left, which really means that all is yet safe (Psa. 16:5-6; Hab. 3:18). Elijah was for three years without house or home, without friends or money, and yet God kept him. Many can still sing, The Lord is my ShepherdI shall not want. Look at the ravens (Mat. 6:26). What myriads of sea-fowl are seen on the wing amid the inhospitable climate of the Arctic regions! Where do they all find food among perpetual snows, fields of ice, and frost-bound land?

3. All practical difficulties in Providence should be carried to God for solution. Gideon would end all his soliloquies by committing the whole case to God in prayer. Hezekiah spread out the letter before the Lord (2Ki. 19:14). Judah gathered themselves together to ask help of the Lord (2Ch. 20:4).

4. Privations of earthly comforts are no loss in the end to Gods true children. But to want spiritual blessings is a dead loss, which nothing can ever compensate (1Ti. 6:7-8; Psa. 37:37-38; Pro. 14:32). Hence the wisdom of Mat. 6:33.

5. Gods presence is the beginning of all true joy. The Angel-Jehovahs presence was really the presence of God, which implies the presence of all peace, all power and protection, and all blessing of every name, but only to Gods children. All can sing

God is the treasure of my soul,

The source of lasting joy,

A joy which want shall not impair,

Nor death itself destroy.

(Psa. 4:6-7; Psa. 16:11; Psa. 17:15; Joh. 17:24; Joh. 14:23, also Isa. 41:10; Isa. 43:2).

6. A true-hearted Christian feels for the whole brotherhood, as well as himself. This is the spirit of all Gideons utterances to the angel.

7. The best of men sometimes grievously misinterpret Gods Providences. Gideons logic was just the reverse of what it should have been. Our tears often blind our judgment.

8. Correction for sin is a sure sign that God has not left us. He wishes to save us from the precipice. He would destroy the cancerous root while it is yet time. He that spareth the rod hateth the child, but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. You only have I known, therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities (Pro. 13:24; Amo. 3:2; also Heb. 12:6-8). Sins, not afflictions, prove Gods absence.

9. Sometimes the best of men pass through the world unknown. He was in the worldand the world knew him notthough it may have benefitted much by his prayers, and Christian influence in a small circle (Joh. 1:10; Joh. 1:26). The martyrs were unknown

Till persecution dragged them into fame,
And chased them up to heaven.

Such a man as Gideon would have remained unknown, had not that God, who seeth not as man seeth, brought him to light. He was not likely to come to the front himself, filled as he was with humility; and he was little appreciated by those around him.

10. Despondency is always unworthy of a true Christian. His true motto isI can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me. Is any thing too hard for the Lord? It is only a weak faith that desponds. All the promises of God are yea and amen through Christ. What a fund of strength!

11. It is highly important to see that we have a firm foundation to our faith. This was really what Gideon wished to be at, and his request was granted.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

The Call of Giedon Jdg. 6:11-35

11 And there came an angel of the Lord, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.
12 And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.
13 And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? but now the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.
14 And the Lord looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?
15 And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my fathers house.
16 And the Lord said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.
17 And he said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then show me a sign that thou talkest with me.
18 Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present, and set it before thee, And he said, I will tarry until thou come again.
19 And Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it.
20 And the angel of God said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so.
21 Then the angel of the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight.
22 And when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the Lord, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God! for because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face.
23 And the Lord said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die.
24 Then Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord, and called it Jehovah-shalom: unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
25 And it came to pass the same night, that the Lord said unto him, Take thy fathers young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it:
26 And build an altar unto the Lord thy God upon the top of this rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down.
27 Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the Lord had said unto him: and so it was, because he feared his fathers household, and the men of the city, that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night.
28 And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was cast down, and the grove was cut down that was by it, and the second bullock was offered upon the altar that was built.
29 And they said one to another, Who hath done this thing? And when they inquired and asked, they said, Gideon the son of Joash hath done this thing.
30 Then the men of the city said unto Joash, Bring out thy son, that he may die: because he hath cast down the altar of Baal, and because he hath cut down the grove that was by it.
31 And Joash said unto all that stood against him, Will ye plead for Baal? will ye save him? he that will plead for him, let him be put to death whilst it is yet morning: if he be a god, let him plead for himself, because one hath cast down his altar.
32 Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal, saying, Let Baal plead against him, because he hath thrown down his altar.
33 Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east were gathered together, and went over, and pitched in the valley of Jezreel.
34 But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet; and Abiezer was gathered after him.
35 And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh; who also was gathered after him: and he sent messengers unto Asher, and unto Zebulun, and unto Naphtali; and they came up to meet them.

6.

Why did God send an angel? Jdg. 6:11

God spake in times past in divers portions and in sundry manners as it is said in the opening verses of the first chapter of the book of Hebrews. The Word was spoken by men and by angels, On different occasions a different kind of messenger was demanded. In the Greek language, it is hard to determine whether it was a messenger of God or an angel, for the root word is the same; but in this case, it is clear from the Hebrew text that both a prophet and an angel were sent to bring Gods call to Gideon.

7.

Where was Ophrah? Jdg. 6:11

There are two places by this name. One in Benjamin (Jos. 18:23) lies five miles east of Bethel, and is now called et-Taiyibeh. This is a small village standing on a conical hill and contains many ancient ruins. It is presently a Christian village. Jesus retired to this obscure place after the miracle of raising Lazarus (Joh. 11:54). The place which was connected with Gideon, however, was in the tribe of Manasseh, and is mentioned here and in Jdg. 8:27. This was the place where Gideon was buried, It is believed that the reference to Aphrah in the prophecy of Micah (Mic. 1:10) is a reference to the same spot.

8.

Why was Gideon in the winepress? Jdg. 6:11

He was hiding grain from the enemy by putting it in the winepress, a cistern-like opening in the ground. The American Standard Version says that Gideon was in the winepress. Whether he was in it or by it, he was certainly hiding the grain from the oppressing Midianites. This verb, expressing the idea of hiding, is one which also might be translated to give the idea of causing something to flee. Since the winepress was carved out of stone, it was usually underground. Normally, two cistern-like areas were carved out, one slightly below the other. In the upper one, a man would tread out the grapes and as the liquid rose to a certain height, it would enter a drain which flowed to the lower vat where the wine could be stored. Many of these were large enough for a man to hide in, and Gideon was probably down in the winepress with some kind of brush or other material covering the entrance to hide him completely from the enemies.

9.

Who was Gideon? Jdg. 6:11 b

Gideon was the youngest son of Joash of the clan of Abiezer of the tribe of Manasseh (Num. 26:30, Jos. 17:1-2, 1Ch. 7:14-19). His home was at Ophrah, but his family was an obscure one. He became a chief leader of Manasseh and is the fifth recorded judge of Israel. His father was an idolater. Sacrifices to Baal were made among the entire clan, but Gideon held this worship in contempt. The oppressors in his days were the Midianites under Zebah and Zalmunna, their two greatest chiefs; and they were accompanied by other wild tribes of the eastern desert. These men came first as marauders and pillagers at harvest time, but later took forcible possession of the lands and inflicted permanent injury and loss, especially upon Manasseh and Ephraim. Gideon was especially called of God for the need of the hour. It is possible that he had distinguished himself already by some resistance (Jdg. 6:12), but he received a divine commission to be leader over all Israel. One cannot explain his rise to the place of leadership because he brooded over the death of some of his people (Jdg. 8:18), nor could patriotic impulses dwelling within him account for his rise. It is also apparent that he was not leader by popular demand (cf. Jdg. 6:15; Jdg. 6:17; Jdg. 6:19 ff.). His career can only be explained as one views him being moved by the Spirit of God.

10.

Why did Gideon ask for a sign? Jdg. 6:17

Gideons asking for a sign shows he was not aspiring to a place of leadership among his people. He had been driven to a very low estate as he beat out his wheat in a winepress and hid it from the Midianites. His human frailty cried out for some kind of assurance of Gods divine call. It is easy to understand how he would be reluctant to take the leadership against such overwhelming numbers of marauding peoples, and the assurance given him by God must have increased his courage immensely. Although Jesus refused to give signs to the unbelieving Jewish leaders of His day (Mat. 16:1 ff.), He did honor the request of His disciples for an understanding of the signs which would herald His second coming (Mat. 24:3).

11.

Who was the angel of the Lord? Jdg. 6:20-22

The angel of the Lord had appeared many times in the history of Israel prior to the time of Gideon. Jacob had wrestled with this angel (Gen. 32:24 ff.). It was the angel of the Lord who appeared to Moses in the burning bush (Exo. 3:2). This same angel had confronted Joshua before the people of Israel crossed Jordan to attack Jericho (Jos. 5:13 ff.). At Bochim it was the angel of the Lord who rebuked the people of Israel on account of their failure to drive out the Canaanites (Jdg. 2:1 ff.). When Gideon saw him, he cried, Alas, O Lord Jehovah, for as much as I have seen the angel of Jehovah face to face. He had seen one aspect of Gods being; and he felt undone, as did Isaiah when he saw his vision of the Lord high and lifted up (Isaiah 6).

12.

What was the design of the altar? Jdg. 6:24

It was a memorial. Although Gideon made his offering before the Lord, he was not usurping the place of a priest; and he had no intention of establishing another center of worship in Ophrah. His father had an altar dedicated to Baal, but Gideons altar was more like the altar erected by the Transjordan tribes who wanted a witness to the fact that they were a part of the nation of Israel, They erected an altar for a memorial in the edge of the Jordan when Joshua dismissed them and allowed them to go to their homes (Joshua 22).

13.

What was the meaning of the name given to Gideons altar? Jdg. 6:24 b

Gideon called his altar by the name Jehovah-shalom. This means the Lord is peace. Although Gideon was called to go to war against the Midianites, he still looked to the Lord as the one who could give peace. It is evident from this verse that the memorial altar which Gideon erected in Ophrah was still standing in the days when the book was written. If we are accurate in dating the book from the time of Saul, it had stood through the periods of the remaining judges and still proclaimed that the Lord is peace to all who heard its testimony.

14.

What was Gideons first assigned task? Jdg. 6:25

The first thing God asked Gideon to do was to throw down the altar of Baal which his father had erected. At the same time, he was told to cut down the grove, or the Asherah, which was by it. Sometimes it is necessary for the ground to be cleared before a profitable crop can be planted. A man must take out of his heart the evil things which hinder his work before he can begin to do the good work of God. Such was the case with Gideon. It was necessary for his fathers house to be put in order before he was ready to accomplish Gods will for his life.

15.

How were the altars distinguished? Jdg. 6:26

The altar for worshiping God was orderly. Such a suggestion leaves the impression that there was a great deal of disorder about the altar to Baal. Pagan worship often was indecent and disorderly. The Apostle Paul was afraid that this kind of condition would prevail in the worship among the Christians and for that reason gave the final injunction when he wrote to them saying, but let all things be done decently and in order (1Co. 14:40), At the very least, this reference in Judges suggests that Gideon was to take the materials which were used in the altar to Baal in order to have what he needed to erect the altar to God.

16.

Why did they accuse Gideon? Jdg. 6:29

He had a reputation for fighting for truth. Gideon had been forced to tear down the altar under the cover of night. He knew the men of the city would oppose him if they found him destroying their place of worship. We do not know that the men of the city knew of Gideons commission of the Lord; but when they saw their altar had been destroyed, they immediately pointed a finger of accusation towards Gideon. Such action indicates their recognition of him as a righteous man. He must have been one who did not worship at the altar.

17.

Why did Joash defend Gideon? Jdg. 6:31

His sons action stimulated the father to take a stand. Since Baal had not struck Gideon dead when Gideon destroyed his altar, Joash knew that Baal was no god at all. His eyes were opened by this bold action on the part of his son, and he immediately arose to defend his son. Probably Joash knew of Israels earlier glorious history, and his conscience must have hurt him on occasions as he fell into this pagan worship. When this crisis came into his familys life, he chose to stand with the truth.

18.

Why call Gideon Jerub-baal? Jdg. 6:32

The word, Jerub-baal, means let Baal contend. Joash had said that if Baal was a god he would fight for himself. He chided the men of Ophrah by asking them if they were going to fight for Baal. They evidently caught the meaning of Joashs words and thought it a fitting name to give to Gideon. Gideon was a man who reminded them how it was unnecessary for them to defend the false god. If he were really a god he would defend himself.

19.

Where was the valley of Jezreel? Jdg. 6:33

It was in Issachar, near Mt. Tabor and Mt. Carmel. The Greek word for Jezreel is Esdraelon. It is also known as the great plain of Josephus, and sometimes is called the valley of Megiddo. The plain is very rich in soil and lies on the top of a volcanic basalt, but there is little evidence of inhabited villages being built within it boundaries. Generally speaking, it is triangular, 18 x 15 x 12 miles. A great number of important battles were fought on its soil. As has been said, warriors from every nation have pitched their tent in the plains of Jezreel. Names such as those of Deborah, Barak, Gideon, Josiah, Holofernes, Vespasian, the Crusaders, Saracens, Turks, French, and General Allenby give a hint of the events which made the valley memorable. In general, we can describe it as being bounded by three mountainsMount Gilboa, Mount Tabor, and Mount Carmel.

20.

Who was Abiezer? Jdg. 6:34

The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet. It is said then that Abiezer was gathered together after him. Abiezer was the eldest son of Gilead (Joshau Jdg. 17:2). This family settled first of all on the east of Jordan, but must have changed their residence to Ophrah in Manasseh on the west side of Jordan. Gideon was of this family; and when it is said that Abiezer was gathered together after him, the meaning is that his own family followed him in his work for the Lord.

21.

Why wasnt the tribe of Issachar included? Jdg. 6:35

The battle was fought in their territory, so they were already invaded. Issachar had inherited the fertile land of Jezreel, and they surely would have wanted to defend it. Since there is no rebuke of their failing to follow Gideon, we suppose that they joined Asher, Zebulun, Naphtali, and Manasseh in the battles. All these tribes were in the northern part of Israel and were most directly affected by the terrible onslaught of the Midianites.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(11) There came an angel of the Lord.It is obviously absurd to suppose, as some have done, that a prophet is intended, like the one in Jdg. 6:8. There the word is Nabi, here it is Maleak-Jehovah, as in Jdg. 2:1. Josephus, when he says that a phantasm stood by him in the shape of a youth, is merely actuated by his usual desire to give the story as classical an aspect as possible for his Gentile readers.

Under an oak.Rather, under the terebinth (halah):some well-known tree beside the altar in Ophrath. (Comp. Gen. 35:4.)

Ophrah.This Ophrah was in Western Manasseh. There was another in Benjamin (Jos. 18:23). The name means fawn, and the place is identified by Van de Velde with Erfai, near the north border of Ephraim.

Joash the Abi-ezrite.Joash was the head of the family which descended from Abiezer, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh (Num. 26:30; Jos. 17:2).

Gideon.The name means hewer.

Threshed wheat by the winepress.Perhaps, rather, beating it out than threshing it, as in Rth. 2:17 (LXX., rhabdizn). There would hardly be room for regular threshing in the confined space of a winepress, for wine-presses were vats sunk in the ground.

To hide it.Literally, to make it fly (Exo. 9:20). The threshing-floorsopen circular places in the fields where the corn was trodden out by oxenwould naturally be the first places where an invading enemy would come to forage, as in 1Sa. 23:1.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

CALL OF GIDEON, Jdg 6:11-24.

11. There came an angel Jdg 6:14; Jdg 6:16; Jdg 6:22-23, show that this Angel was the manifestation of Jehovah himself, the Angel of the Covenant, who so often appeared in human form to the worthies of the Old Testament, and thus partially anticipated the incarnation of a later age, the man Christ Jesus. The prophet (Jdg 6:8) came to reprove the people and show them the cause of their woes; the Angel came to commission their deliverer.

Sat under an oak Literally, the oak; a well-known tree hard by Gideon’s wine-press. The Angel took the form of a wayfaring man with a staff in his hand. Jdg 6:21. Compare note on Jdg 2:1.

Ophrah A village in the tribe of Manasseh, belonging to the family of Abi-ezer, but famous only in connection with the history of Gideon. It lay, probably, among the hills on the east of the great Plain of Esdraelon, but its exact location is unknown.

Joash the Abi-ezrite Abi-ezer was a descendant of Manasseh, (Jos 17:2,) and his family, of whom Joash was probably now the head, was small in that tribe. Jdg 6:15.

Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress Knocked or beat out the wheat with a stick, in distinction from threshing by means of oxen or by instruments used on the large open threshing floors of the country.

To hide it from the Midianites This was why he threshed by the winepress. “The summer threshing floors are in the open country, and on an elevated position, to catch the wind when winnowing the grain, and would be altogether unsafe at such a time; while the vineyards are hid away in the wadies, and out on the wooded hills, and thus adapted for concealment. I myself have seen grain thus concealed in this same country during the lawless days of civil war.” Thomson.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The Call of Gideon and His Response ( Jdg 6:11-32 ).

Jdg 6:11

‘ And the Angel of Yahweh came, and stationed Himself under the oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained to Joash the Abiezrite. And his son Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.’

Once again the Angel of Yahweh intervened on behalf of Israel (compare Jdg 2:1-5). (Ophrah was probably between Shechem and Jezreel but as yet is unidentified). Later, as in earlier uses of the term ‘the Angel of Yahweh’, He would become Yahweh. He was speaking, in this case, to Gideon. Gideon’s father was an Abiezrite, connected with the tribe/sub-tribe of Machir (part of Manassesh) – see Num 26:30 ; 1Ch 7:18.

“Stationed Himself under the oak.” We can compare with this how Deborah ‘stationed herself’ under a palm tree (Jdg 4:5). It was no doubt a local landmark and a recognised type of place from which important and authoritative people such as Joash passed on judgments.

“And his son Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.” Things had come to such a pass that the ‘beating out’ had to be done in secret, so that the Midianites would not know about it. For this reason his son Gideon did it himself by hand. He was in a panic lest the Midianites discover it. They had scanty enough food to see them through the year.

The winepress would be two rock hewn troughs, probably situated a little out of the way and presumably near the oak. Grapes would be trampled in the larger upper one, and the juice drain down into the lower one. But here it was grain that was secretly being beaten by hand out of sight. Grain would in normal times be threshed on an open, exposed, elevated, windswept floor so that the wind could separate wheat from chaff. But times had changed. To beat the grain in the open would be to court attack from the Midianites.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Angel of the Lord Appears to Gideon

v. 11. And there came an Angel of the Lord, the Angel in the extraordinary sense of the term, the Son of God, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash, the Abiezrite, in the territory of Manasseh, apparently in the northwestern part of the plain, not far from the territories of Asher, Naphtali, and Zebulun; and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, the place where the grapes were pressed out, not an exposed threshing-floor, to hide it from the Midianites, bands of whose raiders might be expected at any time.

v. 12. And the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him, Gideon, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor. The reference was not only to his physical strength, but to the determination and energy which was apparent in his entire appearance.

v. 13. And Gideon said unto him, O my Lord, for he realized that this man was not a common man, if the Lord be with us, why, then, is all this befallen us? Cf Deu 31:17. And where be all His miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? These words did not arise from doubt and unbelief, but from a deep feeling of Israel’s dishonor. But now the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. It was the only conclusion which Gideon found possible.

v. 14. And the Lord looked upon him, for He it was that appeared in the form of the Angel, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have not I sent thee, or, Do not I send thee?

v. 15. And he said unto Him, O my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? acknowledging the speaker as the Lord God. Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, my division of a thousand families is the lowliest in the tribe, and I am the least in my father’s house, he occupied no position of influence and authority.

v. 16. And the Lord said unto him, in taking away this objection, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man; their entire host would fall before him as though it consisted of but a single man.

v. 17. And he, Gideon, said unto Him, If now I have found grace in Thy sight, then show me a sign that Thou talkest with me, literally, “whether thou art He who speaks with me,” whether He had this divine authority thus to send him, in other words, whether He were God.

v. 18. Depart not hence, I pray Thee, until I come unto Thee and bring forth my present, a sacrificial gift offered to God, from whose acceptance he would obtain evidence of the deity of the messenger, and set it before thee. And He said, I will tarry until thou come again.

v. 19. And Gideon went in and made ready a kid, preparing it for food, and unleavened cakes of an ephod of flour (almost twenty-six quarts). The flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto him under the oak and presented it, set it down before his Visitor.

v. 20. And the Angel of God said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, which He pointed out to him, and pour out the broth, namely, over the food. And he did so.

v. 21. Then the Angel of the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in His hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the Angel of the Lord departed out of his sight, disappearing as suddenly as He had come.

v. 22. And when Gideon perceived that He was an Angel of the Lord, the Lord Himself, as He had revealed Himself to Abraham and to Joshua, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God! an expression of dismay and of the fear of death, since he, a sinful human being, had spoken with Jehovah, for because I have seen an Angel of the Lord face to face!

v. 23. And the Lord said unto him, no longer in visible form, but by the voice of the unseen God, Peace be unto thee; fear not; thou shalt not die.

v. 24. Then Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord, and called it Jehovah-shalom (“The Lord is peace”); unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. This altar was not to serve for sacrifices, but as a memorial and witness of the theophany vouchsafed to Gideon, and of his expression that Jehovah did not desire to destroy Israel in His wrath, but had only thoughts of peace toward the people. The Son of God, Jesus Christ, has given us thousands of proofs that He is all-powerful, but also gracious and merciful. Therefore we should trust in His power and grace.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

Jdg 6:11

An angel, etc. Rather, the angel of the Lord, otherwise called “the angel of his presence” (Isa 63:9). In Jdg 6:14, Jdg 6:16, Jdg 6:23, for the angel of the Lord we have simply the Lord (see Jdg 2:1, note). An oak. Rather the oak, or terebinth, as it should be rendered. It was doubtless a well-known tree still standing in the writer’s time (see Jdg 6:19). Compare the mention of the oak (terebinth) at Shechem (Gen 35:4); the great oak (terebinth) in which Absalom was caught (2Sa 18:9); Deborah‘s palm tree (Jdg 4:5, where see note). Observe the simple way in which the ministration of the angel is introduced, as if it were a matter of course in the eyes of him who is the Lord of the millions of the heavenly host, those ministers of his who do his pleasure. Human scepticism, the twin sister of human selfishness, would blot out all creation except itself. To hide it, etc. These graphic touches give a lively picture of the straits to which the Israelites were reduced by the Midianite occupation.

Jdg 6:12

Appeared. Angels were not always visible when present (see Num 22:31; 2Sa 24:17; 2Ki 6:19, etc.).

Jdg 6:13

If the Lord be with us, etc. The utter dejection caused by the Midianite oppression breathes in every word spoken by Gideon. But how reassuring the angel’s words were. Which our fathers told us of. This is a distinct reference to the national traditions, which are elsewhere alluded to (cf. Exo 12:26, Exo 12:27; Psa 44:1; Psa 78:3-5; Jer 16:14).

Jdg 6:15

Wherewith shall I save Israel? etc. Compare the unwillingness of Moses (Exo 3:11; Exo 4:10, Exo 4:13), of Saul (1Sa 10:21, 1Sa 10:22), of Jeremiah (Jer 1:6), of Amos (Amo 7:14, Amo 7:15), and of St. Peter (Luk 5:8). Also in ecclesiastical history that of Ambrose, Gregory the Great, and others. The least fit are usually the most forward, the most fit the most backward, to undertake great offices (Jdg 9:8-15). True humility is the usual companion of true greatness (see 2Co 2:16; 2Co 3:5).

Jdg 6:17

A sign that thou talkest with methat it is indeed thou thyself that speakest to me, even God, and that there is no illusion.

Jdg 6:18

My present. Minehah means sometimes a present made to man, as in Jdg 3:18; but it more commonly means a sacrificial offering (Gen 4:3 – 5), which seems to be its meaning here, as explained Jdg 3:19, Jdg 3:20. When coupled with zevach, the animal sacrifice, minchah means the meat and drink offering.

Jdg 6:19

Unleavened cakes (Gen 19:3; 1Sa 28:24). The necessary haste gave no time for the use of leaven, which is one explanation of the unleavened bread at the passover (Exo 12:33, Exo 12:34, Exo 12:39). Presented it. A word specially used of sacrifices and offerings (Amo 5:25).

Jdg 6:20

Lay them upon this rock, as upon an altar, and pour out the broth, as a drink offering or a libation (see Jdg 13:19).

Jdg 6:21

There rose up fire, etc. The consuming of the sacrifice by fire from heaven was the token of its being accepted (cf. Jdg 13:20, Jdg 13:23; also 1Ki 18:23, 1Ki 18:33, 1Ki 18:38; 1Ch 21:26). The angel of the Lord departed, etc. In the very similar case of the angel who appeared to Manoah (Jdg 13:15-20), the angel ascended in the flame of the altar. It is probable that he did so in the present instance, though it is not expressly stated how he disappeared (cf. Act 8:39).

Jdg 6:22

Gideon perceived, etc. Gideon’s suspicious were now turned into a certainty. It was indeed God that had spoken to him by his angel (Jdg 6:17). Alas, etc. Gideon speaks thus in terror of the death which he thought must be the penalty of seeing the angel of the Lord (see Jdg 13:22, and note). Because. Rather, therefore, or to this end, viz; that I should die.

Jdg 6:23

Peace, etc. Cf. Dan 10:19, and Joh 20:21, Joh 20:26; Luk 24:36-39. Hence the name of the altar, Jehovah-shalom”The Lord is peace,” is at peace with me.

Jdg 6:24

For naming altars built in commemoration of particular events see Gen 22:14; Gen 31:47-49; Gen 33:20; Jos 22:34, etc.

Jdg 6:25

The grove. See Jdg 3:7. The size of the asherah is indicated by the order in Jdg 3:26 to use it for the altar fire.

HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY

Jdg 6:7-10

God sought and found in times of trouble.

I. TROUBLE DRIVES MEN TO GOD. The people forsook God in their prosperity, and neglected his service so long as they enjoyed their comfortable homes in peace. But now they are miserable fugitives hiding in wild mountain caves, they remember his goodness and cry to him for help. This is a common experience. It is to our shame that it must be confessed. We ought to seek God for his own sake, to worship him in the beauty of holiness, not merely to obtain blessings for ourselves. In prosperity we should recognise tokens of his love, and so lift up our thoughts to him in grateful recognition of his goodness. To turn to God only in the hour of our need is a sign of base selfishness. Nevertheless it is better to seek him then than not at all. And if it is disgraceful in us that trouble should be needed to drive us to God, it is merciful in him to send the trouble for that object. The calamity which leads to this result is the greatest blessing. Herein we may see the end of many of the most severe forms of adversity. They are sent to us in our indifference to rouse us to our need of God, and lead us to seek him. Hence we may conclude that if we sought God aright in happy circumstances we might be spared some of the troubles which our spiritual negligence renders necessary to our soul’s welfare (Hos 5:15).

II. IF GOD IS TRULY SOUGHT IN TROUBLE HE WILL CERTAINLY BE FOUND. As soon as the people cried God heard them, and sent them first a prophet and then the deliverer Gideon. If we forsook God in our prosperity it would be reasonable that God should forsake us in our need. But he does not deal with us according to our sins. Our claim does not lie in our merit, in our obedience and fidelity, in anything of ours, but in his nature, and character, and conduct. Because God is our Father he hears us not out of consideration for our rights, but out of pity for our distresses. Therefore we need not fear that he will not respond to our call. To doubt is not to show our humility, but our distrust in the mercy of God and influence of Christ’s sacrifice and intercession (Jer 29:11-13).

III. WHEN GOD IS FOUND IN TROUBLE HE DOES NOT ALWAYS BRING IMMEDIATE DELIVERANCE. Israel called for help in need. God did not send the help at once. The people expected a deliverer, God sent a prophet. No word of promise is given by the prophet that relief will be accorded to the temporal distress of the nation. He speaks only of sin, and shows the ingratitude of the people, that they may feel how richly they deserve the calamities which have fallen upon them. They think most of their distresses, God of their sins. They cry for deliverance from the yoke of the Midianites, God wishes first to deliver them from the yoke of iniquity. Therefore the prophet of repentance comes before Gideon the deliverer. So we must expect that when God visits us in our sins he will deal with us so as to save us from spiritual evil before relieving us of physical distress. Christ bore the sicknesses and infirmities of his people, but his great work was to save them from their sins (Mat 1:21).

IV. THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SIN WHICH MUST PRECEDE DELIVERANCE IS PRODUCED BY A PROPHET‘S MESSAGE IN THE MIDST OF TROUBLE. The trouble is necessary to soften the hearts of the people, and make them willing to listen to the prophet. Yet the trouble does not produce repentance. For this a prophet is needed. The prophet does not make any prediction, nor does he give any revelation of God; he simply reveals his hearers to themselves. We need prophets to show to us our own true character. Much of the Bible is a revelation of human nature which would not have been possible without the aid of prophetic inspiration. The call to repentance consists

(1) in recounting the ancient mercy of God, for it is in the light of God’s goodness that we see most clearly our own wickedness; and

(2) in directly charging Israel with ingratitude and apostasy. All sin includes the sin of ingratitude. Till we feel this it is not well that God should show us more mercy. Therefore the stern John the Baptist must precede the saviour Christ; bat as Gideon followed the prophet, full salvation will follow repentance and submission.A.

Jdg 6:11-24

EXPOSITION

Jdg 6:11

An angel, etc. Rather, the angel of the Lord, otherwise called “the angel of his presence” (Isa 63:9). In Jdg 6:14, Jdg 6:16, Jdg 6:23, for the angel of the Lord we have simply the Lord (see Jdg 2:1, note). An oak. Rather the oak, or terebinth, as it should be rendered. It was doubtless a well-known tree still standing in the writer’s time (see Jdg 6:19). Compare the mention of the oak (terebinth) at Shechem (Gen 35:4); the great oak (terebinth) in which Absalom was caught (2Sa 18:9); Deborah‘s palm tree (Jdg 4:5, where see note). Observe the simple way in which the ministration of the angel is introduced, as if it were a matter of course in the eyes of him who is the Lord of the millions of the heavenly host, those ministers of his who do his pleasure. Human scepticism, the twin sister of human selfishness, would blot out all creation except itself. To hide it, etc. These graphic touches give a lively picture of the straits to which the Israelites were reduced by the Midianite occupation.

Jdg 6:12

Appeared. Angels were not always visible when present (see Num 22:31; 2Sa 24:17; 2Ki 6:19, etc.).

Jdg 6:13

If the Lord be with us, etc. The utter dejection caused by the Midianite oppression breathes in every word spoken by Gideon. But how reassuring the angel’s words were. Which our fathers told us of. This is a distinct reference to the national traditions, which are elsewhere alluded to (cf. Exo 12:26, Exo 12:27; Psa 44:1; Psa 78:3-5; Jer 16:14).

Jdg 6:15

Wherewith shall I save Israel? etc. Compare the unwillingness of Moses (Exo 3:11; Exo 4:10, Exo 4:13), of Saul (1Sa 10:21, 1Sa 10:22), of Jeremiah (Jer 1:6), of Amos (Amo 7:14, Amo 7:15), and of St. Peter (Luk 5:8). Also in ecclesiastical history that of Ambrose, Gregory the Great, and others. The least fit are usually the most forward, the most fit the most backward, to undertake great offices (Jdg 9:8-15). True humility is the usual companion of true greatness (see 2Co 2:16; 2Co 3:5).

Jdg 6:17

A sign that thou talkest with methat it is indeed thou thyself that speakest to me, even God, and that there is no illusion.

Jdg 6:18

My present. Minehah means sometimes a present made to man, as in Jdg 3:18; but it more commonly means a sacrificial offering (Gen 4:3 – 5), which seems to be its meaning here, as explained Jdg 3:19, Jdg 3:20. When coupled with zevach, the animal sacrifice, minchah means the meat and drink offering.

Jdg 6:19

Unleavened cakes (Gen 19:3; 1Sa 28:24). The necessary haste gave no time for the use of leaven, which is one explanation of the unleavened bread at the passover (Exo 12:33, Exo 12:34, Exo 12:39). Presented it. A word specially used of sacrifices and offerings (Amo 5:25).

Jdg 6:20

Lay them upon this rock, as upon an altar, and pour out the broth, as a drink offering or a libation (see Jdg 13:19).

Jdg 6:21

There rose up fire, etc. The consuming of the sacrifice by fire from heaven was the token of its being accepted (cf. Jdg 13:20, Jdg 13:23; also 1Ki 18:23, 1Ki 18:33, 1Ki 18:38; 1Ch 21:26). The angel of the Lord departed, etc. In the very similar case of the angel who appeared to Manoah (Jdg 13:15-20), the angel ascended in the flame of the altar. It is probable that he did so in the present instance, though it is not expressly stated how he disappeared (cf. Act 8:39).

Jdg 6:22

Gideon perceived, etc. Gideon’s suspicious were now turned into a certainty. It was indeed God that had spoken to him by his angel (Jdg 6:17). Alas, etc. Gideon speaks thus in terror of the death which he thought must be the penalty of seeing the angel of the Lord (see Jdg 13:22, and note). Because. Rather, therefore, or to this end, viz; that I should die.

Jdg 6:23

Peace, etc. Cf. Dan 10:19, and Joh 20:21, Joh 20:26; Luk 24:36-39. Hence the name of the altar, Jehovah-shalom”The Lord is peace,” is at peace with me.

Jdg 6:24

For naming altars built in commemoration of particular events see Gen 22:14; Gen 31:47-49; Gen 33:20; Jos 22:34, etc.

Jdg 6:25

The grove. See Jdg 3:7. The size of the asherah is indicated by the order in Jdg 3:26 to use it for the altar fire.

HOMILETICS

Jdg 6:11-24

The preparation.

God’s agents, whether kings, or judges, or prophets, or apostles, are reasonable agents. They are not inanimate machines or blind instruments; they are living, thinking, feeling, reasonable, men. When they are called to great and heroic works they must be endued with great and heroic thoughts. A high sense of justice (2Sa 23:3), a noble contempt of gain (1Sa 13:3), wisdom with lofty courage (Eze 2:6, Eze 2:7), the enthusiasm of love with the moderation of prudence (2Co 6:3-10), are the qualities that must be found in them respectively. The sword which is to pierce must first be sharpened; the intelligence which is to guide must first be enlightened; the arm which is to prevail must be strengthened; the spirit which is to triumph over difficulties and obstacles must be awakened, and fed, and sustained. The work to which Gideon was called was no common work. A nation to be upheaved from the lowest vassalage of spiritless slaves and dejected helots into victory and freedom; another nation to be dragged down from power, and possession, and supremacy, and dominion, with no apparent instruments with which to effect it. And who was Gideon? The least considered member of a poor family, of a divided tribe, of which no name was famous in the annals of his country; a man unknown and unheard of, whose occupation was to thresh corn stealthily, lest the Midianites should take it; a man thought nothing of by his own countrymen, and contemptuously overlooked by his foreign masters. But he was the chosen instrument for delivering Israel. HE MUST THEN BE PREPARED. And two things were necessary in the first place: one to awaken in him a thorough trust in God; the other to inspire him with a proper trust in himself, springing from his trust in God. And so the angel began at once with the startling words, “The Lord is with thee.” And the answer of doubt and despair from the lips of Gideon was met by a look of Goda turning of God’s face upon him, a lifting up of the light of God’s countenance upon him, with a power of unutterable grace, and a word of further encouragement: “Go in this thy might; have not I sent thee?” and again he said, “Surely I will be with thee!” And the scene that followedthe tarrying of the angel till his return with the kid and the unleavened cakes; the solemn sacrifice on the altar of rock; the outstretched staff in the angel’s hand touching the flesh and the cakes; the bursting forth of the fire from the rock; the word of comfort, Peace be unto thee! and the disappearance of the angel as mysteriously as he camewas all directed to the same end, to work in Gideon’s mind the deepest possible conviction that God was with him, and that the whole love and power of the Almighty was on his side.

But it was also necessary to inspire him with a proper trust in himself. As long as he thought of himself only as the drudge of the family, a thresher of wheat, a skulker by the wine-press; as long as he felt himself one of a degraded caste, as long as he had no hope, no spirit, no sense of having a mission, he would and could do nothing great. The man, the warrior, the captain, the deliverer, the hero, the martyr, must be aroused within him. And so the voice of God addresses him, “The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour. Go in thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite Midian as one man.” And if these words fell, as no doubt they did, upon a spirit already chafed with a sense of his country’s degradation; if burning thoughts of shame and humiliation were smouldering in his mind as he threshed his wheat in secret, trembling at every sound, and casting suspicious glances on every side, for fear some Midianite should be near, how would these words of homage and respect from the mysterious stranger awaken his soul to a new estimate of his place in the world. It was no longer a time to hide, and despair, and complain, and whine, and use the weapons of the weak, guile and subtlety, it was a time to rise, and act, and dare, and risk, and he was the man to be at the head of this new movement. This was Gideon’s preparation.

HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR

Jdg 6:11-15

The call of Gideon.

Unexpected by himself and undreamt of by the nation. The whole land is given over to idolatry and wretchedness, but God is at no loss to find his servant. A strong mana hero, ignominiously concealed, he is a symbol of Israel’s helplessness.

I. THE PERSONALITY AND RELATIONS OF GIDEON ARE A REBUKE TO ISRAEL, A VINDICATION OF THE SOVEREIGN WILL OF GOD, AND A REVELATION OF THE SOURCE OF ALL TRUE POWER. He is the youngest scion of an insignificant family in a secondary tribe. Not only has he had no special religious or political training, he is an idolater, or at any rate belongs to an idolatrous family.. And he is addressed whilst acting in a manner of which he must have felt ashamed. Hidden, helpless, a sceptic regarding Divine existence or intervention. The culture and religion of Israel are ignored. So God always chooses whom he will to act, to preach: to suffer. There was no danger that Gideon would be credited with the work of deliverance as an achievement of his own originality and innate power.

II. THE OCCASION WAS SIGNIFICANT OF THE HELP GOD INTENDED TO GIVE. He comes when things are at the worst. It was a sign that he would work out a radical deliverance. Not partial help, but complete salvation would be due to him.

III. GIDEON IS AN INSTANCE OF THE POWER OF RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE. He has heard in some way or another of God’s works in his nation’s history. Evidently his thoughts have been occupied with them. A rough interpretation has been arrived at, helping him to grasp the meaning of the situation. His was not total ignorance, but a knowledge preparing for higher revelations and corresponding achievements. Truth smoulders in the mind until it bursts into flame. Inward impressions and realisations of sacred knowledge prepare for the Divinely-arranged circumstances of life, critical moments, and heavenly visitations,

IV. GOD‘S MANNER OF DEALING WITH THE DIFFICULTIES AND OBJECTIONS OF HIS INTENDED SERVANT IS VERY INSTRUCTIVE. He accommodates himself to the thoughts passing through Gideon’s mind. By his words he drives the brooding mind into distressful paradox. The past achievements of Gideon are remembered, and a corresponding respect shown him. The revelation of himself is gradual. He is considerate, gracious, and painstaking with the heart he intends to make his own. “Have not I sent thee” is sufficient guarantee for God’s servant. There ought to be no misgiving when that assurance has been given.M.

Jdg 6:12, Jdg 6:13

The paradox of the Divine presence.

It has ever been the case that spiritual blessing is hard to be realised in the absence of material prosperity. There is something almost ironical in the contrast between the assertion “Jehovah is with thee,” and the actual condition.of the person addressed. It was the more inconceivable because of the external nature of the religious sanctions and rewards of the age. Mosaicism abounds in material and temporal blessings. A natural question, then, for Gideon was, “Where are these?” There are many who think very similarly today. Are they right or are they wrong? If God be with a man ought he not to prosper? Notice first

I. THE DIFFICULTY OF GIDEON. It was to reconcile the assurance of God’s presence with the signs of actual weakness and distress all around him. There is something very ingenuous in the identification of himself with his people. “Thee” is altered by him to “us.” It is full of promise for the future of the hero. He knows of no blessing in which his country does not share. And that is the right temper in which to face all such problems. The glorious past of Israel rose up before his mind’s eye. How different from the days in which his lot had fallen! Had God any favour to his people? Why, then, this utter inaction? this absence of all miraculous intervention? If the old records were to be credited God had delivered his people with a “high hand and an outstretched arm;” now to all appearance the heavens had “withdrawn, and become astronomical.” And yet how great and immediate the need for God’s help! Day by day deeds were wrought under the sun that could not be spoken of. So there are times in these days when crimes are committed, nascent movements of religious and secular moment are withered, and the dial of civilisation is set back. The great calamities of war, pestilence, earthquake, etc; seem to call to heaven, but it is silent. Is it indifferent? Has the hope of man been a dream?

II. HOW IT MAY BE ANSWERED. Other things being equal, the blessing of God ought to make rich, and happy, and prosperous. But that is not its chief end in the present. It is first to make right. And God is in the seed as much as in the plant. He has many ways of fulfilling his premises. The blessing of Gideon was a potential one. It began even then in him, but it was to be communicated to others. It was as really a blessing for Israel as if the oppressor bad been driven from her borders, etc. Spiritual influences begin deeply, secretly, and mysteriously; but they are ere long known by their fruits. God was with Israel repentant in the moment of her repentance. And yet the external evils of her condition were as yet unchecked. God can be with a man in fulness of blessing and help, even when he is poor, and wretched, and helpless; but he will not continue so if he be obedient to the heavenly will. Spiritual blessing then should be expected to show itself, at least first, spiritually and inwardly; and an individual may be the holder of it vicariously for a nation or the race.M.

Jdg 6:14

The assuring thought of God’s servant.

“Have not I sent thee?” This is one of those words by which the saint has often been “strengthened with all might in the inner man.” It lifted the heroes of Israel, the reformers, the men of the commonwealth of England, above the common weaknesses of their age and race. “A man, a woman, with a mission”why not? Some careers are wholly explained by it; some simple achievement critical in history; and many unostentatious, secret services rendered in the Master’ s name, under the influence of overpowering impulses, more or less transient or permanent.

I. THE LIFE IS THEREBY CONSECRATED AND DIRECTED. A man is not at liberty to follow his own private aims when the heavenly voice speaks thus within him. A higher plane of life and action is thereby created. An unseen influence isolates and consecrates him. This usually imparts greater definiteness to his conduct. He does not “beat the air.”

II. THE MOST DIFFICULT DUTIES ARE IN THIS FAITH RENDERED PRACTICABLE. “If God be for us, who can be against us?” “All things are possible to them that believe.” The fatalists of historyCaesars and Napoleonshave left their mark and proved the strength of a ruling idea. But this conviction is reasonable and of infinite power. The greatest changes the world has seen have been wrought under its influenceapostolic mission, reformation, missionary enterprise at home and abroad, Sunday school origin and extension. And so in the things of the individual life and private sphere.

III. THROUGH ITS INFLUENCE A PRESENT CONSOLATION AND AN ETERNAL REWARD ARE SECURED. Has God sent us? Then he will take note of our behaviour, and sustain our flagging strength. Has God sent us? our service cannot be for earthly gain. He is our Master; and as he sends no man “a warfare at his own charges,” so the saint is sustained by the hope of the “crown of glory that fadeth not away.”M.

Jdg 6:17

Asking for a sign.

The stranger said, Have not I sent thee? I will be with thee. Gideon wanted a proof that he was one who had authority, etc; to use such words. That he was a supernatural visitor he suspected; he wanted to be sure. But it was rather to ascertain the reality of his own heavenly calling, which at first he could hardly believe. There was no other evidence open to him; and he asked the evidence peculiar to his epoch. He was altogether different therefore from the Jews of Christ’s time, who required a sign, but no sign would be given them, save the sign of the prophet Jonas. They had signs enough already, but had no spiritual perception.

I. THIS REQUEST AROSE NOT FROM WANT OF FAITH, BUT FROM SELF–DISTRUST. Might not this all be a dream? And who was he himself? It is the doubt of a mind suspicious of its own sanity, etc. All this argues a deep humility than which nothing could fit him better for the work he has to do. God forgives a desire like this, and answers it; but doubts as to himself and his character, etc; are of another sort.

II. GOD ENCOURAGES ALL TRUE SERVANTS BY SOME TOKEN OF HIS PRESENCE AND HELP. Moses at Horeb; Paul in the temple in his trance”Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles” (Act 22:21). Many holy men have had such inward urgings and impulses. And all earnest service is accompanied by tokens of the Divine blessing. We are encouraged, therefore, to look for these signs. Their absence ought to cause no concern. Their nature will depend upon the kind of work we are doing.M.

Jdg 6:18-21

The sign-the present turned into a sacrifice.

The narrative speaks for itself; it is a picture of Eastern hospitality. Gideon’s sense of the extraordinary nature of the visit expresses itself in his taking upon himself the duties of servant as well as host, to keep it secret. As the angel said to Manoah, “I will not eat of thy bread” (Jdg 13:16), so the visitor betrays his true character as an angel of Jehovah in abstaining from the food. Of the phrase “and they did eat” in Gen 18:8, the Targum gives the gloss,.” they seemed to him to eat.” Angels, not having a corporeal nature, do not require mortal sustenance. But the most striking incident in the narrative is the touching of the flesh and cakes with the angel’s staff, and their being consumed by fire from the rock. This circumstance betokened not rejection of the gift, but its acceptance in a higher sense; the present becomes a sacrifice.

I. ALL BEST GIFTS ARE SACRIFICIAL. That which is given in order to a return; from gratification of self-love, ostentation, vanity; from custom; or without any real sense of loss, sacrifice, etc; is not accounted great by generous minds, however intrinsically precious it may be. As the sentiment enhances the value of the gift, even trifling in our eyes, so that which has cost pain, effort, loss of loving hearts, is “above rubies.” Personality often thwarts the purpose of a well-intended gift; therefore it has often to be effaced ere the true end is attained.

II. How GOD OFTEN DEALS THUS WITH THE GIFTS OF HIS SERVANTS. It is not in a few isolated miracles that this has taken place. The mode of procedure is a principle of his kingdom, and is seen in every true life.

1. In carrying on a spiritual work to unforeseen developments, and so that demands are made the agent did not at first contemplate. Some kinds of spiritual effort are like sinking a shaft for a mine, the ultimate expenditure of labour and means is not ascertainable. That which was almost a pastime becomes a serious task. Consequences are evolved that call for heroism and generous self-devotion.

2. Results which were aimed at in the first instance are withheld, and the labourer has to continue steadfast amidst apparent want of success.

3. The labour itself becomes dear, and enthusiasm makes the greatest efforts easy, and the heaviest burdens light. At first it is “our” work; by-and-bye it is God s work. We lose ourselves m the presence of the “not ourselves that maketh for righteousness,” who accepts our feeble labours and turns them towards infinite and inconceivable purposes.

III. WHAT IS SUBSERVED BY THIS CONVERSION.

1. It is educative. The subject of it is being taught a nobler life. He is wooed gradually out of the narrow shell of self into the larger atmosphere and arena of Divine love. At first God provokes us to the disinterested passion for himself, then he surprises us into fitting expression of it. The bridges of retreat are cut.

2. Our vague intention is interpreted to our spirits, and is set free. The alchemy of Divine love turns our dross into gold, our water into wine.

3. The permanent utility of man’s work is thereby secured. Like the devotion of Christ, it receives an absolute worth in perfected sacrifice.M.

Jdg 6:22-24

Jehovah Shalom, or spiritual forebodings stilled.

The religious experience of one is often of help to others. At all times has the commerce of man with the unseen taken place; it is a necessary element in his spiritual life. The test of true religion is the sentiment thus awakened.

I. THE NATURAL FEAR OF GOD, AND ITS CAUSE. The sentiment expressed by Gideon a general one, but peculiar to Israelites. The Greek knew not this fear, because his conception of the nature of the gods was different. They were but as men, only more glorious and powerful. To the Israelite God was the Supreme in holiness and authority. Reverence for the character of God deepened into fear, because of the tradition that a visitation such as he now received meant death, either immediate or near at hand, and because of the sense of sin. No man could see God and live. We have the remnant and echoes of this belief still among us, in the fear of supernatural appearances and intimations. It is the dread of the simple, absolute holiness and goodness of God, deepened by our sense of sinfulness. The culprit trembles in presence of the judge. Had Israel rightly served God, this dread would have disappeared. Were men’s hearts right with him, they would welcome his presence and prize his visitations.

II. THE WHISPER OF TRACE. It is a token of good-will. The terror which overcame the strong man is allayed. Christ gives a deeper tranquillity. He fills the breast with the sense of spiritual reconciliation”the peace of God which passeth all understanding.” And this is felt in the trial hours of life, and in the agony of dying. It steadies and evens the spirit amidst the most afflicting circumstances. In conversion the fear of the sinner under conviction is often intense. But who shall tell the rapture when peace is found?

III. THE MEMORIAL. HOW fitting that it should be commemorated, and by such a symbol! The altar is the meeting-place of man and God. The monument. The church. It told to others of an individual, secret transaction and experience. Here was won a victory over self, a triumph of duty more signal than Marathon, Bannock-burn, or Morgarten. It is well to tell men of God’s mercies to us; and this intimation was an eloquent appeal to men to draw near and receive a like blessing.M.

HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY

Jdg 6:11-14

Diffidence.

Gideon was a great and gifted man who distrusted his own powers, and was in danger of failing to follow his true vocation through modest diffidence. When the angel accosted him as a “mighty man of valour,” the expression overwhelmed him with astonishment. It came upon him as a new revelation. While there are conceited persons who value themselves too highly, and are over-ready to undertake rash enterprises for which they are quite incompetent, there are also good and able men like Gideon who are not aware of their own powers, and are in danger of neglecting the high trusts God has committed to them from self-distrust and modesty.

I. THE GROUNDS OF DIFFIDENCE.

1. Adversity. Gideon could not believe in the presence of God and the possibility of relief for his country, because the troubles of the time seemed to preclude all hope. We are tempted to distrust while the prospect is dark. Yet God is often nearest to us when the distress is deepest.

2. The absence of any sign of God‘s presence. Gideon saw no miracle, and he could not discern the presence of God in less striking events. As sensationalism in religion is a dissipation which unfits the soul for quiet, natural modes of worship, so the habit of depending on marvels and prodigies for faith in Divine truth weakens the sense of the Divine in the calm and orderly movements of nature and providence.

3. Lowly circumstances. Gideon considered himself the least important member of a poor and obscure family (Jdg 6:15). Possibly he was despised in the household for his retiring habits. Men are often taken at their own estimate of themselves until their true character is put to the test. A man’s own relatives are sometimes the last to recognise his merits. We are all more or less influenced by surrounding circumstances, and given too much to judge by appearances.

II. THE MEANS FOR OVERCOMING DIFFIDENCE.

1. God knows his servants‘ true nature and powers. He takes no note of outward appearances. Rank, riches or poverty, family honour, count for little with him. He seeks out the right man wherever he is to be foundat the threshing-floor, by the sheep-fold, in the fishing-boat. God never calls any man to any task for which the man does not possess the requisite talents.

2. God is with his servants when they are obeying his voice. He never calls a man to a special task without giving him special grace to perform it. If he commands his servant to undertake a difficult mission, he is certain to go with him and stand by him in the time of need. Diffidence comes from regarding self; true confidence from looking away to God. So Moses was diffident as he thought of his own weakness, but made brave to face Pharaoh by the assurance of God’s presence (Exo 3:11, Exo 3:12); and Paul dared to stand alone before Caesar with confidence because “the Lord stood with” him (2Ti 4:17).

3. God sometimes uses special means to confirm the. faith of his servants. Gideon asked for a sign, and it was given him. To some no sign can be granted (Mat 12:39). If no special signs are granted us now, we should remember

(1) we are not called to Gideon’s work, and

(2) we are not left in the religious obscurity of Gideon’s age, but have the revelation of God in Christ, the greatest of “signs.”A.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Jdg 6:11. There came an angel of the Lord, &c. It is very evident from the context, that this Angel of the Lord was the same great Messenger of the Covenant, the JEHOVAH, of whose appearance we have so often spoken. See Judges 6:14, 16, 22, 23, &c. Ophrah was a city of the half-tribe of Manasseh. Gideon’s threshing corn gives us an idea of those old Romans who were called from the plough to the dictatorship, Dr. Shaw, speaking of the modern Arabs, says, “It is here no disgrace for persons of the highest character to busy themselves in what we should call menial employments. The greatest prince (like Gideon and Araunah of old) assists in the most laborious actions of husbandry; neither is he ashamed to fetch a lamb from his herd and kill it, whilst the princess his wife is impatient till she has prepared her fire and her kettle to seethe and dress it. In this manner we find Achilles and Patroclus employed, Hom. Iliad. xi. 205, &c.

“Achilles at the genial feast presides; The part transfixes, and with skill divides: Meanwhile Patroclus sweats the fire to raise.” “POPE.” See Travels, p. 237.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

The Angel of Jehovah appears to Gideon, and commissions him to deliver Israel

Jdg 6:11-24

11And there came an angel of the Lord [Jehovah], and sat under an [the] oak which was [is] in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abi-ezrite: and his son Gideon threshed [was threshing]8 wheat by [in] the wine-press, to hide it from theMidianites. 12And the angel of the Lord [Jehovah] appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord [Jehovah] is with thee, thou mighty man of valour [valianthero]. 13And Gideon said unto him, O [Pray,] my Lord, if the Lord [Jehovah] be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord [Jehovah] bring us up from Egypt: but now the Lord [Jehovah] hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. 14And the Lord [Jehovah] looked upon [turned towards] him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save [and save thou] Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee? 15And he said unto him, O [Pray,] my Lord,9 wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor [the most insignificant] in Manasseh, and I am the least [youngest] in my fathers house. 16And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto him, Surely [Nay, but] I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. 17And he said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then shew me a sign that [it is] thou [who] talkest with me. 18Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come [again] unto thee, and bring forth my present, and set it before thee. And he said, I will tarry until thou come again. 19And Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour: the flesh he put in a [the] basket, and he put the broth in a [the] pot, and brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it. 20And the angel of God said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this 21[that] rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so. Then [And] the angel of the Lord [Jehovah] put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then [And] the angel of the Lord 22[Jehovah] departed [disappeared] out of his sight. And when [omit: when] Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the Lord [Jehovah, and] Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God [Jehovah]! for because10 I have seen an angel of the Lord [Jehovah] face to face. 23And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear 24not: thou shalt not die. Then [And] Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord [Jehovah], and called it Jehovah-shalom [Jehovah (is) Peace]: unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abi-ezrites.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

[1 Jdg 6:11.Literally, was beating () sc. with a stick, . The more usual word for threshing is . Threshing was generally done by treading with oxen, or by means of a drag-like machine drawn over the grain by oxen or other animals. But for small quantities, and for certain minor seeds (Isa 28:27), a stick was used, ct. Rth 2:17.Tr.]

[2 Jdg 6:15.: thus pointed, this word always refers to God, and the possessive suffix (for such is most probably) is lost sight of. From the words in Jdg 6:15 Gideon perceived that he who talked with him was not a mere man. Hence, he now no longer says: Pray, my lord (, Jdg 6:13), but, Pray, Lord (, God the Lord). So Keil. Dr. Cassel apparently points the text here as in Jdg 6:13, for he translates My Lord. Compare what he says on Jdg 6:17.Tr.]

[3 Jdg 6:22.: for therefore, for on this account. Dr. Cassel renders it here by also, so then (illative). But the phrase regularly indicates the ground or reason for what goes before, cf. Gen 18:5; Gen 19:8; Gen 33:10; etc.; and Ewald, Gram. 353 a. Gideons thought is: Woe is me! for thereforescil. to give me cause for my apprehension of dangerhave I seen, etc. Cf. Bertheau and Keil. The E. V. would be rendered accurate enough by striking out either for or because.Tr.]

EXEGETICAL AND DOCTRINAL

Jdg 6:11. In Ophrah. The place is expressly designated as belonging to the family of Abiezer, to distinguish it from another Ophrah in Benjamin (Jos 18:23). Abiezer was a son of Manasseh, whose seats were on this side the Jordan (Jos 17:2). To the western half tribe of Manasseh, belonged also Beth-shean (Scythopolis), Jibleam, Taanach, Megiddo, the fertile districts of the plain of Jezreel. Manasseh therefore suffered especially, when the Midianites crossed the Jordan near Beisan, in order to desolate the land. From Jdg 6:33-35 it may be inferred that Ophrah was situated in the northwestern part of the plain, in the direction of Dora, which likewise belongs to Manasseh. Since the enemy, after crossing the Jordan, encamped in Jezreel, and Gideon invoked assistance against them from Asher, Naphtali, and Zebulun, this inference may be considered tolerably certain. That Asher was called on, shows that Ophrah was in the West, and the appeal to Naphtali and Zebulun indicates that it lay to the north; since otherwise the army of Midian would have prevented a junction. Ophrah was inhabited by a branch of the family of Abiezer, at whose head Joash stood; but among them dwelt others ( , the men of the city, Jdg 6:27), who were probably of the original inhabitants whom Manasseh had suffered to remain.

Under the oak, . Septuagint; (interchangeable with ), the terebinth. The Targums have , oak. and are evidently different species of the same stately tree, and probably differ from each other as the quercus and ilex. The oak and terebinth are too little alike to make it probable that they had almost the same name. Ilex is clearly a cognate term. Bttigers remarks about an ancestral terebinth, and a sacred tree under which Jehovah appears (Baumkultus der Hellenen, p. 521), have no support in the passages in which those trees are mentioned. The magnificent tree afforded a grateful shade, and therefore invited persons to sit and rest beneath it. Whoever knows the East, knows also how to estimate the value of shade;11 though indeed everywhere a large tree near a homestead or in a village, becomes the meeting and resting-place of the inhabitants as well as the traveller. Besides, the tree in Ophrah has nothing whatever to do with what farther happens. The whole section in Bttigers book is a misunderstanding. The tree is mentioned here only to make it appear natural that a stranger could seat himself under it without drawing special attention and exciting surprise.

And his son Gideon was threshing wheat in the wine-press. In German, also, wine-press (Kelter) sometimes stands for the place in which the pressing is done, as well as for the vat into which the wine flows. The same is the case in Hebrew. While is the press-house or place, stands for the vat; but they are frequently interchanged. Here it is of course the place, of which Gideon makes use to thresh wheat; threshing on exposed threshing-floors being avoided on account of the pillaging propensities of the Midianites. Here that had again come to pass which Deborah lamented, and the cure of which she had celebrated in her songthere was no , no open country, in the land.

Jdg 6:12-13. And the Angel of Jehovah appeared unto him. Hitherto always signified a human messenger of God (cf. Jdg 2:1; Jdg 5:23). Here it is otherwise. The mention of a prophet of Jehovah in Jdg 6:8, already indicated that the now spoken of, is not a human messenger. That hint is now rendered plain and unmistakable by the phrase , there appeared to him, which is only used when the invisible divine nature becomes visible. As Gideon looked up, a stranger stood before him,who, while exhibiting nothing unusual in his outward appearance, must yet have had about him that which commanded reverence. This stranger greeted him.

Jehovah (is) with thee, thou valiant hero. Gideon cannot have referred this greeting merely to heroic deeds of war. It is much rather the evident pleasure of the stranger in the nervous energy and vigor with which he threshes, to which with a sense of shame he replies. True, indeed, he is conscious of strength and energy; but of what avail are they? Is it not matter of shame that he cannot even thresh his wheat on the threshing-floor? Hence his respectfully spoken answer: No, my lord; God is not with me; for were He with us, would such things come upon us? would I be driven to thresh wheat in the wine-press? But this answer shows that he believed God; from the greeting () he had perceived that he stood in the presence of one of the friends and confessors of God. It shows, also, that his courageous heart had long demurred against Israels dishonor. The national tradition of Israels ancient glory was not yet extinct. The deliverance from Egypt was the beginning of Israels nationality and freedom. Doubtless, says the strong man, then, as our fathers tell us, God was with Israel, and freed us from Egypt; but nowwe are unable to defend ourselves against the pillaging Bedouins! The doubt which he thus utters, does not spring from an unbelieving and pusillanimous soul. He gladly believed and delighted in what was told of other days. His lament is that of a patriot, not of a traitor. Because such is his character, he has been found eligible to become the deliverer of Israel. The Angel therefore comes to him, and says:

Jdg 6:14-16. Go thou in this thy strength12. do not I send thee? The difference between Gideons call and that of former heroes, must be carefully observed. Of Othniel it is said, that the Spirit of Jehovah was with him; Ehud is raised up to be a deliverer; Barak is called through the prophetess. The latter hero does not immediately proceed to victory. He refuses to go, unless Deborah go with him. In Gideons case much more is done. An angel of God assumes the human form in order to call him. He condescends to work miracles before him. How much more, apparently, than Deborah had to contend with, must here be overcome by the angel! The grounds of this difference have been profoundly indicated in the preceding narrative. What was the all-important qualification demanded of one who should be a deliverer of Israel? Decided and undivided faith in God. Faith in God was the root of national freedom in Israel. Whatever energy and enthusiasm the love of country called out among the Greeks and Romans; that, faith in God called out in Israel. Israel existed in God, or not at all. The hero, therefore, who would fight for Israel, must thoroughly believe in God. This faith, undivided, unwavering, not looking to earthly things, and unconcerned about life or dangera perfect unit with itself in devotion to God, and therefore hostile to the idol gods, the representatives of the enemiesthis faith the call must find in him whom it selected for the work of deliverance. The men hitherto called did not come from the same tribes. Othniel was of Judah; Ehud of Benjamin. In these tribes, the worship of the true God was less mixed with that of the false gods, because here the old inhabitants had been obliged to yield. Barak was of Naphtali, where idolatry, though existing in many places along side of the true worship, did certainly not prevail as in Manasseh. Precisely those places which constituted the richest portion of this half tribe, and which consequently suffered most from the inroads of Midian, namely, the cities of the plain, had never, as the narrator expressly recorded, been vacated by the original inhabitants. They had continued to dwell in Beth-shean, Taanach, Megiddo, Jibleam and Dor (Jdg 1:27). Here altars of Baal raised themselves everywhere, fully authorized and perfectly unrestrained. Amid such surroundings, the position of the faithful is a difficult one at all times, but especially in evil days, when Baal seems to triumph. Their hearts become saddened; and the contrast between the former glory, in which they so gladly believe, and the present impotence, unmans and confuses them. If the modest soul of Gideon is to be prepared for bold hazards in behalf of the truth of God, he must first be fully convinced that God is still what He was anciently in Israel; that He still works wonders, and in them reveals his love for the nation. In his home and in his city he is surrounded by idolatry. He, the youngest, is to assume an attitude of authority towards all. That he may do this boldly and condently, the heavenly visitant must inspire him with a divine enthusiasm which shall rise superior to the suggestions of common prudence. [The way to this is opened by the promise, But I will be with thee! which is at the same time a challenge to test the speaker.Tr.] The narrative could not, in so few sentences, teach the love of God, which will thus be tested, more beautifully. Gideon is no presumptuous doubter. It is his humility that requires the miracle. He builds no expectations on his personal strength. If God will show that He is truly with him, he is ready to do everything. He asks much, because he deems himself altogether insufficient.

Jdg 6:17. Then give me a sign that thou art He who talketh with me. The angel appeared to Gideon as man; otherwise he could neither have seen him, nor offered him food. His appearance must have been venerable; for Gideon always addresses him deferentially and humbly, with the words , Pray, my lord. Now, when this stranger says, I send theeI will be with thee, and that without adding who He is, Gideon could hardly fail to conclude that He who addressed him was a supernatural being; especially as these words were used in answer to his own, if Jehovah were with us. It is, therefore, very instructive that the doubtful Gideon asks for a sign to know whether thou art he who speaks with me, i.e., whether thou art one who can say, I am with thee, and not to know whether thou art God, a thought which he is not yet prepared to entertain.

Jdg 6:18-20. Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come again unto thee. Gideon is not yet convinced; but nevertheless the word that has been spoken burns within him. The remark in Jdg 6:14, , and Jehovah turned towards him, was doubtless intended to intimate that the heavenly visitant turned his face, beaming with the light of holiness, full upon Gideon. Gideon feels the breath of divinity,but certain he is not. Should the apparition now depart, he would be in twofold dread. He will gladly do whatever is commandedbut, is the commander God? He thinks to solve this question by means of the duties of hospitality which devolve on him. Hence he prays him to remain, until he has entertained him. He is not so poor, but that he can offer a kid and something more to a guest. Flocks of goats still form a considerable part of Palestinian wealth, and find excellent pasturage in the plain of Jezreel. Time permits Gideon to prepare only unleavened cakes; but the supply is bountiful, for he uses apephah (i.e., a measure containing about 1994, according to others 1985, or only 1014, Par. cubic inches, cf. Bckh, Metrologische Untersuchungen, p. 261) of flour in their preparation. That which appears singular, is the statement that he put the flesh in the basket (). Wherever else this word occurs, it denotes a bread-basket. The explanation is, that Gideon was unwilling to call a servant, and hence used the basket for both bread and meat. He requires, however, a separate pot for the broth, which the basket cannot hold. He thinks now that by this meal he will learn to know his guest. Celestials, according to popular belief, took no earthly food. The angel who appears to Manoah, says (Jdg 13:16): I will not eat of thy bread. True, of the angels who came to Abraham (Gen 18:8), it is said, and they did eat; but the Targum explains, they seemed to him to eat.13 This belief has no resemblance to the Homeric conception, according to which the gods, though they eat not bread or drink wine (Iliad, v. 341), do nevertheless, like mortals, stretch forth their hands after ambrosia and nectar. The angels, like all that is divine in the Bible, have their spiritual abode in heaven, with nothing earthly about them, consequently with no corporeal wants. The explanation of Psa 78:25, as if meant bread such as angels feed on, is erroneous (unhappily, it has been again put forth by Bhmer, in Herzogs Realencykl. iv. 20); the words have long since been properly explained (by Hengstenberg and Delitzsch) of the manna, which came from heaven, i.e., from on high. Hence, as late as the author of Tobias, the angel is made to say (Tob 12:19): I have neither eaten nor drunk, but ye have seen an apparition. Nor did Gideon err in his expectations. His guest does not eat. In verse 20, once takes the place ; but the rule that in the Book of Judges Jehovah stands regularly for the God of Israel, Elohim for the gods of the heathen, is not thereby destroyed. This is shown by the article prefixed to Elohim. The reason for the interchange in this passage lies in the fact that the nature of the angel, as a divine being, here begins to declare itself. In order to describe the angel who speaks to Gideon as the messenger of that unity from which the multitude of the angels proceeds (hence ), the narrator introduces the term . He thereby explains how the angel in his individual appearance, can nevertheless contain in himself the power of God. The Angel of Jehovah, he means to say, is none other than an angel of the Elohim; hence, He, the messenger, speaks as Jehovah.

Jdg 6:21-24. And the Angel of Jehovah put forth the end of his staff. The angel, like a traveller, but also like the prophets, like Moses and Elijah, carried a staff. They also used it, as he does, to work miracles. Among the Greeks likewise, the staff, in the hands of sculapius and Hermes, for instance, is the symbol of the divine power to awaken and subdue.14 The angel touches the flesh and bread, and they ascend in fire. What was brought as a gift to the guest, is accepted by fire as a sacrifice. Fire is the element in which divine power and grace reveal themselves. A flame of fire passed between the parts of Abrahams sacrifice (Gen 15:17). Fire came down on the offerings of Solomon, when he had made an end of praying, and consumed them (2Ch 7:1). Fire fell from heaven in answer to Elijahs prayer that the Lord would make it manifest that He was God in Israel, and consumed the sacrifice before the eyes of the rebellious people (1Ki 18:38). To give a similar sign, the angel now touched the flesh and cakes. By the fire which blazed up, and by the disappearance of his visitor, Gideon perceived that his guest was actually a celestial being, who had called down fire from above. He was perfectly convinced. No doubt could any longer maintain itself, and in place of it fear seized upon him.

And Gideon said, Ah Lord Jehovah! Gideon makes this exclamation, because, like Manoah (Jdg 13:22), he thinks that he must die; for he has seen what ordinarily no living man does see. This view is deeply rooted in the Israelitish idea of God, and directly opposed to Hellenic conceptions. In fact, heathenism, as pantheism, knows of no real partition-wall between the individual gods and men (cf. Ngelsbach, Homer. Theologie, p. 141); but between the God who inhabits the invisible and eternal, and man who dwells in the world of sense, there was seen to be an absolute difference. Every human being is too sinful, and too much under the dominion of sense, to endure the immediate glory of the Incomprehensible. He cannot see God, to whom to see means to receive the light of the sun into eyes of flesh. When, therefore, Moses, notwithstanding that he spake with God, as friend converses with friend (Exo 33:11), would see his glory, the answer was (Jdg 6:20): Thou canst not see my face; for no man sees me, and continues to live. It is implied in this idea, that only the living man cannot see God, that to see Him is to die. That, therefore, the dead can see Him, is an inference close at hand, and important for the O. T. doctrine concerning the soul and immortality.Gideon, however, has no cause for lamentation, for after all he has only seen the man. Jacobs life also was preserved, for his wrestling had been with the man (Gen 32:24; Gen 32:31 (30). No man hath seen God at any time (Joh 1:18). When, therefore, Philip says, Show us the Father, Jesus answers: He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father (Joh 14:9). Hence, a voice is heardthe voice of the now unseen Godsaying: Fear not; thou shalt not die! It was for the very purpose that Gideon might live, that the angel had not appeared as God. The wife of Manoah wisely draws this same conclusion herself (Jdg 13:23). And God speaks Peace to him. Where peace is, there is no occasion for fear; for peace is the fruit of reconciliation. The divine messenger did not come to punish Israel still further, but to bring them help. When He comes to save, He must have previously forgiven. This forgiveness is the peace. So Gideon understands it, when he builds an altar, and calls it , God-Peace, i.e., the Peace of God. Humility and penitence prompt him to this. Above, in Jdg 6:13, when he was not yet certain that God had appeared to him, he had said nothing to indicate that, was Israels own fault that God was not with them. Of this he becomes conscious while standing in the presence of the divine messenger. The fear that to see God involves death, rests first of all on the moral ground of conscious sinfulness. Undoubting faith is ever followed by true repentance, namely, love for truth. Gideon builds his altar to the Peace of God, i.e., to his own reconciliation with God, and salvation from the judgment of God.15 The narrator seizes on this penitential feeling of Gideons, to which he joyfully consecrated his altar, and by means of it continues the thread of his story. The altar was known to the author as still extant in his time.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Israel repented, and Gods compassion renewed itself. Manifold as nature is the help of God. It is not confined to one method; but its wonders become greater as Israels bondage becomes more abject. It was a great thing to select a woman to be the deliverer of Israel. This woman, however, had grown up in the Spirit of Jehovah; she was a prophetess already, accustomed to counsel the people. The choice of Gideon was therefore still more extraordinary. He was not only the youngest in the least family, but he belonged to a city in which the heathen had for the most part remained. Idolatry prevailed, invading even his fathers house. God took him like a brand from the fire, to make him the deliverer of his people.
So God converted his Apostle, from amidst the multitude of enemies and their plots, on the way to Damascus. So Luther went forth from his cloister to preach the gospel of freedom. God calls whoever He will, and no school, faculty, or coterie, limits the field of his election.

Starke: When we think that God is farthest from us, that in displeasure He has entirely left us, then with his grace and almighty help He is nearest to us.The same: Even in solitude the pious Christian is not alone, for God is always near him.

God does not err in his calling. Gideon was the right man, though he himself did not believe it. He desires a sign, not from unbelief, but humility. He who thus desires a miracle, believes in miracles. He desires it not to be a proof of God, but of himself. To him the censure of Jesus does not apply: Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe; for those wished them as grounds of faith in Jesus, Gideon as evidence that himself was the right man. Gideons humility was evidence of his strength.Hedinger: Conceit and pride do not lead man to God, but humility and lowliness do.

Thus Gideon believed the angel whom he beheld vanishing toward heaven; the Jews did not believe Jesus, when He wrought miracles and rose from the dead. But Gideons eye was the humility with which he looked at himself. When Christians do not believe, it is because of pride which does not see itself. It is not for want of a theophany that many do not believe; for all have seen angels, if their heart be with God. For the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them (Psa 34:8).

Starke: Even the strongest faith has always something of weakness in it.Lisco: From Jdg 6:14 Gideon seems already to have perceived who it was that spake with him. His answer is the language not so much of unbelief as of modesty.Gerlach: His prayer was not dictated by unbelief, but by a childlike, reverential acknowledgment of the weakness of his faith, as in the case of Abraham.

[Bp. Hall (Jdg 6:11): What shifts nature will make to live! O that we could be so careful to lay up spiritual food for our souls, out of the reach of those spiritual Midianites! we could not but live in despite of all adversaries.The same (Jdg 6:13): The valiant man was here weak, weak in faith, weak in discourse, whilst he argues Gods absence by affliction, his presence by deliverances, and the unlikelihood of success by his own inabilityall gross inconsequences.Scott: Talents suited for peculiar services may for a time be buried in obscurity; but in due season the Lord will take the candle from under the bushel, and place it on a candlestick, to give light to all around; and that time must be waited for, by those who feel their hearts glow with desires of usefulness which at present they have no opportunity of executing.Tr.]

Footnotes:

[8][Jdg 6:11.Literally, was beating () sc. with a stick, . The more usual word for threshing is . Threshing was generally done by treading with oxen, or by means of a drag-like machine drawn over the grain by oxen or other animals. But for small quantities, and for certain minor seeds (Isa 28:27), a stick was used, ct. Rth 2:17.Tr.]

[9][Jdg 6:15.: thus pointed, this word always refers to God, and the possessive suffix (for such is most probably) is lost sight of. From the words in Jdg 6:15 Gideon perceived that he who talked with him was not a mere man. Hence, he now no longer says: Pray, my lord (, Jdg 6:13), but, Pray, Lord (, God the Lord). So Keil. Dr. Cassel apparently points the text here as in Jdg 6:13, for he translates My Lord. Compare what he says on Jdg 6:17.Tr.]

[10][Jdg 6:22.: for therefore, for on this account. Dr. Cassel renders it here by also, so then (illative). But the phrase regularly indicates the ground or reason for what goes before, cf. Gen 18:5; Gen 19:8; Gen 33:10; etc.; and Ewald, Gram. 353 a. Gideons thought is: Woe is me! for thereforescil. to give me cause for my apprehension of dangerhave I seen, etc. Cf. Bertheau and Keil. The E. V. would be rendered accurate enough by striking out either for or because.Tr.]

[11]Clearly and charmingly apparent in Gen 18:1-4.

[12][Keil: In this thy strength, i.e., in the strength which thou now hast, since Jehovah is with thee. The demonstrative this refers to the strength now imparted to him through the divine promise.Tr.]

[13]The same explanation is adopted by Josephus and Philo, and is not to be rejected as Delitzsch (Genesis, p. 383) and others have done. Genesis 18. to Jdg 6:12 speaks only of men. But as they only seemed to be men, so they only seemed to eat The instance of the risen Saviour is not to be adduced, for angels before Christ were not born like Christ.

[14]On the subversion of the staff as a symbol of blessings into an instrument of sorcery, cf. my Eddischen Studien, p. 76.

[15][Keil: The design of this altar . is indicated in the name given to it. It was not to serve for sacrifices, but as a memorial and witness of the theophany vouchsafed to Gideon, and of his experience that Jehovah is Peace, i.e., does not desire to destroy Israel in his wrath, but cherishes thoughts of peace. Cf. Hengstenberg, Diss. on Pent. 2. p. 34.Tr.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

I cannot hesitate to believe, that this was that same Almighty angel who, all along from creation, at various times manifested himself to his people as occasion required, and as it pleased him. I say I cannot hesitate to form this conclusion, because he who is in this verse called an angel of Jehovah, is in the 14th verse expressly called Jehovah. And Reader! when you have duly compared this passage with several others, and compared also some of the expressions he was graciously pleased to make use of, such as in a very particular way, Surely I will be with thee, and the promise of victory; I shall hope if the Lord be your teacher, you will believe the same. See Gen 28:15 ; Exo 3:2-6 . Yes, dearest Jesus! thy people taught by thy Spirit, are enabled to trace thee, in the footstep of thy love frequently going before and manifesting thyself to them otherwise than thou dost unto the world; and in a way and manner best known to thyself, long before thine incarnation, as if thou went longing for that time to show thine unequalled mercy to our fallen nature! Pro 8:22-31 . I would have the Reader to remark with me, several very interesting things, connected with the relation of the appearance of this angel. Is there not somewhat similar to the general promulgation of the gospel, and of the coming of Jesus to his people? The prophet we are told first came to Israel, and then this angel. John the Baptist was the forerunner of Christ. See Mal 3:1 ; Joh 1:19-23 . And is it not so now, in the revelation of Jesus to his people? Doth not the Holy Ghost first convince of sin, and then of the righteousness of Jesus? See Joh 16:3 . I would detain the Reader with another observation on this passage. When deliverance was about to be proclaimed to Israel from their sorrows, that deliverance was made known to those who were retired from the world, and engaged in their honourable employments. And was it not the same, when the angels made known to the shepherds, watching over their flocks by night, that a Saviour was then born to them in the city of David. Luk 2:10-11 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Jdg 6:11 And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which [was] in Ophrah, that [pertained] unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide [it] from the Midianites.

Ver. 11. And there came an angel. ] When the people, being kindly humbled by the prophet’s reproof, cried mightily to God for mercy and deliverance, he “who comforteth the abject” 2Co 7:6 sent them an angel.

And his son Gideon threshed wheat. ] Though he had many servants, Jdg 6:27 yet himself threshed. So did the ancient Roman senators, Cincinnatus, Curius, Scipio, &c.; neither was grain ever cheaper at Rome, saith Pliny, than in those days.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

an oak = the oak, as being well known.

Joash = Jehovah gave.

Gideon = cutter down.

by the winepress = in the winepress. Shows the straits of the people. Compare verses: Jdg 6:2-6. Threshing-floor exposed, winepress sunk in ground.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

an angel: Jdg 6:14-16, Jdg 2:1-5, Jdg 5:23, Jdg 13:3, Jdg 13:18-20, Gen 48:16, Jos 18:23, Isa 63:9

Abiezrite: Jdg 8:2, Jos 17:2

Gideon: Heb 11:32, Gedeon, hide it, Heb. cause it to flee

Reciprocal: Gen 16:10 – the angel Lev 26:16 – and ye shall Num 26:30 – Jeezer Jdg 6:34 – Abiezer Jdg 8:27 – Ophrah 1Sa 23:1 – rob the 1Ki 13:18 – an angel 1Ki 19:19 – he with 1Ch 7:18 – General 1Ch 21:20 – And Ornan Job 5:5 – the thorns Lam 5:9 – General Mat 4:18 – for Luk 2:9 – lo

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Gideon’s Call to Conquest

Jdg 6:11-40

INTRODUCTORY WORDS

There come times of special exigencies when God speaks to special men calling them to special service.

Such a call came to Gideon, and there may come such a call to some who study with us today.

In. the days of Gideon the Children of Israel had turned aside to worship Baal. The Lord had given them into the hands of Midian, and they had, in their affliction, cried unto the Lord. When they cried, the Lord heard them and raised up a deliverer.

Several things may be suggested as steppingstones to the study proper.

1. The need of a leader. There are many faithful souls who are willing to follow, but are not endued with leadership. Such people need some strong and stalwart soul to lead them on. When France was suffering and fearful of heart, then the Maid of Orleans leaped to the front and led her on to victory.

We have one supreme Leader, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the One who is captain of the hosts of the Church. He is our Pile-leader, our Head, our Generalissimo. He has never lost a battle. He has passed through death and hades, and then passed up through principalities and powers.

How the words of Psa 24:1-10 ring in our minds: “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall come in.” Then, as if in answer to the cry of the ascending hosts, there came from the Glory, a question: “Who is this King of Glory?” And back, from the hosts which had greeted the ascending Lord, and were hastening upward with Him, came the reply: “The Lord strong and mighty; the Lord mighty in battle.”

Yes we have an all-conquering Christ as our captain.

2. The need of faithful followers. As the study proceeds we will learn that the battle is not to the many. The thirty-two thousand who first rallied to Gideon’s call was cut down to three hundred, before God was willing for the battle to proceed.

The faithful few, eager for the fray, may be of much more value to the cause of Christ than the great crowd of halfhearted, who are certain to faint by the way.

Those who would follow so great a captain must not be of the milk and water caliber. We need men strong in the faith, and courageous. We need men who will not bend to every adverse wind that blows, and seek to compromise with the enemy.

There is a great verse in Scripture. It reads like this: “Quit you like men, be strong.”

Had the early preachers and Christians turned back at every difficulty that arose, we had never known the victories of faith, which the early church obtained. Those saints were made of a fiber that knew how to stand and to withstand.

Had Old Testament saints been of the feebleminded kind, we had never had that great 11th chapter of Hebrews, which presents God’s galaxy of heroes. The saints of that day, “subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in the fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.” God give us more saints of the same caliber!

I. THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS (Jdg 6:11-12; Jdg 6:21-23)

One of the interesting studies of the Bible is the ministry of angels in the Old Testament Scriptures. That ministry will be openly renewed in the days of the coming Great Tribulation.

In our study for today, an angel of the Lord came unto Gideon. He sat under an oak, as Gideon threshed wheat by the wine press, to hide it from the Midianites.

The angel did not say, “you are a scarecrow hiding away from the ravages of the Midianites.” He did say unto him, “The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.”

Gideon did not approve the angel’s statement, nor comment upon it. He, perhaps felt, quite to the contrary, that he was the weakest of men. However, Gideon did desire his guest to tarry until he made an offering of food. When the food was ready the angel touched it with the end of the staff that was in his hand, and fire rose out of the rock and consumed the food; then the angel departed out of his sight.

The ministry of angels is a most beautiful study. Of old they frequently ministered in visible form to the needs of saints. Today they still minister, but invisibly. They certainly are not lax in their watching over the children of God. It will be most interesting in Heaven to learn more of the details of the angels in our lives, and how they kept their vigil. We may be surprised “over there” to find out how many deliverances they wrought and how much aid they gave us, in our daily rounds, as we moved among men.

We cannot but feel that even little children have their guardian angels. In death, also, the saints may find angels waiting to escort them to Heaven-this was the case with the Lazarus of which Christ spoke in Luk 16:1-31.

“Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Heb 1:14).

II. GIDEON’S GREAT QUESTION (Jdg 6:13)

When the angel first spoke to Gideon, he called Gideon a mighty man of valor and said, “The Lord is with thee.” Gideon passed by the gracious words of worthy praise and said, “O my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all His miracles which our fathers told us of?”

1. Here is a most remarkable case of self-forgetfulness. Gideon spoke not of his own welfare, but of that of his nation’s. He turned from the “with thee” of the angel’s word, to the “with us” of his own heart throbbings.

A deep lesson is imbedded here. If we want God to use us in behalf of others, we must have their welfare deeply rooted in our being. Gideon felt that what befell his people, befell him. Their fate was his fate; their pillage was his pillage.

Paul wrote, “I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish myself accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: who are Israelites.”

Jesus longed for Jerusalem, and said, “How often would I have gathered thy children together.” Their lot was His.

Jesus Christ went to the Cross bearing our sins, our sorrows.

Gideon rose to a close approach to this same sublime spirit of union with his nation. He reckoned their distresses as his own.

2. Here is a remembrance of God’s past gracious dealings. Gideon was unmindful of how God had led the children of Israel out of Egypt. He said: “Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?”

Time and again the same spirit of inquiry, with a similar comparison fell from the lips of God’s children. Here these words from Isa 51:1-23 :

“Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?

Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?”

All of this was a right procedure. We have a right to remind God of His past blessings. Indeed, we should ever praise Him for them.

3. Here is a question which expresses doubt as to God’s dealings. Gideon seemingly failed to grasp that God’s blessings rest upon His servants’ faithfulness.

When, in Isa 51:1-23, Israel called upon God to awake, as in the ancient days, God in turn called upon Israel to awake, and put on her beautiful garments. He said to her, “Shake thyself from the dust.”

When Abah said to Elijah, “Art thou he that troubleth Israel?” Elijah was quick to reply, “I have not troubled Israel; but thou and thy father’s house in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and hast followed Baalim.”

Israel was in trouble because she had sinned. God could not help her, because she had, by her iniquities, curtailed His power.

III. GIDEON’S CONFESSION OF WEAKNESS (Jdg 6:15-16)

1. Gideon’s confession. We have a second question from Gideon’s lips. Once more he shows great emotion. He says, “O my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”

What a contrast-The angel had called Gideon a mighty man of valor. Gideon calls himself, the least of his father’s house. It is quite possible that both were correct, and that we have before us one of God’s paradoxes. Is it not true that when we are weak, then we are strong?

Moses was a great man, trained in all the wisdom and skill of the Egyptians, and yet Moses said to the Lord, “Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the Children of Israel out of Egypt?”

If we err, let it be on the Gideon and Moses side of boasting. We should not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think.

2. God’s promise. In response to Gideon’s confession of weakness, the Lord said, “I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.”

“If God be for us, who can be against us?” When God links His omnipotency to our impotency, and His might is joined with our weakness, we have nothing to fear.

IV. GIDEON’S FIRST STEPS TOWARD VICTORY (Jdg 6:24-26)

1. Gideon builded an altar unto the Lord. When Gideon discovered that he had spoken to, and had seen the Lord, he feared for his life. The Lord, however, re-assured him and said. “Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die.”

Then Gideon built an altar unto the Lord, and called the place Jehovah-shalom, “the Lord is there.” Victory must come from the presence of the Lord. Victory comes particularly, when that Presence is with us as we stand at the altar of sacrifice.

If our churches would re-instate the prayer room, that in so many places has fallen down; and if they would once more stand close by the Cross of Christ and plead the merits of His sacrificial death, they would have reached the first step to real victory.

2. Gideon tore down the altars of Baal. This God demanded. No man can serve two masters. God was showing Gideon the cause for Israel’s servitude to Midian-she had turned from the Lord and His altar and had builded altars to the gods of the nations among whom they dwelt.

He, who would go forth to conquer, must cast down the sway of the world and of the flesh. Bending the knee to God must be followed by throwing down every high thing that would lift itself against the Lord. God must be all in all.

It must have been a great sight in the morning when the city awoke to find the altar of Baal thrown down, and the grove that was by it, destroyed. The men wanted to kill Gideon for his act. This was a confession that Baal had no power to avenge himself.

V. GIDEON’S TRUMPET BLAST (Jdg 6:34-35)

Each day Gideon was growing stronger in the Lord. He now felt a new power upon him, for “The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon.” Here is always the secret of strength. Has God not said unto us. “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you”? We need to wait the enduement of the Spirit that comes to us when we have erected the Lord’s altars and have cast down the altars of Baal.

This is a beautiful picture of the place and hour that comes to a life that is Spirit-filled. It was when Christ was exalted to the Father’s throne that the Holy Comforter, the promise of the Father, was poured forth. It is when the Lord Jesus Christ is exalted to the throne of the believer’s heart, that the enduement of the Spirit conies. The river of Rev 22:1-2 was a river of water of life, clear as crystal, and it flowed from the throne of God and of the Lamb. The river of blessing”, the river of the Holy Spirit, which carries life and blessing wherever it goes, flows from the throne of that life where God the Father and the Lamb are enthroned.

Gideon now blew his trumpet, “and Abi-ezar was gathered after him.” Gideon was ready to assume leadership, because he, himself, was led of the Spirit. He could take up the cudgel of God’s conflict because he was anointed of God.

VI. GIDEON PUTTING GOD TO THE TEST (Jdg 6:36-40)

The true disciple should walk by faith and not by sight. However, Gideon was scarcely prepared as yet to undertake for God, wholly upon the plain of faith. He had heard a call from God. He had sent a call to men to rally to his undertaking. Now he hesitated. He wondered if, after all, the wonderful events of the past hours had been all of God. He wondered if he had rightly understood God. He knew that any attempt to go against the Midians, apart from Divine enabling, would prove sheer folly.

Thus it was that Gideon pled with God for a sign that might make him certain that God was with him. He asked that his fleece of wool might be wet, while the earth beside the wool remained dry. God accepted Gideon’s challenge and by the morning light it was even so.

Gideon was not satisfied. He reversed his test and prayed that the fleece would remain dry, while the earth about would be covered with dew. Once more God accepted Gideon’s test and proved His call to Gideon. Gideon hesitated no longer but prepared for the fray.

To test God may seem wrong, and perhaps it is a mark of a faith that shrinks, yet God was willing to be proved. God has even said, “Bring ye all the tithes into the store-house, * * and prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of Heaven and pour you out a blessing.” Another verse is to the point. This is a verse you know. “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, * * be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed; * * that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

As with Gideon, so with us-how often God has been patient with our frailties. He knoweth our frames; He remembereth that we are as dust. He deals with us, “Like as a father.” Gideon might have said, what the father of the child, that had a dumb spirit, said: “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.”

Gideon needed what the man borne of four needed. The palsied needed inspiration of the faith of the four to strengthen his own faith; Gideon needed the fleece of wool made wet, and then left dry, to strengthen his own faith.

For one thing we are glad; the name of Gideon appears in Heb 11:32, among those who compose God’s galaxy of the heroes of the faith. There we read, “Time would fail me to tell of Gideon, * * who through faith subdued kingdoms.”

AN ILLUSTRATION

God not only gives victory over the enemy, but He gives protection from his power-The following incident told by Rev. A. E. Glover in “A Thousand Miles of Miracles” is illustrative of the power and place of prayer During the Boxer uprising in 1900, in Shan-si province, Rev. Glover, his wife, two young children, and Miss Gates, all of the China Inland Mission, traveled through the heart of the most anti-foreign section of China, one thousand miles to the seacoast. Every day their lives were in imminent danger, but God spared them.

One day the little party had been set upon by a large mob, and imprisoned in a small inn. There they knelt in prayer. Mr, Glover prayed that God would not let a hair of their heads be touched by their captors. There was dead silence as the prayer went up. Five guards were lying about the room. At the end of the prayer one of the five spoke and said: “They have been praying to their God to deliver them. Aye, deliver them indeed! Too late for that now. What is the use of praying when everything is fixed?”

About midnight one of the men brought in a vessel of opium and lit it. The plan was to stupefy the prisoners first and then to murder them. At once the fumes of the narcotic began to fill the room to suffocation. Soon all were insensible, save Miss Gates.

The guard waited for her to be overcome before the bloody work began. The fumes had no effect on her, and she continued to pray throughout the night.

Weapons in hand, the ruffians passed the night. Finally they fell asleep. When morning came, all awoke; the prisoners recovering consciousness. The would-be murderers were heard discussing the events among themselves. They said: “These people have been praying to Shang-ti Je-ho-hua (Jehovah God) and we can do nothing against their prayers.”

Such was the testimony of men who but a few hours before had mocked at the futility of prayer, and the idea of a God who could deliver. “Call upon Me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.”

Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water

Jdg 6:11. And there came an angel of the Lord It is probable that many of the Israelites laid the prophets message to heart, and began to repent and reform, and that therefore God had compassion upon them, and sent an angel to appoint them a deliverer. In Ophrah In Manasseh; there was, however, another Ophrah in Benjamin, Jos 18:23. Joash, the Abi- ezrite Of the posterity of Abi-ezer. Thrashed Not with oxen, as the manner was, (Deu 25:4,) but with a staff, to prevent discovery. Wine-press In the place where the wine-press stood, not in the common floor, because none would suspect that he was there so employed.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

Gideon’s commissioning by Yahweh 6:11-32

". . . the heroic women of the song [of Deborah, ch. 5] give way to an unheroic ’man of Israel’ (Jdg 7:14) who not only does all he can to evade the call of Yahweh but in the end abandons God. . . . In the person of Gideon the narrator recognizes the schizophrenic nature of Israel’s spiritual personality. On the one hand she treasures her call to be God’s covenant people; on the other she cannot resist the allurements of the prevailing Canaanite culture." [Note: Block, Judges . . ., p. 250.]

The writer presented Gideon as sort of a second Moses in his calling. Both men were very reluctant to lead God’s people (cf. Exodus 3-4).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

The appearance of the Angel of the Lord 6:11-18

"As the reproof of the prophet was intended to turn the hearts of the people once more to the Lord their God and deliverer, so the manner in which God called Gideon to be their deliverer, and rescued Israel from its oppressors through his instrumentality, was intended to furnish the most evident proof that the help and salvation of Israel were not to be found in man, but solely in their God." [Note: Keil and Delitzsch, p. 330.]

Gideon’s name means "Hewer." God used him to cut down the altar of Baal and then the Midianites.

In calling Gideon to deliver the Israelites, God revealed Himself twice. First, God appeared to Gideon and spoke directly to him through the Angel of the Lord (Jdg 6:11-24; cf. Gen 32:28). Second, He commanded Gideon to destroy the local Baal worship and renew the worship of Yahweh (Jdg 6:25-32; cf. Jdg 2:1-3; 1Ki 18:30-40). In the first case God acknowledged Gideon, and in the second He called on Gideon to acknowledge Him as his God.

Ophrah was a village over which Gideon’s father, Joash, exercised a strong influence (Jdg 6:11; cf. Jdg 6:24). Its exact location is uncertain, but it appears to have been in the Jezreel Valley.

Normally the Israelites beat out their wheat in the open field or on a raised piece of ground. The prevailing wind would blow the lighter chaff away while the heavier grain would fall to the ground. However, Gideon was beating out his grain in a winepress. The Israelites built winepresses in lower lying areas so the juice of the grapes would not run off. Gideon’s use of a winepress for threshing grain points to the Midianite threat that he felt. To remain unnoticed he beat out his grain in a less conspicuous place (Jdg 6:11).

The Angel in His greeting (Jdg 6:12) addressed Gideon as the man he would become by God’s enablement, not the man he was then. In the same way, God had called Abraham the father of a multitude before he had any children. He called Peter a rock before he behaved as one. He also calls Christians saints even though we are not yet as saintly as God will make us. Alternatively, this may simply have been a complimentary address. [Note: Block, Judges . . ., p. 260.]

"One of the great truths of Scripture is that when God looks at us, He does not see us for what we are, but for what we can become, as He works in our lives." [Note: Inrig, p. 84.]

Gideon could not understand why the Israelites were suffering as they were, if Yahweh was indeed with His people (Jdg 6:13; cf. Deu 31:17). He failed to realize that their condition was the result of their abandoning God, not His abandoning them.

"’Sins, not afflictions, argue God’s absence.’" [Note: Bishop Hall, quoted by Bush, p. 85. Cf. Joshua 7:10-13.]

The strength of Gideon to which the Angel referred (Jdg 6:14) was what God’s promised presence and commission guaranteed (Jdg 6:14; Jdg 6:16). Gideon did not disbelieve the Angel as much as he failed to understand how he could be God’s instrument of deliverance. He was the youngest and therefore the least esteemed in his father’s household. Furthermore his family was a comparatively insignificant one in Manasseh (Jdg 6:15). Gideon was looking for natural signs of leadership, but God was promising supernatural enablement.

To confirm that the Angel really was a divine messenger, Gideon requested some supernatural confirmation that this calling was from God (Jdg 6:17). He then prepared to offer his guest a token of his hospitality (Jdg 6:18).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

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