The Call of Gideon

6Israel was brought very low because of Midian; and the children of Israel cried to Yahweh. 7When the children of Israel cried to Yahweh because of Midian, 8Yahweh sent a prophet to the children of Israel; and he said to them, “Yahweh says, the God of Israel, ‘I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you out of the house of bondage. 9I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out from before you, and gave you their land. 10I said to you, “I am Yahweh your God. You shall not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.” But you have not listened to my voice.’” 11Yahweh’s angel came, and sat under the oak which was in Ophrah, that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. His son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press, to hide it from the Midianites. 12Yahweh’s angel appeared to him, and said to him, “Yahweh is with you, you mighty man of valor!”

During the forty years Deborah ruled, the children of Israel lived in peace, but as soon as she died they did evil in Yahweh’s sight. How great their sin is! When God heard their repentance and raised up a strong judge, they would keep quiet; then, once that judge was dead, they would go back to the world.

Though Israel had received a grace greater than any other nation ever received, they sinned by worshiping idols. In his anger God made them pass through the fire for seven years under Midian. Midian was the fourth son born to Keturah, the wife Abraham took later in life. His descendants settled east of the Jordan and in the regions of the Dead Sea and the southern Arabah.

Moses’ father-in-law Jethro was a Midianite, and Moses’ wife was a Midianite too. In the early days of Israel’s life in the wilderness these people were friendly, but in time they joined with the people of Moab and Midian and caused Israel to fall into sexual immorality. Later Gideon routed the vast Midianite army with three hundred men and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian, and from then on Midian went steadily down the road to ruin. The attack Israel now suffered came at the time when, at the end of the wilderness years, the Midianites had built up their strength and struck.

Those seven years must have been agony, for this persecution came upon Israel without God’s full protection. So severe was it that the Israelites fled to the mountains and lived in caves they had dug. Whenever Israel sowed seed, the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the children of the east drove in their livestock to devour the crops, and when the grain ripened they carried off the whole harvest. Only when such hardship came did Israel finally cry out to Yahweh. When God had given them peace, they made friends with the world and would not listen to the word; now, in their suffering, they wailed to God for help. Israel knew that if they wept and repented, God, who is rich in love, would forgive them. So, though guilty of great sin, they repented the moment discipline came, as though it were simply the next step in a procedure, and in this they revealed their craftiness. To arrange things from one’s own side so that God will lift his discipline, instead of truly repenting, is as crafty as the serpent.

Because God planned to send the Messiah through Israel, he forgave them whenever they showed even a little repentance. They took advantage of God’s good heart. But we must understand that although God forgave them each time they repented, Israel’s sin kept piling up. The proof is the misfortune that befell them when the gospel went first to the Gentiles. Only when we hold a faith that is honest and upright, even to the point of foolishness, does God build wisdom, understanding, and blessing upon that faith.

Yet Israel refused to have God take a hand in their lives. No one can steer their life by their own plan. Having great wealth now does not mean it will last forever, and being poor now does not mean hardship forever, because the days we live, one by one, add up to God’s reward or to his rebuke.

Judges 6:8

8Yahweh sent a prophet to the children of Israel; and he said to them, “Yahweh says, the God of Israel, ‘I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you out of the house of bondage.

Whenever God speaks of the exodus, we can take it as a sign that Israel is sinning. Before Yahweh’s angel came to Gideon, God first sent a prophet to the people of Israel. The prophet told Israel not to forget how greatly God had loved them through the exodus. He reminded them that to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians who mistreated them, God had taken Moses into his service, and that to rescue Israel suffering in Canaan, he had delivered them from the oppression of Eglon king of Moab and Jabin king of Canaan. God was keeping his promise, the prophet said, but in Canaan Israel had served idols and had not listened to Yahweh’s voice. The prophet delivered God’s wrath in this way, and still Yahweh’s angel had to come to Gideon, which tells us that the people had not listened to the word.

Judges 6:12

12Yahweh’s angel appeared to him, and said to him, “Yahweh is with you, you mighty man of valor!”

Afraid that the Midianites would take his grain, Gideon was living in secret with others, hidden in the dens and caves they had dug in the mountains. Having refused to listen to the prophet’s word, Israel went on suffering under Midian, and when they could bear it no longer they cried out to God for help. God heard their prayer and came to Gideon, who, afraid of Midian, was threshing in hiding in the hills.

The angel of Yahweh is Christ before his incarnation, who even in Old Testament times cared for his people and was ceaselessly at work. Christ appeared in human form to Abraham and to Samson, and worked for the salvation of Israel. Now the holy Christ himself had come to Gideon.

Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press because he feared the Midianites, and to him the angel said that Yahweh was with him, calling him a mighty man of valor. Ordinarily no one calls a man in hiding a mighty warrior. But the mighty man God has in mind is not someone with worldly power or favorable circumstances; the mighty man is the one on whom God has set his attention. When God is with us, whoever we may be, we lack nothing, and we will not be put to shame, whether in battle or in our dealings with others.

There is something deeply poignant in the sight of God coming in person to Gideon, hiding from Midian, and calling him a mighty man of valor. One might think that if God had rebuked them loudly and thrown them into even harsher suffering, they would never sin again; but God did not do so.

Look at Joshua and Gideon, who both received God’s promise to be with them, and you see two very different responses. God told Joshua that no man would be able to stand before him all the days of his life; as God had been with Moses, so he would be with Joshua; he would not fail him nor forsake him; so he must be strong and courageous. God pledged to Joshua and to Gideon alike that he would be with them and would help them.

Yet their responses could not have been more different. Joshua did not doubt God’s promise, and he declared to the people that as for him and his house, they would serve Yahweh. Gideon, on the other hand, though he was suffering because of his people’s own sin, grew angry with the angel of Yahweh who had come to help him, and complained that they were suffering like this because Yahweh had not protected them. He was denying that God had been protecting them all along.

He was saying that if God had been with them, the Midianites would never have dared to attack, and he would not be in this situation, threshing wheat in secret. In saying that the Midianites could not have attacked if God had been with them, Gideon was acknowledging God’s power. But it is also a faith that thinks God is with them only when life is easy for them. Whatever kind of life they lived, God was supposed to protect them; how could it make sense, he complained, that they should suffer Midian’s oppression because God had failed to do his job? It was only to be expected that Israel, having forsaken God and worshiped idols, should come under Midian’s attack; yet Gideon was shifting all the blame onto God.

What went through your mind as you heard Gideon say this? God had first sent a prophet to speak of the exodus, yet these foolish people, who failed to understand and went on sinning, now dared to complain against God.

Listen carefully to what Gideon is saying, and it can only strike you as preposterous, because those who had betrayed the God who had protected their lives until now were claiming instead that they were suffering because God had not helped them. Since the end of pleasure is ruin, Israel, having turned from God to a life of debauchery, was brought down by foreign nations. They were the ones who had abandoned the God who had always protected them in love. They had sinned without fear and lived without a trace of remorse. And now they were laying all the blame on God, saying their suffering and trials had come because he had not helped them.

Picture a young child who wants to let go of their mother’s hand and walk alone. The mother says the road is still rough and that she will let go once they reach a safe place, but the child stubbornly runs ahead and falls. Looking at a bleeding knee, the child then shouts at the mother that no matter how much they begged to be let go, she should have held on, by force if need be; how could she let go? It is just like that.

If you were God, how would you treat such people? Hearing the grumbling of those who betray you in the end however much you help and protect them, would you apologize and tell them you are sorry and ought to have given them more? Or would you rebuke those who would not listen to the word?

Gideon’s complaint, that such things could not happen if Yahweh were with them, comes from not knowing how to give thanks. I say so because it is the same as someone who goes to church and believes in God complaining that suffering should never have come to them. Believers think that if God is with them, life ought to be one miracle after another and they should never have to go through trials. Such thinking is a wicked heart that would order the almighty God about like a servant. When they cast off such thinking and wrestle with what they can do for the Kingdom of God, God will keep their lives from shame, as proof that he is with them.

Though they still could not let go of such wicked thoughts, God came to them again, because he had a purpose for Israel. Even after hearing Gideon’s foolish reply, he told him that he would raise him up as judge, and that Gideon should help his people. When God answers your prayers, this is what it means: he will grant your wish, and you are to help your brothers and sisters in the faith. Just as he raised up Moses to save the people of Israel and showed them the ten plagues and the miracle of the parting of the Red Sea, this was his word that he would raise Gideon up as judge and help Israel through many miracles. That so foolish a Gideon should become a judge is itself a miracle.

Judges 6:15

15He said to him, “O Lord, how shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”

Gideon complained, asking how he could save Israel; he said that he was the weakest in Manasseh and the least in his father’s house, and refused to take up the charge laid on him. He wanted God’s help, but there was nothing, he said, that he himself could do. Because he had no strength, no money, no knowledge, and no authority, he was refusing on the grounds that God seemed to have chosen the wrong judge. If Gideon thought this way, others too would think that God uses only those who have wealth, knowledge, and ability. In this way human beings fail to break free from the bonds they have made for themselves.

If we know how God has led Israel until now with his mighty arm, then when trouble comes we should cling to him all the more and show our faith; but because we are always wrapped in complaint and worry, we receive no answer. It is because we cannot that we must believe God will; it is because we have nothing that we must believe the sovereign God will act.

Today we try to do God’s work in our own strength and ability, and we think we can carry out the church’s work by our own wisdom; in this we are proud. Unless we admit that human beings are by nature sinners who cannot do God’s work, we begin from human thinking, and so we wear ourselves out in service and still bear no fruit.

Gideon, called by Yahweh as a mighty man of valor, needed nothing but obedience, faithfulness, and humility. To Gideon, who was afraid of the Midianites and did not want to step forward, God promised that he would surely be with him, that Gideon would strike down the Midianites as if they were one man, and that God would make him a mighty warrior. Gideon knows that God is a living God. Yet he cannot obey God’s word because he lacks courage. Even without wisdom, even without worldly power, Gideon must believe God’s promise to be his strength. If he answers boldly that with God’s help he can do it, God will make him a warrior who stands tall in a harsh world.

We pray countless times and we worship, but because we do not actually invite God into our own lives, we are always anxious and unsure of ourselves. If we believe that God, the Lord of every person’s life and the Lord of heaven, is with us, we have no reason to defy his commands.

I expect you believe that God parted the Red Sea to save millions of people, led them with the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire, and drove out foreigners as numerous as locusts. But when suffering becomes your own problem, you dismiss those events as belonging to Israel alone and think they have nothing to do with you. Only when you believe that the God who worked for Israel is your own God can Israel’s miracles become your miracles. Only when you have faith that the God who parted the Red Sea will part the sea of your suffering too, and will be a lamp lighting up a dark world, will you see miracles.

Yet rather than rebuke Gideon, who did nothing but complain, God waited for him to understand his will.

Judges 6:17

17He said to him, “If now I have found favor in your sight, then show me a sign that it is you who talk with me.

It is the most foolish question that those given the chance of salvation can ask. Though Gideon had met Yahweh face to face, he asked for a sign that it was really God who was speaking with him. His request amounted to this: if the angel would do as Gideon wanted, Gideon would grant that he was God; so would he please not leave until Gideon came back to this spot with an offering?

As I see it, Gideon probably knew it was God the moment he saw Yahweh’s angel. God is not someone we come to know by study; he is someone we simply know. Because God is the Creator who made human beings and breathed a soul into them, we recognize him the moment we meet him. Even so, because Gideon wanted human certainty, he set out to test God instead. His conduct was truly irreverent, yet Yahweh’s angel waited until he returned.

We, too, know of the sacrifice and atonement of Jesus Christ, yet we acknowledge him as God only when he solves our problems. That is why we fail to receive many answers and fail to mature. Even while he sees the wicked hearts of such people, God answers the prayers of Gideon, and ours, and waits for us to grow. He is a Father who waits, and waits again, with great love and patience until we grow into mighty warriors, saving us one by one.

Judges 6:19

19Gideon went in and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes of an ephah of meal. He put the meat in a basket and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out to him under the oak, and presented it.

Under Midian’s oppression it was no small thing to offer a young goat and unleavened cakes, but Gideon came back to Yahweh’s angel with his offering. The angel, who had been waiting for him, told him to lay the meat and the unleavened cakes on the rock and pour out the broth, and with the staff in his hand he consumed the meat and the cakes with fire. Only once he had confirmed that the angel of Yahweh who had accepted his offering was truly God did Gideon come to his senses, but by then the angel was nowhere to be seen. How good it would have been if, when he met God, he had communed with him sincerely and listened to his word with all his heart! Rather than testing Yahweh’s angel, Gideon would have done well to serve him wholeheartedly, as Abraham warmly entertained the angels when they came to him.

When he realized he had met Yahweh face to face, this time he was afraid that because he had seen Yahweh, he would die. He had been given the blessing of meeting God, yet he was thinking only of himself. Having met God face to face, he ought to have leapt for joy. How could a mere human being meet the angel of Yahweh in person? Seeing Gideon like this, Yahweh comforted him, telling him to be at peace and not to be afraid, for he would not die. When Abraham met the angels without knowing it and entertained them, God blessed him, saying that he would become a great and mighty nation and that all the nations of the earth would be blessed in him. And through Abraham’s earnest prayer, God worked so that Lot could be rescued. Gideon and Abraham alike met an angel without knowing it, and both heard words of blessing.

But the two men approached God very differently. Gideon had to repent of having refused the word of blessing, while Abraham received a son as a gift and saw the astonishing miracle of the rescue of Lot’s family. The two men treated Yahweh’s angel so differently because their faith and their lives had been different all along.

Only when he was told that he would not die did Gideon finally breathe easy. Those who, like Gideon, meet God unprepared are afraid they will die; those who are prepared, like Abraham, receive the wonderful blessing of becoming a great and mighty nation, and of all the nations of the earth being blessed through them.

After the angel of Yahweh had gone, Gideon built an altar and named it “Yahweh Shalom.” “Yahweh Shalom” means “Yahweh is Peace.” To mark that all was now at peace between God and himself, Gideon gave the name Shalom to the altar at Ophrah.

Romans 14:17 says that the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Peace is one of its chief marks. The angel of Yahweh who came to Gideon is Christ.

Isaiah 9:6 says that a child is born to us, a son is given to us, the government will be on his shoulders, and his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Everyone who has met Jesus Christ ought to be at peace, because that peace is God’s grace and his supreme blessing. God is at work to give us so wonderful a blessing; yet if we cling to greed and lust, our hearts will be dark, confused, and empty.

Friends, God is right beside you. He gives you peace and rest and helps you to live by faith. In this fast-moving world, I hope you will never let go of the Lord’s hand. If you proclaim the word boldly in faith and strive to live according to God’s will, he will watch over you at every moment.

If, like Joshua, you hold to the faith that you and your house will serve Yahweh, and, like Abraham, you live always prepared, God will work through you so that many are saved. May you always love God, lean on him, and hold fast to a beautiful faith.