Judg 6:11-22 | KingComments | STEP | The Angel of the LORD – this is the Lord Jesus, as we have seen before – comes to visit Gideon. Gideon is busy with the yield of the land. He doesn’t want to let it fall into the hand of the Midianites; he wants to enjoy it himself. The meaning of the names in this verse gives us an impression of Gideon’s state of mind. Ophrah means ‘dust’. Someone who is truly aware of the shame of God’s people, who are is subject to the world, will find himself in the dust. There is no boasting on any particular position, but deep humility. Joash means ‘the LORD is support’. One who knows the weakness and hopelessness of the situation of God’s people will seek and find support in the Lord. By the name of Abiezer, which means ‘my father is help’, we can think of the same thing, while the thought of a relationship is added to it. We may know God as Father. Gideon means ‘one who hews down’. Everything that exalts itself must be hewn down. Soon he will openly honor that name. Now he lives up to that name by throwing himself down into the dust (Ophrah). Ophrah has an oak tree. The word oak literally means ‘a strong tree’. If we combine the two, oak and Ophrah, we see a combination of strength and weakness coming forward. We will see in the history of Gideon how the power of God works in the weakness of Gideon. Gideon is busy beating out wheat in the wine press, an unusual place. The wine press is empty, which means that there is no joy. Wine is a picture of joy ( ). The wine press also suggests judgment ( ). In days of strife and battle, when Midian prevails, we can only get some food from the wine press, which is by acknowledging the judgment God had to bring upon us. Whoever really bends under this judgment, may look at the cross. That is ultimately the place where God’s judgment of our unfaithfulness came on the Lord Jesus. For faith there is always food at that place and there only we are safe from ‘Midian’, the spirit of strife, because it cannot exist at the cross. Gideon represents a principle. In him we see a spirit or mind that can deliver the people from strife and battle. He is unconsciously preparing himself to become the deliverer of the people. Those who are busy with the Lord Jesus and His work on the cross as told in the Word of God can be used by God at a certain moment to be a leader, shepherd, elder, deliverer.

‏ Judges 6:11-22

Gideon

The Angel of the LORD – this is the Lord Jesus, as we have seen before – comes to visit Gideon. Gideon is busy with the yield of the land. He doesn’t want to let it fall into the hand of the Midianites; he wants to enjoy it himself.

The meaning of the names in this verse gives us an impression of Gideon’s state of mind. Ophrah means ‘dust’. Someone who is truly aware of the shame of God’s people, who are is subject to the world, will find himself in the dust. There is no boasting on any particular position, but deep humility. Joash means ‘the LORD is support’. One who knows the weakness and hopelessness of the situation of God’s people will seek and find support in the Lord.

By the name of Abiezer, which means ‘my father is help’, we can think of the same thing, while the thought of a relationship is added to it. We may know God as Father. Gideon means ‘one who hews down’. Everything that exalts itself must be hewn down. Soon he will openly honor that name. Now he lives up to that name by throwing himself down into the dust (Ophrah).

Ophrah has an oak tree. The word oak literally means ‘a strong tree’. If we combine the two, oak and Ophrah, we see a combination of strength and weakness coming forward. We will see in the history of Gideon how the power of God works in the weakness of Gideon.

Gideon is busy beating out wheat in the wine press, an unusual place. The wine press is empty, which means that there is no joy. Wine is a picture of joy (Jdg 9:13). The wine press also suggests judgment (Isa 63:2-3). In days of strife and battle, when Midian prevails, we can only get some food from the wine press, which is by acknowledging the judgment God had to bring upon us.

Whoever really bends under this judgment, may look at the cross. That is ultimately the place where God’s judgment of our unfaithfulness came on the Lord Jesus. For faith there is always food at that place and there only we are safe from ‘Midian’, the spirit of strife, because it cannot exist at the cross.

Gideon represents a principle. In him we see a spirit or mind that can deliver the people from strife and battle. He is unconsciously preparing himself to become the deliverer of the people. Those who are busy with the Lord Jesus and His work on the cross as told in the Word of God can be used by God at a certain moment to be a leader, shepherd, elder, deliverer.

The LORD Is With You

Gideon will have looked up frightened when he suddenly hears a voice saying to him: “The LORD is with you.” Yet he doesn’t get scared. He only becomes this in Jdg 6:22 when he realizes Who has visited him. And what about “O valiant warrior”? At first sight, there is nothing of combativeness to be seen in this man hiding from the enemy. But for God it counts that Gideon is determined to provide himself with food. Despite the supremacy of the enemy, despite the fear of the Israelites, here is a man who is busy with the fruit of the land. Personal faithfulness, in a time when everyone accept things as they are, is here in the foreground. That’s what God calls combativeness. Then, in His eyes, we’re a warrior.

If we are personally engaged in deepening food from God’s Word and not participating in or resigning to the ‘strife’ around us, we will experience the special nearness of the Lord. We will hear Him say that He is with us. This commitment applies to every moment we engage with the Bible in a way that we can clearly hear the voice of God. This promise also applies to all the commands He gives us. This is how God begins His conversation with Gideon. Isn’t that an encouraging start?

Where Are All the Wonders of God?

A conversation starts between Gideon and the LORD. It is wonderful to see how the LORD gives Gideon all the space to say how he experiences things. The LORD always answers Gideon’s questions and answers him in the way only He can do. The answers are full of encouragement for everyone who receives a certain assignment from the Lord. We will see that much can be learned here about the formation of the servant – as we hopefully want to be one – who is to do a work for the Lord. Similar conversations are more common in the Bible, for example between Moses and the LORD (Exo 3:11-22 ; Exo 4:1-12) and between Ananias and the Lord Jesus (Acts 9:10-19).

If we know that God is calling us to do something for Him, we may talk to Him about it. We may lodge any objections we may have. God listens to us and takes our objections seriously. He answers. There is one condition: God enters into dialogue with us as long as He sees in us the willingness to do what He asks of us. If our objections stem from unbelief and unwillingness, God will not continue with us (Exo 4:13-17).

There is still a beautiful character trait to be seen in Gideon. God has said: “The LORD is with you, O valiant warrior.” What does Gideon say? “If the LORD is with us.” He identifies himself with the whole people. Although Gideon is personally faithful, he does not claim God for himself alone. God is the God of the whole people. The welfare of the whole people is close to his heart and not just his own welfare.

Then come the questions. Gideon has heard of all that God has done for the benefit of His people when He led them out of Egypt. Gideon believes it. He does not doubt the history of the people and what God has done with and for them. But where is God now? Is He not the same anymore? Yes, He is, but the people are not. The LORD has abandoned them, at least Gideon experiences it like that.

In Romans 11 this question also arises: “God has not rejected His people, has He?” (Rom 11:1a). In the next verse the answer comes: “God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew” (Rom 11:2a). God had to give them up to their enemies for a time because of the unfaithfulness of the people, but with the goal of bringing them back to Himself. In this way God will continue to take care of His people through the great Deliverer, the Messiah of the people, the Lord Jesus.

Here too, with Midian, God shows He has not rejected His people. He prepares a deliverer for his task and that is Gideon. When we hear him speak in this verse, we see two things which always go together in someone who is called by God to a task in the midst of His people. These two things are that he identifies himself with God’s people and that he believes the Word of God as it has been handed down to him by the fathers.

The Command

Gideon told God how hopeless the situation is. Now he gets the command to change that. Often it is the things we bring to God as a need that He tells us to do something about. We are then for God the most suitable instruments. If someone sees there is a need for children’s work, he or she will pray for it, possibly without thinking that it would be something for him- or herself. Yet the sense of need already indicates something of the commitment to this work for the Lord.

We can apply this to many other things. However, it only applies to people who, like Gideon, live in fellowship with God. It is about people who give the Lord all the space in their lives. In the lives of such people, Bible reading and prayer take a central place. That’s what their lives are all about, that’s what they draw their strength from.

God does not give Gideon any new power for His command, but says: “Go in this your strength.” What strength is this? It is the strength with which he has kept his food out of the hands of the enemies to enjoy it for himself. This also gives him enough strength to deliver Israel.

What the LORD then says to him must take away all doubt about his commission. Gideon may go in the Name of his Sender. He hears Him say: “Have I not sent you?” This is all that is needed, but also necessary to do a service work. Without Him telling us this, we cannot go. If we go anyway, we will make chunks.

Another important lesson in connection with the call to service work is that God calls someone who is busy. Gideon is at work when he is called. The same can be seen in the calling of the disciples by the Lord Jesus (Mt 4:18-22). God does not seek people who have nothing to do, but people who are diligent in doing ordinary, daily things.

A New Objection

Gideon puts forward a new argument, which leads him to believe that he cannot meet God’s command: he does not feel able to do so. Now it is always good not to think too high of yourself. To this end, each of us is exhorted in Romans 12, where Paul says “to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think” (Rom 12:3). But this should never be an excuse to withdraw from what God asks of us.

Gideon points out his humble background and the place he occupies in the family to which he belongs. Manasseh is the tribe that is the only one which is divided. One half lives in the land and the other half lives outside of it. He knows what it means to be in a situation of division. Often you have already seen so much quarrel and strife with the additional misery that you no longer like fighting any more, even if it is the good fight.

His place in the family – he is the youngest – seems to indicate that he has never really been involved into family life. This also happened to David (1Sam 16:4-11). David is simply forgotten when Samuel has called the whole family together. This can give a feeling that you are worthless, unimportant, that you are of no use. Gideon may have felt like this.

Maybe that’s how we feel. Yet we can be sure that God can start something with us just then. Our weakness and not being counted with others makes us suitable as a tool for God. What God wants to do through us must be ascribed solely to Him and not to us. Is it not great that God wants to use us in our smallness and weakness?

Listen to what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12. When he has prayed to be delivered from something that makes him weak and despicable, the Lord says to him: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness” (2Cor 12:9a). Paul’s answer is: “Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2Cor 12:9b-10). Well, this is what we have to come to. Not feeling strong in our own ability, but feeling weak; then God can do His work with us.

Gideon looks upon himself and then there is no strength. But the small ‘I’ is just as great an obstacle to being used by God as the big ‘I’. If we acknowledge this, we may say what Paul says: “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13).

I Will Be With You

The way the LORD deals with Gideon’s last argument is encouraging. In Jdg 6:14 he is supported in his commission by the consciousness that the LORD is his Sender. This gives value to the task he has to perform. In this verse it goes one step further. The LORD says He Himself goes with him.

This promise of the Lord also applies now. After His resurrection He commands His disciples: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you” (Mt 28:19-20). To this He adds, and with this concludes the Gospel according to Matthew, so that these words, as it were, continue to resound in the disciples’ ears: “And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20b).

In the past centuries, many people have been encouraged by these words and have fulfilled the task assigned to them. Let us also be encouraged by these words for the tasks we have been given. Even if we have an army of helpers around us, but we do not have the Lord, we will still lose. Even if we are all alone, but we have the Lord at our side, we will be able to defeat the greatest enemy army “as one man”. The history of Gideon will teach us that this is truly the ‘logic’ of faith.

The Question for a Sign

Gideon is now convinced of his mission and is encouraged by the LORD’s promises. Nevertheless, he has one more request. He wants absolute certainty that he is dealing with the LORD Himself. He considers this assurance essential for the accomplishment of his mission. That’s why he asks for a sign.

A good example, worth imitating, we have in the way in which Gideon asks his question. He does not do this from an attitude that speaks of the right he would have to a sign. His attitude shows that he cannot claim it: “If now I have found favor in Your sight.”

The request for a sign does not fit the New Testament believer. He does not need a sign, because he has the whole Word of God and also the Holy Spirit Who dwells in him. Those who want certainty about a certain matter can read the Word of God and ask God in prayer if He wants to make things clear through His Word and Spirit. God can also use others for this, for example in meetings where the Word is preached, or through personal conversations with believers who live with the Lord.

Gideon does not possess the full revelation of God, nor does he possess the Holy Spirit indwelling in him. That is why his request for a sign is not wrong. It can be noted that also in the Old Testament, God is most honored by unconditional faith. Nor is it necessary at that time to ask for a sign to know God’s will or to confirm what He has said.

Clear evidence of this can be found in Hebrews 11. Of the believers listed there it is always accompanied by the phrase that they have done something “by faith” without having received any visible signs. Gideon is also mentioned there. He was not guided by signs in the first place, but by faith.

A verse that has been of great significance throughout the ages in the search for the will of God is: “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you” (Psa 32:8). As we discuss Jdg 6:36-40, we hear a little more about asking for a sign to know the will of God.

I Will Remain

It is striking: God meets Gideon’s request. It almost seems like a command to Him, but He does what Gideon has asked. How merciful He is in His dealings with Gideon and with us when He sees the sincere desire to honor Him. He then ignores a lot of ignorance. Gideon wants to offer something to the LORD. Through conversation with Him, Gideon’s desire to bring an offering has arisen. This is what God sees in his heart and He wants to wait for it.

When we have spoken to the Lord Jesus, do we also have the desire to offer Him an offering? We can express ourselves in thanksgiving and expressing our admiration for Him and what He has done.

The Offering

While Gideon prepares his offering, the LORD waits patiently. The offering he brings is not small when we consider that it is a time of great scarcity (Jdg 6:4).

A young goat, the animal that Gideon prepares as an offering, is usually used to bring a sin offering (Lev 4:23 ; Lev 16:5). Through this offering Gideon expresses something from which we can learn a lot. The sin offering is a picture of the Lord Jesus in His work on the cross, where He underwent the judgment on sin. Gideon shows that he is aware that for the sin of the people and for him personally there is only salvation through sacrifice. We know that it speaks of what the Lord Jesus did on the cross.

The other offering he brings, the “unleavened breads from an ephah of flour”, is reminiscent of the grain offering described in different ways in Leviticus 2. This is a non-bloody offering and speaks of the life of the Lord Jesus.

It is a joy for God when we tell Him Who the Lord Jesus was in His life on earth and in His work on the cross. We do not come with literal sacrifices, but with spiritual sacrifices. The Lord Jesus says: “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people, the Father seeks to be His worshipers” (Jn 4:23). If we have seen anything of the beauty and glory of the Son of God, God the Father will rejoice when we say it to Him.

The Lord Jesus adds something else: “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (Jn 4:24). God does not leave it to our politeness how we worship Him. He longs for us to come, but also indicates how we should come. It must be “in spirit”, that is, guided by the Holy Spirit, in a spiritual way, and not according to human programming. It must also be in “truth”, that is, according to the revelation He gave of Himself in the Bible and not as we believe we can think of God.

With Gideon this is also the case. In Jdg 6:20, God indicates what to do with the offering. He must bring it on the rock, also a picture of Christ (1Cor 10:4b; Mt 16:18). The verse concludes beautifully with “and he did so”. It indicates the beautiful mind of Gideon. It is to be hoped that this is also our mind.

God Accepts the Offering

The way in which the LORD deals with the offering is impressive. He touches it with the staff He has in His hand. That staff is a ruler’s staff, a scepter. Such a staff is supported by distinguished individuals who have authority over others. It is a sign of royal dignity (Est 4:11 ; Est 5:2). The LORD in His exaltedness and majesty accepts the offering that Gideon brings in weakness.

Fire comes out of the rock, a picture of the investigative and testing holiness of God, and consumes the offering. After having accepted the offering of Gideon in this way the LORD disappears from sight.

Through this offering, Gideon takes his true place before God. It is only on the basis of Christ’s sacrifice that a person is pleasing to God and God can accept him. This lays the foundation for Gideon’s further service.

Woe to Me

Then it sounds “alas” in the sense of “woe to me”. Gideon has become aware that he has stood face-to-face with God. This consciousness breaks him. Every thought of oneself and one’s own powerlessness disappears. Only the LORD remains in His greatness and glory, and this is the right starting point for the coming battle. It makes one small and at the same time it gives confidence.

In Isaiah we see the same reaction when he is called by God. He beholds the LORD sitting on a high and exalted throne, hearing the seraphs crying out to one another, “ “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, … Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips” (Isa 6:1-5). Isaiah comes to this personal exclamation after in Isaiah 5 he has spoken “woe to them” up to six times over different groups of people and the different sins they commit (Isa 5:8-23).

Before he can be sent to them, he must first acknowledge that he himself is no better. God brings him to this end by placing him face to face with Himself and His glory. This makes him cry out a ‘woe’ for the seventh time, but now over himself. Then the LORD gives Isaiah the proof of forgiveness and he is ready to go where He wants to send him and to do what He asks of him: “Here am I. Send me!” (Isa 6:6-8).

This is the best and most thorough way to prepare the servant for his task. On the one hand it gives a deep impression of who man is and shows his own unworthiness and incompetence. On the other hand, this impression is made in the presence of God the Almighty, and this is an enormous encouragement to do what He asks of us. He sends and is with everyone who stands on the basis of the sacrifice of His Son (Jdg 6:14 ; 16 ; 21).