Judges 6:11–14 (ESV) — 11 Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the
terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son
Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord
is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 13 And Gideon said to
him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened
to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us,
saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken
us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14 And the Lord
turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the
hand of Midian; do not I send you?”
NOTE: The story of
Gideon contains many ironies, but most of them revolve around strength and
trust. The angel of the Lord, commonly understood to be the second person of
the trinity, Jesus, appears sitting under a tree, while Gideon, hiding in a
winepress, is beating out wheat, and God addresses Gideon as "O might man
of valor," which hardly seems true at that moment. From Gideon's
perspective, a material perspective, things do not look good, and the stories
of God's work in the past only taunt him. On the other hand, Gideon probably
gets one thing right, the Lord has given Israel into the hand of the Midians,
though God never forsakes his chosen or turns from his covenant. Gideon's
problem is that his focus is on what he can see and touch, and not on what God
promises. God commands Gideon to an action, but Gideon commands God to prove
that it is really him and that he really will do the impossible. I suppose it
might make sense. I am not sure what the angel of the Lord looked like. Everyone
seems able to recognize him, and yet he appears as a man. So maybe Gideon has
an argument, but somehow that does not make sense. Abraham did not ask for
proof nor did others. So, I think there was enough evidence for Gideon to know
who the person was. Consequently, Gideon is afraid. He does not trust God. If
he moves out, how does he know God will not pull the rug out and abandon him?
After all, it sure seems as if God has pulled the rug out on Israel in the
land. Of course, there are multiple problems with that hypothesis. One, God has
told them why he has given them into the hands of their enemies--they chose
that course when they decided to mix with the culture. And secondly, they have
not clung to God as Joshua warned them. Consequently, they don't know really
know God, they just know stories about God. We can fall into the latter trap
quite easily--knowing stories, but not knowing God. To maintain that
relationship, we must be in the word of God regularly. How are we doing?
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