Judges 6

Judges 6:1

E. Gideon (6:18:32)

1. Gideon’s Call to Service (Chap. 6)6:1-6 In the next cycle, the Israelites were oppressed by the Midianites. These were marauding Bedouin bands who conducted raids on Israel’s crops, stripping the land like locusts and stealing the livestock. Israel’s backsliding resulted in poverty, slavery, and fear. Those whom Israel had once conquered were now her masters. When we turn from the Lord as Christians, old habits enslave and impoverish us as well. 6:7-16 When Israel cried out to the Lord for help, a prophet was first sent to remind them of their idolatry. Then the Angel of the Lord, whom we believe to be the preincarnate Christ (see essay below), appeared to a man of Manasseh named Gideon as he was secretly threshing wheat in a winepress . . . to hide it from the Midianites. The Angel told this “mighty man of valor” that God would use him to deliver Israel from Midian. Despite Gideon’s protests, the Angel repeated his call to this important task.

THE ANGEL OF THE LORDThe Angel of the Lord (Jehovah) is the Lord Jesus Christ in a preincarnate appearance. A study of the passages in which He is mentioned makes it clear that He is God, and that He is the Second Person of the Trinity. First, the Scriptures show that He is God. When He appeared to Hagar, she recognized that she was in the presence of God; she referred to Him as “the-God-Who-Sees” (Gen_16:13). Speaking to Abraham on Mount Moriah, the Angel identified Himself as “the LORD” (Heb. YHWH, or Jehovah; Gen_22:16). Jacob heard the Angel introduce Himself as the God of Bethel (Gen_31:11-13). When blessing Joseph, Israel used the names “God” and “the Angel” interchangeably (Gen_48:15-16).

At the burning bush, it was theAngel of the LORD" who appeared (Exo_3:2), but Moses “hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God” (Exo_3:6). The Lord who went before Israel in a pillar of cloud (Exo_13:21) was none other than “the Angel of God” (Exo_14:19). Gideon feared that he would die because, in seeing the Angel of the LORD, he had seen God (Jdg_6:22-23). The Angel of the LORD told Manoah that His name was Wonderful (Jdg_13:18), one of the names of God (Isa_9:6). When Jacob struggled with the Angel, he struggled with God (Hos_12:3-4). These are convincing proofs that when the Angel of the LORD is referred to in the OT, the reference is to deity. John F. Walvoord (as quoted by Chafer) gives four arguments to support this: “(a) The Second Person is the Visible God of the New Testament. (b) The Angel of Jehovah of the Old Testament No Longer Appears after the Incarnation of Christ. (c) Both the Angel of Jehovah and Christ Are Sent by the Father. (d) The Angel of Jehovah Could Not Be Either the Father Or the Holy Spirit.” As for the fourth evidence, Walvoord goes on to explain that the Father and the Spirit are invisible to man and both have the attribute of immateriality. He concludes, “There is not a single valid reason to deny that the Angel of Jehovah is the Second Person, every known fact pointing to His identification as the Christ of the New Testament.” As the Angel of Jehovah, Christ is distinguished from other angels in that He is uncreated. The words translated Angel in both Testaments mean “messenger”; He is the Messenger of Jehovah. Thus, as Chafer says, He is an “angel” only by office.

6:17-24 Sensing that he was talking to the Lord, Gideon asked for a sign. Then he prepared an offering of a young goat and of unleavened bread. When the Angel . . . touched the offering with his staff and it was consumed by fire, Gideon knew he was in the Lord’s presence and feared he would die. But the LORD assured him with the words “Peace be with you,” and Gideon thereupon built an altar and named the place Jehovah-Shalom (The-Lord-Is-Peace). 6:25-32 That night, in obedience to the Lord, Gideon destroyed an altar which his father had erected to Baal and the wooden image . . . beside it, and instead erected another altar to Jehovah. In the morning . . . the men of the city were ready to kill him for this bold act. But his father, Joash, intervened, saying that if Baal were truly a god, he should be able to defend himself. Joash decreed that anyone who espoused Baal’s cause would be executed. Gideon was nicknamed Jerubbaal, meaning “Let Baal plead (for himself).” Some people might fault Gideon for tearing down the altar at night because of fear. But we must not lose sight of the fact that he did obey the LORD. His fear did not stop him from being obedient. All of us have fear, and fear in and of itself is not necessarily wrong. But when it keeps us from obeying the Lord, it has become an obstacle to faith and is sin. 6:33-35 At this time the Midianites, the Amalekites and the people of the East gathered together to make war on Israel as they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the valley of Jezreel. The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon and he assembled an army from the tribes of Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali. Abiezer (v. 34) was an ancestor of Gideon. His name is used here (Hebrew text) as a family name (the Abiezrites, NKJV) for his living descendants. See also Jdg_8:2. 6:36-40 Before Gideon went into battle, he desired a pledge of victory from God. The first pledge came when dew fell on his fleece of wool but not on the ground around it. The second came the following night, when the dew fell on . . . the ground but not on the fleece. Gideon’s fleece is often misunderstood by Christians. There are two things about this incident that we should keep in mind: Gideon was not looking to the fleece for guidance but for confirmation. God had already told him what he was to do. Gideon was just seeking assurance of success. People who talk about putting out a fleece to find the will of the Lord in a certain matter are misapplying the passage. Secondly, Gideon had asked for a supernatural sign, not a natural one.

Naturally speaking, what Gideon asked for would never have happened without the direct intervention of God. Today people use things as a “fleece” that could happen naturally, without divine intervention. This, too, is a wrong way to use the story. What we see here is God condescending to a man of weak faith to assure him of victory. God can, and does, give such assurances today in answer to prayer.