Yahweh’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. Yahweh’s angel appeared to him, and said to him, “Yahweh is with you, you mighty man of valor!”
Gideon said to him, “Oh, my lord, if Yahweh is with us, why then has all this happened to us? Where are all his wondrous works which our fathers told us of, saying, ‘Didn’t Yahweh bring us up from Egypt?’ But now Yahweh has cast us off, and delivered us into the hand of Midian.”
Yahweh looked at him, and said, “Go in this your might, and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Haven’t I sent you?”
He 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.”
Yahweh said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.”
He 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. Please don’t go away until I come to you, and bring out my present, and lay it before you.” He said, “I will wait until you come back.”
Gideon 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.
The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” He did so.
Then Yahweh’s angel stretched out the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and fire went up out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. Then Yahweh’s angel departed out of his sight.
Gideon saw that he was Yahweh’s angel; and Gideon said, “Alas, Lord Yahweh! Because I have seen Yahweh’s angel face to face!”
Yahweh said to him, “Peace be to you! Don’t be afraid. You shall not die.”
Then Gideon built an altar there to Yahweh, and called it “Yahweh is Peace.” To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
That same night, Yahweh said to him, “Take your father’s bull, even the second bull seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is by it. Then build an altar to Yahweh your God on the top of this stronghold, in an orderly way, and take the second bull, and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down.”
Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as Yahweh had spoken to him. Because he feared his father’s household and the men of the city, he could not do it by day, but he did it by night.
When the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah was cut down that was by it, and the second bull was offered on the altar that was built. They said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” When they inquired and asked, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.”
Then the men of the city said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, because he has broken down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the Asherah that was by it.” Joash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? He who will contend for him, let him be put to death by morning! If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because someone has broken down his altar!” Therefore on that day he named him Jerub-Baal, saying, “Let Baal contend against him, because he has broken down his altar.”
Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east assembled themselves together; and they passed over, and encamped in the valley of Jezreel. But Yahweh’s Spirit came on Gideon, and he blew a trumpet; and Abiezer was gathered together to follow him. He sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they also were gathered together to follow him. He sent messengers to Asher, and to Zebulun, and to Naphtali; and they came up to meet them.
Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have spoken, behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I’ll know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have spoken.”
It was so; for he rose up early on the next day, and pressed the fleece together, and wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water.
Gideon said to God, “Don’t let your anger be kindled against me, and I will speak but this once. Please let me make a trial just this once with the fleece. Let it now be dry only on the fleece, and on all the ground let there be dew.”
God did so that night; for it was dry on the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv11, 13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 21, 24, 25, 26, 28, 31, 34, 36, 40 Or, to prepare his flight.
Or, to prepare his flight.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv11–36 Jdg 6:11 And there came an angel of the…
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.
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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.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39 In Ophrah, to wit, in Manasseh; for there was…
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.
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By the wine-press; in the place where the wine-press stood, not in the common floor.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv11, 25, 33 It is not said what effect the prophet's sermon…
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, Jdg 6:14. 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 (Jdg 6:25), 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, Jos 17:2. Hitherto the judges were raised up out of that tribe which suffered most by the oppression, and probably it was so here.
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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 (Jdg 6:14, Jdg 6:16), 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 28:27), 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 (Jdg 6:27), 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 41:15. (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, Jdg 6:12. 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 (Jdg 6:13): 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 (Jdg 6:8), 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, Jdg 6:14. 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, Psa 11:7. 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 (Luk 22:61), 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?" Exo 3:14.
(4.) Gideon made a very modest objection against this commission (Jdg 6:15): 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, Jdg 6:17. 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, Jdg 6:18. 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 18:8. 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, Jdg 6:19. 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 (Jdg 6:15) 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, Jdg 6:18. 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 (Jdg 6:20), 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, Jdg 6:21. 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 (Jdg 6:22): 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, Luk 24:31), 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 32:30. 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, Jdg 6:23. It might have been fatal to him, but he assures him it should not. The Lord had departed out of his sight, Jdg 6:21. 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 (Jdg 6:24) - The Lord peace. This is, (1.) The title of the Lord that spoke to him. Compare Gen 16:13. The same that is the Lord our righteousness is our peace (Eph 2:14), 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.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv11–39 And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him,....…
And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him,.... He stayed some time under the oak, and Gideon being busy in threshing, took no notice of him wherefore he came and stood before him, in his sight:
and said unto him, the Lord is with thee; the gracious presence of God was with Gideon while he was threshing, who very probably was sending up ejaculations to heaven, on account of the distressed case of Israel, and was deep in meditation about the affairs of the people of God, and contriving how to deliver them; or the angel might mean himself, who was no other than Jehovah, the eternal Word of God, who was present with him, and spake unto him; and so the Targum,"my Word is thy help:"
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thou mighty man of valour; who very probably was a stout man in body, and of a courageous mind naturally, and might at this instant have an increase both of bodily strength and greatness of soul; or, however, this was said to animate and encourage him to do what he was about to be sent to do.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40 In Ophrah - In Manasseh: there was another Ophrah…
In Ophrah - In Manasseh: there was another Ophrah in Benjamin, Josh. xviii, 23. The Abi-ezrite - Of the posterity of Abiezer. Threshed - Not with oxen, as the manner was, Deut. xxv, 4, but with a staff to prevent discovery. Wine-press - In the place where the wine-press stood, not in the common floor.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36 Verse 11. There came an angel of the Lord]…
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.
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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.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 25, 26, 27, 28, 31, 32, 33, 35, 39, 40 Jdg 6:11. And there came an angel of the…
Jdg 6:11. And there came an angel of the Lord — It is probable that many of the Israelites laid the prophet’s 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.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 An oak - “The oak,” indicating it as a…
An oak - “The oak,” indicating it as a well-known tree, still standing in the writer’s 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.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 38, 40 Angel; Michael. (Menochius) --- Some think it was the…
Angel; Michael. (Menochius) --- Some think it was the prophet who had addressed the people, or Phinees, according to the Rabbins. See St. Augustine, q. 31. Others believe it was the Son of God, who takes the name of Jehovah. (Broughton and other Protestants) --- But the most natural opinion is, that a real angel was sent, in the name of God, like that which appeared to Moses, and assumed the incommunicable name, as the ambassador of God. Gedeon took him for a man, and presented him a noble feast, without designing to offer sacrifice to him. Maimonides and Grotius seem to suppose that all this passed in a dream; but the sequal refutes this opinion. --- Ephra, a city of the half tribe of Manasses, on the west side of the Jordan, of which Joas was the richest citizen. He was of the family of Ezri, and a descendant of Abiezer, 1 Paralipomenon viii. 18. Hebrew might be rendered, "Joas, the Abiezerite," chap. viii. 32., and xiii. 2. --- Madian. Not having the convenience of cleansing the wheat in the open field, Gedeon was doing it privately, with a design to carry it off, at the approach of the enemy, and to support himself and family in some cavern. Hebrew takes no notice of cleaning: "Gedeon threshed wheat, by the wine press, to hide it, or to flee," &c. He probably used a flail, or some smaller sticks, such as were employed to beat out olives, Isaias xxviii. 27., and Ruth ii. 17. (Calmet) --- The wheat harvest was about Pentecost, that of barley was at Easter. It seems the Madianites had been later than usual this year, in making their incursions, ver. 33. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On vv11, 25, 33 The Angel of Jehovah appears to Gideon, and commissions…
The Angel of Jehovah appears to Gideon, and commissions him to deliver Israel
Jdg_6:11-24
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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 father’s 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” (חֹבֵט) sc. with a stick, ῤαβδἰζελν. The more usual word for threshing is דּוּשׁ. 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.—אֲדֹנָי: thus pointed, this word always refers to God, and the possessive suffix (for such –ָי 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’ (אַדֹנִי, Jdg_6:13), but, ‘Pray, Lord’ (אֲדֹכָי, 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.—בִּי־עַל־בֵּו: “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. Gideon’s thought is: “Woe is me! for therefore—scil. to give me cause for my apprehension of danger—have 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 (אַנְשֵׁי הָעִיר, “the men of the city,” Jdg_6:27), who were probably of the original inhabitants whom Manasseh had suffered to remain.
Under the oak, תַּחַת הָאֵלָה. Septuagint; τερέμινθος (interchangeable with τερέβινθος), the terebinth. The Targums have בּוּטְמָא, oak. אֵלָה and אַלּוֹן 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. Böttiger’s 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 Böttiger’s 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 גַּת is the press-house or place, יֶקֶב 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 song—there was no פְּרָזוֹן, no open country, in the land.
Jdg_6:12-13. And the Angel of Jehovah appeared unto him. Hitherto מַלְאַךְ יְהוָֹה 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 מַלְאַךְ now spoken of, is not a human messenger. That hint is now rendered plain and unmistakable by the phrase ויֵּרָא אֵלָי, 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 (יְהוָֹה) 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 Israel’s dishonor. The national tradition of Israel’s ancient glory was not yet extinct. The deliverance from Egypt was the beginning of Israel’s nationality and freedom. Doubtless, says the strong man, then, as our fathers tell us, God was with Israel, and freed us from Egypt; but now—we 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 Gideon’s 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 Gideon’s 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 danger—a perfect unit with itself in devotion to God, and therefore hostile to the idol gods, the representatives of the enemies—this 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 בִּי אֲדֹנִי, “Pray, my lord.” Now, when this stranger says, “I send thee—I 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, “וַיִּפֶך, 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 commanded—but, 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. Böckh, Metrologische Untersuchungen, p. 261) of flour in their preparation. That which appears singular, is the statement that he put the flesh in the basket (סַל). 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 לֶחֶם אַבִּירִים meant bread such as angels feed on, is erroneous (unhappily, it has been again put forth by Böhmer, in Herzog’s 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, מַלִאַךְ הָאֱלֹהִים once takes the place מַלְאַךְ יִהוָֹה; 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 אֶלֹהִים), the narrator introduces the term הָאֱלֹהִים. 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 Æsculapius 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 Abraham’s 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 Elijah’s 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. Nägelsbach, 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. Jacob’s 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 heard—the voice of the now unseen God—saying: “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 יהוָֹה שַׁלוֹם, 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 Israel’s 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 Gideon’s, 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 God’s compassion renewed itself. Manifold as nature is the help of God. It is not confined to one method; but its wonders become greater as Israel’s 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 father’s 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. Gideon’s 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 Gideon’s 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 God’s absence by affliction, his presence by deliverances, and the unlikelihood of success by his own inability—all 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” (חֹבֵט) sc. with a stick, ῤαβδἰζελν. The more usual word for threshing is דּוּשׁ. 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.—אֲדֹנָי: thus pointed, this word always refers to God, and the possessive suffix (for such –ָי 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’ (אַדֹנִי, Jdg_6:13), but, ‘Pray, Lord’ (אֲדֹכָי, 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.—בִּי־עַל־בֵּו: “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. Gideon’s thought is: “Woe is me! for therefore—scil. to give me cause for my apprehension of danger—have 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.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv11, 13, 14, 18, 19, 24, 25, 33, 34 AN ANGEL SENDS GIDEON TO DELIVER THEM. (Jdg 6:11-16)
AN ANGEL SENDS GIDEON TO DELIVER THEM. (Jdg 6:11-16)
there came an angel of the Lord--He appeared in the character and equipments of a traveller (Jdg 6:21), who sat down in the shade to enjoy a little refreshment and repose. Entering into conversation on the engrossing topic of the times, the grievous oppression of the Midianites, he began urging Gideon to exert his well-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 applied to God.
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an oak--Hebrew, "the oak"--as famous in after-times.
Ophrah--a city in the tribe of Manasseh, about sixteen miles north of Jericho, in the district belonging to the family of Abiezer (Jos 17:2).
his son Gideon threshed wheat by the wine-press--This incident tells emphatically the tale of public distress. The small quantity of grain he was threshing, indicated by his using a flail instead of the customary treading of cattle--the unusual place, near a wine-press, under a tree, and on the bare ground, not a wooden floor, for the prevention of noise--all these circumstances reveal the extreme dread in which the people were living.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39 CALL OF GIDEON, Jdg_6:11-24.
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.
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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.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39 11–24. The call of Gideon. Sequel of 2–6a
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.
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the oak] Marg. terebinth, Hebr. ’çlâh; it is better to keep the rendering oak for the Hebr. ’allâh, ’allôn. 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. yeḳeb 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.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40 (11) There came an angel of the Lord.—It is…
(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 (haêlah):—some well-known tree beside the altar in Ophrath. (Comp. Gen_35:4.)
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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., rhabdizôn). 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-floors—open circular places in the fields where the corn was trodden out by oxen—would naturally be the first places where an invading enemy would come to forage, as in 1Sa_23:1.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 An angel, etc. Rather, the angel of the Lord,…
An angel, etc. Rather, the angel of the Lord, otherwise called "the angel of his presence". (Isa_63:9) In vers. 14, 16, 23, for the angel of the Lord we have simply the Lord. (see Jud_1:2:1, 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 ver. 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. (Jud_1:4:5, 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.
Vers. 11-24. The preparation.
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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, (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 God a 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 followed the 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 came was 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. Vers. 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 man a 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.
HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY Vers. 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 Gods 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 (ver. 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 servantstrue 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 found at 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.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv11, 25, 33, 34, 36 There came an Angel of the Lord . .…
Jdg_6:11-24
There came an Angel of the Lord . . . Gideon threshed wheat.
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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.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On vv15, 33 "The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of…
GIDEON, ICONOCLAST AND REFORMER
Jdg_6:15-32
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"The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour":-so has the prophetic salutation come to the young man at the threshing floor of Ophrah. It is a personal greeting and call "with thee"-just what a man needs in the circumstances of Gideon. There is a nation to be saved, and a human leader must act for Jehovah. Is Gideon fit for so great a task? A wise humility, a natural fear have held him under the yoke of daily toil until this hour. Now the needed signs are given; his heart leaps up in the pulses of a longing which God approves and blesses. The criticism of kinsfolk, the suspicious carping of neighbours, the easily affronted pride of greater families no longer crush patriotic desire and overbear yearning faith. The Lord is with thee, Gideon, youngest son of Joash, the toiler in obscure fields. Go in this thy might; be strong in Jehovah.
But the assurance must widen if it is to satisfy. With me-that is a great thing for Gideon; that gives him free air to breathe and strength to use the sword. But can it be true? Can God be with one only in the land? He seems to have forsaken Israel and sold His people to the oppressor. Unless He returns to all in forgiveness and grace nothing can be done; a renewal of the nation is the first thing, and this Gideon desires. Comfort for himself, freedom from Midianite vexation for himself and his fathers house would be no satisfaction if, all around, he saw Israel still crushed under heathen hordes. To have a hand in delivering his people from danger and sorrow is Gideons craving. The assurance given to himself personally is welcome because in it there is a sound as of the beginning of Israels redemption. Yet "if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us?" God cannot be with the tribes, for they are harassed and spoiled by enemies, they lie prone before the altars of Baal.
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. It is 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 marrow 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 today, 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 anyone 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.
And the church of Christ must be filled with His Spirit, animated by His law of life, or be unworthy the name. It exists to unite men in the quest and realisation of highest thought and purest activity. The church truly exists for all men, not simply for those who appear to compose it. Salvation and peace are with the church as with the individual believer, but only as her heart is generous, her spirit simple and unselfish. Doubtful and distressed as Gideon was the church of Christ should never be, for to her has been whispered the secret that the Abiezrite had not read, how the Lord is in the oppression and pain of the people, in the sorrow and the cloud. Nor is a church to suppose that salvation can be hers while she thinks of any outside with the least touch of Pharisaism, denying their share in Christ. Better no visible church than one claiming exclusive possession of truth and grace; better no church at all than one using the name of Christ for privilege and excommunication, restricting the fellowship of life to its own enclosure.
But with utmost generosity and humaneness goes the clear perception that Gods service is the sternest of campaigns, beginning with resolute protest and decisive deed, and Gideon must rouse himself to strike for Israels liberty first against the idol worship of his own village. There stands the altar of Baal, the symbol of Israels infidelity; there beside it the abominable Asherah, the sign of Israels degradation. Already he has thought of demolishing these, but has never summoned courage, never seen that the result would justify him. For such a deed there is a time, and before the time comes the bravest man can only reap discomfiture. Now, with the warrant in his soul, the duty on his conscience, Gideon can make assault on a hateful superstition.
The idolatrous altar and false worship of ones own clan, of ones own family-these need courage to overturn and, more than courage, a ripeness of time and a Divine call. A man must be sure of himself and his motives, for one thing, before he takes upon him to be the corrector of errors that have seemed truth to his fathers and are maintained by his friends. Suppose people are actually worshipping a false god, a world power which has long held rule among them. If one would act the part of iconoclast the question is, By what right? Is he himself clear of illusion and idolatry? Has he a better system to put in place of the old? He may be acting in mere bravado and self-display, flourishing opinions which have less sincerity than those which he assails. There were men in Israel who had no commission and could have claimed no right to throw down Baals altar, and taking upon them such a deed would have had short shrift at the hands of the people of Ophrah. And so there are plenty among us who if they set up to be judges of their fellow men and of beliefs which they call false, even when these are false, deserve simply to be put down with a strong hand. There are voices, professing to be those of zealous reformers, whose every word and tone are insults. The men need to go and learn the first lessons of truth, modesty, and earnestness. And this principle applies all round-to many who assail modern errors as well as to many who assail established beliefs. On the one hand, are men anxious to uphold the true faith? It is well. But anxiety and the best of motives do not qualify them to attack science, to denounce all rationalism as godless. We want defenders of the faith who have a Divine calling to the task in the way of long study and a heavenly fairness of mind, so that they shall not offend and hurt religion more by their ignorant vehemence than they help it by their zeal. On the other hand, by what authority do they speak who sneer at the ignorance of faith and would fain demolish the altars of the world? It is no slight equipment that is needed. Fluent sarcasm, confident worldliness, even a large acquaintance with the dogmas of science will not suffice. A man needs to prove himself a wise and humane thinker, he needs to know by experience and deep sympathy those perpetual wants of our race which Christ knew and met to the uttermost. Some facile admiration of Jesus of Nazareth does not give the right to free criticism of His life and words, or of the faith based upon them. And if the plea is a rare respect for truth, an unusual fidelity to fact, humanity will still ask of its would be liberator on what fields he has won his rank or what yoke he has borne. Successful men especially will find it difficult to convince the world that they have a right to strike at the throne of Him who stood alone before the Roman Pilate and died on the Cross.
Gideon was not unfit to render high service. He was a young man tried in humble duty and disciplined in common tasks, shrewd but not arrogant, a person of clear mind and a patriot. The people of the farm and a good many in Ophrah had learned to trust him and were prepared to follow when he struck out a new path. He had Gods call and also his own past to help him. Hence when Gideon began his undertaking, although to attempt it in broad day would have been rash and he must act under cover of darkness, he soon found ten men to give their aid. No doubt he could in a manner command them, for they were his servants. Still a business of the kind he proposed was likely to rouse their superstitious fears, and he had to conquer these. It was also sure to involve the men in some risk, and he must have been able to give them confidence in the issue. This he did, however, and they went forth. Very quietly the altar of Baal was demolished and the great wooden mast, hateful symbol of Astarte, was cut down and split in pieces. Such was the first act in the revolution.
We observe, however, that Gideon does not leave Ophrah without an altar and a sacrifice. Destroy one system without laying the foundation of another that shall more than equal it in essential truth and practical power, and what sort of deliverance have you effected? Men will rightly execrate you. It is no reformation that leaves the heart colder, the life barer and darker than before; and those who move in the night against superstition must be able to speak in the day of a Living God who will vindicate His servants. It has been said over and over again and must yet be repeated, to overturn merely is no service. They that break down need some vision at least of a building up, and it is the new edifice that is the chief thing. The world of thought today is infested with critics and destroyers and may well be tired of them. It is too much in need of constructors to have any thanks to spare for new Voltaires and Humes. Let us admit that demolition is the necessity of some hours. We look back on the ruins of Bastilles and temples that served the uses of tyranny, and even in the domain of faith there have been fortresses to throw down and ramparts that made evil separations among men. But destruction is not progress; and if the end of modern thought is to be agnosticism, the denial of all faith and all ideals, then we are simply on the way to something not a whit better than primeval ignorance.
The morning sun showed the gap upon the hill where the symbols had stood of Baal and Astarte, and soon like an angry swarm of bees the people were buzzing round the scattered stones of the old altar and the rough new pile with its smoking sacrifice. Where was he who ventured to rebuke the city? Very indignant, very pious are these false Israelites. They turn on Joash with the fierce demand, "Bring out thy son that he may die." But the father too has come to a decision. We get a hint of the same nature as Gideons, slow, but firm when once roused; and if anything would rouse a man it would be this brutal passion, this sudden outbreak of cruelty nursed by heathen custom, his own conscience meanwhile testifying that Gideon was right. Tush! says Joash, will you plead for Baal? Will you save him? Is it necessary for you to defend one whom you have worshipped as Lord of heaven? Let him ply his lightnings if he has any. I am tired of this Baal who has no principles and is good only for feast days. He that pleads for Baal, let him be the man to die. Unexpected apology, serious too and unanswerable. Conscience that seemed dead is suddenly awakened and carries all before it. There is a quick conversion of the whole town because one man has acted decisively and another speaks strong words which cannot be gainsaid. To be sure Joash uses a threat-hints something of taking a very short method with those who still protest for Baal; and that helps conversion. But it is force against force, and men cannot object who have themselves talked of killing. By a rapid popular impulse Gideon is justified, and with the new name Jerubbaal he is acknowledged as a leader in Manasseh.
False religion is not always so easily exposed and upset. Truth may be so mixed with the error of a system that the moral sense is confused and faith clings to the follies and lies conjoined with the truth. And when we look at Judaism in contact with Christianity, at Romanism in contact with the Protestant spirit, we see how difficult it may be to liberate faith. The Apostle Paul, wielding the weapon of a singular and keen eloquence, cannot overcome the Pharisaism of his countrymen. At Antioch, at Iconium he does his utmost with scant success. The Protestant reformation did not so swiftly and thoroughly establish itself in every European country as in Scotland. Where there is no pressure of outward circumstances forcing new religious ideas upon men there must be all the more a spirit of independent thought if any salutary change is to be made in creed and worship. Either there must be men of Berea who search the Scriptures daily, men of Zurich and Berne with the energy of free citizens, or reformation must wait on some political emergency. And in effect conscience rarely has free play, since men are seldom manly, but more or less like sheep. Hence the value, as things go in this world, of leaders like Joash, princes like Luthers Elector, who give the necessary push to the undecided and check forward opponents by a significant warning. It is not the ideal way of reforming the world, but it has often answered well enough within limits. There are also cases in which the threats of the enemy have done good service, as when the appearance of the Spanish Armada on the English coast did more to confirm the Protestantism of the country than many years of peaceful argument. In truth, were there not occasionally something like master strokes in Providence the progress of humanity would be almost imperceptible. Men and nations are urged on although they have no great desire to advance; they are committed to a voyage and cannot return; they are caught in currents and must go where the currents bear them. Certainly in such cases there is not the ardour, and men cannot reap the reward belonging to the thinkers and brave servants of the truth. Practically, whether Protestants or Romanists, they are spiritually inert. Still it is well for them, well for the world, that a strong hand should urge them forward, since otherwise they would not move at all. Of many in all churches it must be said they are not victors in a fight of faith, they do not work out their own salvation. Yet they are guided, warned, persuaded into a certain habit of piety and understanding of truth, and their children have a new platform, somewhat higher than their fathers, on which to begin life.
At Ophrah of the Abiezrites, though we cannot say much for the nature of the faith in God which has replaced idolatry, still the way is prepared for further and decisive action. Men do not cease from worshipping Baal and become true servants of the Most Holy in a single day; that requires time. There, are better possibilities, but Gideon cannot teach the way of Jehovah, nor is he in the mood for religious inquiry. The conversion of Abiezer is quite of the same sort as in early Christian times was effected when a king went over to the new faith and ordered his subjects to be baptised. Not even Gideon knows the value of the faith to which the people have returned, in the strength of which they are to fight. They will be bold now, for even a little trust in God goes a long way in sustaining courage. They will face the enemy now to whom they have long submitted. But of the purity and righteousness into which the faith of Jehovah should lead them they have no vision.
Now with this in view many will think it strange to hear of the conversion of Abiezer. It is a great error however to despise the day of small things. God gives it and we ought to understand its use. Conversion cannot possibly mean the same in every period of the worlds history; it cannot even mean the same in any two cases. To recognise this would be to clear the ground of much that hinders the teaching and the success of the gospel. Where there has been long familiarity with the New Testament, the facts of Christianity and the high spiritual ideas it presents, conversion, properly speaking, does not take place till the message of Christ to the soul stirs it to its depths, moves alike the reason and the will, and creates fervent discipleship. But the history of Israel and of humanity moves forward continuously in successive discoveries or revelations of the highest, culminating in the Christian salvation. To view Gideon as a religious reformer of the same kind as Isaiah is quite a mistake. He had scarcely an idea in common with the great prophet of a later day. But the liberty he desired for his people and the association of liberty with the worship of Jehovah made his revolution a step in the march of Israels redemption. Those who joined him with any clear purpose and sympathy were therefore converted men in a true if very limited sense. There must be first the blade and then the ear before there can be the full corn. We reckon Gideon a hero of faith, and his hope was truly in the same God Whom we worship-the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet his faith could not be on a level with ours, his knowledge being far less. The angel who speaks to him, the altar he builds, the Spirit of the Lord that comes upon him, his daring iconoclasm, the new purpose and power of the man are in a range quite above material life-and that is enough.
There are some circles in which honesty and truth speaking are evidence of a work of grace. To become honest and to speak truth in the fear of God is to be converted, in a sense, where things are at that pass. There are people who are so cold that among them enthusiasm for anything good may be called superhuman. Nobody has it. If it appears it must come from above. But these steps of progress, though we may describe them as supernatural, are elementary. Men have to be converted again and again, ever making one gain a step to another. The great advance comes when the soul believes enthusiastically in Christ, pledging itself to Him in full sight of the cross. This and nothing less is the conversion we need. To love freedom, righteousness, charity only prepares for the supreme love of God in Christ, in which life springs to its highest power and joy.
Now are we to suppose that Gideon alone of all the men of Israel had the needful spirit and faith to lead the revolution? Was there no one but the son of Joash? We do not find him fully equipped, nor as the years go by does he prove altogether worthy to be chief of the tribes of God. Were there not in many Hebrew towns souls perhaps more ardent, more spiritual than his, needing only the prophetic call, the touch of the Unseen Hand to make them aware of power and opportunity? The leadership of such a one as Moses is complete and unquestionable. He is the man of the age; knowledge, circumstances, genius fit him for the place he has to occupy. We cannot imagine a second Moses in the same period. But in Israel as well as among other peoples it is often a very imperfect hero who is found and followed. The work is done, but not so well done as we might think possible. Revolutions which begin full of promise lose their spirit because the leader reveals his weakness or even folly. We feel sure that there are many who have the power to lead in thought where the world has not dreamt of climbing, to make a clear road where as yet there is no path; and yet to them comes no messenger, the daily task goes on and it is not supposed that a leader, a prophet is passed by. Are there no better men that Ehud, Gideon, Jephthah must stand in the front?
One answer certainly is that the nation at the stage it has reached cannot as a whole esteem a better man, cannot understand finer ideas. A hundred men of more spiritual faith were possibly brooding over Israels state, ready to act as fearlessly as Gideon and to a higher issue. But it could only have been after a cleansing of the nations life, a suppression of Baal worship much more rigorous than could at that time be effected. And in every national crisis the thought of which the people generally are capable determines who must lead and what kind of work shall be done. The reformer before his time either remains unknown or ends in eclipse; either he gains no power or it passes rapidly from him because it has no support in popular intelligence or faith.
It may seem well nigh impossible in our day for any man to fail of the work he can do; if he has the will we think he can make the way. The inward call is the necessity, and when that is heard and the man shapes a task for himself the day to begin will come. Is that certain? Perhaps there are many now who find circumstance a web from which they cannot break away without arrogance and unfaithfulness. They could speak, they could do if God called them; but does He call them? On every side ring the fluent praises of the idols men love to worship. One must indeed be deft in speech and many other arts who would hope to turn the crowd from its folly, for it will only listen to what seizes the ear, and the obscure thinker has not the secret of pleasing. While those who see no visions lead their thousands to a trivial victory, many an uncalled Gideon toils on in the threshing floor. The duties of a low and narrow lot may hold a man; the babble all around of popular voices may be so loud that nothing can make way against them. A certain slowness of the humble and patient spirit may keep one silent who with little encouragement could speak words of quickening truth. But the day of utterance never comes.
To these waiting in the market place it is comparatively a small thing that the world will not hire them. But does the church not want them? Where God is named and professedly honoured, can it be that the smooth message is preferred because it is smooth? Can it be that in the church men shrink from instead of seeking the highest, most real and vital word that can be said to them? This is what oppresses, for it seems to imply that God has no use in His vineyard for a man when He lets him wait long unregarded; it seems to mean that there is no end for the wistful hope and the words that burn unspoken in the breast. The unrecognised thinker has indeed to trust God largely. He has often to be content with the assurance that what he would say but cannot as yet shall be said in good time, that what he would do but may not shall be done by a stronger hand. And further, he may cherish a faith for himself. No life can remain forever unfruitful, or fruitful only in its lower capacities. Purposes broken off here shall find fulfilment. Where the highways of being reach beyond the visible horizon leaders will be needed for the yet advancing host, and the time of every soul shall come to do the utmost that is in it. The day of perfect service for many of Gods chosen ones will begin where beyond these shadows there is light and space. Were it not so, some of the best lives would disappear in the darkest cloud.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv11, 24, 33 CHAPTER 6.—Jdg_6:11-24
CHAPTER 6.—Jdg_6:11-24
THE UNSEEN FRIEND
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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 tree—one 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 sunshine—comp. 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 “Jacob’s 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 Gilead’s 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 Gideon’s 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. הֶכַט to beat out with a stick—not 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 גַּת; 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.
הָנִיס 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 יֵרָא 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? Gideon’s 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 Gideon’s 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. Gideon’s reply is significant, as showing what his heart was full of at the time, and God, who looks especially at what is passing in men’s hearts, saw that from the state of his heart, he was a man of the right stamp to undertake the work of the people’s 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 Israel’s God—the Keeper and Shepherd of Israel. The closing words specially imply this (הַלֹא) “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 God’s 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 Peter’s Sermon on the day of Pentecost, Act_2:14-36; Act_2:40; Peter’s Sermon in the house of Cornelius, Act_10:34-43; Paul’s Address on Mars’ Hill, Act_17:22-31—in 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 father’s house. I am in every way disqualified for so vast an undertaking.” Doubtless the thought often crossed his mind—“O 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 father’s house.] The person of least influence—as 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 Jesse—the 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 God’s 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. אוֹת]—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 offering—such 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 Gideon’s 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 God—an 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 Gideon’s 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 Jehovah—an 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 angel—that 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 Gideon’s 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 God’s sending him forth to be the saviour of His people.
Jehovah—Shalom.] Jehovah—Peace. 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 peace”—or peaceful. It is similar to the New Testament name of God—“the 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 God’s character was more flickering. The force of the title on this occasion was, that the Divine visit made to Gideon was one of peace—peace to himself, and peace to Israel. Jehovah’s 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
Israel’s 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 man’s extremity is God’s 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 Israel’s 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 Israel’s 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 word—Be 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 description—the 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 God’s 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 journey’s 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 God’s presence might be sent, and no other. Only one could take this place—the 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 appeared—as “the Keeper of Israel”—their 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 sinner’s 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 eagle’s 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 Lord’s 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 people—more intimately related than father to children, brother to brother, or husband to wife—then 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 otherwise—the 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 God’s 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 18–23). “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 people’s 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 Lord’s 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 rule—“I 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 world’s 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. Baal’s 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?” Gideon’s 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 strength—that, 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 God’s 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 Gideon’s 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 disciple’s 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 time’s destroying sway,
Can e’er 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 am”—the 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 God’s 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 angel’s 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 up—such 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 history—the Angel-Jehovah. As held by Him, Israel’s 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 State—Joseph 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 them—“faithful 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 Gideon’s 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.” Jehovah’s 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. Gideon’s heart was wrung with grief when he saw Jehovah’s 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 Israel’s 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 manœuvres, 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 gained—all 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-restraint—these are the features which distinctly mark the man of God’s selection on this occasion. Who could have thought that the same man should have been so humble, diffident, and shrinking—so 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 angel’s 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 replied—“with 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 God’s 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 obeys—a 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 Baal’s altar should be raised in his father’s 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 spear—I come to thee in the name of the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.” (1Sa_17:45). Gideon’s 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 God’s 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 Shepherd—I 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 God’s 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. God’s presence is the beginning of all true joy. The Angel-Jehovah’s 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 God’s 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 Gideon’s utterances to the angel.
7. The best of men sometimes grievously misinterpret God’s Providences. Gideon’s 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 God’s absence.”
9. Sometimes the best of men pass through the world unknown. “He was in the world—and the world knew him not”—though 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 is—“I 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.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv24, 37
Judges
GIDEON’S ALTAR
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Jdg 6:24.
I need not tell over again, less vividly, the picturesque story in this chapter, of the simple husbandman up in the hills, engaged furtively in threshing out a little wheat in some hollow in the rock where he might hide it from the keen eyes of the oppressors; and of how the angel of the Lord, unrecognised at first, appeared to him; and gradually there dawned upon his mind the suspicion of who He was who spoke. Then follow the offering, the discovery by fire, the shrinking of the man from contact with the divine, the wonderfully tranquillizing and condescending assurance, cast into the form of the ordinary salutation of domestic life: ‘And the Lord said unto him Peace be unto thee!’-as any man might have said to any other-’fear not! thou shalt not die.’ Then Gideon piles up the unhewn stones on the hillside into a rude altar, apparently not for the purpose of offering sacrifice, but for a monument, to which is given this strange name, strange upon such warrior lips, and strange in contemplation of the fierce conflict into which he was immediately to plunge, ‘the Lord is peace.’
How I think that this name, imposed for such a reason and under such circumstances, may teach us a good many things.
I. The first thing that it seems to me to suggest is the great discovery which this man had made, and in the rapture of which he named his altar,-that the sight of God is not death, but life and peace.
Gideon was a plain, rude man, with no very deep religious experience. Apparently up to the moment of this vision he had been contentedly tolerating the idolatrous practices which had spread over all the country. He had heard of ‘Jehovah.’ It was a name, a tradition, which his fathers had told him. That was all that he knew of the God of Israel. Into this hearsay religion, as in a flash, while Gideon is busy about his threshing floor, thinking of his wheat or of the misery of his nation, there comes, all at once, this crushing conviction,-’the hearsay God is beside you, speaking to you! You have personal relations to Him, He is nearer you than any human being is, He is no mere Name, here He stands!’
And whenever the lightning edge of a conviction like that cuts its way through the formalisms and traditionalisms and hearsay repetitions of conventional religion, then there comes what came to Gideon, the swift thought, ‘And if this be true, if I really do touch, and am touched by, that living Person whose name is Jehovah, what is to become of me? Shall I not shrivel up when His fiery finger is laid upon me? I have seen Him face to face, and I must die.’
I believe that, in the case of the vast majority of men, the first living, real apprehension of a real, living God is accompanied with a shock, and has mingled with it something of awe, and even of terror. Were there no sin there would be no fear, and pure hearts would open in silent blessedness and yield their sweetest fragrance of love and adoration, when shone on by Him, as flowers do to the kiss of the sunbeams. But, taking into account the sad and universal fact of sin, it is inevitable that men should shrink from the Light which reveals their evil, and that the consciousness of God’s presence should strike a chill. It is sad that it should be so. But it is sadder still when it is not so, but when, as is sometimes the case, the sight of God produces no sense of sin, and no consciousness of discord, or foreboding of judgment. For, only through that valley of the shadow of death lies the path to the happy confidence of peace with God, and unless there has been trembling at the beginning, there will be no firm and reasonable trust afterwards.
For Gideon’s terror opened the way for the gracious proclamation, which would have been needless but for it-’Peace be unto thee; fear not, thou shalt not die.’
The sight of God passes from being a fear to a joy, from being a fountain of death to a spring of life, Terror is turned to tranquil trust. The narrow and rough path of conscious unworthiness leads to the large place of happy peace. The divine word fits Gideon’s condition, and corresponds to his then deepest necessity; and so he drinks it in as the thirsty ground drinks in the water; and in the rapture of the discovery that the Name, that had come down from his fathers to him, was the Name of a real Person, with whom he stood in real relationships, and those of simple friendship and pure amity, he piles up the rough stones of the place, and makes the name of his altar the echo of the divine voice. It is as if he had said with rapture of surprise, ‘Then Jehovah is peace; which I never dreamed of before.’
Dear friends, do you know anything of such an experience? Can you build your altar, and give it this same name? 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’?
In connection with this rapturous discovery, and to Gideon strange new thought, we may gather the lesson that peace with God will give peace in all the soul. The ‘peace with God’ will pass into a wider thing, the ‘peace of God.’ There is tranquillity in trust. There is rest in submission. There is repose in satisfied desires. When we live near Him, and have ceased from our own works, and let Him take control of us and direct us in all our ways, then the storms abate. The things that disturb us are by no means so much external as inward; and there is a charm and a fascination in the thought, ‘the Lord is peace,’ which stills the inward tempest, and makes us quiet, waiting upon His will and drawing in His grace. The secret of rest is to cease from self, from self as guide, from self as aim, from self as safety. And when self-will is cast out, and self-dependence is overcome, and self-reliance is sublimed into hanging upon God’s hand, and when He, not mine own inclination, is my Director, and the Arbiter of my fate, then all the fever of unrest is swept wholly out of my heart, and there is nothing left in it on which the gnawing tooth of anxiety or of care can prey. God being my peace, and I yielding myself to Him, ‘in quietness and confidence’ is my ‘strength.’ ‘Thou shalt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon Thee, because he trusteth in Thee.’
II. We may look upon this inscription from another point of view, as suggesting the thought that God’s peace is the best preparation for, and may be experienced in the midst of, the intensest conflict.
Remember what the purpose of this vision was,-to raise up a man to fight an almost desperate fight, no metaphorical war, but one with real sharp swords, against real strong enemies. The first blow in the campaign was to be struck that night. Gideon was being summoned by the vision, to long years of hardship and bitter warfare, and his preparation for the conflict consisted largely in the revelation to his inmost spirit that ‘Jehovah is peace.’ We might rather have looked for a manifestation of the divine nature as ready to go forth to battle with the raw levies of timid peasants. We should have expected the thought which inspired their captain to have been ‘The Lord is a man of war,’ rather than ‘The Lord is peace.’ But it is not so-and therein lies the deep truth that the peace of God is the best preparation for strife. It gives courage, it leaves the heart at leisure to fling all its power into the conflict, it inspires with the consciousness of a divine ally. As Paul puts it, in his picture of the fully-armed Christian soldier, the feet are ‘shod with the preparedness of alacrity which is produced by the gospel of peace.’ That will make us ‘ready, aye ready’ for the roughest march, and enable us to stand firm against the most violent charges of the enemy. There is no such preparation for the conflict of life, whether it be waged against our own inward evil, or against opposing forces without, as to have deep within the soul the settled and substantial peace of God. If we are to come out of the battle with victory sitting on our helmets, we must go into it with the Dove of God brooding in our hearts. As the Lord said to Gideon, ‘Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel, . . . have not I sent thee?’
But, besides this thought that the knowledge of Jehovah as peace fits us for strife, that hastily-reared altar with its seemingly inappropriate name, may remind us that it is possible, in the midst of the deadliest hand-to-hand grip with evil, and whilst fighting the ‘good fight of faith’ with the most entire self-surrender to the divine will, to bear within us, deeper than all the surface strife, that inward tranquillity which knows no disturbance, though the outward life is agitated by fierce storms. Deep in the centre of the ocean the waters lie quiet, though the wildest tempests are raging above, and the fiercest currents running. Over the tortured and plunging waters of the cataract there lies unmoving, though its particles are in perpetual flux, the bow of promise and of peace. So over all the rush and thunder of life there may stretch, radiant and many-coloured, and dyed with beauty by the very sun himself, the abiding bow of beauty, the emblem and the reality of the divine tranquillity. The Christian life is continual warfare, but in it all, ‘the peace of God which passeth understanding’ may ‘garrison our hearts and minds.’ 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 God’s warriors; see to it that on every battlefield there stands the altar ‘Jehovah Shalom.’
III. Lastly, we may draw yet another lesson, and say that that altar, with its significant inscription, expressed the aim of the conflict and the hope which sustains in the fight.
Gideon was fighting for peace, and what he desired was that victory should bring tranquillity. The hope which beckoned him on, when he flung himself into his else desperate enterprise, was that God would so prosper his work that the swords might be beaten into ploughshares, and the spears into pruning hooks. Which things may stand as an allegory, and suggest to us that the Christian warfare, whilst it rests upon, and is prompted by, the revelation of God who is peace, aims in all its blows, at the conquering of that sure and settled peace which shall be broken by no rebellious outbursts of self-will, nor by any risings of passions and desires. The aim of our warfare should ever be that the peace of God may be throned in our hearts, and sit there a gentle queen. 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 Gideon’s 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 underestimate of the enemy’s strength, but by humble reliance on the power of that Lord who had promised His presence, and had 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 man’s 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 be 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.’
So, dear brethren, let us pass from tradition and hearsay into personal intercourse with God, and from shrinking and doubt into the sunshine of the conviction that He is our peace. And then, with His tranquillity in our hearts let us go out, the elect apostles of the peace of God, and fight for Him, after the pattern of the Captain of our salvation, who had to conquer peace through conflict; and was ‘first of all King of Righteousness, and after that also King of Peace.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv21, 22, 25 (See Scofield "Heb 1:4").
angel
(See Scofield "Heb 1:4").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv11, 25 The Angel of the Lord Appears to Gideon
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.
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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.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv11, 13, 14, 16, 19, 21, 22, 25, 27, 28, 30, 31, 33, 34, 36, 38, 39 This word is used here to mark a break…
Now
This word is used here to mark a break in the story line. Here the narrator starts to tell a new part of the story.
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Ophrah
This is the name of a town. (See: How to Translate Names)
Abiezrite
This is a people group named after their ancestor Abiezer. (See: How to Translate Names)
was separating out the wheat by beating it on the floor
This is a process called "threshing." Gideon was beating the wheat against the floor to separate the wheat grain from the rest of the wheat plant.
appeared to him
"went to him"
translationWords
angel
Yahweh
oak
Joash
Gideon
wheat
winepress
Midian
soldier
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.