Gideon: The Calling

Hard times. Israel did evil, “so the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years” (6:1). The Midianites swarmed in like locusts and ruined the crops (6:5). Hiding. Gideon “threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites” (6:11). Threshing means beating grain to loosen it from the straw. People usually did it on an open hilltop, not down in a pit. A surprising greeting. “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” (6:12). Valor means bravery. God called Gideon brave while he was hiding. An honest question. Gideon said, “If the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us?” (6:13). He had heard about God's miracles, but he had not seen any. God's answer. “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” (6:14). Who was speaking? Verse 14 says “the Lord turned to him.” Many Christians believe the Angel of the Lord was the Son of God Himself, long before He was born in Bethlehem. What this means for you. God sees what He can make of you, not only what you are today. You can bring Him your hardest questions. He answers by coming close and giving you His work to do.

Seven years (6:1-6). Midian, with the Amalekites and the people of the East, swept in at every harvest. Israel hid in “the dens, the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains” (6:2). “So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord” (6:6). A prophet first (6:7-10). Before God sent a deliverer, He sent a prophet to remind Israel what He had done and to name the problem: “But you have not obeyed My voice” (6:10). God deals with the heart before He deals with the enemy. The winepress (6:11). Wheat was threshed in the open so the wind could carry off the chaff. Gideon worked in a winepress, a pit cut into rock, where no Midianite could see him. Ophrah belonged to his father Joash, of the clan of Abiezer in Manasseh. Mighty man of valor (6:12). The Hebrew gibbor hechayil (say: gee-BOHR heh-KHAH-yeel) means a strong, brave warrior. God named Gideon by what He would make him. Why? (6:13). Gideon said, “The Lord has forsaken us.” But God had not left Israel; Israel had left God (6:10). Gideon's question was honest, and God did not rebuke him for asking. The Angel of the Lord (6:12, 14, 22-23). The messenger is called the Angel of the Lord and then simply “the Lord.” Many Christians believe this was the Son of God appearing before He took on flesh. “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (John 1:18). Have I not sent you? (6:14). God did not explain the past. He gave Gideon a mission for the future.

The Midianites had made life very hard for Israel. God's people had served false gods. So God let the Midianites trouble them. Gideon was hiding in a winepress. He was afraid of the enemy. But the Angel of the Lord called him a mighty warrior. God did not see a scared man. God saw the brave man He would make. Gideon asked why God had let bad things happen. God did not get angry at his question. He gave Gideon a job to do. You can tell God your questions too. He loves to hear from you.

Gideon was hiding from the enemy. God came to Gideon. God called him brave! God sees what He will make us.

The least. Gideon said, “Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house” (6:15). He saw only his weakness. God's answer. “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man” (6:16). This is our memory verse. God did not say Gideon was strong. God said He would be with him. Like Moses. God said almost the same words to Moses at the burning bush: “I will certainly be with you” (Exodus 3:12). A sign. Gideon asked, “Show me a sign that it is You who talk with me” (6:17). God waited while Gideon cooked a young goat and baked bread. Fire from the rock. The Angel touched the food with His staff, “and fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread” (6:21). Consumed means burned up completely. Afraid of dying. Gideon cried, “I have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face” (6:22). He knew a sinful man could not stand before a holy God. Peace. The Lord said, “Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die” (6:23). So Gideon named his altar “The-Lord-Is-Peace” (6:24). What this means for you. When you feel too small, remember who goes with you. Jesus is called “Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23).

The weakest clan (6:15). Gideon measured himself by the size of his family and his own rank in it. God never disputed the facts. He changed the subject from Gideon's weakness to His own presence. The same promise as Moses (6:16). God's words echo the burning bush, where He told Moses, “I will certainly be with you” (Exodus 3:12). The God who sent Moses to Pharaoh was sending Gideon against Midian. As one man (6:16). The ICB says, “It will seem as if you are fighting only one man.” A huge army would fall as if it were a single soldier. The offering (6:18-21). A young goat and bread from an ephah of flour, about 20 quarts, was a costly gift when Midian was taking everyone's food. Fire rose from the rock and consumed it, the way fire came from the Lord on Aaron's first offering (Leviticus 9:24). God accepted the gift. Face to face (6:22). God had told Moses that no one could see His face and live (Exodus 33:20). Gideon's terror shows he understood who had been speaking with him. Yahweh Shalom (6:24). Gideon named the altar Yahweh Shalom (say: yah-WEH shah-LOHM), the Lord is peace. Shalom means more than calm. It means being made whole and right with God. Peace through Christ. We receive peace with God the same way: through an offering accepted in our place. “We were reconciled to God through the death of His Son” (Romans 5:10), and we who were far off “have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13).

Gideon felt small and weak. His family was the weakest one. He was the least important in his family. But God did not argue with Gideon. God said, “I will be with you.” That was all Gideon needed. You do not have to be big for God to use you. Then Gideon gave God an offering of food. Fire jumped out of the rock and burned it up! Gideon was scared he would die. But God gave him peace instead. Gideon called his altar The Lord Is Peace. Jesus is God with us. He gives us peace with God.

Gideon felt small. God said, “I will be with you.” Fire burned up Gideon's gift. God gave Gideon peace.

Start at home. That same night God said, “Tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the wooden image that is beside it” (6:25). Baal was a false god of the Canaanites. Israel's trouble started with idols, so the rescue started there too. A new altar. Gideon was to “build an altar to the Lord your God on top of this rock” (6:26) and offer his father's bull on it. Afraid but obedient. Gideon “feared his father’s household and the men of the city too much to do it by day, he did it by night” (6:27). He was afraid, but he did all that God said. Found out. In the morning the town asked, “Who has done this thing?” (6:29). They wanted Gideon put to death (6:30). A father's turn. Joash said, “If he is a god, let him plead for himself, because his altar has been torn down!” (6:31). Baal could not even defend his own altar. A new name. Gideon was called Jerubbaal, “Let Baal plead against him” (6:32). Baal never did. What this means for you. An idol is anything we love or trust more than God. “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). Ask God to show you anything in your heart that needs to come down.

Baal and Asherah (6:25). Baal was the Canaanite storm god, believed to send rain and harvest. The wooden image was an Asherah, a pole honoring a goddess. Israel was hungry, and they had turned to gods who promised food. Their crops were still stolen. In his father's house (6:25). The idol altar belonged to Joash, Gideon's own father. Before Gideon could lead Israel against Midian, he had to stand against idols in his own family. Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24). The second bull (6:25-26). The bull of seven years and the wood of the Asherah pole became a burnt offering to the Lord. What had served an idol was turned to the worship of the true God. By night (6:27). Gideon was afraid, and he obeyed anyway. Courage is not the absence of fear. It is doing what God says while you are still afraid. Joash's question (6:31). “Would you plead for Baal? Would you save him?” The Hebrew riv (say: REEV) means to plead or argue a case, as in a court. If Baal were a real god, he could argue his own case. Jerubbaal (6:32). The name means Let Baal contend. Every day Gideon stayed alive showed that Baal was powerless. Joshua 24:15. Long before, Joshua had told Israel, “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.” Gideon chose. Every heart still faces that choice, and Jesus breaks the hold of every idol on those who trust Him.

That night God gave Gideon a hard job. Gideon's father had an altar to Baal. Baal was a fake god. God told Gideon to pull it down. God's people had to stop worshiping idols. An idol is anything we love more than God. Gideon was afraid of the people in his town. So he obeyed God at night. In the morning the men were very angry. But Gideon's father stood up for him. He said Baal should fight for himself. Baal could not do anything at all. Only the Lord is the real God. Is there anything you love more than God?

Gideon's father had an idol. An idol is a fake god. Gideon pulled it down. Only God is real!

The enemy gathers. “All the Midianites and Amalekites, the people of the East, gathered together” and camped “in the Valley of Jezreel” (6:33). The Spirit comes. “But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon; then he blew the trumpet” (6:34). The Holy Spirit gave Gideon the courage and power he did not have on his own. People follow. Gideon sent messengers through Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali, “and they came up to meet them” (6:35). The fleece. Gideon said, “If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said” (6:36). God had already promised. Gideon still wanted proof. Wet, then dry. First the fleece was soaked and the ground was dry. Gideon wrung out “a bowlful of water” (6:38). Then he asked, “Do not be angry with me” (6:39), and God made the fleece dry and the ground wet (6:40). God's patience. God did not have to answer, but He did, twice. “The Lord is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy” (Psalm 103:8). Our help. We do not need to put out a fleece to know what God wants. He has given us His Word, and Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to live in everyone who trusts Him. What this means for you. When your faith feels weak, tell God honestly. He is patient, and He keeps His promises.

Jezreel (6:33). The Valley of Jezreel was some of Israel's best farmland, and Midian camped right in the middle of it. Clothed by the Spirit (6:34). The Hebrew lavash (say: lah-VAHSH) means to clothe. The Spirit of the Lord clothed Himself with Gideon, as a person puts on a coat. The Holy Spirit is a Person, and He filled a fearful man with His power. The trumpet (6:34-35). The shofar (say: shoh-FAR), a ram's horn, was the call to battle. The man who had hidden in a winepress now called four tribes to follow him. As You have said (6:36-37). Gideon said “as You have said” twice. He knew God's promise. The fleece was not a way to find out God's will. It was a request for reassurance about a will he already knew. Testing God? Moses commanded, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 6:16), and Jesus quoted it in Matthew 4:7. Gideon knew he was pressing God: “Do not be angry with me” (6:39). Mercy for weak faith. God answered both requests. His patience is greater than our doubts. “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). Our guidance. “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Christians grow in confidence by trusting what God has said in Scripture, helped by the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus sends to guide His people into truth (John 16:13).

A huge enemy army came into the valley. Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Gideon. God's Spirit made the scared man brave. Gideon blew a trumpet to call the people. Men from four tribes came to follow him. But Gideon still had doubts. God had already made him a promise. Still Gideon asked for a sign with some wool. God made the wool wet and the ground dry. Then God made the wool dry and the ground wet. God was very patient with Gideon. God is patient with you too. He keeps every promise He makes.

God's Spirit came on Gideon. Gideon blew a trumpet. God gave Gideon a sign with wool. God is patient with us!