Chapter 86. Judges 6:13-25. Gideon.
WHEN Gideon heard the angel say, “The Lord is with thee,” he looked up in wonder and said, “Oh! my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all His miracles which our fathers told us of? . . . . But now the Lord bath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.” And the Lord 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?”
But Gideon was fearful, his faith was feeble and small, he could not believe that he should save Israel. He knew he had no strength in himself, being poor, and his family poor, and he, the least in his father’s house. God knew this too, better than he, as He knows that none of us can do anything, not only to save ourselves, but to please God after we are saved. The Lord must give us the strength, and even the desire to do anything for Him. If we know this, we will not try any more, but tell Him so, and ask Him to enable us to walk in a Way pleasing to Himself. So God said to Gideon, “Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.” Then Gideon asked the angel to give him a sign that God was talking with him and not to depart until he had brought an offering. The angel said: “I will tarry until thou come again.” Gideon went into the house and made ready a kid, and cakes of flour; he put the flesh in a basket, and the broth in a pot, and brought all out to the oak where the angel was waiting. He thought if God accepted his present, all would be well with him. But he did not understand the value of the sacrifices as had been commanded to Moses and the children of Israel. The flesh was not to be at all sodden with water, they were told, and the broth in the pot showed Gideon’s ignorance. But God, in His grace, would accept what spoke to Him of Christ, and He told Gideon to place the flesh and the cakes upon the rock, but to pour out the broth. Then the angel of the Lord touched with his staff, the flesh and the cakes, and fire came up out of the rock and consumed them. This was a proof that they were accepted of God. Then the angel disappeared from his sight, and he was greatly afraid, and said, “Alas, O Lord God! for because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face.” But God comforted him and said: “Peace be unto thee; fear not, thou shalt not die.” Then Gideon built an altar there, and called it “Jehovah-shalom,” or “the Lord send peace.”
ML 03/10/1912