How great must have been the astonishment of the Abi-ezrites, when the morning rose, to find the altar of Baal overthrown, and the wood of the grove burning on the altar to Jehovah, which, built upon a rock, stood out a testimony to the triumph of truth over error, and of weak things against the strong; while the smoke of the sacrifice curling upward in the morning light spoke of a way of access yet open to those who had sinned so grievously, if haply they would turn and repent. But no! “Bring forth thy son that he may die,” is the universal cry of the multitude as they look in rage upon their desecrated idol-altar. Israel had cried unto the Lord but a little while before because of oppression; he had reminded them of redemption, and how they requited him, saying, “Ye have not obeyed my voice;” and now the men of Abiezer rise “early in the morning,” and seek the altar of Baal, probably to offer the customary sacrifice at the rising of the sun. Was it that the Abi-ezrites had no part in Israel’s appeal to Jehovah, or was this really obedience as religiousness understands it? If so, they were blind indeed; and did we not know how completely human monition in things religious can lead astray, substitute wrong for right, error for truth, and “call evil good, and good evil,” this would seem hardly possible; yet once allow opinion to become the standard of truth, and who shall say to error, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?” “To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” No light! how great then is the darkness; and what wonder if in such darkness the Abi-ezrites mistake the altar of Baal for that of the Lord; and when they find it overthrown, verily think they are doing God service in demanding the blood of him who had been the happy, honored instrument of setting before them “the old paths,” and the way of escape. Yet, surely, sincerity is no atonement, although it is a very general mistake to suppose that it is. An infidel, who had been convinced against his will that the Bible is the word of God, once asked the writer whether God would forgive him at the day of judgment if it turned out that he was sincerely mistaken; but to the question, “How did you become sincere in thinking as you do?” his only reply was to tremble. With Gideon’s testimony before their eyes, the Abi-ezrites were utterly without excuse; and but for the WHOLE BURNT OFFERING, the type of which was now upon the altar, judgment instead of deliverance must have awaited them. As in ages long before, “the Lord smelled a savor of rest, and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake, though the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth;” so now, if the altar raised to Jehovah was a testimony against the evil his people were committing, the sacrifice upon it, placed there by his own command, opened a way for grace, super abounding grace, to come in, and in the very face of all the evil to be with his people, so that when the enemy should come in like a flood he could. “lift up a standard against him.” Here then, under the worst of circumstances, grace is exalted, and we are again reminded of Moses in the mount, how he said, “Let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us, FOR it is a stiff-necked people.” Stiff-necked indeed we find them on this occasion, demanding the life of the servant of the Lord, because he alone of all the Abi-ezrites had confessed Jehovah, and thrown down the altar of the “shameful thing,” hardly restrained from pouring out his blood in the very face of the testimony which left them without excuse. How very nearly such a course approaches the verge of that open-eyed, willful, determinate, conscious persistence in evil, to which God can have nothing to say but to judge it (Matt. 12). How strikingly in contrast with all this is the inimitable goodness which foresaw it all, and commanded the “second bullock” to be offered on the altar, that so a way might yet be possible whereby mercy, sweet mercy, might reach the vile murderous idolaters, and that in spite of themselves! How the GREAT SACRICE is honored in every age! And as the believer looks upon the dark background of this sad picture, he owns with joy that its very blackness does but make the all-importance, the infinite value ‘and blessedness of that “Offering and Sacrifice to God of sweet-smelling savor,” to shine out with a breadth and brightness no tongue can express — a luster all its own. For lack of words, he can only say, “He is precious,” while his heart delightedly sings―
“How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
In a believer’s ear!
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,
And drives away his fear.”
For although conscious of failure, and “that continually,” with such a Propitiation, how can He fear to draw nigh?
“Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east were gathered together, and went over and pitched in the valley of Jezreel.”
Yes, “all” of them, but they may come now, the Lord can act; his altar once more throws its protecting shadow o’er the land; the savor of the offering is yet around it; his instrument is almost ready. There is no “wherewith shall I save Israel?” now, although all the power of the enemy is gathered in terrible array, threatening desolation to the already ruined land and people. No; “But the Spirit of the Lord came upon (clothed) Gideon, and he blew a trumpet,” and that was the only means he used —the Lord’s “wherewith,” and not his own (Num. 10:99And if ye go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then ye shall blow an alarm with the trumpets; and ye shall be remembered before the Lord your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies. (Numbers 10:9)). “And Abiezer was gathered after him.” The men who had sought his life when he confessed Jehovah, are, now that God owns him, gathered, to fight the Lord’s battles.
Owned of God! How great the privilege to Gideon! how great the grace to the poor blind religionists, who, instead of being left to follow their own devices, are “called after” the servant of the Lord, and leave their religion in its ruins to the owls and the bats! And let us remember that, without the Offering grace itself had placed upon the altar, this would have been impossible. Righteousness demanded that every man in Abiezer, who had worshipped “the shameful thing,” should die. Yet they are spared, and not only spared, but “called after” Jehovah’s servant, and therefore called out of that they had been in. To spare them was most merciful, to bless them was indeed most gracious.
Owned of God! May each of his dear ones seek the precious privilege. But mark the way in Gideon’s case. He was first made nigh, in a figure, then called out in separation from evil — evil in religion; then made an active testimony for God; and then, in it owned of HIM whose grace had done it all. Were every child of God now in the wilderness led on in the same wondrous path (and each would be if from his inmost soul he sought it, John 7:1717If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. (John 7:17)), there would be, as it were, an earthquake which would shake the world to its foundations!
The time was now come for action, the time of which the Lord had said, “Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.” But Gideon had passed through much since that gracious promise was given, and we commonly think that our changes affect the Unchangeable in some such way as they do ourselves. Conflict had brought out much failure, and failure had left weakness behind it, as it always does. Grace had “passed over” all but the remembrance of his own disobedience, when, all through that weary day, “he could not do” as the Lord had commanded him, remained, and to his godly soul was doubtless magnified in the light of the lovingkindness he had experienced. Ah, Gideon? HE who sought thee by the wine-press foreknew all that thou wouldst do when tested, and when He called thee “mighty man of valor,” was looking not at thy trembling heart and faltering footsteps, sure to stumble, but at the faith and love his own Spirit had wrought within thee, and which his gracious ways towards thee would yet intensify, and rouse to action for the comfort and edification of his weak ones through all time. But to return. In the energy of the Spirit he had blown the trumpet, and his very enemies were gathered after him. He had sent messengers throughout Manasseh, and they, too, were gathered after him, whose family was but “poor” among them. And Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali had, at his call, come up to meet them. But now, at eventide, alone in the solitude of the threshing-floor, whither, perhaps, he had retired to gather strength for the coming fight with the overwhelming foe, his thoughts revert to himself. Since the hour when, hidden by the wine-press, he had said, in all the untried freshness of faith and love, “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?” how much of his own weakness had he seen! Ah, it is comparatively easy to exercise faith at a distance from the danger and to “see his wonders in the deep” is a very different thing from seeing them in the shallows! It is easier still for the heart, when reposing on the shore in quiet, to sit in judgment on those “that do business in great waters;” so much knowledge is gained at little cost to lookers on, and the heart so soon mistakes that knowledge for power!
“And Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by my hand as thou hast said, behold I will put a fleece of wool in the floor, and if the dew be on the fleece only, and if it be dry on all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said.” “If thou wilt do as thou has said,” sounds strangely and almost like an insult to him to whom it is addressed. “Hath he said and shall he not do it?” faith might ask. Aye, but Gideon’s thoughts may have replied, as he mentally gazed on the way he had taken since the gracious promise was given, he said, “Go in this thy might,” and have I done so hitherto? I did indeed throw down the altar of Baal, but when and how? By night and in the fear of men! And when the worshippers of Baal demanded the life of him who had overthrown the altar of the shameful thing, who pronounced the righteous sentence of the law against them? Not I, but my penitent father! Have I then at all vindicated the honor of Jehovah as I should have done? Can he use an instrument that as yet has only and always failed? Alas! what am I! Will he indeed save Israel by my hand, as he said to me in that happy hour by the wine-press, ere I had shown at every step my utter unfitness for such an honor?” Even so. “For he rose up early on the morrow and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water!” Thus grace meets weakness, and “raiseth up those that be bowed down.” But Gideon has not yet done with his fears. Perhaps his sense of his own unworthiness was too deep to be readily re-assured. His love for Israel, too, would magnify the responsibility he had taken on himself in calling them tether to meet an overwhelming foe. What if he had made a mistake? What if the dew in the fleece was a merely natural effect? The night-wind might dry the “floor,” and the fleece absorb and so retain the moisture. Had the Lord done it, or was it a mere accident? “And Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be hot against me and I will speak but this once, let me prove I pray thee but this once with the fleece — let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew.”
“In weakness and trial
With God we may plead,
No fear of denial,
We’re sure to succeed.”
So says the faith of his saints, and so says this precious history. Man might have lost all patience with such repeated misgivings, recurring continually at every step of the way; even the subject of them trembles at the daring of his own fears; but Omnipotent Power can take up utter weakness into its arms, lay on hands of love, and bless, where little man would scorn to stoop. “And God did so that night;” yes, without a word of rebuke or a thought of impatience, “for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.” Blessed be God!