| “The Midianites came up … and destroyed the increase of the earth … and left no sustenance (food) for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass” (Judges 6:3-4). |
| “Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites” (Judges 6:11). |
| The Midianites are mentioned a number of times in the Old Testament. They were actually related to the children of Israel, as they were the children of Midian, who was a son of Abraham by his second wife Keturah. However, they ended up being a real enemy of Israel, and in the time of Gideon they ruled over the children of Israel for seven years. They not only took all the good food that the Israelites grew on their land, but they took the animals too, so that there was nothing left for the people to eat. The Amalekites were also involved in all this, and it seems as if the Midianites and the Amalekites worked together to make as much trouble for Israel as possible. The Lord had allowed them to do this because the children of Israel “did evil in the sight of the Lord.” |
| However, we read that a young man named Gideon actually had some wheat, and was threshing it by a winepress, to hide it from the Midianites. A winepress is a very large container where grapes are pressed to make juice, which is then turned into wine. It was large enough to hide behind. But where did Gideon get the wheat, if the Midianites were taking it all? I am not sure, but he was going to have food in spite of the Midianites, and the Lord allowed him to get some. He was threshing the wheat to get rid of the chaff, and then probably he was going to grind the wheat into flour and use it to make bread. |
| The wheat here is a picture of the Lord Jesus, and if we really want to have spiritual food for our souls, we can get it. Sometimes as young people we may feel that we do not get much food out of going to meetings or reading the Word of God, but if we really want to know more about the Lord Jesus, the Lord will make it possible. The Midianites and the Amalekites are like the world, and like our old sinful nature — they combine to try and take away our spiritual food. It takes spiritual energy to overcome all this, but let us be like Gideon, who was energetic enough to get some wheat and get it ready to make food for himself. He was getting natural food, but as I have said, for us it is a picture of spiritual food, which every Christian needs. |
