(Judges 6, 7, 8)
AFTER the events spoken of in the previous paper, the Lord said again to Gideon, “Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.” But Gideon asked for something more, as if he wanted still further proof of the love and power of God, saying, “Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my meat offering, and set it before thee.” And the angel of God, who was sitting under an oak, on the land that belonged to Joash, said to Gideon, “I will tarry until thou come again.” Then Gideon went in, prepared the kid and some cakes of flour, put the meat into a basket and the broth into a pot, and brought it all out to the angel under the oak and presented it. Then said the angel, “Take the flesh and the cakes and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth.” And Gideon did so.
Then the angel of the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand and touched the flesh and the cakes, and there rose up fire out of the rock and burnt up the flesh and the cakes, and then the angel departed from before Gideon’s eyes. That indeed was a strange sight, fire coming up out of the rock, and none but a Divine Being could have done such a thing. That sight made Gideon feel afraid, but the Lord, who knew his thoughts, said, “Peace be unto thee: fear not: thou shalt not die.” Many people who have seen signs of the power of God have felt afraid. A bright flash of lightning, a loud peal of thunder, or the distant rumble of an earthquake, has been enough to fill the heart with terror, for it is only those who trust in the Lord Jesus, and know their sins forgiven, who have courage to be calm in a fierce storm.
Then God said to Gideon, “Throw down the altar of Baal, and cut down the grove that is by it, and build an altar unto the Lord thy God upon the top of this rock.” Baal was the name of the false god worshipped by the people of the land, and God would not allow that, so told Gideon to throw down the altar that had been built in honor of Baal: and Gideon obeyed, taking the men of his servants with him to help. On the next day, however, when the men of the city rose up early in the morning, they saw, to their surprise, that the altar of Baal was cast down and the grove cut down that was by it. Then they asked each other what it meant, and someone said, “Gideon, the son of Joash, hath done this thing.” And they said to Joash, “Bring out thy son that he may die.” But Joash would not agree to what these angry men proposed, and said, “If Baal be a god, let him plead for himself,” as if it had been “Let Baal take his own part, since my son Gideon has cast down his altar:” and we can easily guess how all this ended, because as Baal was no real god, but only a false one, he could neither hear nor speak.
Now the people of Midian, and of Amalek, were enemies of God, and of God’s people Israel. Gideon was an Israelite, of the tribe of Manasseh, and when the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, he sent messengers to the men of his own tribe, and also to three other tribes, and they all came up to meet him. And Gideon said to 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 it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that Thou wilt save Israel by my hand as Thou hast said, and it was so: for he rose up early on the morrow . . . and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water” (Judges 6:36-3836And Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said, 37Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said. 38And it was 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. (Judges 6:36‑38)).