CHAPTER 6

(1249 B.C.)

APOSTASY

¹And the Children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years (despite what Israel had seen regarding the great victory over Sisera, they once again lapsed into apostasy).

²And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel (because the Lord allowed such): and because of the Midianites the Children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and caves, and strong holds (the people of God, who were to be the strongest on the face of the Earth, are now reduced to living in dens and caves, because of fear).

³And so it was, when Israel had sown (sowed the seed for crops), that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east, even they came up against them;

⁴And they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the Earth, till you come unto Gaza, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass (Israel is reduced to starvation; such are the wages of iniquity!).

⁵For they (the enemy) came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for multitude; for both they and their camels were without number: and they entered into the land to destroy it (the Lord allowed all of this, because of Israels idolatry; let not the Believer think that because this is the day of Grace, God operates any differently; He doesnt!).

⁶And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; and the Children of Israel cried unto the LORD (as stated, irrespective as to what they had done, when Israel cried unto the Lord, without fail, He always heard and answered them; He will do the same presently [I Jn. 1:9]).

THE PROPHET

⁷And it came to pass, when the Children of Israel cried unto the LORD because of the Midianites, (Why is it that so many Believers will have to come to a place of utter defeat and humiliation, before they will properly cry to the Lord? If we would cry to the Lord at all times, there would be no impoverishment, as addressed in the previous Verse.)

⁸That the LORD sent a prophet unto the Children of Israel, which said unto them, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage;

⁹And I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out from before you, and gave you their land;

¹⁰And I said unto you, I am the LORD your God; fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell: but you have not obeyed My voice. (To their cry of distress, a Prophet is sent by the Lord; however, his call to Repentance is unheeded. This appears, as we shall see, from the fact that the men of Gideons village wished to kill him, because he destroyed their idols.)

GIDEON

¹¹And there came an Angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites. (The Israelites, Gods chosen People, because of their sin, were hard put to even feed themselves, much less enjoy prosperity, because the enemy took everything they had. Lets say it again: sin will take you further than you want to go, and cost you more than you can afford to pay.)

¹²And the Angel of the LORD (in fact, this was a preincarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ) appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valour. (If the Lord appeared to you at this moment, what would He say about you?)

¹³And Gideon said unto Him, 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, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD has forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. (Oppression breathed in every word spoken by Gideon. The truth was, the Lord had not forsaken Israel, but, instead, Israel had forsaken the Lord. This was the reason for all of their problems.)

¹⁴And the LORD (proving that this Angel was, in fact, the Lord of Glory) looked upon him, and said, Go in this your might, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent you? (The Lord commissions Gideon at this moment, and it is a commission of astounding proportions. Why Gideon?)

¹⁵And he said unto Him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? (A note of sarcasm!) behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my fathers house. (This was at least one of the reasons that the Lord chose Gideon. He had an exalted opinion of the Lord, but none at all of himself. Meekness and lowliness are absolute necessities if one is to be truly used of God [Mat. 11:28-30].)

¹⁶And the LORD said unto him, Surely I will be with you, and you shall smite the Midianites as one man (the Lord being with Gideon is the key, and alone the key).

¹⁷And he said unto Him, If now I have found grace in Your sight, then show me a sign that You talk with me. (Considering what the Lord has told him that he must do, Gideon wants to make certain that it is the Lord to Whom he is speaking, and not something else. So he asks for a sign.)

¹⁸Depart not hence, I pray You, until I come unto You, and bring forth my present (a Sacrificial Offering), and set it before You. And He (the Lord) said, I will tarry until you come again (until you come with the Sacrifice).

¹⁹And Gideon went in, and made ready a kid (a young lamb for Sacrifice), and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour (the Thanksgiving Offering); the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto Him under the oak, and presented it (presented, as used here, is a Hebrew word especially used of Sacrifices and Offerings [Amos 5:25]).

²⁰And the Angel of God said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so (the Rock became an Altar).

²¹Then the Angel of the LORD put forth the end of the staff that was in His Hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the Angel of the LORD departed out of his sight. (The consuming of the Sacrifice by fire from Heaven was the token of its being accepted. It was a Type of the Judgment of God, which would fall on the Lord Jesus Christ, necessitating His Death, in the giving of Himself as a Perfect Sacrifice, which will atone for the sins of man. Gideons action proclaims the fact that he based everything on the atoning Sacrifice. Faith in that Sacrifice, and what it represented, is the primary reason that the Lord chose Gideon. Faith in the atoning Work of Christ is the only Faith that God will recognize. Regrettably, as it regards the Church as a whole, this type of Faith seems to be in short supply.)

²²And when Gideon perceived that He was an Angel of the LORD, Gideon said, Alas, O LORD God! for because I have seen an Angel of the LORD face to face.

²³And the LORD said unto him, Peace be unto you; fear not: you shall not die (this was said to Gideon before the Lord departed out of his sight).

²⁴Then Gideon built an Altar there unto the LORD, and called it Jehovah-shalom (the Lord is peace): unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

GIDEON OBEYS THE LORD

²⁵And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said unto him, Take your fathers young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the grove that is by it (it seems that Gideon was basically the only one in his family who truly lived for God; his father worshipped Baal, one of the most vulgar and hideous idol gods):

²⁶And build an Altar unto the LORD your God upon the top of this rock (where the altar of Baal had been; this is the crying need of the modern Church; it needs to turn from altars of its own making, and place its Faith exclusively in Christ and His Cross), in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a Burnt Sacrifice with the wood of the grove which you shall cut down (the grove was really idols of the Asherah, several of which evidently had been made out of wood; this was one of the most despicable of idols, actually a portrayal of the male member; this is how far that Gideons family had sunk down spiritually).

²⁷Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the LORD had said unto him: and so it was, because he feared his fathers household, and the men of the city, that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night (men grow angry when their idols are touched, and religious men most of all).

²⁸And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was cast down, and the grove was cut down that was by it, and the second bullock was offered upon the Altar that was built (the Altar to the Lord).

²⁹And they said one to another, Who has done this thing? And when they enquired and asked, they said, Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.

³⁰Then the men of the city said unto Joash, Bring out your son, that he may die: because he has cast down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the grove that was by it. (Those who follow idolatry, even in modern-day religion, and to be sure, and sadly, the modern Church is full of it, respond to the Cross exactly as these men did to Gideon, wanting to kill him.)

³¹And Joash said unto all who stood against him, Will you plead for Baal? will you save him? he who will plead for him, let him be put to death while it is yet morning: if he be a god, let him plead for himself, because one has cast down his altar. (It seems as if the courage of Joash, Gideons father, was rising under the influence of his sons brave deed. In essence, he says that instead of Gideon being killed, that he, Joash, would kill anyone who would plead for Baal. His answer was, Let Baal plead for himself; however, these heathen gods were nothing, only figments of mans imagination.)

³²Therefore on that day he called him (called Gideon) Jerub-baal (is an idol anything?), saying, Let Baal plead against him (against Gideon), because he has thrown down his altar (Gideon was given a nickname, so to speak, which showed his contempt for these heathen gods).

³³Then 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 (this seemed to be their periodic foray into Israel, at which time they would plunder the land; they would find that their reception now would not be as before).

³⁴But the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet; and Abiezer was gathered after him (the whole family of Abiezer, numbering probably thousands, sprang to his side; the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, and the blowing of the trumpet, in essence, said it was time to strike).

³⁵And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh; who also was gathered after him: and he sent messengers unto Asher, and unto Zebulun, and unto Naphtali (various Tribes); and they came up to meet them.

THE FLEECE

³⁶And Gideon said unto God, If you will save Israel by my hand, as You have 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 you will save Israel by my hand, as You have 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.

³⁹And Gideon said unto God, Let not Your anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, I pray You, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew.

⁴⁰And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground. (Concerning this, Williams says, The double test with the fleece made plain to Gideon that God could withhold and grant blessing. He could bless Gideon, and no one else; and, on the other hand, He could bless everybody else, and not Gideon. Rahab and Jericho illustrate the one action and Nineveh and Jonah the other.)