A farmer called to be deliverer. Now the Angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, and his son Gideon was beating wheat in the wine press [instead of the threshing floor] to [hide it and] save it from the Midianites.
And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O brave man.” Jdg 6:11-12
INTRODUCTION
This is a history of the chosen people during the 400 or 450 years which intervened between the death of Joshua and the time of Eli, Act_13:20. It is not a connected history, but a collection of outstanding incidents, which determined the fortunes of the chosen people, and gave special illustrations of the power of faith in God. The chief lesson of the book is the intimate connection between loyalty or disloyalty to God and the corresponding results in well-being or misery. This is distinctly stated in Jdg_2:11-23.
The judges were extraordinary agents of the divine pity and helpfulness, raised up as the urgency of the people’s need demanded, to deliver Israel from their oppressors, to reform religion, and to administer justice. Their administration was generally local, as Barak among the northern tribes, Samson in the extreme south, and Jephthah across the Jordan in Gilead.
It must not be supposed that Israel perpetrated an unbroken series of apostasies. Though these and their special deliverances occupy the major part of the book, there were evidently long interspaces of fidelity and prosperity. And in the darkest hours, there were probably large numbers who, amid the abominations, sighed and cried for a better day.
There are two appendices, relating events which took place not long after Joshua’s death, and therefore preceding the greater part of the history. We may almost consider the book of Ruth as the third. The touches of human characteristics are very vivid and instinctive, and the book deserves much more attention than it receives from the ordinary reader.
Israel’s Apostasies and Deliverances
INTRODUCTION, Jdg_1:1-36; Jdg_2:1-23; Jdg_3:1-432.
RULE OF THE JUDGES, Judges 3:5-16:31
Following repeated apostasy and oppression, the Israelites were successively delivered:
4. From the Kings of Midian by Gideon, Jdg_6:1-40; Jdg_7:1-25; Jdg_8:1-35
12. How did God call Gideon to deliver His people from the Midianites?
THE LORD RAISES UP JUDGES
THE CALL OF GIDEON
Now it came about when they cried out to the LORD because of Midian,
that the LORD sent a prophet to the Israelites, and he said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery.
And I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land,
and I said to you, “I am the LORD your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live.” But you have not listened to and obeyed My voice.'”
THE CALL OF GIDEON
Now the Angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, and his son Gideon was beating wheat in the wine press [instead of the threshing floor] to [hide it and] save it from the Midianites.
And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O brave man.”
But Gideon said to him, “Please my lord, if the LORD is with us, then why has all this happened to us? And where are all His wondrous works which our fathers told us about when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian.”
The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this strength of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?”
But Gideon said to Him, “Please Lord, how am I to rescue Israel? Behold, my family is the least [significant] in Manasseh, and I am the youngest (smallest) in my father’s house.”
The LORD answered him, “I will certainly be with you, and you will strike down the Midianites as [if they were only] one man.”
Gideon replied to Him, “If I have found any favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who speaks with me.
Please do not depart from here until I come back to You, and bring my offering and place it before You.” And He said, “I will wait until you return.”
Comments by
F.B.Meyer
On
Judges 6:7-18
A FARMER CALLED TO BE DELIVERER
God is not content with sending a prophet to condemn our sins; He commissions an angel to bring help. Surely there is truth in the old belief that the Angel-Jehovah, designated here, was our Lord, whose delights were ever with the sons of men. Compare Isa_63:9 and Act_7:30 with Exo_3:2; Exo_3:6. He still comes to us, not visibly to the eye, but sensibly to the heart. There is a peculiar burning at the heart, which those who love Him understand, when He manifests Himself to them as not to the world. See Luk_24:32 and Joh_14:21
Gideon was the youngest son of a poor family, which had suffered greatly at the hands of Midian. See Jdg_8:18. He was compelled to thresh his wheat in the wine-press, below the surface of the ground, lest the Midianites should descend on it and carry it off. He seemed the least likely to be the chosen deliverer. But remember the Apostle’s words, 1Co_1:26. There is a might that no human valor can impart; it is that which is communicated directly from Christ, as in Jdg_6:14. And when Jesus looks and speaks, the young soul that stands in all humility before Him knows that it can do all things through Him who strengthens, Php_4:13.
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