Gideon - Great Warrior! (Part 1)

Part 1

.....There are many great men spoken about in the Bible, but there is only one that God called a "Great Warrior," and that was Gideon. Let's find out why through the study of Judges 6: 1-35.

.....We begin our study with the children of Israel who find themselves in bondage again, impoverished, and distraught, for 7 years, needing deliverance, because of their Idolatry, which was considered evil in the sight of the Lord. They had forgotten that the Lord had delivered them out of the hand of all who had oppressed them. And so in their misery, they cried out to the Lord, who had heard their cry and answered their plea, calling, commissioning, and empowering Gideon, through an Angel of the Lord, to take upon himself, the command of their forces against the Midianites, (which means Strife, or a brawling and contentious people), and the Amalekites, (which means Sorrowful and Wicked). Guideon's father was now living, but he was passed by, and this honor was put upon the son, for the father kept up in his own family the worship of Baal (v. 25), which we may suppose this son, as far as was in his power, witnessed against. He was of the half tribe of Manasseh, (which means Causing to Forget) that lay in Canaan, (which means Lowland, to be brought into subjection, or humble). The Angel of the Lord that gave him the commission said, "I will be with thee." This divine messenger appeared here to Gideon, who considered himself the lowest of the low, yet was the perfect choice by God for this mission. But Why?

(1.) He was retired—all alone. God often manifests Himself to His people when they are out of the noise and hurry of this world. Silence and solitude befriend our communion with God.

(2.) He was employed in threshing wheat, with a staff or rod (so the word signifies), such as they used in beating out fitches and cummin (Isa. 28:27), but now used for wheat, probably because he had but little to thresh, he needed not the oxen to tread it out. It was not then looked upon as any diminution to him, though he was a person of some account and a mighty man of valour, to lay his hand to the business of the husbandman. He had many servants (v. 27), and yet would not himself live in idleness. We put ourselves in the way of divine visits when we employ ourselves in honest business.

(3.) He was distressed; he was threshing his wheat, not in the threshing-floor, the proper place, but by the wine-press, in some private unsuspected corner, for fear of the Midianites. He himself shared in the common calamity, and now the Angel came to him against Midian when he himself could speak so feelingly of the heaviness of their yoke. The day of the greatest distress is God’s time to appear for His people’s relief.

.....Let us now see what passed between the Angel and Gideon, who considered himself the lowest of the low, and knew not with certainty, till after He was gone, that He was an Angel, but supposed He was a prophet.

.....The Angel appeared to him with respect, and assured him of the presence of God with him, (v. 12). He calls him a mighty man of valour, perhaps because he observed how he threshed his wheat with all his might; a man diligent in his business. Gideon was a man of a brave active spirit, and yet buried alive in obscurity, through the iniquity of the times; yet here in his presence is this Angel, or Messenger of God, empowering him to undertake something great.

.....By this word, the Angel gives him his commission. If we have God’s presence with us, this will justify us and bear us out in our undertakings. He then inspires him with all necessary qualifications for the execution of his commission. "The Lord is with thee to guide and strengthen thee, and support thee.’’ And last, He assures him of success; for, if God be for us, who can prevail against us? If He be with us, nothing can be wanting to us. The presence of God with us is all in all to our prosperity, and in whatever we do.

.....Gideon was a mighty man of valour, and yet he could bring nothing to pass without the presence of God, and that presence is enough to make any man mighty in valour, and to give a man courage at any time. Gideon questioned God by saying, "O my Lord! if the Lord be with us, why then has all this befallen us? " All this trouble and distress from the Midianites’ incursions, which force me to thresh wheat here by the wine-press—all this loss, and grief, and fright; and "where are all the miracles which our fathers told us of?"

.....Gideon, as if not conscious to himself of any thing great or encouraging in his own spirit, fastens only on the assurance the Angel had given him of God’s presence, opening up the way to put the plans and desires of God into execution.

.....More questions are raised by Gideon concerning the delay of their deliverance: "Where are all the miracles which our fathers told us of? Why does not the same power which delivered our fathers from the yoke of the Egyptians deliver us out of the hands of the Midianites?’’ As if because God did not immediately work miracles for their deliverance, though they had by their own sins forfeited His favour and help, Gideon questioned whether God had wrought the miracles which their fathers told them of, or whether He had now the same wisdom, power, and good-will toward His people, that He had had formerly. This was the people's weakness. Forgetting what God has done.

We must not expect that the miracles which were wrought when the Church was first formed in the New Testament to continue to the same degree, when we as the Body of Christ have not kept close to Him, having revolted through our own religious traditions, losing our focus of the completed, and finished work of the Cross and Christ.

Gideon finds himself in the same spot that many of us who are called and chosen by God today.

.....He desires to have his faith confirmed concerning this commission; so he fleeces God to satisfy himself of his authority, and would be able to give satisfaction to others as to Him who gave him that authority. He therefore humbly begs of this Angel, to give him a sign, (v. 17). And, the commission is then confirmed by some act of God out of the common course of nature. "Show me a sign to assure me of the truth of this concerning which thou talkest with me, that it is something more than talk, and that thou art in earnest.’’ Now, under the dispensation of the Spirit, we are not to expect signs before our eyes, such as Gideon here desired, but must earnestly pray to God that, if we have found grace in His sight, He would show us a sign in our heart, by the powerful operations of His Spirit there, fulfilling the work of faith, and perfecting what is lacking in it. But the Angel accepted the request, and so gave him a further and longer opportunity of conversation with Him, (v. 18). Those who know what it is to have communion with God desire the continuance of it.

.....Gideon desired in courting the Angel to stay, that he might bring out some provision of meat for Him. He did not take Him into the house to entertain Him there, because he desired still to be in private and to converse with Him alone, (therefore he calls not for a servant to bring the provision, but fetches it himself). Upon the Angel’s promise to stay and dine with him, he hastened to bring out a kid, which, it is likely, was already boiled for his own dinner, so that in making it ready he had nothing to do but to put it in the basket and the broth in a vessel, and so he presented it, (v. 19). Establishing a Covenant. His present, a meat offering. For what we offer to God for His glory, and in token of our gratitude to Him, will be made by the grace of God to turn to our own comfort and satisfaction.

.....The Angel ordered him to take the flesh and bread out of the basket, and lay it upon a hard and cold rock, and to pour out the broth upon it, (A Perfect Picture of the Body and Blood of Christ), for which the Angel used the meat as an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto God, showing hereby that He was not a man who needed meat, but the Son of God who was to be served and honoured by sacrifice, and who in the fullness of time was to make Himself a sacrifice. Christ. He brought fire out of the rock, to consume this sacrifice, summoning it, not by striking the rock, as we strike fire out of a flint, but by a gentle touch given to the offering with the end of His staff, (v. 21). Hereby giving Gideon a sign that he had found grace in His sight, for God testified His acceptance of sacrifices by kindling them, in public, with fire from heaven, as with Moses and Elijah, in private, as this, with fire out of the earth, which was equivalent: both were the effect of divine power; and this acceptance of his sacrifice evidenced the acceptance of his person, confirmed his commission, and perhaps was intended to signify his success in the execution of it, that he and his army should be a surprising terror and consumption to the Midianites, like this fire out of the rock.

.....The Angel then departed out of his sight immediately, did not walk off as a man, but vanished and disappeared as a Spirit. Here was as much of a sign as he could wish. Gideon, though no doubt he was confirmed in his faith by the indications given of the divinity of the person who had spoken to him, yet for the present was put into a great fright by it, till God graciously pacified him and removed his fears, by speaking to him, (v. 23). It might have been fatal to him, but He assures him it is not. The Lord had then departed out of his sight, (v. 21). Gideon could no longer walk by sight, he now had to live by faith, that faith which comes by hearing; for the Lord said to him, "Peace be unto thee, all is well, and be thou satisfied that it is so. Fear not; He that came to employ thee did not intend to slay thee; (But to Empower Thee), thou shalt not die.’’

God is always ready to revive the hearts of those that tremble at His word and presence, and to give those that stand in awe of His majesty, the assurance of His mercy, and grace, empowering them for their calling!

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