Today we read of the call of Gideon at a time when Israel has once more rebelled against God (6: 1). The nomadic peoples, the Midianites from the south of Edom, along with the Amalekites from the south of Judah, were a superior force. Their superiority rested in part on history’s first documented use of the camel in warfare. A camel could carry 400 pounds plus its rider, could travel a week without drinking, and with only a rider could cover as much as a hundred miles a day! Their annual invasion at harvest time suggests they raided primarily to take Israel’s crops and livestock, but Israel’s flight to caves suggests brutal killing of any Israelites encountered during their raids (6: 1-6).
Israel is desperate and cries out to God (6:7), so an angel of the Lord appears to Gideon. The least in his family, we find him cowering in a winepress where he was threshing wheat, and yet God sees Gideon’s full potential as a mighty warrior (6: 12). We need to learn to see ourselves and others from God’s viewpoint rather than man’s (see 1 Sam 16: 7). How can Gideon possibly be a mighty warrior? It is because the Lord was with him (6: 14-16).
Gideon now demands a sign that it really is God who is talking to Him (6: 17). Asking God for a ‘sign’ here means a miracle that will confirm that which a spokesman says is a message from God. Thus asking for a sign here was not an act of unbelief.
Gideon’s first ‘mission’ involved the destruction of the town’s Baal shrine, which is on his own father’s land. We read later that ‘the spirit of the Lord’ came upon Gideon, empowering him and acting through him (6: 33-35). The chapter concludes with Gideon once more lacking faith and asking God for another sign, twice, even though he knows this is a direct violation of the law (see Deut 6:16), hence his plea for God not to be angry with him (6: 36-40). Amazingly, God complies with Gideon’s requests, but this is not a model we should follow - after all, Gideon already knew God’s will for his life (6: 14-16, 36). A far better response is modelled by Isaiah: ‘Here I am, send me’ (Is 6:8).
We can all be ‘mighty warriors’ because God is with us (Rom 8: 28-39).
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Heavenly Father, thank you that by Your Holy Spirit, I know that You are with me every single day, and that I can be a mighty warrior for You, to Your Glory. Amen