We need to see our sickness so we can call the doctor
The time of Judges was after the reign of Joshua (Moses' successor) and before kings led the country (beginning with Saul). The book of Judges describes periods of prosperity when Israel followed God and periods of poverty when she abandoned Him.
The story of Gideon takes up after Israel had been been living in peace for forty years. With prosperity, there was no reason to depend on God so the people turned to man-made gods. They worshiped Baal with sacrificial altars and set up Asherah poles. However, God did not abandon them. To get her to see where her heart was, God gave her into the hands of the Midianites. And for seven years they were oppressed by an invading hordes ravaged the country destroying the crops and herds.
Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count the men and their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the LORD for help. (Judges 6:1-6)
By creating circumstances that the people could not control, God finally got the peoples' attention and they cried out to Him for help. That is so typical of us. We have to be really miserable to realize that we are powerless to get ourselves out ot the situations we get into. We say "It's just one drink, just one bite, just one snort, just one look, just one..." And shortly after that we're trapped, unable to get free of the problems that we create for ourselves. Then there comes the plea, "Oh God, please help me!"
When the Israelites cried to the LORD because of Midian, he sent them a prophet, who said, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I snatched you from the power of Egypt and from the hand of all your oppressors. I drove them from before you and gave you their land. I said to you, 'I am the LORD your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.' But you have not listened to me." (Judges 6:7-10)
God sent an angle to Gideon with a message of hope. The end of oppression was in sight. God was going to use him --Gideon-- to save Israel from the Midianites.
The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior." "But sir," Gideon replied, "if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, 'Did not the LORD bring us up out of 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 the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?" (Judges 6:11-14)
Gideon's weakness and God's strength
How could God pick me, he asked. Gideon was the least-of-the-least; his family was insignificant in the tribe and Gideon himself was insignificant in his family. But then, God doesn't use the powerful and logical things of this world to accomplish His ends. His ways are so much greater than our ways.
"But Lord," Gideon asked, "how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family." (Judges 6:15)
Gideon asked the angel to stay a while --just to make sure that this was really from God. He left to prepare an offering consisting of a young goat and unleavened bread.
The LORD [that is the Lord speaking through the angel] answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together." Gideon replied, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you." And the LORD [again, He is speaking through the angel] said, "I will wait until you return." Gideon went in, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak. (Judges 6:16-19)
Gideon returned with the offering. He placed it on a rock and the angel touched it with his staff causing the whole offering to go up in smoke. At once he knew that it was no dream. This was the first step of faith. Gideon wanted to be sure that what he heard from God was not just some selfish desire or misplaced trust.
The angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And Gideon did so. With the tip of the staff that was in his hand, the angel of the LORD touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the LORD disappeared. When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the LORD, he exclaimed, "Ah, Sovereign LORD! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!" But the LORD [God Himself] said to him, "Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die." So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it The LORD is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. (Judges 6:20-24)
Although, the angel referred to him as a mighty warrior, Gideon needed to believe it to be true with all of his heart. To increase Gideon's trust --in God, not himself-- God gave him the task of destroying some idols that his father had set up. We all need the same confidence that God is who He says He is. That's what life is about --growing in a trust relationship with the One who is trustworthy.
That same night the LORD said to him, "Take the second bull from your father's herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father's altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. Then build a proper kind of altar to the LORD your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering." So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the LORD told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the men of the town, he did it at night rather than in the daytime. In the morning when the men of the town got up, there was Baal's altar, demolished, with the Asherah pole beside it cut down and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar! They asked each other, "Who did this?" When they carefully investigated, they were told, "Gideon son of Joash did it." The men of the town demanded of Joash, "Bring out your son. He must die, because he has broken down Baal's altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it." (Judges 6:25-30)
When the whole town was against his young warrior, Gideon's father gave a brash defense stating that if Baal was really a great god then he should be powerful enough to take care of such a small thing as someone who torn down an altar.
God is worthy of our trust
God was at work in Gideon's heart, growing his faith. He was showing him that there was no room in his life for the dead idols of an empty religion that he learned from his father. Gideon was finding out about the living God who was interested in him and his people.
But Joash replied to the hostile crowd around him, "Are you going to plead Baal's cause? Are you trying to save him? Whoever fights for him shall be put to death by morning! If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar." So that day they called Gideon "Jerub-Baal," saying, "Let Baal contend with him," because he broke down Baal's altar. (Judges 6:31-32)
Meanwhile, those nasty Midianites and their friends were gathered together flaunting their power. It's reminiscent of the Philistines when David faced Goliath.
Now all the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples joined forces and crossed over the Jordan and camped in the Valley of Jezreel. Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him. He sent messengers throughout Manasseh, calling them to arms, and also into Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali, so that they too went up to meet them. (Judges 6:33-35)
Gideon was still short on confidence that God was with him in this huge undertaking. He asked for a sign that he was not alone. He placed a sheepskin on the threshing room floor and asked God for it be wet and the floor be dry in the morning. That came to pass so he asked God for the reverse to also take place --a dry sheepskin on a wet floor. When that also came to pass Gideon saw that God was worthy of his trust.
That's so much like us Christians. We say we trusted God when someone asks how we got through one of life's difficult times, but all through that time we were asking Him for signs. "Why is this happening?" "Show me what to do, God." We're no different.
Gideon said to God, "If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said." And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew a bowlful of water. Then Gideon said to God, "Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew." That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew. (Judges 6:36-40)