Gideon The Sixth Judge. Judges 6

 

Judges 6, The Sixth Judge Gideon

 

The Midianites and the Amalekites were raiders. They would raid crops and supplies of others. They took their families and all that they had with them and pitched tents wherever they stopped. They overwhelmed the people of the land. The children of Israel fled from them into the caves. God had blessed the children under the rule of Deborah. When they sinned, God delivered them to Midian, and they cried out for deliverance. The tribe of Manasseh, of which Gideon was from, moved into the dens and into the caves. They saw their crops all taken by the enemy. God is gracious and good. A prophet came and told them why they were in their present condition. They cried out to God, and God in mercy sent them another judge.

Gideon is threshing wheat by the winepress which is at the foot of the hill where they bring the grapes down from the vineyard. The threshing floor was always at the top of the hills so that the wind could blow the chaff away. Gideon is afraid of the Midianites, so he takes his wheat to the winepress. He pitches the grain up in the air, and it comes down around his neck and into his clothes. It was at that time an angel of the Lord appeared to him. One of the funniest things the Lord could have called Gideon was a mighty man of valor because he was a coward. God has called him to deliver his people. The angel said, “The Lord is with you Gideon”. But Gideon wants to know where all those miracles are that their fathers had told them about. He believed that the Lord had forgotten them. The Lord had not forsaken them, they had forsaken the Lord. Gideon had an inferiority complex. He was skeptical, weak, and cowardly. Most of us today are doing our own will and going our own way. God wants weak vessels and that is the only kind He will use. Read I Cor. 1:26-27. God follows this policy so that no flesh will glory in His presence. Although, Gideon was a weak individual, God told him that he was the one who was going to deliver Israel. He told Gideon that he will not die. He was to go down and throw over the altar of Baal, and to burn the grove beside it. Instead of doing it in the daytime, he does it under the cover of night. More of Gideon’s story will be in tomorrow’s lesson.

 

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J. Vernon McGee Commentary and New King James Bible.