SERIES H --- THE JUDGES --- LESSON 06

GIDEON’S FLEECE

THE MIRACLE OF THE FLEECE

From Judges 6

Once more, the people of Israel began to do the things that displease YHVH, so Adonai let the Midianites become their masters for seven years. The Midianites ruled with such a heavy hand that the people of Israel began to live in the mountain caves and strongholds. When Israel planted seed, bands from Midian, Amalek and eastern nations swept down upon them, destroying their crops as far away as Gaza, leaving them nothing to eat. They even stole the Israelites’ sheep, oxen and donkeys. These people came across Israel like hordes of locusts, bringing their tents and their cattle and camels, they came in such vast numbers that they couldn’t be counted, stripping the land as they went. The people of Israel felt so helpless that they cried out to Adonai. But Adonai gave this answer through a prophet He sent, ‘I brought you from the slavery of Egypt, set you free from your Egyptian masters, gave you a new land and drove your enemies from it. I told you not to serve the gods of your neighbours, the Amorites, but you would not listen to me.’ One day, Gideon was secretly threshing wheat in a winepress at Ophrah, hiding from the Midianites. This was on the farm of his father Joash, the Abiezrite. As Gideon worked, an Angel of Adonai came and sat down under an oak tree. ‘Adonai is with you, brave and mighty soldier,’ the Angel said to Gideon. ‘If Adonai is with us, why does He let all this happen to us?’ Gideon asked. ‘Why doesn’t He perform some miracles for us, like the miracles our ancestors said He did for them when they came out of Egypt? Adonai has cast us aside and let the Midianites destroy us.’ ‘Take the strength I give you and rescue Israel from the Midianites,’ said Adonai. ‘How can I do that?’ Gideon asked. ‘I am the least in my family and my family is the least in the tribe of Manasseh.’ ‘I will be with you,’ Adonai answered. ‘I will help you destroy the Midianites.’ Then Gideon said, ‘If you are truly with me and will help me as you say, show me a miracle so that I may be sure. But please don’t leave until I have brought a gift for you.’ ‘I will stay here until you come back,’ said the Angel. Gideon went home and cooked a young goat and made unleavened bread from a bushel of flour. He returned with the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot and presented them to the Angel under the oak tree. ‘Put the wheat and bread on this rock,’ said the Angel. ‘Then pour the broth over them.’ Gideon did as the Angel said. Then the Angel touched the food with die staff in his hand and fire sprang up from the rock, consuming the food completely. Immediately the Angel disappeared. Now Gideon knew for sure that this was an Angel of Adonai. ‘Adonai! What shall I do?’ He cried out. ‘For I have seen Your Angel face-to-face.’ ‘Have no fear,’ Adonai answered, ‘You will not die.’ Gideon built an altar there and dedicated it to Adonai, naming it ‘Adonai Is Peace.’ It still stands at Ophrah, in the land of the Abiezrites, at the time this was written. That night Adonai gave Gideon further instructions: ‘Take your father’s seven-year-old bull ox, pull down the family altar of Baal and cut clown the wooden Asherah idol beside it. Then build an altar to Adonai, laying the stones carefully and sacrifice the bull on the altar, using the wood from the Asherah idol to burn the sacrifice.’ Gideon did what Adonai had said, taking ten of his servants to help him. But he did so at night, for he was afraid of what his neighbours and relatives would do. The men of the village discovered what had happened early the next morning when they arose. The altar of Baal had been torn down, the Asherah idol had been cut down and a bull had been sacrificed on a new altar built there. ‘Who did all this?’ they asked. They soon discovered that Gideon was guilty. ‘Bring out your son Gideon,’ the villagers demanded of Joash. ‘He must die because he has destroyed the altar of Baal and the Asherah idol beside it.’ ‘Must you do Baal’s fighting for him?’ Joash asked the people. ‘Let the man die by morning who belittles Baal by doing his work for him! But if Baal is truly a god, let him cause the man who destroyed his altar to die by morning.’ That day the villagers gave Gideon the name ‘Jerubaal,’ which meant ‘Let Baal Fight against Him’ because he destroyed Baal’s altar. About that time the forces of Midian, Amalek and other eastern nations joined together to fight Israel. Crossing the Jordan River, they set up camp in the Valley of Jezreel. Then the Spirit of Adonai came over Gideon and he blew on a trumpet, calling the armies of Israel together. First the Abiezrites were called out. Then messengers went out through the land of Manasseh calling the people to follow Gideon; and then the soldiers of Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali were summoned. ‘If You will save Israel through me, as You promised,’ Gideon said to Adonai, ‘then show me by a test. I will put a fleece, a piece of wool, on the threshing floor. If the fleece is wet in the morning, but the ground around it is dry, then I will know that You will use me to rescue Israel.’ The next morning Gideon wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl. Then Gideon said to Adonai, ‘Don’t be angry with me, but let me give you another test. Tonight, let the fleece be dry while the ground around it is wet.’ That night YHVH did as Gideon asked. In the morning the fleece was dry and dew covered the ground.

COMMENTARY

THE HARVEST OF THE VINEYARDS

Gideon was the youngest son of an unimportant Israelite family. Yet when Midianite invaders swept over the land on their camels, Gideon was the one Adonai chose to deliver His people. Gideon himself doubted YHVH’s call. He asked YHVH for proof after proof that He would keep His promise to make Gideon a victorious leader. YHVH used a simple sheepskin to let His will be known. In the days of Gideon, Midianite hordes swept across Israel, plundering sheep, oxen, cattle and grain, threatening the helpless people with starvation. Life was linked to the land; food, clothing and shelter all came from the animals, crops and vineyards. Gideon and his people looked for a hiding place where they could harvest their crops in secret. He and his father Joash chose the winepress at Ophrah. A winepress was an important link in the harvest of the vineyards. Women carried baskets of grapes from the vines to the press, where they were emptied into a giant stone tub. Keeping their balance by hanging from ropes attached to poles over their heads, barefooted men treaded the grapes until the juice oozed out and spilled into a smaller tub below. From there, the juice was poured into {bottles} made of animal skins sewn around the edges and stored for future use.