The Least in My Father's House
11 Yahweh’s angel came and sat under the oak which was in Ophrah, that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. His son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press, to hide it from the Midianites. 12 Yahweh’s angel appeared to him, and said to him, “Yahweh is with you, you mighty man of valor!” 13 Gideon said to him, “Oh, my lord, if Yahweh is with us, why then has all this happened to us? Where are all his wondrous works which our fathers told us of, saying, ‘Didn’t Yahweh bring us up from Egypt?’ But now Yahweh has cast us off, and delivered us into the hand of Midian.” 14 Yahweh looked at him, and said, “Go in this your might, and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Haven’t I sent you?” 15 He said to him, “O Lord, how shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” 16 Yahweh said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” 17 He said to him, “If now I have found favor in your sight, then show me a sign that it is you who talk with me. 18 Please don’t go away until I come to you, and bring out my present, and lay it before you.” He said, “I will wait until you come back.” 19 Gideon went in and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes of an ephah of meal. He put the meat in a basket and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out to him under the oak, and presented it. 20 The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” He did so. 21 Then Yahweh’s angel stretched out the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and fire went up out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. Then Yahweh’s angel departed out of his sight. 22 Gideon saw that he was Yahweh’s angel; and Gideon said, “Alas, Lord Yahweh! Because I have seen Yahweh’s angel face to face!” 23 Yahweh said to him, “Peace be to you! Don’t be afraid. You shall not die.” 24 Then Gideon built an altar there to Yahweh, and called it “Yahweh is Peace.” To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
God greets a frightened man hiding in a wine press as a mighty man of valor, and answers his objections not with arguments but with a promise and a fire.
Yahweh’s angel came and sat under the oak which was in Ophrah, that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. His son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press, to hide it from the Midianites.
Threshing is done in the open, on a high floor where wind can carry the chaff. Doing it in a sunken wine press is hopelessly inefficient and completely concealed — which tells the reader everything about the man's circumstances and his state of mind before he speaks.
Yahweh’s angel appeared to him, and said to him, “Yahweh is with you, you mighty man of valor!”
The greeting does not describe anything visible. A man hiding grain in a pit is called a mighty man of valor, and God is addressing what he intends rather than what he finds — the same way Abram was named a father of nations before he had a son Genesis 17:5 Romans 4:17.
Gideon said to him, “Oh, my lord, if Yahweh is with us, why then has all this happened to us? Where are all his wondrous works which our fathers told us of, saying, ‘Didn’t Yahweh bring us up from Egypt?’ But now Yahweh has cast us off, and delivered us into the hand of Midian.”
Gideon argues with the greeting, and his complaint is honest enough to be worth stating plainly: he has heard the stories and cannot reconcile them with the caves. The prophet had just answered this Judges 6:8–9, and the answer had not reached him. Note that his objection is theological rather than personal, and Scripture does not rebuke him for it — the psalms ask the same question Psalms 44:1 Psalms 77:9.
Yahweh looked at him, and said, “Go in this your might, and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Haven’t I sent you?”
No argument is offered. The reply is a commission, and haven't I sent you is made the whole basis of it.
He said to him, “O Lord, how shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”
The second objection, and now it is personal: the weakest clan, and the least member of it. The pattern is old — Moses asked who am I Exodus 3:11, Jeremiah pleaded youth Jeremiah 1:6 — and the answer is always the same shape, not a correction of the self-assessment but a promise: surely I will be with you Judges 6:16.
He said to him, “If now I have found favor in your sight, then show me a sign that it is you who talk with me.
He asks for proof, and it is granted without reproach. He brings a meal — a young goat and cakes from an ephah of flour, a considerable quantity for a man in a famine caused by raiders. It is laid on a rock at the visitor's instruction, and fire went up out of the rock and consumed it Judges 6:21.
Gideon saw that he was Yahweh’s angel; and Gideon said, “Alas, Lord Yahweh! Because I have seen Yahweh’s angel face to face!”
His reaction to the sign is terror, on the assumption that seeing God is fatal Exodus 33:20 Judges 13:22. The reply is three short sentences of reassurance Judges 6:23, and the altar he builds takes its name from the first of them: Yahweh is Peace Judges 6:24. A frightened man's first act of worship names God after the thing he most needed to hear.
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