"Gideon replied, 'If now I have found favor in Your eyes, give me a sign that it really is 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 said, 'I will wait until you return.'" (Judges 6:17-18) The Lord doesn't scold Gideon for needing extra assurance and I'm reminded of this verse: "For He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust." (Psalm 103:14) He knows our human weaknesses. He formed us out of the dust of the ground and He understands the way we think and He knows we are so frail that we sometimes have to be told---multiple times---that everything is going to be okay. If Gideon needs a sign to give him the confidence that this person speaking with him is the Lord, then the Lord is going to supply the proof he needs.
"Gideon went inside, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to Him under the oak." (Judges 6:19) Butchering a goat and cooking this meal took some time but the Lord waited calmly and quietly under the shade tree. He is not in a hurry. He does not rush Gideon. He does not perform some miracle of His own choice to convince Gideon to lead the army of Israel; He allows Gideon to choose his own sign.
The Lord's patience with mankind is beautiful. It's like the patience of a father with a very young child. It's the patience of a father who listens to and answers the same questions over and over. It's the patience of a father who knows everything that's happened in his child's day but is willing (and not only willing, but pleased) to hear about every detail of his child's day anyway. I picture Gideon rushing about, wanting the meal to be perfect and so nervous that he probably has to backtrack several times because he's getting in his own way in the kitchen, but all that time the Lord sits peacefully under the oak tree as if He has all the time in the world.
When Gideon produces the meal, the angel of the Lord does not consume it by mouth but instructs Gideon to turn a nearby rock into a makeshift altar. "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. Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of the staff that was in His hand. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared." (Judges 6:20-21)
The angel of the Lord, who came to Gideon in the form of a man, who talked to him with the voice of a man, and who seemed to be as solid as anyone or anything else on this earth, disappears before his very eyes. This amazing and unexpected occurrence, combined with the fire that flew out of the rock and consumed the offering, convinces Gideon that the being who came to visit him was the Lord. "When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, 'Alas, sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!'" (Judges 6:22)
I believe, as many scholars have proposed, that this incident is one of the Old Testament appearances of the pre-incarnate Christ. No one, in his or her mortal human body, can look on the face of God the Father and survive the encounter according to what God told Moses in Exodus 33:20: "You cannot see My face, for no one may see Me and live." His perfection and glory are such that they would consume us if we beheld Him in these bodies which are made from earthly dust and which are subject to the forces of this world and which are so prone to falling in to sin. The only way we have ever beheld God is in the face of His Son. In the Old Testament we find Christ appearing as "the angel of the Lord". In the New Testament we find Him appearing in flesh and blood, in the incarnation, in a form that enabled Him to interact with human beings as never before, in a form which allowed Him to offer Himself in our place as a perfect and eternal sacrifice.
Gideon believes the glory of the Lord will consume him. He thinks he is going to drop dead any second because he has beheld His face. But the Lord assures him he is going to survive and accomplish the deliverance of Israel from the Midianites. Since the angel of the Lord already disappeared from Gideon's sight, we can only assume he hears the Lord's assurance audibly or that he hears the Lord's assurance internally as the Holy Spirit overwhelms his own spirit with a sense of calm and peace. "But the Lord said to him, 'Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.'" (Judges 6:23)
To commemorate this holy occasion, Gideon builds an altar at the location where he conversed with the Lord. "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 6:24)
In tomorrow's passage the Lord is going to ask Gideon to do something that demonstrates his commitment to the Lord and his rejection of all other gods. This is going to take a leap of faith but Gideon is ready to make it. Some of his fellow townspeople, however, will not be happy with him.
We are going to face opposition anytime we do something for the Lord. Gideon was no exception to the rule that the person who wants to live a godly life will face persecution. (2 Timothy 3:12). But we won't find Gideon or his family backing down.
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