Bible Reading: Judges 6: 11-24

I was thinking about a number of things tonight, including how much information there is in the Bible about the Lord (and how people just seem to miss it), and also about concepts such as humility and hospitality. So I recalled the part of the Bible that relates the call of Gideon. It is in Judges 6: 11-24, and I'm not going to type it all in here, but cite a few lines and give you some perspectives.

At the time the Lord rose up Gideon the Israelites had been ungrateful and offensive to God and therefore God withheld support from the Israelites as the neighboring Midianites raided and laid waste the crops and livestock of the Israelites for seven years. By the way, when people are ungrateful and offensive to God that usually is code word for reverting to paganistic practices, including baby killing. So during the backdrop of this severe hardship on the Israelites by the Midianites, the angel of the Lord appeared to a man named Gideon as he was "beating out wheat in the wine press to save it from the Midianites" (11). Once again we see how the Lord raises up a prophet or leader from very humble origins, often while they are engaged in humble activities. "Please, my lord, how can I save Israel? My family is the meanest in Manasseh, and I am the most insignificant in my father's house" (15). "I shall be with you, " the Lord said to him..." (16).

By the way, "the angel of the Lord" does not mean "an angel of the Lord." If you read carefully you can discern when God sends "an angel" and when God himself speaks through his own appearance as an angel. When the three angels appeared to Abraham, two of them were angels and one of them was revealed to be "the angel of the Lord," in other words the Lord himself speaking through an angelic appearance.

When the angel of the Lord first appears to Gideon he says "The Lord is with you, O champion" (12). Notice how more than a thousand years later the archangel Gabriel also first addresses Mary by her title "Full of Grace." Gideon is addressed by the angel of the Lord by his future title, and of course he is in shock, wondering how he can be the champion of Israel when he is the most insignificant member of a poor household. I mention this because it is an "insight into God." God, and his angels, view people as though they are looking into their essence (which they are) rather than their external identities as known among fellow humans.

Gideon, however humble he is, is not afraid to ask the Lord for a sign, "If I find favor with you, give me a sign that you are speaking with me" (17). Before the Lord can reply, though, Gideon says, "Do not depart from here, I pray you, until I come back to you and bring out my offering and set it before you" (18). How wonderful is that and how unlike today's humans is Gideon! He asks the Lord for a sign but does not stand there tapping his foot and waiting for the sign before doing anything else; he leaves it to God to determine what sign he might grant and when. Instead Gideon immediately asks the Lord to wait for him to return with a sacrifice offering, and the Lord replied saying "I will await your return" (18).

Gideon actually goes and prepares the meat of a livestock animal and a measure of flour he makes into cakes. He brings the meat in a basket with broth in a pot and presents them to the angel of God, who instructs Gideon to place the meat and cakes on a rock and to pour out the broth. This is what happened next:

When he had done so, the angel of the Lord stretched out the tip of the staff he held, and touched the meat and unleavened cakes. Thereupon a fire came up from the rock which consumed the meat and unleavened cakes, and the angel of the Lord disappeared from sight. Gideon, now aware that it had been the angel of the Lord, said, "Alas, Lord God, that I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!" The Lord answered him, "Be calm, do not fear. You shall not die." So Gideon built there an altar to the Lord and called it Yahweh-shalom [Hebrew for 'The Lord is Peace']. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. (20-24)

Dear readers, this passage containing the events when Gideon is first called is so instructive; it is not "just a story" if you read it with open eyes. Gideon, no matter how humble he was, had the courage to ask God for a sign, but then, he asked the sign, he did not demand the sign nor await its being given or refused. He then, like Abraham before him, ran to prepare an offering to the Lord as both devotion and courtesy. When he returns the sign that he is given is being shown how the Lord actually accepts the offering physically, by firing it with heat that consumes it. To make the point completely the angel of the Lord disappears along with the accepted sacrifice offering! Gideon witnessed the taking of an offering by the Lord "into the heavens."

In the same flash of that event, Gideon comprehends the sign he has been given and the great honor to actually "see God accept and take Gideon's sacrificial meat and flour along with him!" This is when Gideon fully comprehends that he has just seen with human eyes the angel of the Lord and marvels that he still lives (and is fearful because he cannot imagine having witnessed such a thing. Remember that even the High Priests of the time did not see the angel of the Lord come and accept temple offerings.) He hears the voice of the Lord reassuring him.

And again, great and humble man that he was, Gideon proceeds to build an altar to God on that spot, naming it The Lord is Peace. Notice that Gideon always does the correct thing. He does not stand around and now expect that God should tell him more or what he is to do right away; he knows God will reveal what Gideon is to do in his own time. Instead, as he did with running to bring an offering, he immediately makes an altar to the greater glory of God on that very spot.

God does return later to instruct him. This is a marvelous role model of a humble man who encounters the angel of the Lord and has an experience that few even of the greats in the Bible have had. And so I thought of this when I was thinking about hospitality... and also what I think of as "confident in the Lord humility." Gideon is personally humble but confident in the Lord, and so he does the correct things unbidden and unprompted.