Commentary - Judges 6:11-18

Bird's-eye view

In this foundational passage, we are introduced to Gideon, a man who embodies the state of Israel under the Midianite oppression: fearful, hiding, and questioning God's faithfulness. The scene is set with a Christophany, a pre-incarnate appearance of the Son of God, who comes to commission this unlikely hero. The dialogue that unfolds is a powerful display of God's sovereign grace confronting human weakness and doubt. Gideon's initial response is not one of bold faith but of cynical complaint, pointing to the apparent contradiction between God's past promises and Israel's present misery. God's answer is not a theological treatise but a direct command: "Go." The strength for the mission is not to be found in Gideon's resume but in the fact that God is the one sending him. Gideon's subsequent plea for a sign is not a mark of outright unbelief, but rather the request of a man who is beginning to believe and wants assurance that this incredible encounter is real. The passage establishes the central theme of the Gideon narrative: God's power is perfected in weakness, and He delights in choosing the most improbable instruments to accomplish His glorious salvation, so that no flesh may boast in His presence.

This is a story about God's gracious initiative. Gideon is not seeking God; God seeks him. He is not a mighty man of valor in his own eyes; he is a farmer trying to save a little grain from the marauders. But God calls things that are not as though they were. He redefines Gideon not by his circumstances but by His divine call. The entire exchange is a microcosm of the gospel. We are found by God in our state of spiritual poverty and fear, hiding from our true enemy. God calls us to a mission we are utterly unequal to, and when we object on the basis of our inadequacy, He answers with the promise of His presence: "Surely I will be with you."

Outline

Context In Judges

This encounter occurs deep within the cyclical pattern of the book of Judges: sin, oppression, repentance, and deliverance. Israel has once again done evil in the sight of Yahweh, and as a result, God has handed them over to the oppressive hand of Midian for seven years (Judges 6:1). The oppression is severe and economically crippling; the Midianites, like locusts, would swarm the land during harvest and devour everything, forcing the Israelites into hiding in mountains and caves (Judges 6:2-5). The people of Israel, impoverished and desperate, finally cry out to the Lord (Judges 6:6). God's first response is to send a prophet to remind them of their covenant unfaithfulness (Judges 6:7-10). The prophet explains the "why" behind their suffering. Immediately following that diagnosis, God acts. He doesn't wait for a blue-ribbon committee or a national hero to emerge. He takes the initiative and sends the Angel of Yahweh to call a man who is the very picture of the nation's condition: beaten down and hiding. This calling of Gideon is the pivot point where God begins to turn the tide, not because Israel deserved it, but because He is a merciful and covenant-keeping God.

Key Issues

The Angel and the Farmer

We must not read past the first verse too quickly. The "angel of Yahweh" is not just any angel. Throughout the Old Testament, this particular figure speaks as God, receives worship, and is identified with Yahweh Himself (e.g., Gen 16:10-13; Ex 3:2-6). This is what theologians call a Christophany, a pre-incarnate appearance of the second person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ. So, this is not a created being sent with a message; this is the Messenger, the Word of God Himself, coming to call His deliverer.

And where does He find him? Not on a throne, or in a war council, but in a winepress. And he's not making wine; he's beating out wheat. A winepress was a pit, often hewn out of rock, designed to be low to the ground. Threshing was normally done on a high, open threshing floor where the wind could blow away the chaff. Gideon is threshing in a pit to hide from the Midianites. He is the picture of fear and subjugation. The setting itself tells the story. The glory of the uncreated Son meets the fear of a fallen son of Adam in a hole in the ground. This is the gospel in miniature. God does not wait for us to climb out of our pit; He comes down into it with us.

Verse by Verse Commentary

11 Then the angel of Yahweh came and sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to preserve it from the Midianites.

The scene is deliberately mundane. The Angel of Yahweh, the pre-incarnate Christ, comes and sits down under a tree. There is a divine casualness here. He is not in a hurry. He is meeting Gideon in his daily grind, in the midst of his fearful toil. Gideon is engaged in an act of quiet desperation, trying to salvage a little food for his family. He is not thinking about delivering Israel; he is thinking about dinner. This is where God so often meets us, not in the spectacular, but in the ordinary, when we are simply trying to be faithful in our small corner.

12 And the angel of Yahweh appeared to him and said to him, “Yahweh is with you, O mighty man of valor.”

The greeting is filled with divine irony. Looking at Gideon, hiding in a hole, the last phrase you would use is "mighty man of valor." This is not flattery. This is a divine declaration. God is not describing what Gideon is, but what He is about to make him. God calls things that are not as though they were (Rom 4:17). The basis for this transformation is the first part of the greeting: "Yahweh is with you." Gideon's might and valor will not come from within himself, but from the presence of God with him. This is the foundational promise to all of God's servants, from Jacob (Gen 28:15) to Moses (Ex 3:12) to the disciples in the Great Commission (Matt 28:20). Our strength is not the issue; His presence is.

13 Then Gideon said to him, “O my lord, if Yahweh is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His wondrous deeds which our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not Yahweh bring us up from Egypt?’ But now Yahweh has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

Gideon's response is brutally honest. It is the cry of a man whose theology seems to be contradicted by his reality. He essentially says, "If God is with us, it sure doesn't look like it." He pits the promise ("Yahweh is with us") against the problem ("all this happened to us"). He remembers the stories of God's power in the past, the great deliverance from Egypt, but he sees no evidence of that power in the present. His conclusion is logical, if faithless: "Yahweh has abandoned us." This is not the voice of atheism, but of a struggling, disappointed faith. He believes God exists, and he believes God did act, but he concludes that God has now checked out. Many saints have been in this very place, wrestling with the apparent silence of God in the face of suffering.

14 Then Yahweh turned to him and said, “Go in this strength of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?”

Notice the shift in narrator. It is no longer the "angel of Yahweh," but "Yahweh" Himself who speaks. The text makes the identity plain. And God does not answer Gideon's theological problem with an argument; He answers it with a commission. "Go in this strength of yours." What strength? The strength of a man hiding in a winepress? No. The strength is the very word of God that has just come to him. The strength is the commission itself. The strength is found in the final question: "Have I not sent you?" The authority and power for the task reside not in the messenger, but in the one who sends him. God is telling Gideon to stop looking at his circumstances and his own resources, and to look at the one who is giving the command.

15 But he said to Him, “O Lord, with what shall I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.”

Having had his theological objection answered with a command, Gideon now raises a practical objection. He looks at himself and sees nothing but inadequacy. He is from a minor clan in a non-prominent tribe, and he is the least important person in his own family. He is a nobody from nowhere. This is a classic response from those whom God calls. Moses said, "Who am I?" (Ex 3:11). Jeremiah said, "I am only a youth" (Jer 1:6). Gideon's assessment of himself was likely accurate from a worldly perspective. But God's economy is different. He consistently chooses the weak things of the world to shame the strong, so that the glory will be His alone (1 Cor 1:27-29).

16 But Yahweh said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall strike down Midian as one man.”

God's response again bypasses Gideon's objection and goes straight to the heart of the matter. He does not dispute Gideon's assessment of his own weakness. He simply renders it irrelevant. The basis for victory is not Gideon's standing, but God's presence. "Surely I will be with you." This is the promise that cancels out all human inadequacy. And because of this divine presence, the outcome is certain. The vast hordes of Midian will be defeated as if they were a single, solitary opponent. The victory will be total and decisive, not because Gideon is strong, but because his God is with him.

17-18 So Gideon said to Him, “If now I have found favor in Your eyes, then do a sign for me that it is You who speak with me. Please do not depart from here until I come back to You, and I bring out my offering and lay it before You.” And He said, “I will remain until you return.”

Gideon is beginning to be persuaded, but he is overwhelmed. He needs assurance. Is this real? Is this truly God speaking to him, a nobody, in a winepress? His request for a sign here is not a mark of defiant unbelief, but of a dawning, trembling faith that wants to be certain. He wants confirmation. And his instinct to bring an offering is an act of worship. He recognizes that this is a divine encounter, and the proper response is to honor the divine visitor. The Lord's gracious reply, "I will remain until you return," is a beautiful picture of His patience with our weak faith. He does not rebuke Gideon for his request; He condescends to grant it, waiting for His hesitant servant to take the next step of faith.

Application

This passage is a profound encouragement for every Christian who has ever felt weak, insignificant, or overwhelmed by the circumstances of a fallen world. God's method has not changed. He still comes to us in our "winepresses," in the places where we feel hidden and afraid. He calls us not based on our visible strengths or qualifications, but based on His sovereign purpose and grace.

When we look at the state of our culture, or the challenges in our own lives, it is easy to sympathize with Gideon's complaint: "If God is with us, why has all this happened?" We remember the great works of God in history, and wonder where that power is today. The answer God gives to us is the same one He gave to Gideon: "Go." Go in the strength you have, which is the strength of My commission. Go, because I have sent you. Our task is not to generate strength, but to walk in the strength that comes from His presence. We are to stop looking at our own inadequacy and start looking at His all-sufficiency.

And when our faith wavers, and we feel the need for assurance, we should not despair. God is patient with our weakness. But we must see that He has already given us the ultimate sign. We look not to a fleece, but to the cross. We look not to a meal consumed by fire, but to the Son of God consumed by the fire of God's wrath for us. And we look to the empty tomb, the final, unanswerable confirmation that Yahweh is with us. Because Christ has come, we are all called to be mighty men and women of valor, not because of what we are, but because the Lord is with us.