We left Gideon at his lowly task, threshing corn by the wine-press to bide it from the Midianites. The Israelite lifted up his eyes, and, behold, One stood before him, clothed in human form, and yet nor man nor angel; for from the words which He afterwards uttered, such as no created being dare have breathed, we recognize in Him the eternal Son of God. As the Lord appeared to Abraham in the plains of Mamre, to Jacob by the ford of Jabbok, to Moses on the height of Sinai, so appeared He now to Gideon beneath the oak-tree of Ophrah. Unconscious of the divinity of his Guest, Gideon still appears to have received with reverence the greeting of the mysterious stranger, as though aware that He came as a messenger from the Most High.
“The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour!” was the salutation of the Holy One to the son of a despised and persecuted race.
“Oh my Lord,” exclaimed Gideon, “if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all the miracles which our fathers told of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hand of the Midianites.”
How often must such thoughts have passed through the mind of Gideon before they thus found vent in words. Faith, sorely tried by present trouble, was trying to draw from memories of the past hope for the future. God, who had crushed the pride of Pharaoh, and led His people forth from Egyptian bondage, would He not now save and avenge? There had been miracles of old; such mercies as had been experienced by the fathers, might they not also be reserved for the children? Was the Lord’s arm shortened that it could not save; was He unmindful of the groans of His people? Oh, why had He forsaken Israel, and given His heritage unto reproach?
“And the Lord looked upon Gideon, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have I not sent thee?”
Let us dwell for a few moments on the words, The Lord looked upon Gideon. Thrice in the Scriptures do we read of a look from Him who beholdeth all things in heaven and earth. In one sense the omniscient God is for ever gazing down upon His creation; from Him ocean depths are no hiding-place, and midnight darkness no screen. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. But on some special occasions God’s glance has in a peculiar way been directed upon man, as the sunbeams that shine on all may be concentrated in the focus of a burning-glass to kindle or to destroy. The Lord looked from the pillar of cloud upon the Egyptians, and they were troubled—they felt God’s wrath in that gaze; the Lord looked upon Gideon, and in that glance was new courage and strength; the Lord looked upon Peter, and beneath that gaze of divine compassion and love his heart was broken and melted, and fast flowed his penitential tears. Have we ever known the power of that look in our hearts, to crush our sins, to encourage our faith, to bring us in deep contrition to the feet of our merciful Lord?
Gideon, like Moses before him, seems to have shrunk from the post of high honour to which he was called by God; like Moses, he thought of his own unfitness instead of the almighty power of Him who can employ—and often does employ—feeble instruments to accomplish the most noble and difficult works. “Oh my Lord,” he cried, “wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” Before honour is humility; had Gideon been great or wise in his own eyes, we may well believe that God would have passed him by, to choose one of a lowlier spirit to be the leader of Israel’s hosts.
“Surely I will be with thee,” said the Lord, “and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.”
Still Gideon appears to have hesitated; perhaps a doubt lingered on his mind as to the nature of Him who spake as having authority, but who as yet had wrought no miracle to prove his divine commission. “If now I have found grace in Thy sight,” said Gideon, “then show me a sign that Thou talkest with me. Depart not hence, I pray Thee, until I come unto Thee, and bring forth my present, and set it before Thee.” And the Holy One said, “I will tarry till thou come again.”
Then—like his father Abraham, glad to entertain the heavenly Guest—Gideon made ready a feast. He prepared a kid, and unleavened cakes, and brought them forth to the Lord, who had graciously awaited his return under the oak of Ophrah—a spot which became as a temple consecrated by His divine presence.