Wednesday, November 6, 2013

The fleece

(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
Judges 6:33–40, “Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east were gathered together, and went over, and pitched in the valley of Jezreel. But the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet; and Abiezer was gathered after him. And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh; who also was gathered after him: and he sent messengers unto Asher, and unto Zebulun, and unto Naphtali; and they came up to meet them. And Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said, Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said. And it was so: for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. And Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew. And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.”

The oppressing forces came to attack Israel again and camped in the valley of Jezreel. The Lord had established this so that they would be in one place and it would be easier to defeat them and deliver Israel. Gideon had already led his people to repentance for their sin. They had wanted to execute Gideon for blasphemy against their local god but then they accepted that the Lord is the true God and didn’t do anything to them. Gideon was cautious again and asked the Lord to give him another sign that the Lord would miraculously intervene. He placed a fleece on the ground and asked the Lord to wet the fleece with dew while keeping the ground dry and the Lord did as he prayed. Gideon asked for another sign, in this case he asked that the Lord keep the fleece dry and make the ground wet. The Lord was the only One Who could actually manipulate the dew so Gideon was sure that the Lord was involved. While the local god was unable to do anything against Gideon the true God of Heaven was able to intervene, even with the weather, on Gideon’s behalf.

No comments:

Post a Comment