When Is'ra-el finally realized that these raids were permitted by the LORD as punishments for their sins, they turnt to Him in penitence and prayer. Again we have the glorious story of God's tenderness and grace. As soon as the people gave proof that their repentance was genuine, He released them from their oppressors.
This time, however, the LORD first sent a prophet to reprove Is'ra-el for her backslidings, and to deepen the conviction of sin among the people. They had shown signs of repentance, but must have a more thorough work of grace in their hearts before a deliverer could be given.
When the LORD searched the land of Is'ra-el for a hero capable of delivering the people from the Mid'ian-ites, His choice fell on a man named Gid'e-on. His father, whose name was Jo'ash, lived at Oph'rah, a secluded town in the rugged hill country of southwestern Ma'nas-seh near She'chem. He was the chief of a clan called A-bi-ez'rites, and had shown his idolatry by building an altar to Ba'al and a grove to A-she'rah, who was the moon-goddess.
Gid'e-on secretly worshiped the True God, and his heart was burdened by the idolatry and wickedness of his people, and by the calamities which had been brought upon them by the raids of the Mid'ian-ites. His father's household had been plundered by them, and two of his brothers had been captured and slain in the valley of Jez're-el by Mid'ian-ite princes.
The fear of being discovered by roving bands of Mid'ian-ites led him to thresh wheat in wine-presses deep in a rocky cave, instead of doing this work on a threshing-floor out in an open field.
While Gid'e-on was engaged in this work he was visited by the "Angel Je-ho'vah," sometimes called the "Angel of the Cov'e-nant," and better understood as the Mes-si'ah before He came into this world as a man. The visitor, disguised as a man, was not recognized at first as an Angel.
In His approach to Gid'e-on, the Angel spoke as follows: "The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor." To this true Is'ra-el-ite the voice of even a stranger raised in Honor of the True God struck a responsive chord. He had often longed for some congenial friend with whom he could speak freely about the low moral state of his people, and about the hope of a great spiritual revival throughout the land of Is'ra-el.
Gid'e-on therefore answered the Angel with words which came from his heart. He said: "Oh, sir, how can you say that the LORD is with us when we are cast away, when desolation reigns over the land, when we are in the grasp of marauding bandits, when our people are brought to such terror that they hide in caves and dens like animals?" Gid'e-on fully believed that the LORD was able to solve any problem, that He could overcome the strongest and fiercest enemy, and that, if He was truly with them, His people would be saved by miracles like those which had been performed in the past.
The LORD then gave Gid'e-on a solemn commission to go forth in his might for the deliverance of Is'ra-el from the grasp of the Mid'ian-ites. In his reply Gid'e-on addressed the Angel as the LORD, and acknowledged his faith in the ability of the Speaker to deliver Is'ra-el. But he hesitated to accept so great a work, not from any lack of faith, but in modesty and distrust of his own ability. He said, "My tribe is one of the weakest, my family is poor, and I am the least of my father's household. I am wholly unprepared for such a tremendous undertaking."
