Gideon and the Fleece

Have you heard the story about Gideon the believer? We all know the story about Gideon and his famous fleece in Judges 6. But why did he ask for the special sign? Reading the story gives a different impression than we often entertain.

My impression had been that Gideon was not sure about God and doing things, so asked for a verification of Who He was. Not so. Gideon had already obeyed the Lord's command to tear down the altar of Baal and remove the Asherah pole. Then he built an altar to the Lord and offered a sacrifice on that. He was committed to repelling the Midianites.

The famous or infamous fleece tale (or is it tail?) comes after Gideon had gathered men from his family, Manasseh, and from Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali. This confederation came together and the question, for Gideon, at least, was, "Am I the right one to lead this army against the Midianites?"

So he was not doubting God at all. He was seeking confirmation that he was the one to lead the conquest of their enemies. He was not a timid Timothy or doubting Thomas looking for an escape hatch. He had already displayed his courage in destroying the altar of the false gods. (Granted he did it at night, but apparently not secretly enough to escape detection.) His demonstration of courage in rejecting the "popular" god of the time may have inspired the following that responded to his call for assistance.

Gideon was not questioning God's ability. He was reaffirming his own call to lead. He was obedient. He just wanted to make sure that he was on the right path. There are a couple of lessons here.

First, he was acting out of obedience. He was not looking for an "out" to avoid following the Lord. Asking for guidance when we are not obedient to what we have already be given is a sure way to get no answer. At times the Lord does repeat instructions, but He always waits for us to "catch up" with our obedience before He leads in the next step. Gideon was already there.

Second, we may even choose outlandish requests. Dare great things. Joshua asked the Lord to "stop the sun." Done. Moses asked the Lord to make a way in the Red Sea. Done. Moses asked for water to come out of a rock. Done. Later on, Elijah asked for fire to fall on a sodden sacrifice. Done. We can go on and on. But the key connector in all of these incidents was the willingness to obey once the verification was done. Gideon was ready and he obeyed, even in the face of common sense objections. "Three hundred against a zillion? You sure?"

Remember what happened next? God trimmed Gideon's army to 300 men. Whoa! It is a good thing Gideon had asked before, wasn't it? If he had not been convinced prior to this, he would probably joined the 31,700 who went home. Incidentally, the opposing army was numbered at about 135,000. The next chapter recounts that about 15,000 survived and 120,000 were killed.

When we obey what we know, God will work miracles on our behalf. And with this knowledge, we do not even have to put out a fleece. Thank you Gideon.