Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress at Ophrah. He was the son of Joash. Gideon was threshing in a winepress to hide the wheat from the Midianites.

¹²The angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon. He said, “Mighty warrior, the Lord is with you.”

¹³“But sir,” Gideon replied, “you say the Lord is with us. Then why has all of this happened to us? Where are all of the wonderful things he has done? Our parents told us about them. They said, ‘Didn’t the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has deserted us. He has handed us over to Midian.”

¹⁴The Lord turned to Gideon. He said to him, “You are strong. Go and save Israel from the power of Midian. I am sending you.”

¹⁵“But Lord,” Gideon asked, “how can I possibly save Israel? My family group is the weakest in the tribe of Manasseh. And I’m the least important member of my family.”

¹⁶The Lord answered, “I will be with you. So you will strike down the men of Midian all at one time.”

¹⁷Gideon replied, “If you are pleased with me, give me a special sign. Then I’ll know that it’s really you talking to me. ¹⁸Please don’t go away until I come back. I’ll bring my offering and set it down in front of you.”

The Lord said, “I will wait until you return.”

¹⁹Gideon went and prepared a young goat. From more than half a bushel of flour he made bread without using yeast. He put the meat in a basket. In a pot he put soup that was made from the meat. Then he brought all of it and offered it to the Lord under the oak tree.

²⁰The angel of God spoke to Gideon. He said, “Take the meat and the bread. Place them on this rock. Then pour out the soup.” So Gideon did it.

²¹The angel of the Lord had a wooden staff in his hand. With the tip of his staff he touched the meat and the bread. Fire blazed out of the rock. It burned up the meat and the bread. Then the angel of the Lord disappeared.

²²Gideon realized it was the angel of the Lord. He cried out, “Lord and King, I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”

²³But the Lord said to him, “May peace be with you! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.”

²⁴So Gideon built an altar to honor the Lord there. He called it The Lord Is Peace. It still stands in Ophrah to this very day. Ophrah is in the territory that belongs to the family line of Abiezer.

Read in Logos

Judges 6:13–14: And Gideon said to him, “… if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? … the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” And the LORD … said, “Go … and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?”