Gideon and the Fleece Test

Yesterday I mentioned briefly about Gideon and the fleece test. Just for the sake, I will go into more detail today.

In Judges 6, an angel appeared to Gideon, and told him that God had chosen him to deliver Israel from the Midianites. Gideon wasn’t all too sure about this, and so he asked the angel for a sign. Then he prepared an offering, a kid and some cakes and some broth. The angel told him to pour out the broth, and to set the meat and the cakes on a rock. The angel reached out with his staff, and touched the offering, and fire came from the rock and consumed the food.

Gideon apparently still wasn’t convinced, because he spent some time in prayer, and, one night before he went to bed, he laid out a sheepskin on the ground (one that still had wool on it), and prayed that, if this really was God’s will, that the dew would form on the fleece, but not on the ground. In the morning, he found that the ground was dry, but the sheepskin was wet. He picked it up to wring it out, and got a whole bowlful of water from this one fleece. He apparently spent all day thinking about this, and, at nightfall, decided that he still wasn’t convinced. He laid out the sheepskin again, and, with a great deal of humility, asked God not to be angry with him, but, basically explained that he wasn’t sure that what had happened the night before wasn’t completely natural, so, tonight, let the dew form on the ground, and not on the fleece, and then he would know. In the morning, the ground was wet, and the sheepskin was dry; so there was no question that what had happened was of God, at least one of the two times, if not both.

After that, Gideon gathered together an army of Israelites, about 32,000 soldiers, and God told him that he had too many men. Gideon was probably thinking to himself, “Too many men? The Midianites have a lot more soldiers than this, and they are well trained. These guys barely know how to hold a sword!” but, he allowed God to winnow down his troops to about three hundred (three hundred Israelites, not three hundred Spartans, mind you). Now Gideon is worried again, so God tells him to sneak up close to the Midianite camp. When he does that, he hears one of the Midianite soldiers tell another one that he had a dream that a cake of barley rolled into their camp, and knocked down the main tent. The other soldier tells him that the barley must represent this Israelite named Gideon, into whose hand God has promised to deliver the Midianites. So, of course, Gideon, using very unconventional methods, puts the Midianites to flight, and frees Israel.

Now my point is this: You read that story, and you’re probably thinking to yourself, “What is with that guy? He saw an angel, he fleece tested God (twice), and he still needs to hear that the enemy is afraid of him before he is willing to go into battle? How much proof did he need?” And yet, this is one of the heroes of the Bible. This is one of the guys that we should emulate. You know, it seems to me that if anybody in the whole Bible only had as much faith as a grain of mustard seed, this is the guy. Here’s the thing, though, most of us will never see an actual angel, or squeeze water out of a sheepskin, or hear someone who is against us confessing that they are terrified of us (not that anyone should be scared of us, they should fear God), but God expects us to act on faith anyway. Unlike Gideon, we have the Spirit of God to lead us and guide us—as long as we will let Him.