If we first read Judges 6:1, we see that the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and He allowed the Midianites to attack them and take their resources, including the food produced in the fields (v. 3, 4). When they sought the Lord, He sent a prophet who traveled through several cities to remind them that they could not worship the Canaanite gods (v. 7-10). For not listening, they were punished.

For seven years, the Midianites, Amalekites, and other peoples of the East joined together to attack the fields of the Israelites and take away all their crops (v. 33). Nothing stopped them. The prophet had already warned the people about the reason for such oppression. Having heard the word of the man of God, the young Gideon took the harvested wheat to a winepress to thresh it in a place hidden from Israel's enemies who were returning to plunder the food (v. 11).

The angel of the Lord went to where Gideon was threshing the wheat and greeted him, saying that God was with him and calling him a mighty man of valor (v. 12). Upon hearing this greeting, Gideon said to Him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.” (v. 13). The Most High told him to go in that faith, for He would save His people (v. 14).

First, Gideon destroyed his father’s altar to Baal (vv. 25-32). Then he recruited men to join him in the war for the deliverance of his people. To begin with, he and the group of “soldiers” that the Lord gave him rose at dawn and camped by the spring of Harod (a Hebrew term meaning “trembling”), near a Midianite camp (Judges 7:1).

Gideon chose this place because he thought it was strategic for launching the attack. No doubt he prayed for God to guide him; after all, without the Lord there is no victory. Jesus himself emphasized: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. (John 15.5). So, if there is something strange preventing us from living well, we must seek the face of the Most High to know how to proceed; without divine guidance, we will fail.

Sometimes, when we draw closer to the Lord, it seems that adversities and temptations increase, but this is only a sign of what was already happening to us. When we are instructed to do what is right, we see that before, we strayed from the goals set by God because the devil placed things before us that we must expel from our lives. Confessing our sins to God will bring us forgiveness and prepare us for the war from which we and our family will emerge victorious!

Be mindful that in the case of Gideon and his soldiers, the Lord did not commission a group of people experienced in battle. God chose us, because even though we are novices, we can learn to wage war with Him and be victorious; thus, He will receive all the glory that is due to Him.

In Christ, with love,      

R. R. Soares.