A New Judge

A New Judge

Q: Who was hiding in the winepress when God called him to be a judge?

• a. Joshua
• b. Gideon
• c. Samson

Many times throughout the book of Judges, the Israelites turned from God and returned back to him. Once again they had turned from him, and God allowed the Midianites to oppress them. The Midianites took all the Israelites’ sheep, goats, cattle, and donkeys. They also took or destroyed all the crops. The Israelites had little to eat, so they finally called out to God, and he sent them Gideon to be the deliverer.

When God sent an angel to talk to him, Gideon was hiding at the bottom of a winepress secretly threshing wheat so the Midianites wouldn’t take it. The angel said to Gideon, “Mighty hero, the LORD is with you!”

Gideon was sure the angel had the wrong man. “How can I rescue Israel?” he asked. “My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!” Gideon wanted a sign that the message was really from God. He cooked a young goat and made bread without yeast and brought it, along with broth, to the angel as a sacrifice. The angel touched it with a staff, and fire consumed the sacrifice.

God told Gideon to destroy his father’s altar to Baal and his father’s Asherah pole and to build an altar to God instead. Gideon obeyed, but he did it at night so he wouldn’t be seen.

The next morning the people found out Gideon had destroyed the idols, and they wanted to kill him. Joash, Gideon’s father, told them, “Why are you defending Baal? . . . Let him defend himself and destroy the one who broke down his altar!”

Gideon was going about his everyday work when God called him to a new job. And God had lots more for him to do.

For You

Is there something new that God wants you to do? If there isn’t, don’t wait around to see what God has for you to do. Do your everyday work to glorify God, and know that he will lead you in the way you should go.

Answer: b

The angel of the LORD came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah. . . . Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites.   Judges 6:11

(The Whole Story: Judges 6:1-32)