Judges 6:19-27 - Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

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Face to Face with the Angel of Jehovah

Judges 6:19-27

Gideon realized the momentous character of that interview. He only wanted to be sure that it was no dream or fancy, and so hence the proposal of the flesh and broth. As the fire started forth at the Angel's touch, he knew that the veil of the unseen world had been rent to send him direction and help. At first he was startled, and then the peace of God fell upon his soul. He heard the Voice that uttered a similar benediction in Daniel 10:19 and John 20:26. The peace of God henceforth kept His heart and mind.

On Gideon's side, God required an act of immediate obedience: the destruction-though they stood on his father's property-of the hideous emblems of cruel and unclean rites and the substitution of an altar to the Lord. Ten of his household servants, beneath the spell of his personality, aided him in this heroic deed, which exposed him to disownment by his family and the forfeiture of his life by the townsfolk. God demands that we should love Him best, Luke 14:26-27; Luke 14:33. But when our heart is perfect toward Him, He shows Himself strong in our behalf, 2 Chronicles 16:9.

Related Commentaries of Judges 6:19

Judges 6:19-27

19 And Gideon went in, and made ready a kid,f and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it.

20 And the angel of God said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so.

21 Then the angel of the LORD put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the LORD departed out of his sight.

22 And when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the LORD, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord GOD! for because I have seen an angel of the LORD face to face.

23 And the LORD said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die.

24 Then Gideon built an altar there unto the LORD, and called it Jehovahshalom:g unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

25 And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said unto him, Take thy father's young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it:

26 And build an altar unto the LORD thy God upon the top of this rock,h in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down.

27 Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the LORD had said unto him: and so it was, because he feared his father's household, and the men of the city, that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night.