‘ And the Angel of Yahweh appeared to him, and said to him, “Yahweh is with you, you mighty man of valour.” '
Gideon may well have been thinking of His people's troubles, and scheming as to what he could do about it, possibly considering daring, and perhaps foolhardy and impractical plans, although only theoretical, as to how he could reverse the situation. In view of what follows it is probable that he was associating such actions with allegiance to Yahweh, and that he was himself a faithful worshipper of Yahweh. Then suddenly the Angel of Yahweh ‘appeared to him'. He found himself confronted face to face with the One he had been thinking about.
The words of this stranger probably shook Gideon. His thoughts had not been intended to be taken too seriously too quickly. And yet here was this clearly important and imposing person encouraging his thoughts and assuring him that Yahweh was with him in them. The actual words spoken by the Angel demonstrated to him that He was not only aware that his thoughts had been moving in that direction, but was actually encouraging him, no, even forcing him in that direction.
“Yahweh is with you”. He was being assured that Yahweh was with him in what he had been theoretically planning to do. And ‘you mighty man of valour' confirmed that He had war in His mind, and that He felt that Gideon was just the man for it. Gideon would be of the wealthy landowning class. He had known that it was the responsibility of people like him to give a lead to the people, but he had not known how it could be done, or even that it could be done.