‘ And Gideon said to him, “Oh my lord, if Yahweh be with us, why then has all this befallen us? And where are all his wonderful works which our fathers told us of, saying, did not Yahweh bring us up from Egypt. But now Yahweh has cast us off and delivered us into the hand of Midian ” '
He was not sure to whom he was talking, but he sensed from his words that he was somehow from Yahweh. So he challenged Him as to why, if Yahweh was with him, they were in this state. Why had these troubles befallen them? Why had Yahweh not done something about it before? Those who still clung to the covenant were constantly being told by their fathers of what Yahweh had done for them in the past, when He had brought them out of Egypt (Exodus 13:8; Deuteronomy 6:20 on). They had heard it so often. But that was just a recounting of history. Where was His powerful activity now? For seven long years they had suffered abominably but He had done nothing.
“But now Yahweh has cast us off and delivered us into the hand of Midian.” As so often with human beings it was expressed as God's fault and not theirs. Yet in his heart he must have had a good idea of the answer to his own question, and his words were probably an attempt to obtain confirmation that they had not fully been cast off. That there was still hope. Their past history was based on God's continued goodness and their own failure, and God's response when they repented. Would He do it again?
He must have known that they had grown complacent. That they had been ‘cast off' because of their faithlessness. And that could only be because they had failed to fulfil their part in the covenant, their true response to God had atrophied. The worship of Baal was now rampant. Who knew that better than him with the altar of Baal on his father's land? That alone could explain why Midian, whom Yahweh had told them to destroy, were instead destroying them. But as it was Yahweh Who had cast them off how then could He be with him?