“ And build an altar to Yahweh your God on the top of this stronghold in the orderly manner. And take the second bullock and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down.”
The rock on which Yahweh caused the offering to be sent up by fire was now described as a ‘strong place' or ‘stronghold'. It is where the angel of Yahweh, the captain of Yahweh's host has stood (Joshua 5:14). There an altar to Yahweh must be built in accordance with Exodus 20:24-25. It is from there that He will go out to possess the land.
“In the orderly manner. And take the second bullock and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down.” The ‘orderly manner' means as prescribed in Exodus 20:24. The Asherah-image or pole was to be burnt and thus basically be handed over to Yahweh. And its fire was to be used to offer up the second bull to Yahweh. It must thus have been fairly large.
“Offer a burnt (or ‘whole”) offering.' It is not necessary to assume from this that Gideon himself offered the burnt offering. He may well secretly have called on a tribal priest, for to ‘offer an offering' usually in Israel meant through a priest' (compare Luke 2:24 where there can be no doubt on the matter). This kind of offering, ‘a whole offering', was totally burned up as a complete offering to God. We note that a bullock was to be offered when ‘the whole congregation of Israel' had sinned (Leviticus 4:13; Leviticus 4:21) as was true here. Israel's failure to sacrifice rightly to Yahweh was being remedied.
The offering of the bullock was also significant in that Baal was figured in the form of a bull, so that in symbolism both Baal and Asherah were being burned up and offered to Yahweh. Perhaps there was in it a hint that Baal, pictured in the form of the bullock, had held sway for the seven years of the bullock's life, and that his reign was now ended. When the town awoke in the morning they would witness an altar of unhewn stones, clearly dedicated to Yahweh, and the remains of the bull and of the Asherah-image on it, demonstrating that they had been deposed and replaced by Yahweh. It may equally signify that the seven year ‘reign' of the Midianites was also now ended.