“ Behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor, and if there be dew on the fleece only, and if it be dry on all the ground, then will I know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said.”
The thought that he had called all the tribes together made the inexperienced young man quail. What if he was making a fool of them all and of himself? Had he just dreamed what had happened? He was riddled with doubts. So he set a task for God so that He would prove whether the call had been genuine. It was a little late for it, for the tribes were gathering. But his mind was being torn apart by his doubts (nothing else could have excused his request for two extra signs).
His suggestion was that he lay out a fleece of wool on the threshing-floor. Then if it was dew-filled in the morning, but the ground was dry, he would know that Yahweh would deliver Israel by his hand. Israel was a land of heavy dews. Thus the situation would indeed require a miracle. Perhaps his mind went back to another young man who had been eager for a blessing, in Genesis 27:28, and to the response that came to him, ‘God give you of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine. Let peoples serve you and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers.' This was what he wanted too. The plentiful dew would signify that God was about to bring the people food through him as a result of him being lord over his brothers.