‘ And God did so that night, for it was dry on the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.' God graciously gave him his further sign. Next morning the ground was covered in dew but the fleece was bone dry.
What lesson do we learn from all this, apart from the need to be obedient to God? The main thing is that when God wants a man to do something special He prepares him for it step by step so that when the final test comes he is ready. Gideon thought that his test was now over. All that remained was the battle against overwhelming odds. But God was turning a raw young man into a man of steel and faith, and He had yet more tests in store for Gideon.
One thing we do not learn is that we have a right to seek guidance in this way, to set God tests in our daily lives. Only when God sends us against a huge, overwhelming enemy force that has been tyrannising a whole country for years, with only a small group of timid men to help, will we have even the smallest right to do what Gideon did. Of course Deborah would not have needed such proof. But she had had many years of experience of the power of God.