I would like us to swallow Judges 6 at one gulp. The chapter opens with the same dreary notice of Israel’s idolatry (v. 1; cf. 2:11). This time Yahweh’s scourge is Midian. We have in verses 1–6 the most detailed description of Israel’s distress so far. Dire distress it was. Whenever the Israelites would plant their crops, Midian (along with Amalekites and ‘sons of the east’) would invade and ‘ruin the produce of the land’ (v. 4), that is, probably pillage foodstuffs for themselves and allow their livestock to pasture on the rest. They appropriated Israel’s sheep, oxen, and donkeys (the equivalent of stealing a mechanic’s tools). All this was what covenant breakers could expect, says Deuteronomy 28:29, 31. For seven years they left Israel no ‘sustenance’ (v. 4) or means of sustenance. The same scourge and terror every year: invade from the east, cross the Jordan, hit the bread basket in the Plain of Jezreel, sweep southwest as far as Gaza in Philistia, practicing their clean-earth policy.

Seven years of it. You are hungry, poor, and tired. Every year, as sure as income tax, Midian’s buzzards come. You’re tired of rushing your family, livestock (what is left of it), and grain (if salvaged) to the hills where you live a caveman existence till the foreign locusts get bored and move on to impoverish others. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to throw your wheat up into the wind out on the threshing floor, as a free man should (v. 11)? ‘So Israel was brought very low on account of Midian, and the sons of Israel cried out to Yahweh’ (v. 6).

The Word That Criticizes Us

Now we must hear the word that criticizes us (v. 7–10). Here Yahweh does the strangest thing; in fact, it appears ludicrous. Israel cries for relief, ‘and Yahweh sent a prophet to the sons of Israel’ (v. 8). That would be like a stranded motorist calling a garage for assistance and the garage sending a philosopher instead of a mechanic. Israel needs deliverance and Yahweh sends a prophet; Israel asks for an act of God’s power and he sends them a proclaimer of his word who rehearses Yahweh’s grace (vv. 8b–9), repeats Yahweh’s demand (v. 10a), and levels Yahweh’s accusation (v. 10b). Hence Yahweh sends a prophet because Israel needs more than immediate relief; they need to understand why they are oppressed. They must see that ‘Yahweh gave them into the hand of Midian’ (v. 1) because they had ‘not listened to [his] voice’ (v. 10b).

Surely God’s way with his people has not changed. Do we sometimes marvel at the ‘inappropriate’ answers God gives to our urgent need? Like Israel, we may want escape from our circumstances while God wants us to interpret our circumstances. Sometimes we may need understanding more than relief; sometimes God must give us insight before he dare grant safety. Understanding God’s way of holiness is more important than absence of pain. We may want out of a bind, whereas God wants us to see our idolatry. God means to instruct us, not pacify us.

We should not miss the kindness of God in all this. One of the kindest things God does for us is to bring us under the criticism of his word to expose the reasons for our helplessness and misery. He does this by the preaching, counsel, or reading of his word.

I was once teaching a seminary class in Old Testament poetical books. Near the time for the final exam some students were agonizing over what and how to study for the exam since we had covered so much ground. The implication was that it would be cruel not to give them some guidance. So I concocted a study guide, consisting of some sixty-five questions, which covered the material in some detail. Then, of course, the problem was: such a vast amount of material to be studied! Was that also cruel? I think not. I think it was sheer professorial kindness. They knew exactly what to study and how much and how thoroughly. The amount of study may have brought pain, but the fact that they had utter clarity about their responsibility was most gracious of me, even if I do say so myself. So it is when God teaches us, when his word criticizes and corrects and imparts solid wisdom instead of instant deliverance.

The Grace That Holds Us

Secondly, we must see here the grace that holds us. There is something strange about the prophet’s preaching in verses 8b–10. He didn’t finish his sermon. Let us set down the content of his proclamation:

Introductory formula

Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel

Rehearsal of Yahweh’s grace

I brought you up from Egypt,

and I led you out from the house of slaves,

and I delivered you

from the hand of the Egyptians and

from the hand of all your oppressors,

and I drove them out from before you,

and I gave you their land.

Reminder of Yahweh’s stipulation

And I said to you,

I am Yahweh your God;

You must not fear the gods of the Amorites

in whose land you live.

Accusation

But you have not listened to my voice.

The next thing we know the Angel of Yahweh comes and sits under the oak at Ophrah (v. 11). That is wholly unexpected. after hearing the prophet accuse in Yahweh’s behalf, ‘But you have not listened to my voice,’ we expect him to go on to his punch line, which would normally be an announcement of judgment. For example, in Jeremiah 11:9–11, Yahweh makes a threefold accusation against Judah and Jerusalem (v. 10) and immediately launches into ‘therefore … I am bringing evil upon them’ (v. 11). Or try Jeremiah 25:1–11, where the prophet accuses Judah of not listening to Yahweh (vv. 3–7), and then with his dreadful ‘therefore’ proceeds to announce that Yahweh will bring ‘all the tribes of the north’ and Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon against Judah (vv. 8–11). The problem with this prophecy in Judges 6 is that after verse 10b we are all tensed for the proper ‘therefore,’ which does not come. The judgment that should be announced is omitted. Instead the Angel of Yahweh goes to coax a man to deliver Israel.

That is why I have called this section ‘the grace that holds us.’ How like the God of the Bible whose covenant love is so ‘mighty’ over us (Ps. 103:11, in the Hebrew)! When he ‘ought’ to destroy he delivers yet again; when he has every right to shatter he nevertheless prepares to save. How ‘slow to anger’ (Exod. 34:6) indeed! How loath he is to strike his people (Lam. 3:33) even when justice begs for it. That is why Ephesians 2:4 grips us so. There we are lifeless (because dead in trespasses and sins, Eph. 2:1), helpless (because toadies to Satan and our own desires, 2:2–3a), hopeless (because children of wrath, 2:3)—‘But God, who is rich in mercy …!’ (Eph. 2:4). As I said previously, no one could ever have invented a God like this; it would be too much for guilty, sane folks to hope for, a God who bridles his judgment to hold us in his grace. He is the God who displays himself on the pages of Judges 6.

Seven years of it. You are hungry, poor, and tired. Every year, as sure as income tax, Midian’s buzzards come. You’re tired of rushing your family, livestock (what is left of it), and grain (if salvaged) to the hills where you live a caveman existence till the foreign locusts get bored and move on to impoverish others. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to throw your wheat up into the wind out on the threshing floor, as a free man should (v. 11)? ‘So Israel was brought very low on account of Midian, and the sons of Israel cried out to Yahweh’ (v. 6).

The demand placed on Gideon was meant as a paradigm for Israel. Yahweh was preparing to deliver them. But Israel must be properly prepared for such deliverance. God cannot safely trust his good gifts to those not fully given to him. When our little boy comes, bawling, into the kitchen with knees skinned up from a headlong fall on the driveway, we don’t simply slap a giant two-inch-wide Band-Aid over the mess. Rather, we cleanse the grit and gunk out of the wound before the Band-Aid goes on. And that is Jesus’ way. He did not hand the rich man a decision card and tell him to check the box beside ‘follow me.’ Instead he exposed the moral man’s transgression of the first commandment and called on him to smash his idol—then he could follow Christ (Mark 10:21). There can be none of this double-heartedness—not for Gideon, nor for Israel, nor for the rich young ruler, nor for us.

Such is Yahweh’s demand on Gideon and Israel. If Yahweh is to be their Savior, Baal must go. Baal may be tolerant, but Yahweh is jealous. There can be no ‘limping between two opinions’ (1 Kings 18:21). To pray ‘Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet’ (as Augustine did while still a Manichean) is to have already decided the issue. Judges 6 and Matthew 6 agree: no one can be a slave of two masters (Matt. 6:24). For Gideon and for us those times come when our commitment to the living God can no longer remain hidden, when we must declare ourselves, when we must burn our bridges and, if need be, stand alone against the religious, social, cultural expectations of the community.

‘But I will be with you.’ Basically, God has nothing else or more to offer you. You can go through a lot with that promise. It does not answer your questions about details. It only provides the essential. Nothing about when or how or where or why. Only the what, or, better, the Who. ‘But I will be with you.’ And that is enough.