Judges 6:11-24
The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”
“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”
“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”
The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”
Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.”
And the Lord said, “I will wait until you return.”
Gideon went inside, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah[a] of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak.
The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And Gideon did so. Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of the staff that was in his hand. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared. When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, “Alas, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”
But the Lord said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.”
So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord Is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
In this hour, Holy Spirit is calling Gideons. This is a critical time, a strategic time, and God is calling Gideons. Have you heard a Gideon call?
Think of Gideon. He was not idle. He was working, threshing grain. Because of the raids of the Midianites, he had to thresh the wheat in a winepress so that the enemy would not sweep in and steal the fruit of his labors. He was providing for himself and his family – a good thing to do.
But God had another plan, another identity for Gideon. God called him “mighty warrior”. God had a higher calling and purpose, and with that calling, a higher authority for Gideon.
We are in a critical time, a strategic time in history. Our circumstances are, in many ways, not unlike Gideon’s circumstances. Many hope to just keep a low profile and thresh out a little wheat hidden away down in the winepress. But God has other plans. This is not a time to be on the sidelines. There is war in the spiritual realm. God is calling winepress Gideons to their role as mighty warriors. You are one of them. God is with you, mighty warrior. He is putting you into the game. Each objection, every excuse He pushes aside.
If you have not already heard a Gideon call, ask God. “Where are you calling me to battle? What prayer burden do you want to place on my shoulders? What is the will of God in this particular circumstance that I have heard about? Then pray, “Father, Your will, Your plan, Your desire be done on earth just like it is in heaven.”
I am impressed that this is a strategic time, a time when God is realigning and shifting things both in the natural arena and in the spiritual. It is a time for Gideons to come out of the winepress.
God has appointed specific strategic times for accomplishing His kingdom purposes. Romans 5:6 tells us that “at the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.” Galatians 4:4 tells us “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son”. Acts 3 tells of Peter and John going up to the temple at the hour of prayer and seeing the man lame from birth who had been taken daily to the temple gate which is called “beautiful” to beg. In all the times Jesus had been to the temple, He had not healed this man. But on this day, at this hour of prayer, Peter and John were made aware that this was the time. As a matter of fact, the word translated as “beautiful”, ὡραῖος, which is used to describe the gate, means “an hour, the time of fulfillment, a particular hour, beautiful in timing” (from Strong’s concordance). We are at a “beautiful” moment. It is for such a time as this that God has placed you here. Come up out of the winepress. Hear God’s sending call, mighty warrior!
