Judges 6:17

6:11-24 Gideon was a man of a brave, active spirit, yet in obscurity through the times: he is here stirred up to undertake something great. It was very sure that the Lord was with him, when his Angel was with him. Gideon was weak in faith, which made it hard to reconcile the assurances of the presence of God with the distress to which Israel was brought. The Angel answered his objections. He told him to appear and act as Israel's deliverer, there needed no more. Bishop Hall says, While God calls Gideon valiant, he makes him so. God delights to advance the humble. Gideon desires to have his faith confirmed. Now, under the influences of the Spirit, we are not to expect signs before our eyes such as Gideon here desired, but must earnestly pray to God, that if we have found grace in his sight, he would show us a sign in our heart, by the powerful working of his Spirit there, The Angel turned the meat into an offering made by fire; showing that he was not a man who needed meat, but the Son of God, who was to be served and honoured by sacrifice, and who in the fulness of time was to make himself a sacrifice. Hereby a sign was given to Gideon, that he had found grace in God's sight. Ever since man has by sin exposed himself to God's wrath and curse, a message from heaven has been a terror to him, as he scarcely dares to expect good tidings thence. In this world, it is very awful to have any converse with that world of spirits to which we are so much strangers.

And he said unto him, if now I have found grace in thy sight, &c. Or seeing he had, as appeared by his salutation of him as a man of might, by the work he gave him a commission to do, and by the promise of assistance and success: then show me a sign that thou talkest with me; in the name of God, as a messenger sent by him, whether an angel or a man; for who he was as yet Gideon was not clear in it, and that what he had said was truth, and would be certainly fulfilled; and which Gideon might desire, not so much, or at least not only for his own sake, and the confirmation of his faith, for which he is renowned, as that he might be able to satisfy others that he had a commission from God, by a messenger of his, to attempt the deliverance of Israel.

That it is thou , to wit, an angel or messenger sent from God, that appears to me, and discourseth with me; and not a fancy or delusion; that thou art in truth what thou seemest and pretendest to be, Judges 7:12 . Or, a sign of that which thou talkest with me, i.e. that thou wilt by me smite the Midianites.

17 . shew me a sign that it is thou ] Gideon asks for a sign that it is indeed Jehovah who charges him with this great undertaking ( Jdg 6:14; Jdg 6:16 ); but in the following verse Gideon clearly does not know who is addressing him. Jehovah wills partly to retain and partly to withdraw the disguise. His words suggest to Gideon that He is no ordinary stranger. But some scholars think that these words ( Jdg 6:17 b) cannot come from the same hand as Jdg 6:18 .

(17) I have found grace in thy sight. —A phrase found both in the Old and New Testament. (See Genesis 6:8 ; Esther 5:8 .) Shew me a sign that thou talkest with me.—Give me some clear proof that this is no mere vision, and that thy message is really from God, and portends me favour. (See Psalm 86:17; Isaiah 7:11.) Depart not hence.—Comp. 1Kings 13:15. My present.—My minchah. The word means first “an offering,” but specially “an offering to God,” as throughout the Book of Leviticus for the meat-offering of flour, &c. Hence the LXX. render it “the sacrifice”: “and I will sacrifice before thee.” Gideon seems, however, purposely to use a neutral word, suspecting, but not yet being convinced, that the stranger under the terebinth is something more than man. The desire to be hospitable may have mingled with his deepening sense of awe. (Comp. Judges 13:15; Genesis 18:6.)

As Gideon could no longer have any doubt after this promise that the person who had appeared to him was speaking in the name of God, he entreated him to assure him by a sign (אות, a miraculous sign) of the certainty of his appearance. "Do a sign that thou art speaking with me," i.e., that thou art really God, as thou affirmest. שׁאתּה, or אתּה אשׁר, is taken from the language of ordinary life. At the same time he presents this request: "Depart not hence till I((go and) come to thee, and bring out my offering and set it before thee;" and the angel at once assents. Minchah does not mean a sacrifice in the strict sense (θυσία, sacrificium), nor merely a "gift of food," but a sacrificial gift in the sense of a gift presented to God, on the acceptance of which he hoped to receive the sign, which would show whether the person who had appeared to him was really God. This sacrificial gift consisted of such food as they were accustomed to set before a guest whom they wished especially to honour. Gideon prepared a kid of the goats (עשׂה is used to denote the preparation of food, as in Genesis 18:7-8 , etc.), and unleavened cakes of an ephah (about 221/2 lbs.) of meal, and brought the flesh in a basket and the broth in a pot out to the terebinth tree, and placed it before him.

De Lavaur has written on the subject, and contains, as some think, a very clear case; and is an additional proof how much the heathens have been indebted to the Bible. [ Judges 17 ] ADAM CLARK'E BIBLE COMMENTARY JUDGES JUDGES 17:1 There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah. Micah, an Ephraimite, restores to his mother eleven hundred shekels of silver, which he had taken from her, Judges 17:1, Judges 17:2. She dedicates this to God; and out of a part of it makes a graven image and a molten image, and gets them up in the house of Micah, Judges 17:3, Judges 17:4; who consecrates one of his sons to be his priest, Judges 17:5. He afterwards finds a Levite, whom he consecrates for a priest, and gives him annually ten shekels of silver, with his food and clothing, Judges 17:6-13. Verse 1 And there was a man of Mount Ephraim - It is extremely difficult to fix the chronology of this and the following transactions. Some think them to be here in their natural order; others, that they happened in the time of Joshua, or immediately after the ancients who outlived Joshua. All that can be said with certainty is this, that they happened when there was no king in Israel; i.e., about the time of the Judges, or in some time of the anarchy, Judges 17:6.