tli.o'.'O?l[Jh tru.•t i1_1 G'od ; . the otlrnr to in.spire hiin with a pi·opei· tr11st in liimsell, spnngmg from hrn ~rust_ m God.,, And so the angel began at once with the startliRg word~, "The Lord 1s with thee. And the ans~,·er of doubt and despair from the lips of Gideon was met by a look of God-a turnmg of God's face upon him, a lifting up of the light of God's countenance upon him, with a power of unutterable grace and a word of f-urther encouragement: "Go in this thy might· ... have not I sent thee?" and again he said," Surely I will be with thee I" And th; scene that followed- the tarrying of the angel till his return with the kid and the unleavened cakes• the Rolemn ~acrifice on the altar of rock; the outstretched staff in the angel's hand t~uch- ing the fle~h and the cakes ; the bursting ~orth of the fire from the rock ; the word of comfort, Peace be unt;0 thee I and the disappearance ?f tl~e angel as mysteriously as he came--was all dirf'cted to the same end, to work m G1deon's mind the deepest possible conviction that God was with him, and that the whole love and power of the Almighty was on his side. But it was also necessary to inspire him with a proper trust in himself. As long as he thought of himself only as the drudge of the family, a thresher of wheat a skulker by the wine-press ; as long as he felt himself one of a degraded caste as lo~o- as be had no hope, no spirit, no sense of having a mission, he would and ~ould d~ nothing great. The man, the warrior, the captain, the deliverer, the hero, the martyr must be aroused within him. And so the voice of God addres~es him, "The Lordi~ with thee, thou mighty man of valour. Go in thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite Midian as one. man." And if these words fell, as no doubt they did, upon a spirit already chafed with a sense of his country's degradation ; if burning thoughts of shame and humiliation were smouldering in his mind as he threshed his wheat in Recrct, trembling at every sound, and casting suspicious glances on every side, for fear some Midianite should be near, how would these words of homage and respect from the mysterious stranger awaken his soul to a new estimate of his place in the world. It was no longer a time to hide, and despair, and complain, and whine, and use the weapons of the weak, guile and subtlety, it was a time to rise, and act, and d:..re, and risk, and he was the man to be at the head of this new movement. Thie was Gideon's preparation.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 11-15.-The call of Gideon. Unexpected by himself and undreamt of bJ tl1e nation. The whole land is given over to idolatry and wretchedness, but God 1s at no Joss to find his servant. A strong man-a hero, ignominiously concealed, he is a ~ymbol of Israel's helplessness. l. THE PERSONALITY AND RELATIONS OF GIDEON ARE A REBUKE TO ISRAEL, A VIND!• CATION OF THE SOVEREIGN WILL OF GoD, AND A REVELATION OF THE SOURCE OF ALL TRUE POWER. He is the youngest scion of an insignificant family in a secondary tribe. Not only has he had no spe_cial religious . or political !mining, he is . an idolater, or at any rate belongs to an idolatrous family. An~ he 1s addressed wh1l?t acting in a manner of which he must have felt ashamed. Hidden_, ~elpless, a sceptic regarding Divine existence or intervention. The culture and rehg1on of Israel are ignored. So God always chooses whom h~ will ~o act, to preach, to _suffer. There was no danger that Gideon would be credited with the work of deliverance as an achievement of his own originality and innate power. II. TIIE OCCASION WAS SIGNIFICANT OF '.!'HE HELP GoD INTENDED TO GIVE, He comes when things are at the worst. It was a sign t~at he would work o:ut a radical deliverance. Not partial help, but complete salvation would be due to him. III. GIDEON IS AN INSTANCE OF THE POWER OF RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE: He h~a heard in some way or another of God's work11 in his nation's his_tory. Evident]}'. his thoughts have been occupied with them. A rough interpretat10n has be~n arnved at, helping him to grasp the meaning of the situation. His was n?t total _ignorance, but a knowledge preparing for higher revelations and correspondm~ achie~ements. Truth smoulders in the mind until it bursts into flame. Inward 1mpress1ons and on. v1. 11-24.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES.