THE ANGEL OF THE LORD AND GIDEON When the people fell under humiliation by the Midianites, God sent ‘Gideon’ a judge and savior of the people. 1- Midian oppress the people OF Israel 1 - 6 2- A need for a savior 7 - 10 3- The Angel of the Lord appears to Gideon 11 - 24 4- Gideon tears down the altar of Baal 25 - 27 5- The city stirred up against Gideon 28 - 32 6- The sign of the fleece 33 - 40 1- MIDIAN OPPRESS THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL: “Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years” (1) Again the circle of sin, then chastisement, then salvation repeats itself. The people of Midian, descendants of ‘Keturah’ the second wife of Abraham (Genesis 25: 1, 2) were a congregation of nomads who dwelt east and southeast of the Black Sea. “and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains. So it was, whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would come up; also Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. Then https://coptic-treasures.com/ they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey. For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, coming in as numerous as locusts; both they and their camels were without number; and they would enter the land to destroy it. So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord” 2 – 6) This portrait of events repeated itself, not only in the era of the judges, but in the daily life of man in all times. Whenever he finds rest, instead of giving thanks and praise to the Lord, he forgets Him, to fall under the humiliation of sin, that gets authority on him through his slothfulness, destroys his inner crops, and leaves him no sustenance. Every sin draws another one behind it, to come as numerous as locusts, on the heart, mind, and senses; to swallow all the possibilities and energies of man and deprive him of every vitality. 2- A NEED FOR A SAVIOR: “And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord because of the Midianites, that the Lord sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage; and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. Also I said to you, “I am the Lord your God; do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.” But you have not obeyed My voice.’” (7 – 10) https://coptic-treasures.com/ According to St. Pavnotius: [While preoccupied with the riches and pleasures of this life; if we are suddenly faced by a temptation, that may threaten the loss of riches, or of a beloved one, it provokes us to come close to God, with whom we refrained to walk while we were enjoying rest. In the Holy Book we find several examples of such a situation, because of the sins of the children of Israel that made God deliver them to their enemies. And once they suffer the oppression and violence of the enemies, they return to God, and cry out to Him. Concerning this the psalmist says: ”When He slew them, then they sought Him, and they returned and sought earnestly for God. Then they remembered that God was their Rock; and the Most High God their Redeemer” (Psalm 78: 34, 35); And, “Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distress” (Psalm 107: 19)] God, therefore, sent affliction unto them to draw them to salvation, and sent them a prophet to reveal to them the exalted love of God; claimed by the Jews to be Phinehas the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron, who spoke to them during their celebration of a Feast, reminding them, as it was customary, of the works of God with their fathers, to provoke in them the spirit of hope and surety …..in particular of the events of the exodus from the land of bondage, and driving out the pagan nations before them, to let them inherit the promised land………. The clear line of God’s dealings with His people in most of the writings of the prophets. 3- THE ANGEL OF THE LORD APPEARS TO GIDEON: “Now the Angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the https://coptic-treasures.com/ winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites.; And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” (11, 12) The Angel of the Lord here is one of the apparitions of the Word of God, as it is clear from His saying to Gideon: “Have I not sent you?; ………. I will be with you” (14, 16). For the angel does not send prophets, judges on his own; nor say, “I will be with you”. These are the words of the Son of God, to proclaim His presence with the men of God. The Son of God was called “The Messenger of the covenant” (Malachi 3: 1), and, “The angel of His presence” (Isaiah 63: 9). The Angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in the village of Ophrah, meaning (deer), or (dusty), west of the Jordan, inhabited by the Abiezites of the tribe of Manasseh; where there was probably a sanctuary (temple) before the days of the Israelites.—the village of ‘Teba’, 8 miles north of Bissan………. The Son of God appeared to Gideon, whose name means (a wrestler); while he was threshing wheat with a rod to separate the wheat from hay; on account of that he had no proper threshing tools because of the persistent attacks of the Midianites.; He was threshing wheat in the winepress, most probably hidden in a cave from the eyes of the Midianites; which was the situation of all the people at that time. In Gideon, St. Ambrose sees a symbol of the true Savior Jesus Christ…….. Gideon was found under the terebinth tree; as though under the shadow of the wisdom of the cross, the life-giving tree. ………..Gideon was threshing wheat with a rod; as though prophesying what the Savior will do through the incarnation to happen in a secret way. According to St, Ambrose, the rod is the cross, which separates the wheat from the hay; the elect hidden saints, from the trash of no benefit. By the cross, the proved truth (the wheat), is proclaimed, separate from the works of the old man. Wheat in the church, appear by the cross, as though in the winepress; for {the church is the winepress of the perpetual fountain that flows with the fruit of the heavenly vineyard]. https://coptic-treasures.com/ So the True Gideon – the Lord Christ – works in His church, as though in a winepress, strikes the heads of wheat by His cross; to separate the grains from the hay; to hide it from the Midianites (11), and to offer it as food to His children. The Lord separates the saints and hides them in Him, from the devil and his evil works (the Midianites), to present them to the Father, as the heavenly joyful fruition of His field. Going back to the conversation between the Angel of the Lord and Gideon; we find that the Angel of the Lord started by addressing the greeting: “The Lord is with you, mighty man of valor!” (12). For Gideon was probably well known for his bravery and might; even though he says: “My clan is the weakest in Manasseh; and I am the least in my father’s house” (15)……… God chose the brave Gideon, lest He might seem to work only with the weak and those with little talents. ……….Anyway, “With plenty or few, He saves people”………. Yet, while brave and strong, Gideon humbly perceived his tribe, clan, and himself; For Manasseh was not the firstborn as was Reuben, nor holy to the Lord as was Levi; And he himself was the lest among his brothers, as far as age and honor were concerned. Gideon was a symbol of the Lord Christ “The Mighty Man of Valor”; the Word of God, by whom everything was done; capable of raising the dead, and creating from void; Who by incarnation, came to be the least of all; having become a servant of humanity, discredited and reproached; even to the death by the cross. “Gideon said to Him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did https://coptic-treasures.com/ not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.” 13) By saying this, Gideon did not doubt the words of the Lord, but in the daring of love he was rather admonishing, whether God was with them; He did not say “with me”; for he could not taste the presence of God, personally between God and himself, outside the holy congregation; How could the whole people suffer from the Midianites?! ……….While he could not deny the amazing works of God with His early fathers; yet he wonders, if God is with them , why does his generation not enjoy what the previous generations had enjoyed?! ………. How beautiful was Gideon’s heart, carrying such a kindling jealousy toward his brethren in the Lord!, to stand with such a love and daring, to admonish the Lord Himself, to take His mercy from Him (by force). “Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” (14) Here, he speaks about the Angel of the Lord as “Jehovah’, who “turned to Gideon” .Having proclaimed his jealousy, and entered into an open debate with the Lord, Gideon proved worthy of being the object of “God turning to him”; for God rejoices in such a kind of heart, and turns to use it as a vessel of righteousness. He commanded him to go “in that might of his”, meaning in his holy zeal; and probably intended it as a rebuke to him for trusting in his own strength ……..But it is obvious from the context that the Lord has called him to work, saying: “Have I not sent you?!”; as though he says to him: ‘Do not be afraid of what have befallen you; for I am now sending you, and will work by you, the way I did by your fathers. The Way God previously said to Joshua: “Have I not commanded you?!” (Joshua 1: 9). https://coptic-treasures.com/ Here, Gideon stands, not to excuse himself of work, but to take the divine work (by force), with the spirit of humility, saying: “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house” (15) Here Gideon calls him: “My Lord”, by Hebrew: “ Adonai”, a title only of God. Proclaiming the weakness of his tribe, and confessing his personal humble status, is the way of all those who truly work in the field of the Lord; who feel their own weakness, together with their trust in God who works in them . ……… We see the prophet Moses say: “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt” (Exodus 3: 11); which was instantly followed by God’s response: “I will certainly be with you” (Exodus 3: 12). With the same spirit, Isaiah, at the beginning of his prophetic work, proclaims: “Woe is me, for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6: 5); And Jeremiah says, as well, “Ah, Lord God, Behold, I cannot speak, for I am (a kid)” (Jeremiah 1: 6) “And the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man” “Then he said to Him, “If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who talk with me. Do not depart from here, I pray, until I come to You and bring out my offering and set it before You. And He said, “I will wait until you come back.” (16 – 18) https://coptic-treasures.com/ Why did Gideon seek a sign that it was God who spoke to him?.................Probably, because he saw himself unworthy of such a grace, and of receiving such a mission; and counted what was going on, a vision and not real, he wished for a sign. Intending to offer hospitality to his guest; with the hope for a divine proclamation of receiving it, He asked him not to depart, until he comes to Him, and bring out his offering and set it before Him “So Gideon went in and prepared a young goat, and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot; and he brought them out to Him under the terebinth tree and presented them. The Angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And he did so.. Then the Angel of the Lord put out the end of the staff that was in His hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. And the Angel of the Lord departed out of his sight” (19 – 21) The sign that Gideon sought, was that the Angel of God would wait until he offers his offering on a rock that represented an altar; So the Angel of the Lord did, and by letting fire rise out of the rock and consume the meat and the unleavened bread, He proclaimed the divine acceptance of the offering (Leviticus 9: 24; I kings 18: 38). https://coptic-treasures.com/ Presenting a spiritual interpretation of that encounter, St. Ambrose says: [The Rock refers to the body of the Lord Christ; according to what is written: ‘All drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from that spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10: 4)…….. Here he proclaims in a secret way that when the body of the Lord Jesus Christ is crucified, the sin of the whole world will be taken away; not just the actual sins, but even the evil desires of the mind. The meat of the young goat refers to the actual sins; and the broth refers to the seduction of the evil desires; as it is written that the children of Israel, intensively raving for meat, wailed saying: “Who will give us meat to eat?!” (Numbers 11: 4). By putting out the end of the staff that was in His hand, and touching the rock, fire rose out of it and consumed the offering. This fact proclaims that the body of Christ, full of the divine Spirit, will burn all the sins of the human nature; Hence the Lord said: “I came to send fire on the earth” (Luke 12: 49). ……Again St. Ambrose says: [The tree under which the Angel sat, and the staff with which He touched the rock, refer to the cross. The rock on which Gideon offered his burnt offering is Christ; according to the words of the apostle: “The Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10: 4); and the young goat sacrificed refers to the human race that sinned. We may also understand of how the Angel touched the rock with the staff, and fire arose out of the rock to consume the young goat; that the staff was the cross, namely Christ; and that it was the fire of love that arose to consume the sins of the human race. …….. Christ – the true Gideon -- says about Himself in the gospel: “I came to send fire on the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled” (Luke 12: 49).] “Now Gideon perceived that He was the Angel of the Lord. So Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! For I have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face” (22) “Then the Lord said to him, “Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die” (23) https://coptic-treasures.com/ Having proclaimed His acceptance of the offering of Gideon, revealing the secret of the cross, in which our actual sins, as well as our hidden evil desires, are forgiven in the worthiness of precious blood; and the fire of the divine love sets forth to consume every weakness in us; “The angel of the Lord departed out of his sight” (21). That departure, in such an incomprehensible exalted way, the depth of Gideon’s heart was so shaken; to assume that he would not live after seeing the Lord; the same way the Lord said to the prophet Moses: “You cannot see my face, for no man shall see He and live” (Exodus 33: 20). Yet the Lord brought peace into his heart, by telling him that, out of His divine condescendence He revealed Himself to him, as much he could endure, lest he dies. …………. According to St. John Chrysostom, in his article ‘Not perceiving the nature of God’, on the tongue of God: [I shall not proclaim my Essence itself; but shall condescend (in visions), because of the weakness of those who see Me]. “ So Gideon built an altar there to the Lord, and called it ‘The-Lord-Is-Peace’. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites” (24) Gideon so called the altar he built, for he counted the divine words “Peace be with you” (23), as not just a common greeting, but a divine gift that filled his depths inside, and will touch his life and those of the holy congregation. I wish our heart be like the “Ophrah of the Abiezrites”, which means (My father is a Helper); where we encounter the true Gideon, with our actual sins and our hidden thoughts, on the Rock, that by the cross He will consume them by a divine fire. I wish we would hear the voice of the Lord, saying: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your https://coptic-treasures.com/ hear be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14: 27).; and to set in it a divine altar, that will perpetually proclaim His salvation works 4- GIDEON TEARS DOWN THE ALTAR OF BAAL: . “Now it came to pass the same night that the Lord said to him, “Take your father’s young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the wooden image that is beside it; and build an altar to the Lord your God on top of this rock in the proper arrangement, and to take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down” With the apparition of the Lord to Gideon, and with the consecration of that location by such an apparition, it was impossible for the burnt offerings to the Lord to be offered where the sacrifices were offered to the Baal. That divine command to Gideon was not a permission for him to practice the priesthood task; for he was not of the tribe of Levi, who were, at the time most probably on the run from the affliction; not able to practice the worship with their proper rites; nor to offer the burnt offering at the tabernacle of meeting in Shiloh ……… But that divine command was for an exceptional individual task, with the goal of humiliating the Baal and Ashetoreth particularly with the command to use the wood of the image which he shall cut down, as fuel for the burnt offering. https://coptic-treasures.com/ On another aspect, according to St. Ambrose, that task was a prophecy and a heavenly secret, to be done; saying: [The wise man, Gideon, obeyed the words of the inspiration to the letter, killed the bull prepared to be a sacrifice to the Baal; and offered another seven years bull as a sacrifice to the Lord. By so doing. He showed very clearly that by the coming of the Lord, all the pagan sacrifices will be void, and the sacrifice of the Lord’s passions will only remain, as a godly work by the people. Being seven years old, that second bull was indeed a symbol of the Lord Christ; as in Christ, according to the prophet Isaiah, the fullness of the spiritual virtues dwell. Christ was presented once in the symbol of a kid goat; and in another as a cheep; and in a third as a bull. As a kid goat, being a sacrifice on sins; as a cheep, for He was a sacrifice by His own free will (His meekness); and a bull, being without blemish . ……….. Gideon had therefore, seen the secret]. “ So Gideon took ten men from among his servants and did as the Lord had said to him. But because he feared his father’s household and the men of the city too much to do it by day, he did it by night.” (27) 5- THE CITY STIRRED UP AGAINST GIDEON: .”And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, there was the altar of Baal, torn down; and the wooden image that was beside it was cut down, and the second bull was being offered on the altar which had been built. So they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And when they had inquired and asked, they said, “Gideon the son of https://coptic-treasures.com/ Joash has done this thing. Then the men of the city said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, because he has torn down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the wooden image that was beside it.” (28 -30) It so seems that, because Joash was a worshipper of Baal; while his son Gideon was a worshipper of the true God; the son lived isolated from the father, and had his own servants. He chose ten men, most probably the most zealous on worshipping the living God, to do according to the Lord’s command; by night for fear of his father’s household – the ‘Abiezrites’, who forsook the worship of God and perverted to idol-worship. By “the men of the city”. He means the Canaanites who used to dwell there, and remained with the Abiezrites. Who are those ten men, but the law with its ten commandments, sent by God to serve man, to guide him to destroy the inner altar of evil, and to enjoy the lifegiving sacrifice of the cross. ‘The father’s household’, and ‘the men of the city’, represent what the Lord Christ meant, when He proclaimed: “A man’s enemies will be those of his own household” (Matthew 10: 36). For the fiercest opponent of man, are the evil desires of his own body, the corrupt thoughts of his mind, and the perversion of his emotions. The most serious of them is ‘the Ego’, that sits inside man to kill in him every living spiritual thought. Let us then hold fast to the spiritual law in Jesus Christ, like ten men; and let us work by the Lord in spite of every inner opposition in the body, mind, and emotions; in order to crucify the ego, and that the Lord Himself would transfigure in us, as He does in His altar or in His heavenly temple. Going back to Gideon, we see that the men of the city arose early in the morning, to worship Baal at sunrise, being the god of the sun. and when they saw what happened to their god, they were stirred-up against Gideon the son of Joash; https://coptic-treasures.com/ probably because of their prior knowledge that he was zealous against idolworship. But his father was so impressed by the courage of his son to stand by him in their faces, and mockingly said to them: “Would you plead for Baal? Would you save him?.............. If he is a god, let him plead for himself, because his altar has been torn down!” (31) “Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal, saying, “Let Baal plead against him, because he has torn down his altar.” (32) The positive stand against evil taken by Gideon, made the weak souls, like his father’s, become stronger; who, perceiving the vanity of the helpless idolworship, he called his son Jerubaal’, namely, through whom, the day of judgment on Baal camel. “Then all the Midianites and Amalekites, the people of the East, gathered together; and they crossed over and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel” (33) Being in the heart of Palestine, the Valley of Jezreel has often been a bottle field. This valley extends from Mount Carmel to the Valley of the Jordan. One of its tributaries crosses between Mount Tabor and Tel-Morah’, and another one between ‘Tel-Morah and ‘Mount Gilboa’. This valley had its name after that of a prominent city, in which location nowadays is a village called ‘xxxxxxxxxx’. The valley is called now ‘The garden of Ben-Amer’ https://coptic-treasures.com/ “ But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon; then he blew the trumpet, and the Abiezrites gathered behind him” (34). And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, who also gathered behind him. He also sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali; and they came up to meet them” (34, 35). Seeing how the enemies gathered together, and how they encamped for war, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon . Gideon hid in the Lord, as the body hides in the garment; and became a tool to fulfill a divine goal. Seeing how his own family so quickly turned around, Gideon sent messengers throughout all Manasseh (35), and to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali; It is amazing that his own people, the Abiezrites whom he used to fear, gathered behind him for war; it happened so suddenly and so strongly, not through the influence of Gideon, but was undoubtedly the work of the Spirit of the Lord, that came upon him; and turned his opponents into supporters. It is also amazing that the tribe of ‘Asher’ that has forsaken Deborah, and did not stand by her in her war against Sisera (5: 7), came up to follow Gideon together with Zebulun and Naphtali. …….. Man’s weakness in the spiritual battle, does not mean to an ultimate surrender, for he, who was frail and of no use in ministry, can turn into a mighty man of valor in the spirit. That is why the true spiritual leader does not only depend upon those successful in their spiritual strife; but will also support those who previously failed him; on account of that, by the Spirit of the Lord, he may set them up, to be spiritual leaders with work and activity in the kingdom of God. That is a living godly portrait, experienced by the believer when he walks by the Spirit of the Lord, whom he enjoyed in the two sacraments of Baptism and Meron. For, as much as the believer responds to the Spirit of God, God will turn the body that was an opponent by its evil desires, to a holy tool that works with all https://coptic-treasures.com/ its energies and feelings to the account of the glory of God; in harmony with the holy souls, and responding to the work of the Spirit of God. 6- THE SIGN OF THE FLEECE: “So Gideon said to God, “If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said— look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said. . So when he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water. Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew. And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground” (36 – 40). ; Gideon asks the Lord to give him a sign to go to war. The two signs God provided him have a spiritual concept, expressed by many fathers: According to St. Ambrose: [The dew on the fleece is “the faith” that was in Judea; for the Word of God comes down as dew, according to the prophet Moses who says: “Let my teaching drop as the rain; my speech distill as the dew” (Deuteronomy 32: 2. So it was, when the whole world was dry because of the https://coptic-treasures.com/ heat of the vain fantasies of the fruitless nations, the dew of the heavenly visitation came down on the fleece in Judea. But after the rejection of the Lord Christ by “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15: 24), who were once referred to as the water-sogged fleece; the dew of faith dried up in the hearts of the Jews; and the divine flow of faith turned into the hearts of the Gentiles. That is why the whole world now, is wet with the dew of faith; while the Jews have killed their prophets and guides. No wonder that they are now suffering from the dryness of faith; for God denied them the continuous rain of the prophets; saying: “I will also command the clouds, that they rain no rain on it” (Isaiah 5: 6). How honorable is the rain of the prophetic cloud ; as according to the prophet David: ‘He shall come down like rain upon the grass before mowing; like showers that water the earth” (Psalm 72: 6). The Holy Books promised us that this rain will come down to water the whole world, when our Lord and Savior comes with the dew of the divine Spirit. The dew has actually come down, so did the rain. The Lord came and with Him the heavenly rain. That is why, whoever was thirsty before, let him come now to quench his thirst by the inner divine Spirit. That was what Gideon saw, that the tribes of the Gentiles drink by the precious faith from the true heavenly dew]. Again St. Ambrose says:.[Finally on the entire earth, as it was on the threshing floor, the church was watered by the dew of the spiritual grace; while the Synagogue remained dry from the dew and rain of the Word of God]. According to St. Augustine: [The Lord Christ, Himself, came down as rain on the fleece; when the earth all around was dry; when He said: “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15: 24)] According to St. Jerome: [When the fleece of Judea was dry, in spite of that the whole world was watered by the dew of heaven; And when “many will come from east and west, from north and south, and sit down in the kingdom of God (Luke 13: 29), sit in Abraham’s bosom (Luke 16: 22). Then, it will be no more that, “In Judah, the name of God is known, and His name is great in Israel” (psalm 76: 1). https://coptic-treasures.com/ For the voice of the apostles reached all the Gentiles; “Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world” (Psalm 19: 4) According to St Erinaos: [So has (Gideon) referred to that the Jews will no more, have the Holy Spirit from God; as the words of God on the tongue of Isaiah, came to say:: “I will also command the clouds , that they rain no rain on it” (Isaiah 5: 6); For the rain (or dew) are the Spirit of God, ……… all over the earth] Commenting on having that sign realized on the threshing floor, St. Ambrose says: [Gideon did not place the fleece in a field or a garden, but in the threshing floor, where the crop of wheat is, “For the harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few” (Luke 10: 2); Through faith in the Lord, there is fruitful harvest of virtues in the church to come. Having a bowlful of water, after wringing the dew out of the fleece, Gideon did not use it to wash feet; but left that task to the Lord Christ, who “did not come to be served, but to serve” (Matthew 20: 28).
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