What does Judges 6:13 mean?

The Angel of the Lord has appeared to Gideon as he is working in secret. Gideon is threshing wheat in a winepress to avoid detection by invading marauders (Judges 6: 1–11). This stranger, who likely did not look like an angel, has greeted Gideon by describing him as a powerful warrior (Judges 6:12). Such praise is ironic for a timid man (Judges 6:17, 27, 36–40), hiding his food from potential enemies. Yet the phrase Gideon responds to is the first part of the Angel's greeting: that the Lord God was with him.

The idea that Yahweh was with anyone in Israel conflicted with the circumstances of Gideon's everyday life. The nation had been "brought low:" humiliated and beaten down by foreign enemies. People were hungry and scared for the future. They had no hope of stopping the Midianites from taking everything from them, year after year. Gideon carries this idea beyond himself to apply to all of Israel, asking a bold question: if the Lord is with Israel, why has all this happened to us? Where is the miraculous rescue the Lord performed when bringing us out of Egypt, as our ancestors described in their stories?

It's important to note that Gideon acknowledges his generation had heard the stories of Yahweh's goodness and power (Exodus 3:20; 12:51). They had been taught the truth of their history. That knowledge had not been enough to keep them from turning to the depraved, evil gods of their neighbors in Canaan (Judges 2:11–19). Israel's current predicament is part of a repeating pattern of faithlessness (Judges 6:1).

Gideon concludes with a bitterly phrased statement which is still mostly correct: that God had "forsaken" the people into subjection under Midian. Gideon was probably not the only person in Israel who understood that their own sin had caused the Lord to turn them over to Midian. The people have finally cried out to the Lord for rescue. Gideon's attitude seems to doubt God will send such help.