What does Judges 6:8 mean?
Israel has finally cried out to Yahweh for help (Judges 6:6). The oppression by the Midianites and their allies from the east of the Jordan has crushed Israel's spirits as well as their supplies of food and livestock. Only once they reach that state of complete despair do they recognize their need for God's intervention. Now they will wait for God to raise up a deliverer as He has done in the past (Judges 2:11–19) to free them from the oppression of the Midianites.However, God's first step in this cycle is not to send a rescuer. Rather than immediately calling someone like Ehud (Judges 3:15), Shamgar (Judges 3:31), or Barak (Judges 4:4–6), He sends a prophet. The role of a prophet—or prophetess, as in the case of Deborah—is different from that of a warrior judge or deliverer. A prophet is a person God uses to deliver a message to His people. Before God sends a deliverer to save Israel from Midian, He has a few things to say to them.
This unnamed messenger from God begins to deliver a scathing reminder to the Israelites. Perhaps he stayed in one place and waited for people to come to him. Perhaps he traveled around declaring the Word of the Lord. Whatever the method, his message was familiar. God was reminding His people how He had powerfully provided for them in the past.
This history lesson starts with Egypt, from which Israel was miraculously rescued from harsh slavery (Exodus 12:51). It's not that the people did not know the story; they had not forgotten the past. They had forgotten to remain faithful to the God who had rescued them from hundreds of years of slavery to the Egyptians. This deliverance came with many powerful miraculous signs (Exodus 3:20).