Judges 6:12 - Printer Friendly

ESV: And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, "The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor."

NIV: When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior."

NASB: And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, 'The Lord is with you, valiant warrior.'

CSB: Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said: "The Lord is with you, valiant warrior."

NLT: The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, 'Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!'

KJV: And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.

NKJV: And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!”

The Angel of the Lord, God's representative on earth, has arrived at a small town in Israel. Ophrah is in the territory of Manasseh, and this Angel comes to deliver a message. Gideon, son of a relatively wealthy man, is quietly and secretively processing grain in the crowded space of a winepress, attempting to hide it from foreign invaders (Judges 6:1–5).

The Angel of the Lord—who seems to have an entirely ordinary appearance—now shows himself to Gideon and offers a strange greeting: "The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor." In the Old Testament, "men of valor" are potent warriors, such as David (1 Samuel 16:18), generals like Naaman (2 Kings 5:1) or soldiers (Joshua 8:3; 2 Chronicles 17:17). Here, that grand description is applied to a man doing a servant's work as quietly as possible, hoping not to have his food stolen by an enemy.

There's more than mere irony in this statement. The reference is almost sarcastic: Gideon is not only hiding when he's called, but he will continue to express hesitation and insecurity even as God continues to call him to action (Judges 6:17, 27, 36–40). Beyond dry humor, the Angel's lofty description of Gideon also expresses a reality unseen and obscured from a human perspective. The Lord addresses Gideon as he soon will be (Judges 7:24), not as he is in the moment; God speaks of what He knows, not of what fallible people see.

Another ironic twist is that Gideon's obvious anxiety is a reason to consider him a man of valor. That he routinely obeys—despite what seems to be intense insecurity—implies a greater faith than those who feel no fear, at all.

Judges 6:11–27 begins in a town called Ophrah. There, the Angel of the Lord appears to a man named Gideon. The Lord calls Gideon mighty, despite his apparent lack of influence or power, and commands him to save Israel from Midian. After a display of power, God commands Gideon to tear down the town's altars to false idols, replacing them with an altar to Yahweh complete with a sacrifice of his father's bull. Gideon does so under the cover of darkness out of fear of his family and the townspeople.

Israel follows the sad pattern of the book of Judges, and once again turns to evil and idols. God turns them over to the Midianites. These foreign raiders spend the next seven years invading and consuming Israel's crops and livestock. Israel cries for help to the Lord. His first step is to send a prophet to remind them of God's goodness and their disobedience. The Lord then appears to Gideon, commanding him to save Israel because God will be with him. Gideon obeys God's command to tear down a Baal altar and build one to Yahweh in its place. He calls his countrymen to follow him and asks for signs from God.

The book of Judges contains a series of stories with a common theme: Israel falls into sin, suffers, and is rescued by God, only to fall once again (Judges 1—2). The next phase in Israel's downward spiral comes after 40 years of peace, won by Deborah and Barak (Judges 4—5). Israel is punished for sin through the Midianites. After seven years, the Israelites cry out for help. The Lord appears to Gideon, challenging the timid man to lead the battle against Israel's oppressors. Empowered by the Spirit, Gideon calls for his people to follow him, but still asks the Lord for signs. Gideon's successful campaigns are depicted in chapters 7 and 8.

The Book of Judges describes Israel's history from the death of Joshua to shortly before Israel's first king, Saul. Israel fails to complete God's command to purge the wicked Canaanites from the land (Deuteronomy 7:1–5; 9:4). This results in a centuries-long cycle where Israel falls into sin and is oppressed by local enemies. After each oppression, God sends a civil-military leader, labeled using a Hebrew word loosely translated into English as "judge." These appointed rescuers would free Israel from enemy control and govern for a certain time. After each judge's death, the cycle of sin and oppression begins again. This continues until the people of Israel choose a king, during the ministry of the prophet-and-judge Samuel (1 Samuel 1—7).