When we last left off, Gideon had just offered a “gift” of food to the Angel of the Lord.
What’s interesting is the Hebrew word used to describe this gift.
That word is MINCHAH.
Do you remember what it means?
A MINCHAH is the grain offering that’s always offered up together with the Burnt Offering or the OLAH.
That’s the strict Torah definition of the word.
However, over time, the meaning of the word changed to mean just your average run-of-the-mill gift that could be offered up on any occasion.
Modern Judaism today uses the word exactly in that sense…as just a normal gift.
So Gideon was thinking and acting like how any typical Middle Eastern would in this situation
He knew if he wanted something from this god, which in this case was a sign, he had to give it a gift.
So in the hopes of receiving that sign, Gideon prepared the gift of food…a quite lavish meal containing as I mentioned yesterday about 40 pounds of bread!
This situation is a perfect example of how the Lord will work within our manmade beliefs and traditions even if they’re not Scriptural or downright ridiculous.
This is God’s grace at work.
He doesn’t rebuke us and in His love and mercy puts up with our ignorance.
The context makes it clear that in Gideon’s mind he was offering a meal to the mysterious man and not a sacrifice because we’re told he “presented” the food in front of the stranger.
The Angel of the Lord accepts the meal and then tells Gideon to place the meat and the Matza on top of the rock.
He next instructs Gideon to pour the broth from the meat all over the food.
If Gideon had any doubts he was dealing with a supernatural visitor, they were instantly dispelled at what happened next.
The Angel of the Lord pulled out His staff and touched the offering.
In an instant, fire poured forth out of the rock and burned up all of the food to a crisp.
What remained was nothing but smoke and ashes.
However, things didn’t end there.
Just when Gideon couldn’t be more blown away by what had just happened, the mysterious stranger suddenly disappeared right before his eyes!
I can imagine Gideon standing there with his jaw completely unhinged.
In his lifetime, he had seen all kinds of sacrifices performed to all kinds Canaanite deities.
But this was the first time he had witnessed such an incredible demonstration of supernatural power.
After picking his jaw up off the floor, Gideon realized…
“Oh no! My Lord! Adonai!
Because I’ve seen the angel
of Adonai face-to-face!”
What was Gideon thinking?
At that moment, it finally dawned on him that the entity he was dealing with was indeed God Himself.
And he was terrified.
He literally feared for his life.
But why?
Why was Gideon afraid he was going to die?
Well, that’s what we’ll talk about the next time we meet.
Herem ls Applicable here ‘fire poured forth out of the rock and burned up all of the food to a crisp’ Thanks
Hey Abraham, that insight is awesome! Yeah, I didn’t see that. Indeed, this could be an application of HEREM. I might share this insight in another post. Shalom.