The Book of Judges describes the actions of men and women called to save the people of Israel between the time of Joshua and the monarchy. In particular, Judges 6:11-24a describes the call of Gideon to be a judge. What we find is that the call of Gideon falls into the archetype of God’s call of Old Testament heroes, particularly Moses.
To understand Gideon’s call, we must look at the context in which it takes place. As had happened before in this chapter, the Israelites turned away from God, so God let their enemies overcome them. God’s messenger goes to Gideon and tells him that he will deliver the people from their enemies. Gideon protests, saying that he is insignificant, but the messenger assures him that God is with him. He then asks for a sign from the messenger. Gideon offers a food sacrifice, which the messenger burns with heavenly fire. Gideon thinks that he may die from being in the presence of the Lord’s messenger, but he is reassured. He then names the place of the encounter “Yahweh-shalom.”
There are a few essential questions that may be investigated. For example, why does God choose someone so lowly? How is this call similar to other calls in the Bible? What is the significance of the offering? Why does Gideon think that he will die?
It would seem that God chooses the lowly to make His power known. The repeated patterns of the Divine call is consistent with the repetition in the stories in the Bible. Offerings to God are a central part of Jewish worship. Others who were in the presence of God also thought the experience was too overwhelming to survive.
In the larger context of the passage, this story takes place in the cycle of sin and deliverance from the book of Judges. The people turn away from God, and God lets them be oppressed until they cry out to Him for help, and He sends a judge.
In the immediate context of the passage, the Israelites had been under the Midianites for seven years. God sent a prophet who proclaimed to the people that someone would be sent to rescue the people from Midian the way that they were delivered from Egypt.
Trying to discern the historicity of these stories is difficult. According to scholars, the stories started as scattered oral traditions and only later were brought together into one narrative. Culturally, the people of the story would have been influenced greatly by their geography. Even though the soil in Canaan was fertile, water was not abundant. It would appear that the worship of other gods was done out of fear of starvation. As the lack of water is a perennial problem in the land, it could explain why this fear would keep returning to the people.
But it is in the formal analysis of the passage that we can see how it fits into the calling narratives of the Old Testament, particularly the call of Moses. In both stories, we have someone who is hiding, but they are called forth to be sent. In both, there is a protestation as to being unfit, but God gives assurance and a sign despite the fear.
First of all, when looking at the situation in which both Moses and Gideon are called, they are in similar circumstances. Moses fled Egypt and was in Midian living as a shepherd (Exodus 2:11-22). Gideon is trying to hide from the Midianites by “beating out wheat in the wine press to save it from the Midianites.” (Judges 6:11) Both men appear to shrink from the spotlight so as not to be noticed and so avoid trouble.
When looking at the language directed at both Gideon and Moses, there are similarities. The messenger to Gideon uses the same phrase of sending that was used with Moses: “selahtika.” This means “I have sent you.” God says to Moses, “I will be with you; and this will be your sign that I have sent you.” (Exodus 3:12) This is the same phrase used towards Gideon in Judges 6:14: “Go with the strength you have, and save Israel from the power of Midian. Is it not I who send you?”
In both the Moses narrative and in Gideon’s, there is a claim of unworthiness. Gideon at first does not answer the call because he does not think he is an appropriate candidate. He says, “Please, my Lord, how can I save Israel? My family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the most insignificant in my father’s house.” (Judges 6:15) Moses responds to his call by saying, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11)
As mentioned above, this statement of unworthiness is also found in the call of others like Isaiah and Jeremiah. Isaiah says, “Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5) And Jeremiah says, “I do not know how to speak. I am too young!” (Jeremiah 1:6) In all of these cases, the one called by God is reluctant because of some kind of perceived deficit in the character or their station in life. The word that Gideon uses, “poorest,” is similar to the same one Saul uses to describe himself in 1 Samuel 9:21 when he is called to be king. The comparison to Saul is of note because of the larger context of the book of Judges as it lays down the set-up for the time of the monarchy.
In both the call of Moses and in Gideon, there is an assurance that God will be with him, as seen above in Exodus 3:12 and in Judges 6:12, “The Lord is with you, a mighty warrior.” And this assurance is also accompanied by a sign of fire. God appears to Moses in the form of the Burning Bush (Exodus 3:2). For Gideon, “fire came up from the rock and consumed the meat and unleavened cakes.” (Judges 6:21). There is some ambiguity regarding the nature of the offering. The amount of food being offered is an overwhelming amount. It says Gideon “went off and prepared a young goat and an ephah of flour.” (Judges 6:19). Moses has the Burning Bush and sees God “face to face.” (Exodus 3:11) Gideon has the physical Messenger present and also the voice from heaven.
Regarding this direct encounter with God, both encounter Him with a sense of danger. God says to Moses that “no one can see Me and live.” (Exodus 33:20) While this quote comes from outside of the “call of Moses” from Exodus 3, it still bears a strong connection to Gideon’s response to being in God’s presence, which is fear: “Alas, Lord GOD, that I have seen the messenger of the LORD face to face!” (Judges 6:22) But in both cases, the stories acknowledge that being in God’s presence is overwhelming in Its power, but that God is with them.
Bringing everything back full-circle, we can see in the context of the story that the call of Gideon is patterned after the call of Moses. This pattern of calling can be seen not only in Gideon’s story, but in other stories throughout the Scriptures. In this era of the Judges, we can see echoes of this call in the prophets, but also in that of the kings, like Saul. This makes sense since this book is a transitional collection of stories between the Exodus event led by Moses to the era of the monarchy. This makes the call of Gideon a bit of narrative glue that holds these two different eras together by keeping up the traditions of the call of Moses to be observed in later generations.
Copyright 2025, WL Grayson
W.L. Grayson
I am a devoutly Catholic theology teacher who loves a popular culture that often, quite frankly, hates me. I grew up absorbing every movie, TV show, comic book, science fiction novel, etc. I could find. As of today I’ve watched over 2100 movies and tv shows. They take up a huge part of my life. I don’t know that this is a good thing, but it has given me a common vocabulary to draw from in order to illustrate whatever theological point I make in class. I’ve used American Pie the song to explain the Book of Revelation (I’ll post on this some time later) and American Pie the movie to help explain Eucharist (don’t ask). The point is that the popular culture is popular for a reason. It is woven into the fabric of our lives and imaginations, for good or ill. In this blog I will attempt to bring together the things of heaven with the things of earth. Of course this goal may be too lofty for someone like me.
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