Gideon: The Hiding Warrior

The Angel of the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt, through the wilderness, across the Jordan and into the land he conquered with Israel. Ultimately, Israel had disobeyed and the Canaanites and foreign people had overrun Israel even though Israel had a covenant with the Lord.

In Judges 6 Gideon is introduced threshing wheat in a wine press in order to hide from the invading Midianites. It is a comical scene considering wheat is threshed in a high open space for the wind to separate the hull from the grain and wine presses are located near the vineyards which are often in valleys. The Angel of the Lord calls Gideon “Mighty Warrior” (gibbor hehayil) when he finds Gideon hiding in a wine press trying to thresh enough grain to make a meal.

The Lord appears in a seated, non-threatening, and relaxed position because he has fulfilled his end of the covenant with Israel and his work is finished. The oppressed situation Gideon and Israel find themselves in is completely their fault and their responsibility. The fact that a mighty warrior like Gideon is hiding in fear threshing grain in a wine press is not the Lord’s design, but caused and accepted by the people of God.

Gideon is a mighty warrior and the Lord is with him and with Israel, but nothing is going to change until Gideon and Israel begin to think and behave differently. So, the Angel of the Lord comes and sits down by Israel’s mighty warrior to watch him fearfully thresh grain in a concealed winepress as he attempts to prevent foreigners from stealing the little that is left in the Promised Land.

"It is not in our choice to spread the gospel or not. It is our death if we do not." 
— Peter Taylor Forsyth

Mark Twain describeshis experience at the Sea of Galilee in his book
"The Innocents Abroad" when he visited the Holy Land in 1869 (read the whole chapter here):

“We took another swim in the Sea of Galilee at twilight yesterday, and another at sunrise this morning. We have not sailed, but three swims are equal to a sail, are they not? There were plenty of fish visible in the water, but we have no outside aids in this pilgrimage but "Tent Life in the Holy Land," "The Land and the Book," and other literature of like description--no fishing-tackle. There were no fish to be had in the village of Tiberias. True, we saw two or three vagabonds mending their nets, but never trying to catch anything with them.”

- Mark Twain,
The Innocents Abroad
1869