Judges 6:37

33-40 These signs are truly miraculous, and very significant. Gideon and his men were going to fight the Midianites; could God distinguish between a small fleece of Israel, and the vast floor of Midian? Gideon is made to know that God could do so. Is Gideon desirous that the dew of Divine grace might come down upon himself in particular? He sees the fleece wet with dew to assure him of it. Does he desire that God will be as the dew to all Israel? Behold, all the ground is wet. What cause we sinners of the Gentiles have, to bless the Lord that the dew of heavenly blessings, once confined to Israel, is now sent to all the inhabitants of the earth! Yet still the means of grace are in different measures, according to the purposes of God. In the same congregation, one man's soul is like Gideon's moistened fleece, another like the dry ground....

The threshing floors were and still are under the open air, and usually circular. The second sign Judges 6:40, would be more convincing than the former, because it is the nature of fleeces to attract and retain moisture....

EXPOSITION JUDGES 6:33 THE MIDIANITES, etc. See Judges 6:3, note. THE VALLEY OF JEZREEL. Rather, _the_ _plain_,_ _"the great plain of Esdraelon," as the Book of Judith styles it (Judith 1:8; see Judges 4:13, note). The great plain of Jezreel, or Esdraelon (which is the Greek form of the name), through which the Kishon flows, is eight hours in length from east to west, and five hours (twelve miles) in breadth from north to south. It is described as "a very extensive and fertile plain shut in between the mountain ranges of Samaria and Mount Carmel on the south, and of Galilee on the north," and extending from the Mediterranean at the Gulf of C

BEHOLD, I WILL PUT A FLEECE OF WOOL ON THE FLOOR,.... On the floor where he was threshing, where the angel first appeared to him, and which lay exposed to the open air, so that the dew might easily fall upon it: AND IF THE DEW BE ON THE FLEECE ONLY; the dew that falls from heaven in the night, when he proposed it should lie on the floor till morning: AND IT BE DRY UPON ALL THE EARTH BESIDE; meaning not upon all the world, nor even upon all the land of Israel, but upon all the floor about the fleece: then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by my hand, as thou hast said; for the dew being a token of divine favour, see Hosea 14:5 it would show that Gideon would partake of it, while his enemies would be dry and desolate, and ruin and destruction would be their portion....

4. FOURTH DECLENSION: UNDER MIDIAN AND GIDEON, TOLA AND JAIR CHAPTER 6 _ 1. Israel's suffering from Midian (Judges 6:1)_ 2. Their repentance and the divine answer (Judges 6:7) 3. Gideon, the deliverer, chosen (Judges 6:11) 4. The restored worship (Judges 6:25) 5. The gathering for the conflict (Judges 6:33) 6. The sign of the fleece (Judges 6:36) After Deborah and Barak the land had fifty years' rest, and when again they did

THE MIDIANITE RAID, AND THE SIGN OF THE FLEECE. The broad and deep Vale of Jezreel, lying between Gilboa and Moreh, leads up from Jordan to the Great Plain. Judges 6:34. Gideon now felt the Divine impulse the spirit of Yahweh came upon him, lit clothed itself with him, put him on like a garment, possessed him, inspired him. He then blew his trumpet to awaken others. It was his own Abiezer clansmen who answered his call, and they apparently became his famous three hundred. Judges 6:36. The sign of the fleece is probably the record of a dream. Gideon had often seen the heavy dew fall on a summer night upon the hills of Manasseh, and his perceptions wove themselves into mysterious visions, in which he seemed to have power to bend the Divine will to his own. He thus became more than ever co

FLOOR. threshing-floor....

_The Midianite invasion; the sign of the fleece_ 33 _.Then all the Midianites … assembled themselves_ Better, _Now all the M.… had assembled themselves_. This verse may be connected with Judges 6:7_; Judges 6:25_; it prepares the way for the account of the battle in ch. 7 For _the Amalekites_etc. see on Judges 6:3. _the valley of Jezreel_ Joshua 17:16; Hosea 1:5; not the Great Plain west of Jezreel, but the broad, deep valley which descends eastwards from Jezreel down to the Jordan. It was not till after OT. times that the Great Plain was

DISCOURSE: 266 GIDEON’S FLEECE Judges 6:36. _And Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said, behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said. And it was so: for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. And Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew. And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground._ IT is a comfort to know, that, however afflicted and apparently de

_Gideon's Signs Judges 6:36-40_ 36 And Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said, 37 Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said. 38 And it was so: for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. 39 And Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew. 40 And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground. _22._ Why wish for so many signs?...