From Fear To Freedom

The Israelites were experiencing oppression from the Midianites due to their disobedience to God. They cried out for help. God sent Gideon to be the deliverer. 

✏️ Gideon threshing wheat by the winepress is an illustration of the extreme fear and oppression from the Midianites.

✏️ In ancient Israel, wheat was normally threshed on high, open ground (a threshing floor) to catch the wind, which would blow away the lighter chaff while the heavier grain fell to the ground.

✏️ However, a winepress was typically a sunken pit or a confined area carved into rock. Threshing there was inefficient and physically difficult, but it kept Gideon out of the line of sight. He was literally hiding his harvest so it wouldn't be stolen.

✏️ The Midianite Oppression:

According to Judges 6:3-4, tells that whenever the Israelites sowed crops, the Midianites and their allies would destroy the produce.

✏️ The Stakes: 

If the Midianites saw the dust from a traditional threshing floor, they would descend and seize the food, leaving Gideon’s family to starve.

📚 Midian or Midianite = "strife"

✏️ The Irony of his Calling:

There is a powerful "divine irony" in this scene. While Gideon is crouched down in the winepress, terrified and trying to salvage some grain, the Angel of the Lord appears and addresses him as:

"Thou mighty man of valour." (Judges 6:12, KJV)

✏️ I’m sure Gideon didn’t feel "mighty." He was a man driven by desperation and survival. He was afraid, but pushed thru his fears to provide for his family. That’s courage!

✏️ Gideon’s "winepress moment" sets the stage for his transformation from a fearful farmer into a mighty and feared man of God.

✏️ How many times have you read after someone who inspired you. You saw them as someone who had attained great spiritual accomplishments. You’ve had the thought, I could never do that. I wonder just how many in hear feel incapable of God doing great things through you? The answer is to press passed your fears and get into a humble place where you are afraid of the enemy stealing your spiritual food supply. Winnow out your fleshly desires, false ideas and search for God to fill your soul. Position yourself right under God’s mighty hand and He will use you to His glory!