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When God Appears
We have come upon one of the most fascinating parts of the entire narrative: Gideon’s encounter with the angel of the Lord.
“Then the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the Midianites. The angel of the Lord appeared to him” (Judg. 6:11-12, NASB).
The Hebrew word translated “appeared” in verse 12 suggests the angel presented himself, making himself visible to Gideon. The angel’s actions made it possible for Gideon to see him. Scripture isn’t clear as to what brought the angel to Gideon’s attention, but the sequence of events is evident. In verse 11, the angel was sitting under the oak tree but not until verse 12 does it say he “appeared” to Gideon.
Whether he had been sitting there for only a few seconds or perhaps for several minutes (or longer) is unclear. But what we can deduce from the text is this: the angel finding Gideon was a separate occurrence from Gideon finding the angel.
This means that probably no lightning strike accompanied the angel’s arrival. Nor was he sparkling in a shimmering haze. He wasn’t a see-through, floating immortal who hovered inches above the ground, and no flash mob broke into the “Hallelujah Chorus” to herald his arrival. No, this angel most likely had the look of an ordinary man who had come to Gideon in an ordinary way during an ordinary day.
God often comes to us in our “boring” days, veiled in the most ordinary of circumstances. In fact, “ordinary” is often the disguise of the divine. If we are constantly anticipating a grandiose event to accompany the times when we encounter Him or hear His voice, we will miss out on many intimate moments in our relationship with God. The mundane, the routine, the commonplace—these are often the contexts in which He will reveal Himself to humanity.
Having your spiritual radar up in consistent anticipation of His presence—even in the midst of the joyful chaos and regular rhythms of your everyday living—is paramount in hearing God, because sometimes the place and manner you find Him is the least spectacular you’d expect.
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About this Plan
When we hear the name Gideon, most of us think about his 300 soldiers or a fleece spread beneath the evening sky. But Gideon's story is so much bigger than that. This is a story about God and His people—His love for them, as well as His strength operating in spite of, even through, their weakness.
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