14. Then the Lord himself said, “Gideon, you will be strong, because I am giving you the power to rescue Israel from the Midianites.”
15. Gideon replied, “But how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest one in Manasseh, and everyone else in my family is more important than I am.”
16. “Gideon,” the Lord answered, “you can rescue Israel because I am going to help you! Defeating the Midianites will be as easy as beating up one man.”
17. Gideon said, “It's hard to believe that I'm actually talking to the Lord. Please do something so I'll know that you really are the Lord.
18. And wait here until I bring you an offering.”“All right, I'll wait,” the Lord answered.
19. Gideon went home and killed a young goat, then started boiling the meat. Next, he opened a big sack of flour and made it into thin bread. When the meat was done, he put it in a basket and poured the broth into a clay cooking pot. He took the meat, the broth, and the bread and placed them under the big tree.
20. God's angel said, “Gideon, put the meat and the bread on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” Gideon did as he was told.
21. The angel was holding a walking stick, and he touched the meat and the bread with the end of the stick. Flames jumped from the rock and burnt up the meat and the bread.When Gideon looked, the angel was gone.
22. Gideon realized that he had seen one of the Lord's angels. “Oh!” he moaned. “Now I'm going to die.”
23. “Calm down!” the Lord told Gideon. “There's nothing to be afraid of. You're not going to die.”
24. Gideon built an altar for worshipping the Lord and called it “The Lord Calms our Fears”. It still stands there in Ophrah, a town in the territory of the Abiezer clan.
25. That night the Lord spoke to Gideon again:Get your father's second-best bull, the one that's seven years old. Use it to pull down the altar where your father worships Baal and cut down the sacred pole next to the altar.
26. Then build an altar for worshipping me on the highest part of the hill where your town is built. Use layers of stones for my altar, not just a pile of rocks. Cut up the wood from the pole, make a fire, kill the bull, and burn it as a sacrifice to me.