10. Then I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God. You will live in the land of the Amorites, but you must not worship their false gods.’ But you did not obey me.”
11-12. One time the angel of the Lord came to a place called Ophrah and sat under an oak tree. This oak tree belonged to a man named Joash from the Abiezer family. His son Gideon was beating some wheat in a winepress. He was hiding so that the Midianites could not see the wheat. The angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon and said, “The Lord be with you, brave soldier.”
13. Then Gideon said, “Pardon me, sir, but if the Lord is with us, why are we having so many troubles? We heard that he did wonderful things for our ancestors. They tell us that the Lord took them out of Egypt. But now it seems the Lord has left us and is letting the Midianites defeat us.”
14. The Lord turned toward Gideon and said, “Then use your great power and go save the Israelites from the Midianites. I am sending you to save them.”
15. But Gideon answered and said, “Pardon me, sir. How can I save Israel? My family group is the weakest in the tribe of Manasseh, and I am the youngest one in my family.”
16. The Lord answered Gideon and said, “I will be with you, so you can defeat the Midianites as easily as if they were only one man.”
17. Then Gideon said to him, “If you would, please give me some proof that you really are the Lord.
18. Please wait here. Don’t go away until I come back to you. Let me bring my offering and set it down in front of you.” And the Lord said, “I will wait until you come back.”
19. So Gideon went in and cooked a young goat in boiling water. He also took about 20 pounds of flour and made bread without yeast. Then he put the meat into a basket and the broth from the meat into a pot. He brought out the meat, the broth, and the bread without yeast and gave them to the Lord under the oak tree.
20. The angel of God said to Gideon, “Put the meat and the bread on that rock over there. Then pour the broth on it.” Gideon did as he was told.
21. The angel of the Lord had a walking stick in his hand. He touched the meat and the bread with the end of the stick, and fire jumped up out of the rock and burned up the meat and the bread. Then the angel of the Lord disappeared.
22. Then Gideon realized that he had been talking to the angel of the Lord. So he shouted, “Oh, Lord GOD! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”
23. But the Lord said to Gideon, “Calm down! Don’t be afraid! You will not die!”
24. So Gideon built an altar there to worship the Lord and named it “The Lord is Peace.” It still stands in the city of Ophrah, where the Abiezer family lives.
25. That same night the Lord said to Gideon, “Choose your father’s best bull, the one that is seven years old. First, use it to pull down the altar your father built to worship Baal. Also, cut down the Asherah pole beside the altar.