You Don't Need a Good Economy to Prosper
Judges 6:34-40
Last time, we witnessed the aftermath of Gideon tearing down the altar of Baal. The men of the city woke up, saw the destruction, and came as one body to the door of his father Joash, baying for blood — Israelites ready to execute Gideon for obeying the law of God. A covenant people behaving like Sodom. We saw that idolatry doesn’t just add a false god alongside the true God — it twists the worshipper out of shape, so that he calls evil good and good evil. We saw that every religion produces law, and every law that is not the law of God will eventually hunt down the man who obeys the law of Christ. Joash, by the grace of God, defended his son and renamed him Jerubal — let Baal contend for himself. And that was the end of Baal in that town. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, he blew the trumpet, and the tribes began to rally.
Today we’re going to give you the answer to a passage that has probably baffled you for years — the two fleeces of Gideon, the wet fleece on dry ground, the dry fleece on wet ground. Is Gideon a coward with weak faith, putting God to the test, like just about every commentator from Calvin onwards seems to assume? Or is something else going on? Something deep, something covenantal, something that was never about Gideon’s doubts at all — but about a public military theological declaration that the god of the surrounding nations was finished?
First, Get the Right Picture of Gideon
Before we touch the fleece, we have to deal with the man. If you start with the wrong picture of him, every interpretation downstream will be badly wrong.
What does the text actually tell us about Gideon by the time we reach verse 34? When the angel called him, he questioned — but he didn’t refuse. When the Lord told him to tear down his father’s altar of Baal and chop down the Asherah pole, he did it. He did it the same night. He took ten of his own servants, did the most dangerous and provocative act imaginable, and offered a burnt offering on a new altar to the Lord. This is not the action of a coward. He knew his neighbours — he had watched them prostrate themselves before Baal, and he knew they were fanatics. You can’t reason with fanatics. When their idol is touched, they will put you in the crosshairs. He knew he would be killed for what he did. And the next morning proved him right — the whole town wanted him dead.
The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon. In the Hebrew, the verb is lavash, which literally means clothed. The Spirit clothed himself with Gideon, like a man putting on a coat. This is a man full of God’s Spirit. His own father, who knew him better than anyone, renamed him — and renaming in Scripture always marks a decisive change of identity: Abraham, Israel, Peter, Paul. Joash saw what his son had done and said, this isn’t the same boy. This is Jerubal.
So we have a man who was courageous, obedient, demonstrably transformed, sealed by his own father’s testimony, accepted by the Lord through the burnt offering, clothed by the Holy Spirit, and now leading thousands. He has sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali — 32,000 men rallying to one man. He’s not in the winepress any longer. He’s a commander in the field, surrounded by thousands. Anyone who tells you that Gideon was faithless has sleepwalked through this text.
What Was Baal, Really?
Now — what’s the fleece actually about? Here is what I think is going on, and I have not found this answer in any commentary I’ve read.
The whole crisis in the land was prompted by Baal worship. The Lord through a prophet said: fear not the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell, but you have not obeyed my voice. The first commission Gideon received was not to attack the Midianites — it was to tear down the altar of Baal amongst the Israelites. The entire campaign begins with a strike against Baal.
But who is this Baal? Baal is the storm god of the Canaanites. And in the Baal cycle — the mythology of the surrounding peoples — Baal is not a stable eternal deity. Baal dies, then Baal is resurrected, Baal dies, then Baal is resurrected. When there’s a drought, Baal is in the underworld, defeated by Mot, the god of death. And when the rains return, Baal is alive and triumphant on his throne.
Now what just happened? Baal’s altar was broken. A bull was sacrificed upon it. And what did Baal do? Nothing. He was obviously dead. But in the eyes of the Israelite soldiers — so mixed up in their thinking between Jehovah and Baal — Baal would be back. He would manifest his life through the dew. He’s the god of dew. He’ll show he’s alive through natural signs. The resurrection of Baal in the Baal cycle was marked by the return of the dew and rain.
The Fleece Is a Public Strike Against Baal
Now do you see what the fleece is? Do you see what Gideon is doing?
He isn’t pulling a random object out of thin air and asking God to grant him a wish — as if the Lord were some genie in a bottle. No, no, no. This is a man who fears God and knows God, leading thousands of men who are mixed up in their thinking between Jehovah and Baal, on the eve of battle against peoples who hold to the Baal cycle.
Gideon is asking the Lord of the dew — Jehovah — to demonstrate publicly and unmistakably, before going into battle, that it is he and not Baal who governs the dew. So he puts out the fleece. If there is dew in the fleece only and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand.
And what did Baal do? He died. He didn’t bring the dew back. He didn’t rise again. He couldn’t make the fleece wet, and he couldn’t make it dry. The Lord answered twice — in opposite directions — leaving absolutely no room for ambiguity. The fleece wet, the ground dry. The fleece dry, the ground wet. Jehovah governs the dew. Baal is finished. He ain’t coming back. And the Israelite soldiers who had been half-expecting Baal’s resurrection had their answer. The Lord does not share his throne.
There Is No Such Thing as Nature
And I want to push this one step further, because there’s a deeper application here. We use the phrase “nature” all the time. The water cycle. The seasons. Natural processes. We treat these things as if they run on autopilot, governed by some impersonal force. But that’s precisely pagan thinking. That’s exactly what the Baal cycle was — a natural cycle, dressed up with a god’s name in it.
Gideon — and the Lord through Gideon — is teaching us that there is no such thing as “nature” per se. There is only the creation of God, governed moment by moment by the will of God. We only have seasons because of God’s covenant promises. The dew does not fall by autopilot — it falls because the Lord causes it to fall. The rain doesn’t come from a system — it comes from the very throne of God.
The seasons don’t turn by themselves. They turn because God promised after the flood: while the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. When you say “natural cycle” without first meaning the moment-by-moment government of God over the whole earth, you have absorbed paganism without knowing it. The school system teaches it. Popular science programmes teach it. The weather forecast teaches it. But the fleece teaches us the very opposite.
The Dew of Blessing for You
Maybe you’re a young man in your twenties or thirties, looking around at your generation. Your peers cannot afford a house. You can’t afford to keep a wife at home. The dew of prosperity, of stability, of family formation has fallen on a previous generation, and it doesn’t seem to be falling on yours.
The fleece tells you this: the Lord is not bound by the cycles you see around you — economic cycles, cultural cycles. He can put his blessing on the fleece while the ground is dry. Think of Isaac in Genesis 26 — there was famine throughout the land, everyone else was suffering, and Isaac sowed and reaped a hundredfold in the same year. The Lord blessed him and he became very prosperous while drought ruled the surrounding region.
The circumstances around you do not determine the dew. The Lord determines the dew — the dew of blessing. So if you feel that the prevailing economy and the prevailing culture are all running against you, take heart. The Lord governs every single drop of dew. He can pour out blessing on you while everyone around you is parched. What he needs from you is not anxiety but faith. The willingness to tear down the household idol first. Step out in obedience, take the first step — and then trust him for the dew.
The two fleeces are not a story of doubt. They are a story of public, military, and theological warfare against Baal. Gideon, clothed by the Holy Spirit, asks the Lord to confirm that he is finished with Baal — before he leads the Lord’s army to thrash the Midianite chaff out of the land. The Lord obliges twice in opposite directions, leaving no room for doubt.
The Lord governs the dew. He governs your situation too. Trust him for the dew.
Next time: we’re going from 32,000 men to 300. The Lord is going to do the most counterintuitive thing imaginable, and you’re going to learn the one thing you can do today that is the modern equivalent of blowing the trumpet — and that guarantees victory.