10 I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me.”
11 The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”
13 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
The angel appears to be separate from God in one place and the same as God in another. This has lead some to believe that the angel was a special appearance of Jesus Christ before his mission on earth as recorded in the New Testament. The angel had authority to speak for God. The angel had an important message for Gideon. Gideon questioned God. He thought God was not helping them, but the people had brought the trouble on themselves. They disobeyed and neglected God. It can be easy to overlook accountability. It can be easy to blame others or God for our problems. This does not solve anything. When God is blamed for troubles, this takes you to the edge of rebellion and backsliding. When problems come, first look within and confess sin for you may have created your own problems. God is there to help you, he is not going to hinder you.
