The offering of Gideon and the angel of the LORD

The offering of Gideon and the angel of the LORD

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It is often claimed by those that assert that the angel of the LORD is God that he accepted the offering made by Gideon and so this demonstrates that he must be God. 

We find this information in chapter 6 of the book of judges. 

Judges 6:21 Then the angel of the LORD put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the LORD departed out of his sight. 

However, again when we investigate this claim it simply does not stand up.

This is such a basic understanding. Its simply reading a verse and asserting its meaning.  

First of all we need to put this back into context and understand what was really going on here.  The only way we can do that is actually delve deeper into the story than this verse. 

It is actually important to understand the situation that Gideon was in and why the angel of the LORD came to him in the first place. 

OK, so lets start with a little back story. 

Israel have fallen away from God. They had started to worship false Gods. Ba’al worship is common place amongst the Israelites. They still believe in YHWH, they certainly know who he is BUT they are not following him. For this God has withdrawn his protection over them. They have been invaded by travelling nations, in particular the Midianites but also the Amalakites and other “children of the east”, meaning other nations but unnamed. They were coming every harvest and taking all the Israelites crops. 

Judges 6:1 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. 1And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. 2 And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel: and because of the Midianites the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and caves, and strong holds. 3 And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east, even they came up against them;

These Midianites and other nations were so numerous that they took everything and destroyed all that they could not take. Israel was in a state of destitute. 

Judges 6: 4 And they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, till thou come unto Gaza, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass. 5 For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for multitude; for both they and their camels were without number: and they entered into the land to destroy it. 

It came to be that they were so impoverished that they called out to the LORD to help them. 

Judges 6:6And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; and the children of Israel cried unto the LORD.

Because of their cry to the LORD, the LORD sent unto Israel a prophet who reminded Israel who it was that had brought them out of Egypt but also reminded them that they had not obeyed his voice. They had gone after other gods which the LORD had forbidden them to o . 

Judges 6:7And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD because of the Midianites, 8That the LORD sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage; 9And I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and drave them out from before you, and gave you their land; 10And I said unto you, I am the LORD your God; fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but ye have not obeyed my voice.

So, with a little bit of back story we can now go and have a look at the specific passage where the angel of the LORD comes to Gideon. 

We are going to break this down. 

verse 11:

Judges 6: 11 And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.

Notice that we are told that the angel of the LORD is sat under a tree. Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress. This is very unusual, wheat would usually be threshed using the help of an OX as it would be a lot of work to press enough wheat for a family by hand, as Gideon was doing in a small winepress. We are told that this was done to hide it from the Midianites who would undoubtedly have stolen it, even this little bit of wheat. 

verse 12: 

 Judges 6:12 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour. 

The angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon and said unto him the LORD is with you, though might man of valour. 

Now, there is already a lot to understand just from this verse. Firstly we will find out that Gideon does not know this was an angel until later on in the passage. Gideon understands that this is just a man. Notice that the Angel/man says the LORD is with thee. He does not say I the LORD am with thee. The angel is speaking for the LORD. (thee here is SINGULAR, the LORD is with Gideon). The angel calls Gideon a mighty man of valour. Gideon, at this point most certainly is not. However, this is a prophetic statement and he will become one. 

Verse 13: 

Judges 6: 13 And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.

Gideon replied to the man/angel. Remember Gideon still believes that this is a man. He states om my Lord.  This is Adoni, master (human) so we see that Gideon recognises that this man was not just a man but maybe one sent by God, so Gideon’s address of him is one of respect. He then asks if the LORD is with us why has these things befallen us? Gideon uses US plural.  The man was not referring to the LORD being with Israel at this point. He was specifically stating the LORD was with Gideon, but Gideon did not yet understand this. Gideon speaking to the man asks where were the Miracles which the fathers spoke of? He then tells the man that the LORD had forsaken US. Gideons understanding here is evident. The LORD had forsaken Israel and not the other way around as in truth it was. The LORD had delivered Israel into the hands of the Midianites because Israel had foresaken the LORD. This is something that Gideon would need to understand. 

Verse 14: 

Judges 6: 14 And the LORD looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee? 

So YHWH, through the Angel told Gideon to go in this might, HE, Gideon, would save Israel from the Midiantes. The important information here is at the end of the verse “have not I (the LORD) sent YOU (Gideon). 

Verse 15: 

Judges 6: 15 And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.  

Gideon now recognising that this was likely a prophet (the prophet would state the words of YHWH), asks how he will save Israel seeing his family is poor and he is even the least in his family. 

Verse 16:

Judges 6:16 And the LORD said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.

YHWH, tells him that he is with him. YHWH is with Gideon. Gideon will smite the Midiantes as if they are just one man. 

Verse 17: 

Judges 6: 17 And he said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then shew me a sign that thou talkest with me.

Now Gideon wants a sign from the LORD that it is in fact the LORD who is speaking to him. He want’s to know that the man who is speaking the words of YHWH is in fact a true prophet and is speaking the true words of God. So he asks for a sign from YHWH that it really is him speaking and not just some man. 

Verse 18: 

Judges 6: 18 Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present, and set it before thee. And he said, I will tarry until thou come again.

Gideon ask the man to stay while he goes and brings back a “gift”. The man states that he will stay. 

Verse 19:

Judges 6:19 And Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it. 

There are actually some more important things to note here.

Gideon makes a meal of a goat, unleavened cakes and broth and presented it to the man. This was NOT a sacrifice or an offering to God. As we already know Gideon perceived that this was a man, a man sent by God but still a man.
The hebrew word translated as present is מִנְחָה minchah and is simply an offering, sacrifice that can simply mean a hospitality offering to a stranger. Gideon understands this man to be some kind of prophet sent by God. He is not offering a sacrifice to God. We know this because Gideon “made ready a kid”. This means he prepared it, he cooked it. There is simply NO sacrificial law where a person would present to God a cooked goat. To assert this was some kind of sacrificial goat is to completely misrepresent the sacrificial system given to Israel.  


The offering that Gideon makes is simply a hospitality offering of some food for a man. It was Israelite custom to offer a stranger such. Examples of which would be Abraham and the 3 visitors and Laban and the messenger of Abraham.

Gideon builds no alter and the goat is not sacrificed on the altar, he simply puts the cooked meal under the oak tree for the man. 

Verse 20: 

Judges 6: 20 And the angel of God said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so.

Now the angel/man told Gideon to take the food and put it upon a rock and pour the broth out the broth. It is likely, but not stated, that this was over the meat and bread. Gideon does as he is requested to do.  This was at the ANGELS bequest not Gideon’s choice. 

Verse 21:

Judges 6:21 Then the angel of the LORD put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the LORD departed out of his sight. 

The Angel put forth his staff that was in his hand. This is very much like when God instructed Moses to put forth the rod in his hand and part the red sea or when he made water come from the rock. 

Exodus 14: 15And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward: 16But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. 

Exodus 14: 21And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.

However when Moses does stretch forth his hand, it is the LORD who parts the sea in actuality. 

Moses was simply the agent that the LORD worked through, just as he did the priests and the angel. 

Now it is important here to also notice that it was the FIRE that consumed this “offering” NOT the angel. Fire was a symbol of God’s presence. Gideon most certainly would have understood by this that it was a sign from God, YHWH, a sign that he had asked for, that YHWH was with him. The offering of Gideon to the man of God was used as a sign by God that God was with Gideon. God consumed the offering through means of fire. 

It can’t go without stating that under the sacrificial laws it would be priests that took the sacrifice of the people and would burn it upon the alter. . In some cases the priests were even to eat part of the offering. This was taken as the LORD accepting the offering. The LORD consuming the offering through the priests.  So EVEN if the Angel was the one that consumed this offering it would be no different than what the priests would do. The LORD could accept the offering through the angel. However, the text does not indicate that it was the angel that consumed the offering but the fire. 

Verse 21:

The angel then disappears out of his SIGHT, it does not say that the angel left or went elsewhere or was unable to speak to Gideon anymore. 

Verse 22:

Judges 6:22 And when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the LORD, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord GOD! for because I have seen an angel of the LORD face to face

This is when Gideon comes to the realisation that the man was indeed an angel of the LORD.  

And then the LORD told Gideon that he would not die. 

Verse 23:

Judges 6:23 And the LORD said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die.

Furthermore, there is even more evidence that this was not in fact a sacrifice in the following 3 verses. 

verse 24: 

Judges 6:24Then Gideon built an altar there unto the LORD, and called it Jehovahshalom: unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

Now we see Gideon build an altar unto YHWH. 

Verse 25:

Judges 6:25 And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said unto him, Take thy father’s young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it: 

the LORD then tells Gideon to destroy the altar of Ba’al that his father had made. 

Verse 26:

Judges 6:26 And build an altar unto the LORD thy God upon the top of this rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down. 

We see here, that the LORD tells Gideon to build an altar to him and offer upon it a a burnt sacrifice. 

Contrary to the claim that the angel accepted and consumed the sacrifice of Gideon, Gideon presented a hospitality gift to what he understood to be a man of God and later did offer a sacrifice as told to do so by YHWH.  

We get a very similar story when the ANgel of the LORD appears to Manoah and his wife, the parents of Samson in chapter 13. 

Again they are visited by a man, who is in fact an angel of the LORD but they are unaware of this fact.  

When Manoah wanted to give an offering to the Angel the Angel of the LORD stated that he would not eat the offering, he then further stipulated that IF the offering be a burnt offering then it must be made unto the LORD. 

Judges 13: 15And Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD, I pray thee, let us detain thee, until we shall have made ready a kid for thee. 16And the angel of the LORD said unto Manoah, Though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread: and if thou wilt offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it unto the LORD. For Manoah knew not that he was an angel of the LORD. 

Manoah then offered the meat offering (  מִנְחָה minchah ) unto the LORD. 

Judges 13:19 So Manoah took a kid with a meat offering, and offered it upon a rock unto the LORD: and the angel did wondrously; and Manoah and his wife looked on.

So we see here that Manoahs offering was specifically stated as being to the LORD. We must hold in remembrance that Moanoah was still unaware that the angel of the LORD was in fact an angel. Moanoah was not offering to the angel. 

Now the angel did a wonderous thing and ascended in the flame of the offering that Manoah had made to the LORD. 

Judges 13: 20 For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on it, and fell on their faces to the ground.

It does not state that the angel accepted the offering or ate the offering. It simply states that the angel ascended in the flame of the offering. 

Just like the offering of Gideon, it is only after the angel ascends in the flame does Manoah come to the realisation that this was an angel of the LORD. 

Judges 13: 21 But the angel of the LORD did no more appear to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the LORD.

The simple fact here is that neither of these offerings were made to the angel of the LORD and neither depict the angel as accepting the offering as an offering to himself. 

The assertion made regarding the angel of the LORD accepting sacrifices simply cannot be supported via the biblical texts which actually demonstrate the opposite and even have the angel himself refusing an offering and stating burnt offerings must be made to the LORD, thus distinguishing himself from the LORD. 

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