And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him,
The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor.
Read Chapter 6
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
When Jerubbaal, as we read, was beating out wheat under an oak, he received a message from God in order that he might bring the people of God from the power of strangers into liberty. Nor is it a matter of wonder if he was chosen for grace, seeing that even then, being appointed under the shadow of the holy cross and of the adorable Wisdom in the predestined mystery of the future incarnation, he was bringing forth the visible grains of the fruitful corn from their hiding places and was [mystically] separating the elect of the saints from the refuse of the empty chaff. For these elect, as though trained with the rod of truth, laying aside the superfluities of the old man together with his deeds, are gathered in the church as in a winepress. For the church is the winepress of the eternal fountain, since from it wells forth the juice of the heavenly Vine. - "On the Holy Spirit 1, Prologue 1"
When Gideon, the son of Joash, was beating the grain of wheat with a rod under an oak tree, he merited to hear an angel promise that he would deliver God’s people from the power of their enemies. It is no wonder that he was chosen for a special grace, when by the predestined mystery of the future incarnation he was even then seated under the shade of the cross of holy and venerable wisdom. He was bringing the tangible grains of a fruitful field out of their concealment, separating choice holy men from the rubbish of useless chaff. Putting aside the superfluities of the old man and his actions by treating them with the rod of experienced truth, they are assembled in the church as in a winepress. The church is the winepress of the eternal fountain in which abounds the fruit of the heavenly vine. - "Sermon 117.1"
Is. We should naturally translate, be with thee, if the answer of Gedeon did not show (Calmet) that it is to be taken as an assertion, that the Lord was already reconciled to Israel, and had made choice of this valiant man to rescue his people from slavery, though he was not of the first nobility, ver. 15.
