In Exodus 20:15 God says You shall not steal. It is a command and few people have ever tried to deny its plain meaning.
In Acts 16:3 it says of Paul and Barnabas that after the people had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. The 1689 Baptist Confession concludes, therefore, that today elders “should be solemnly set apart by fasting and prayer” (26:9). However, not all churches committed to the confession would vigorously enforce the rule.
Why the distinction? It is because Exodus 20:15 is prescriptive and Acts 16:3 is descriptive and so although the latter may give a good example that ought to be followed, we cannot insist on it in the same way that we can with not stealing.
Gideon
The Book of Judges is chiefly descriptive rather than prescriptive. At the end of Judges 6 we are told how Gideon twice put out a fleece in order to reassure himself that God was with him in the task he had been given of repelling the Midianites. On both occasions he was rewarded with a wonderfully assuring miracle.
In light of this passage some Christians in the past, and perhaps still today, will speak of “putting out a fleece” in order to know God's guidance. Other Christians react quite strongly against speaking in such terms.
Some Christians assume that Gideon's example is a good one, while many others would point out not only that there is no command to “put out a fleece” but would even question whether what Gideon did was a good thing anyway. It was a lack of faith rather than example of faith they contend.
There are several questions then. Did Gideon do right? If so, has he left us with an example to follow? If not, is there something to avoid here?
Man of faith
Certainly, we should be very slow to criticise a man who is held up to us in the New Testament as an example of a man of faith. He is not criticised for testing the Lord in the way he did anywhere in Scripture. We need to remember too that Gideon's circumstances were very different to ours today. Unlike us he had no New Testament; he had very little of the Old Testament, either. The Holy Spirit was on him but the Spirit had not been poured out in abundance as he later was. For us today, looking to God for a special sign to confirm our decisions can be a form of laziness rather than a form of godliness.
Gideon does show a certain immaturity perhaps. Even he fears God's anger when he asks for a second miraculous sign of confirmation. Bruce Waltke reminds us too that Gideon was not making a decision about what car to buy or what college to go to. Such decisions are important but “are not on the same scale with determining the course of a nation whom God has selected for a blessing”.
Looking for signs
It is understandable that many writers warn against looking for signs to guide us. The story is told of a woman wanting guidance about whether to go on a trip to Israel. After reading the brochure about the available trip in bed one night, she prayed that the Lord would give her a sign as to whether she should go. She then fell asleep with the brochure next to her. Waking the next morning the first thing she saw was the digital clock reading 7:47. Given that the flight to Israel was to be on a Boeing 747 she had the sign she wanted it seemed and booked that day!
Another story describes someone committed to missionary work but wanting a sign as to where to serve. Entering a shop one day they see Brazil nuts and they are convinced it is a sign that they should serve in Brazil. (What if they had fixed their eyes on the Mars bars, I wonder?)
One of the problems with such examples is that they are not really like Gideon's experience anyway. What Gideon sought and found was a double miracle not to guide him about what to do but to reassure him in what he was about to do. This is quite different to these other examples.
Such sign seeking is also open to abuse. Spurgeon told a story of a woman who was very much into such signs coming to a minister seeking guidance. The truth was that her mind was already made up and so he told her to listen to the church bells and see what they were saying. It seemed to her that they were saying “Do it! Do it!” So she went and did it. And she later regretted it. Now the bells seemed to say “Never do it! Never do it!”
Warnings
It is true that Jesus warns us that A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! We ought to take care that we are not merely seeking signs for their own sake. However, to look to our Father for reassurance and encouragement along the way is surely not wrong. When a big dog is barking who can object to a child holding her father's hand a little tighter and asking “Will it be okay?”
God has already given us many “fleeces” that encourage us to go in the right direction. Poor, weak creatures as we are, however, we sometimes need further reassurances that God is leading us. To seek such signs is not necessarily laziness or superstition.
For a man who is new to the ministry, for example, to pray for someone to be converted through his preaching in those early days as a sign that God is going to use him is surely not wrong. To ask for some sort of encouraging sign in a new job – a fellow Christian or a sympathetic boss - is surely not to be outlawed. Yes, we must trust the Lord but he is a gentle Father and to ask, in the spirit in which Gideon asked, for a sign of God's favour is surely not a lack of faith but a desire to have our faith strengthened.
Condescension
The lesson to be learned from Gideon's fleece then is really to do with the condescension of God. Charles Simeon called attention to this in a sermon on the passage. He says
It is true, we are not authorised to specify the terms on which we will credit the divine testimony, or to expect any visible signs in confirmation of God’s word: yet are we not a whit less assured of his condescension and grace, than Gideon ... We shall find, in his very covenant which he has made with us, the very same condescension to our weakness, and the very same desire to satisfy our minds … And … in the promises … We see, then, that at this day God is the same as in the days of old; and that still, as formerly, “he will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, till he bring forth judgement unto victory.”
Conclusions
Surely it is correct to say that Gideon did right when he asked for reassurance in the way he did. Matthew Henry notes that
Though he took the boldness to ask another sign, yet he did it with such fear and trembling as showed that the familiarity God had graciously admitted him to did not breed any contempt of God's glory, nor presumption on God's goodness.
The story does not necessarily give us an example to follow in some wooden way but it does reassure us of God's compassion. It also suggests that when a servant of God is going about the Lord's work and becomes aware of his weakness, it is perfectly acceptable for him to seek reassurance from God that he is in the way of duty. We do not expect miracles to reassure us or even strange signs but we can ask that God will bless us in certain ways, ways that will serve to reassure us in our efforts to serve him.
First published in Grace Magazine
