Gideon's Call from the Winepress

The air in Ophrah was heavy with dust and silence. The once-fertile valleys of Israel

had become a place of fear and famine. Year after year, the Midianites swept through like locusts,

devouring everything in their path—fields stripped bare, livestock stolen, and villages left

trembling in defeat. It was the seventh year of oppression, and hope in Israel had thinned to a

whisper. Down in a hollowed pit where grapes were once pressed, a man named Gideon,

son of Joash from the tribe of Manasseh, threshed wheat in secret. The Book of Judges

records this detail with purpose (Judges 6:11, ESV). He wasn’t just hiding

grain from the enemy—he was hiding himself from humiliation, from danger, and perhaps from