Why does Gedeon destroy Baal’s altar at night rather than during the day?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

He fears his father’s household and the town’s men. With ten servants, he carries out the Lord’s command at night; the next morning the townsmen demand his death, and Joas answers that Baal should avenge his own altar if he is a god.

Chapter breakdown

Israel again does evil before the Lord, who delivers them to Madian for seven years. Grievously oppressed, they make mountain dens, caves and strongholds to resist. After Israel sows, Madian, Amalec and the other eastern nations come with tents, destroy the growing crops as far as Gaza’s entrance and leave no sustenance, sheep, oxen or asses. Their flocks, tents, countless men and camels fill the land like locusts and waste what they touch. Israel is greatly humbled before Madian and cries to the Lord for help. He sends a prophet who speaks his words: he brought them out of Egypt’s bondage, delivered them from Egyptians and all oppressing enemies, drove those enemies out and gave their land. He told them he was their God and not to fear the gods of the Amorrhites whose land they inhabit, but they would not hear his voice.

An angel of the Lord sits beneath an oak in Ephra belonging to Joas, father of Ezri’s family. Joas’s son Gedeon threshes and cleans wheat by the winepress to flee Madian. The angel appears and calls him most valiant, saying the Lord is with him. Gedeon asks why these evils have fallen if the Lord is with them, and where the miracles their fathers told of are, including the escape from Egypt. He says the Lord has now forsaken them and delivered them to Madian. The Lord looks on him and commands him to go in his strength and deliver Israel from Madian, knowing the Lord has sent him. Gedeon asks how he can deliver Israel: his family is the meanest in Manasses and he is least in his father’s house. Challoner separately observes that the Lord chooses the humble, mean and little in their own eyes, for the greatest enterprises. The Lord promises to be with Gedeon and that he will cut off Madian as one man.

Gedeon asks for a sign that the speaker is truly speaking to him if he has found grace, and asks him to stay while he returns with a sacrifice. The reply promises to wait. Gedeon boils a kid and makes unleavened loaves from a measure of flour. He puts the flesh in a basket and broth in a pot and brings both under the oak. The angel tells him to lay flesh and loaves on the rock and pour the broth over them; he does so. The angel touches flesh and loaves with the tip of the rod in his hand. Fire rises from the rock and consumes the flesh and loaves, and the angel vanishes from sight. Gedeon recognizes the angel and cries out because he has seen him face to face. The Lord speaks peace, tells him not to fear and says he will not die. Gedeon builds an altar called the Lord’s peace, the name remaining until this day. He is still in Ephra of Ezri’s family.

That night the Lord commands Gedeon to take a bullock belonging to his father and another bullock seven years old, destroy his father’s Baal altar and cut down its surrounding grove. He must build an altar to the Lord atop the same rock where he laid the earlier sacrifice, then offer the second bullock as a burnt offering on wood cut from that grove. Gedeon takes ten servants and does as commanded. Fearing his father’s house and the city’s men, he does all this at night rather than by day.

In the morning the townsmen see Baal’s altar destroyed, the grove cut down and the second bullock on the newly built altar. They ask who did it; inquiry identifies Gedeon son of Joas. They demand that Joas bring him out to die because he destroyed Baal’s altar and grove. Joas asks whether they are Baal’s avengers fighting for him. He says Baal’s adversary should die before the next morning’s light, if Baal is a god and can avenge himself on the one who demolished his altar. From that day Gedeon is called Jerobaal, because Joas said to let Baal avenge himself on the man who cast down his altar.

All Madian, Amalec and the eastern people gather, cross the Jordan and camp in Jezrael’s valley. The Lord’s spirit comes upon Gedeon, who sounds a trumpet and calls Abiezer’s house to follow. He sends messengers throughout Manasses, and they follow him; he also sends to Aser, Zabulon and Nephthali, whose people come to meet him.

Gedeon asks God whether he will save Israel by his hand as promised. He will put a wool fleece on the floor: dew on the fleece alone with all surrounding ground dry will show that God will deliver Israel through him as stated. It happens so. Rising before day, he wrings the fleece and fills a vessel with dew. He then asks God not to be angry as he seeks one more sign: let only the fleece be dry and all the ground wet with dew. That night God does as requested; the fleece alone is dry and all the ground has dew.

The story inside

The seven-year oppression strips Israel’s crops and animals and prompts a cry for help. The prophet recalls deliverance and the unheard command before Gedeon’s encounter. Gedeon asks about the evils and his ability, receives the mission and promise, and asks for a sign; the offering, fire and reassurance lead to the altar of peace. That night’s separate command requires two bullocks, destruction of his father’s Baal altar and grove, and a new offering on the rock. Fear explains the nighttime work. The townsmen’s inquiry and death demand receive Joas’s conditional challenge, which supplies the Jerobaal name. With the enemy gathered in Jezrael, the spirit, trumpet and messengers bring followers. The chapter ends with the two opposite fleece signs, not a battle result.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Gedeon’s questions receive particular replies. He asks about the evils and remembered miracles, then how his small family can deliver Israel. The Lord says he has sent him and will be with him; Challoner’s observation about humility remains a separate note.
2
The nighttime action has an explicit reason and full command. Gedeon fears both his household and the townsmen, yet acts with ten servants. The account keeps two bullocks, the second’s age, the rock and the grove’s wood; those details matter to what is commanded and found next morning.
3
The two fleece signs reverse the same conditions. First the fleece alone is wet and Gedeon wrings a vessel of dew; next it alone is dry while all the ground has dew. These are the chapter’s recorded confirmations, while the actual defeat of Madian remains beyond this source span.

Test your recall

Why does Gedeon act by night, what do the townsmen find and demand, and how does Joas’s reply lead to the name Jerobaal?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 25643–25679
Judges Chapter 6 The people for their sins, are oppressed by the Madianites. Gedeon is called to deliver them. 6:1. And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord: and he delivered them into the hand of Madian seven years, 6:2. And they were grievously oppressed by them. And they made themselves dens and caves in the mountains, and strong holds to resist. 6:3. And when Israel had sown, Madian and Amalec, and the rest of the eastern nations, came up: 6:4. And pitching their tents among them, wasted all things as they were in the blade, even to the entrance of Gaza: and they left nothing at all in Israel for sustenance of life, nor sheep, nor oxen, nor asses. 6:5. For they and all their flocks came with their tents, and like locusts filled all places, an innumerable multitude of men, and of camels, wasting whatsoever they touched. 6:6. And Israel was humbled exceedingly in the sight of Madian. 6:7. And he cried to the Lord, desiring help against the Madianites. 6:8. And he sent unto them a prophet, and he spoke: Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: I made you to come up out of Egypt, and brought you out of the house of bondage, 6:9. And delivered you out of the hands of the Egyptians, and of all the enemies that afflicted you: and I cast them out at your coming in, and gave you their land. 6:10. And I said: I am the Lord your God, fear not the gods of the Amorrhites, in whose land you dwell. And you would not hear my voice.
Lines 25681–25708
6:11. And an angel of the Lord came, and sat under an oak that was in Ephra, and belonged to Joas, the father of the family of Ezri. And when Gedeon, his son, was threshing and cleansing wheat by the winepress, to flee from Madian, 6:12. The angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said: The Lord is with thee, O most valiant of men. 6:13. And Gedeon said to him: I beseech thee, my lord, if the Lord be with us, why have these evils fallen upon us? Where are his miracles, which our fathers have told us of, saying: The Lord brought us out of Egypt but now the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hand of Madian. 6:14. And the Lord looked upon him, and said: Go, in this thy strength, and thou shalt deliver Israel out of the hand of Madian: know that I have sent thee. 6:15. He answered, and said: I beseech thee, my lord wherewith shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the meanest in Manasses, and I am the least in my father’s house. The meanest in Manasses, etc.... Mark how the Lord chooseth the humble (who are mean and little in their own eyes) for the greatest enterprises. 6:16. And the Lord said to him: I will be with thee: and thou shalt cut off Madian as one man.
Lines 25710–25739
6:17. And he said: If I have found grace before thee, give me a sign that it is thou that speakest to me: 6:18. And depart not hence, till I return to thee, and bring a sacrifice, and offer it to thee. And he answered: I will wait thy coming. 6:19. So Gedeon went in, and boiled a kid, and made unleavened loaves of a measure of flour: and putting the flesh in a basket, and the broth of the flesh into a pot, he carried all under the oak, and presented to him. 6:20. And the angel of the Lord said to him: Take the flesh and the unleavened loaves, and lay them upon that rock, and pour out the broth thereon. And when he had done so, 6:21. The angel of the Lord put forth the tip of the rod, which he held in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened loaves: and there arose a fire from the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened loaves: and the angel of the Lord vanished out of his sight. 6:22. And Gedeon seeing that it was the angel of the Lord, said: Alas, my Lord God: for I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face. 6:23. And the Lord said to him: Peace be with thee: fear not, thou shalt not die. 6:24. And Gedeon built there an altar to the Lord, and called it the Lord’s peace, until this present day. And when he was yet in Ephra, which is of the family of Ezri,
Lines 25741–25753
6:25. That night the Lord said to him: Take a bullock of thy father’s, and another bullock of seven years, and thou shalt destroy the altar of Baal, which is thy father’s: and cut down the grove that is about the altar: 6:26. And thou shalt build an altar to the Lord thy God, in the top of this rock, whereupon thou didst lay the sacrifice before: and thou shalt take the second bullock, and shalt offer a holocaust upon a pile of the wood, which thou shalt cut down out of the grove. 6:27. Then Gedeon, taking ten men of his servants, did as the Lord had commanded him. But fearing his father’s house, and the men of that city, he would not do it by day, but did all by night.
Lines 25755–25773
6:28. And when the men of that town were risen in the morning, they saw the altar of Baal destroyed, and the grove cut down, and the second bullock laid upon the altar, which then was built. 6:29. And they said one to another: Who hath done this? And when they inquired for the author of the fact, it was said: Gedeon, the son of Joas, did all this. 6:30. And they said to Joas: Bring out thy son hither, that he may die: because he hath destroyed the altar of Baal, and hath cut down his grove. 6:31. He answered them: Are you the avengers of Baal, that you fight for him? he that is his adversary, let him die before to morrow light appear: if he be a god, let him revenge himself on him that hath cast down his altar. 6:32. From that day Gedeon was called Jerobaal, because Joas had said: Let Baal revenge himself on him that hath cast down his altar.
Lines 25775–25783
6:33. Now all Madian, and Amalec, and the eastern people, were gathered together, and passing over the Jordan, camped in the valley of Jezrael. 6:34. But the spirit of the Lord came upon Gedeon, and he sounded the trumpet, and called together the house of Abiezer, to follow him. 6:35. And he sent messengers into all Manasses, and they also followed him: and other messengers into Aser and Zabulon, and Nephthali, and they came to meet him.
Lines 25785–25802
6:36. And Gedeon said to God: If thou wilt save Israel by my hand, as thou hast said, 6:37. I will put this fleece of wool on the floor: if there be dew on the fleece only, and it be dry on all the ground beside, I shall know that by my hand, as thou hast said, thou wilt deliver Israel. 6:38. And it was so. And rising before day, wringing the fleece, he filled a vessel with the dew. 6:39. And he said again to God: Let not thy wrath be kindled against me, if I try once more, seeking a sign in the fleece. I pray that the fleece only may be dry, and all the ground wet with dew. 6:40. And God did that night as he had requested: and it was dry on the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.