Laying Out A Fleece
Ok, so this is another one that has a very clear Biblical reference, namely Judges 6:36-40 where Gideon lays a fleece out and asks God to make it wet with dew while keeping the ground around it dry. And then, after God did that, Gideon asks for it to be done again, only this time with the fleece remaining dry while the ground around it was wet with dew, which God also did. God did both of these miracles as signs to prove to Gideon that He was going to save Israel through him. I will look into this a bit further later, but while looking into this (hence the gap since my last blog) I discovered that Gideon wasn’t the first to do something like this, even though the phrase that has gone into our lexicon is based on his story.
For the first to do something like this we have to go back to the time of Abraham, in Genesis 24. There we see that Abraham sends a servant to go and find a wife for Isaac. When the servant arrives where Abraham told him to go he prays to God, asking that the woman who was right for Isaac to marry would respond to him asking for water from the well by offering to also water his camels. It’s not quite putting down a fleece twice and asking for two miracles, but it is asking for a specific response to a situation that the person is creating so as to get clear guidance from God.
Both situations ask God for something so that the person asking might be assured of God’s will for their situation, but interestingly when I was looking into this cliché I found that they can get very different responses from the people commenting on them. So let’s have a look at that.
First let’s look at Gideon. Gideon is hiding wheat from the Midianites in a winepress. It’s possible that this also meant that he was also hiding in fear, as he’s here rather than with his family or out trying to defend the land from the Midianites, though that is very much up for debate rather than a certainty. First he has the Angel of the Lord (also known as another was of saying God Himself, not that Gideon knew this) visit him, telling him that “The Lord is with you”. Gideon is first told to tear down an Asherah pole and then told to gather an army to defeat the Midianites. And after Gideon has gathered all the men that are willing to follow him he then turns to God as asks for the two signs with the fleeces.
When looking into this story I saw a number of blogs that had a major issue with Gideon doing this, saying that it showed a man who was testing God despite having had an angel (at least in his understanding) speak to him and been told that he was going to lead Israel to victory over the Midianites. But by not only asking for one sign but two these blogs said that it was a sign of a weak and immature faith, comparing him to the “wicked and adulterous generation” that Jesus spoke of, who would still not believe even if they saw a miracle.
However, in the case of Abraham’s servant, Abraham wanted a wife for Isaac but didn’t want him to marry a Canaanite, so he made the servant swear an oath that he would go back to Abraham’s homeland and find a wife there. So the servant goes to Abraham’s homeland, to the town of Nahor, and when he gets there the Bible tells us that it was evening, “the time the women go out to draw water”, so he stops to pray. He prays for success, as a way of showing kindness to Abraham, and so says “May it be that when I say to a young woman, ‘Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too’—let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac”.
When the women come out we see Rebekah coming out and doing exactly what the servant had asked. But then, interestingly, the servant pushes things further (the Bible saying it was so as to be sure she was the one God intended for Isaac to marry) and asks if her father has room for him to stay the night. When she says yes and reveals that she is related to Nahor, Abraham’s brother, the servant then knows that he’s found the right woman for Isaac.
In the blogs that I have found talking about this, there are 2 interesting things that I note. The first is that they don’t appear to mention the fact that the servant adds on a second part (although not as a prayer, merely expecting something more than he had prayed for) in his search for confirmation from God. The second thing is that this asking for confirmation is acceptable, although still could be seen as a bit risky. The reason given for why it was ok is that it was because Abraham was seeking for a wife for Isaac who shared his beliefs in God, on other words the principle of being equally yoked. And because this was about a Godly principle the request was fine, as the servant was already aligned with God’s will on the matter, so his request was seeking God to reveal the answer to him.
This is contrasted with Gideon, where his requests for the signs with the fleece are after he’s already been told what God wants him to do, additionally impacted by the fact that rather than being satisfied with the first fleece sign he then asks for a second. However, I think that the contexts of these two examples differ greatly in their setting and give a reason why, to my mind, Gideon asking for the signs is ok.
When we first meet Gideon in the story, Israel is being oppressed by the Midianites, as well as a number of other groups of peoples. On top of that, he is clearly lacking in confidence. Not only is he potentially hiding from the fight, but he also describes himself as the runt of his family, which is a part of the weakest clan in his tribe. Gideon is very clear that he is a nobody with no power to do anything to save Israel. And so even though he’s had a sign by the Angel of the Lord remaining after he went to get his offering (Genesis 24:17-19), Gideon is still not convinced that he’s the one to lead Israel to victory and so he then asks for the signs with the fleece.
Speaking as someone who struggles with self-confidence, I can empathise with Gideon in this situation. He’s just been asked to do something way beyond his comprehension having seen that the Midianites are currently running rampant over his people and he is likely both lacking in confidence and afraid for his life. Stepping out of your comfort zone is not an easy thing, even less so when you have no confidence in doing so, so Gideon is almost certainly wondering why him, questioning whether or not he’s actually seeing and hearing right and then after he’s gathered his army (before it’s whittled down) he then could well be wondering if he heard right when he was told to start doing this, so he decides that he wants reaffirmation with the first fleece sign and then his lack of self-confidence causes him to ask God to confirm this with the second. This may seem like a lot, but I could very easily see someone who may well be that lacking in confidence in themselves that it affects them taking on what God has said straight away. Interestingly, the blogs who speak against the idea of laying down a fleece don’t then look beyond the fleece. If we move on to chapter 7 (verses 1-7) we see God shrinking Gideon’s army from 32,000 to 300. Both times that God tells Gideon to get rid of people he doesn’t question God, but now he is fully assured that he is following God’s will and doesn’t even question the interesting method God uses to get down to 300. He just does as God says. And he doesn’t question the way that God tells him to defeat the Midianites, he just followed what God wanted him to do. And the end result was that the Midianites were destroyed.
So what can we take from these?
Firstly, I think that we can say that when we look at what people say about things that take place in the Bible we have to remember the wider context that they are in to better understand what’s going on. A second thing is that while there are no other stories in the Bible about anyone laying down a fleece, like Gideon, there other examples that are similar in terms of what they are showing us. A third thing, which one of the blogs I read said, is that there is a reason for everything that is in the Bible. And while that isn’t necessarily a case for saying we should lay down fleeces when we are seeking God’s guidance, I think it points to a validity, at the very least in the context it is in, of the fleeces being laid down by Gideon and the fact that God answered him both times.
Looking specifically at the idea of whether or not it’s ok to “lay down a fleece”, I think there is one key aspect that both Abraham’s servant and Gideon are aligned with that says that it’s ok to do – your request for guidance is in line with God’s will. It is important to remember that that means that you are no testing God if you are in line with God’s will, as to test God would mean you are not asking for guidance so much as asking for permission to do something that you likely know you shouldn’t be doing.
Another reason that some have against the idea of laying down a fleece is that some people say that the Bible is all that we need to know God’s will for us. And I can agree with this, at least to a certain point, as the Bible is God’s written word for us to know Him and how He calls us to live. But I also would likely disagree with them as the inference seems to suggest that they do not believe in signs and wonders beyond the early Church times. As someone who very much believes in the charismatic I believe that God speaks to us in other ways beyond the Bible. However, I believe that when He does we need to be sure that it is in line with what we see in the Bible. God will never guide us through words of knowledge, dreams, visions etc that would see us going against His word.
Another thing to remember is that we should be asking God for wisdom. We see a prime example of this with Solomon, but the book of James also teaches this (chapter 1, verse 5). As such, asking God for guidance is seeking His wisdom on something and should be something that we are both encouraged to do and that we encourage others to do as well.
So what should we do if we are going to “lay down a fleece”?
Well, first of all, I would say that we shouldn’t be looking to do it on a regular basis. To do so would be to abuse God’s goodness.
When we do “lay down a fleece” we should be highly specific. Look at how specific Abraham’s servant was with his request for someone to both offer him and his camels water. Or Gideon asking for the fleece to be wet on dry ground and then dry on wet ground. Or look at what Jesus told Peter and John when they were going to find where they were going to have the Last Supper together.
We must also remember that if we are going to “lay down a fleece” then we have to be willing to obey God. We shouldn’t ask Him if we should accept a job offer and then decide that, after He tells us we should, we are going to turn it down, for example. That removes the entire point of asking for guidance to begin with.
Finally, we should remember that God does not always speak to us in ways that we clearly understand, or even hear Him at all. Therefore we should remember to continue to trust in God, even if we don’t hear Him give us an answer, remembering that, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “For now we see through a glass, darkly”. In other words, our understanding of God is limited as we are now in imperfect bodies in an imperfect world, which means that sometimes we will see/hear God and it will be clear and sometimes it won’t be.
A big thank you to the following blogs, that helped me think through this particular cliché:
– eBible
– Got Questions
– Emmanuel Community Church
– Exploring The Faith (and this, and this)
– Christianity Daily
– Christian Post
– Apply God’s Word
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