Listening vs. Hearing: Gideon and the Voice of God

“When you are talking, I am not talking. And when I am not talking, you are not listening. And if you are not listening, then you are not learning.”¹

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I mentioned earlier this year that I wanted to start recording my progress of listening to God. (If I never officially stated that goal, now I have.)

As the post linked above makes clear, the way I was trained to understand hearing from God (as a young adult) was the “look at the Bible and see what he says” method of hearing God. I ended up in a church that taught that this was the only way to hear God–the only way he speaks today. So imagine my joy when I read the following parable this past week:

Hearing God has been quite the struggle recently. Even quieting my soul enough to sit and listen, to get away from all the “noise” clamoring for attention (most of which is nothing but my own, self-imposed to-do lists), has felt like a herculean task. To make matters worse, literally everything has been screaming at me to give up–especially on faith.³ But luckily for me–and you–at least one logical fallacy has some serious pull on my mind. Sunk cost fallacy.

Sorry, Satan. Actually, I’m not sorry. But I’ve spent way too much time and money on Christianity to just walk away from it.

But the way some people talk about hearing God is completely unhelpful–especially if they assume we know what they mean.⁴ We don’t! And the Bible itself is vague on this topic.

Are we really to believe God showed up visibly to people, when the Bible says no one has ever seen God?

Are we really to believe that God shouts at people when Elijah heard God in the “still, small voice”?

Are we really to believe that God changed his modus operandi when the Bible makes it clear that he is the same yesterday, today, and forever?

My questions here started while contemplating the Abraham story. There are three main options:

1. God spoke to Abraham audibly, miraculously, in a way potentially common in Scripture, but unheard of today.⁵
2. God spoke to Abraham through his thoughts and impressions.
3. The Bible was written after the fact (which is a fact) and sought to make sense of physical history with spiritual justifications.

I’m of the opinion that the answer is #2. I’m fairly certain that there can be some overlap with #3, in that Abraham’s thoughts were validated as God’s Word when Abraham proved faith by obeying and the promises came true.⁶ It is also true that #1 is recorded as true on occasion as well, but these would be miraculous occurrences, not the norm. For instance, look at Saul in Acts 9:7; the men with him also heard the voice, so it was not an internal impression. (Moses on Sanai would be a similar event.)

I mentioned this idea to my father-in-law late last year, which led to the Dallas Willard recommendation and also to homework. The homework was the Gideon story in Judges 6-8. It serves as a test case for how God speaks to people today. I read and notated the passage almost immediately, but it’s finally time to share those findings as I resist the urge to give up on faith.

Gideon’s story starts in Judges 6:11, but prior to his entrance, the narrator explains the reason for his story. Judges 6:1-6 describes Israel’s disobedience and subsequent subjugation by Midian.

A side note worth mentioning. God gave Israel over to Midian for seven years (6:1), and they were like locusts (6:5). Midian took everything Israel produced (6:3-4). Ever feel like all your hard-earned money only goes to your landlord and the grocery store? Instead of loving one another and providing for each others’ needs, we gave huge corporations far too much power. Now we are being oppressed by them.

Lest you think this is unimportant, unrelated, and unnecessarily politically motivated, I would point out what our historian noted three chapters earlier. In Judges 3:4, we read that the foreign nations were left in the land in order to test Israel as to whether or not they would obey Yahweh’s commandments. The word for “obey” is literally “hear” (šmʿ ). It’s the same word as that from Deuteronomy 6:4–“Hear, O Israel”–titled “the Shema.”⁷

We’re talking about hearing God today. There’s no point to hear God if we aren’t following up our hearing with obedience. Obedience to God is so much more than “Don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t sleep around.” Obedience to God is going out of your way to help the least fortunate, to release the bonds of oppression, to live in love (Deuteronomy 6:5), which is demonstrated by loving people (Leviticus 19:18).

Now, lest you point out Deuteronomy 7 and Judges 3:1-2 where we read about expected warfare, I would simply ask, “Are those not Israel’s neighbors?” And if–for whatever reason–God did command Israel to exterminate the Canaanites, that was them and then. God now commands you to love everybody, even those sinning in ways you think God should destroy.⁸

The primary reason stated for the destruction of the Canaanites was to prevent Israel’s idolatry (Judges 6:10). God–who is love–knew that falling prey to lesser deities would sap the love out of the world, which is why Rahab’s story is the first conquest story in the book of Joshua. The Gibeonites as well. Slaughter was not the only way to conquer Canaan, and God made that clear in these two stories. When we insist on conquering others–whether physically or verbally–we prove that we are following a different God than the God of the Bible. Jesus spoke similarly when he said that in the last days “the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12).

But the Gideon story starts because Israel cries out to God. God speaks through a prophet, reminding them of his prior rescue of them (6:8-9a), his helping them conquer Canaan (6:9b), and his command to not commit idolatry (6:10a). His message concludes, “You did not obey me” (6:10b).

Judges 6:11-12 begins the Gideon story. And twice it mentions that Yahweh’s messenger (not Yahweh himself) came and spoke to Gideon. This could be a voice, an impression, or a physical person (like Genesis 18). It’s almost certain, given 6:21, that this angel physically appeared to Gideon as a person. But in 6:12, Yahweh’s messenger speaks. I originally labelled his greeting as sarcasm, but now I wonder if it is God calling Gideon to his true purpose. Regardless, he reminds Gideon of the truth: “Yahweh⁹ is with you, mighty warrior.”

Gideon totally ignores his calling, instead focusing on God’s reassurance. “How can you say God is with us?” How often do we do this? God calls us to something big and we focus on our current situation?

Like, duh. God promises to go with Gideon so the problem he is describing will be overcome. If we would trust God and listen to him (hear and obey!) when he speaks–instead of trying to justify our actions (or inactions)–how might God move in our world today?

Verses 14-16 make it pretty clear that once God has a task for someone, no amount of wriggling out of that reality will be successful. In fact, it was Gideon’s complaint in verse 13 that paved the way for his calling in verse 14. And again, God reiterates that he will not be alone in carrying out this task. Even after Gideon identifies his weakness (vs 15), God reiterates his presence with Gideon (vs 16).

Let’s take special note of God’s commissioning of Gideon in these verses. We will refer back to this later. In verse 12, God called Gideon “a mighty warrior.” In verse 14, God commands Gideon as “you” two times. It is a singular pronoun. In verse 16, God reiterates this and basically says it will be a one-on-one battle: “you will strike Midian down as if it were one man.” Let’s hold on to this detail for a bit.

Gideon’s question in verse 17 comes out of nowhere. Right? Not only did verse 12 announce “Yahweh is with you,” but every other verse since has noted that Yahweh is speaking. The narrator added the dialogue tags to help us. But put yourself in Gideon’s shoes, where a strange man comes up to you and starts talking about how you will defeat your nation’s oppressors, and you might doubt as well. If you’re anything like me, you definitely doubt the Lord is really present in those moments. How many times has God spoken to us through others and we’ve just missed it? Hebrews 13:2, anyone?

But Judges 6:17-21 reports Gideon’s first test to determine if Yahweh is truly speaking to him. At the end of verse 21, we read, “the angel of Yahweh vanished from his sight.” This proves that the messenger was a physical, visible presence. Verse 22 reiterates this reality when Gideon cries out, “I have seen the angel of Yahweh face to face.”

But then, oddly enough, Yahweh speaks to him again in verse 23. He’d already disappeared, so was this an audible, disembodied voice, or was it an impression in his mind? And in verse 24, Gideon builds an altar named “Yahweh is peace,” because of what he heard from Yahweh in verse 23: “Peace to you. Don’t be afraid, for you will not die.”

And that right there is the answer to our question. Was it a disembodied voice or an internal impression? It probably doesn’t matter. I’m inclined to believe God speaks more to our minds than he does to our ears, though this is why we sit under preaching, because God still speaks to his people through prophets and pastors and even angels on occasion (Hebrews 13:2). But primarily, it will be internal.¹⁰

However, Gideon could tell this internal impression was the same source as the angel of Yahweh because it encouraged: “mighty warrior” (6:12); “I will be with you” (6:16); “do not be afraid” (6:23). The voice of God does not condemn and belittle. There’s a reason God commands “do not be afraid”/”do not fear” at least 105 times throughout the Bible.¹¹

This is the voice of God. This is what he wants for us.

But Gideon’s story continues. And it’s very interesting. God comes to Gideon again that night and tells him to destroy an idol (6:25-26), but the text then explains, “Gideon took 10 of his male servants and did as the Lord had told him. But because he was too afraid of his father’s household and the men of the city to do it in the daytime, he did it at night” (6:27). Why does the narrator bring up fear? Isn’t this instant obedience?

I believe it is a critical hint to fully understanding the Gideon story. He hadn’t fully heeded God. He was still acting out of fear despite God telling him not to fear.¹² God earlier called Gideon a “mighty warrior” (6:12), told him to go in the strength he had (6:14), and said he would strike Midian as if it were one man (6:16). But as the story continues, God never tells Gideon to gather an army.

In fact, an army gathers to Gideon before his next recorded conversation with God (6:34-35), though verse 34 does say “the Spirit of Yahweh took control of Gideon” at this point. The next clause says “and he blew the ram’s horn and the Abiezrites rallied behind him.”

But what is the logical connection between these clauses? How much weight do we want the “and” to carry? It is up to the interpreter to decide; on its own, the conjunction can carry a contrastive, “but,” understanding.¹³ Perhaps Gideon should have attacked at this point–by himself–but he’s still living out of fear, as the next verses show.

The next five verses (6:36-40) push the timeline back by two days. This is the famous “fleece” passage. I was taught that it was sinful to put God to the test like Gideon does here (though it never stopped me from “setting out a fleece” to see if a certain relationship would turn into marriage–they never did, but the “fleece” I put in play never happened either, so maybe God was speaking through my “fleeces”).

Gideon tests God to determine “if you will deliver Israel by my hand as you said.” Gideon isn’t testing to know if God spoke to him. He’s testing to know if he can really trust God to come through for him, in accordance with his internal impressions of God speaking to him. If it was an audible voice, would he have any doubt? He’s searching for a handhold in spite of persistent fear. And God graciously provides–twice!

The next thing to happen could easily lead to fear for Gideon–and probably did. God says, “You have too many people for Me to hand the Midianites over to you, or else Israel might brag: ‘I did it myself.’ Now announce in the presence of the people: ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling may turn back and leave Mount Gilead’” (7:2-3). Twenty-two thousand people leave; two-thirds of his army. God says, “Not enough.” We have to remember that God told Gideon he could do it by himself. So God winnows his force further from 10,000 to 300 (7:4-8).

Another interesting point arises when God next speaks to Gideon in 7:9-11. Here God specifically speaks to Gideon’s fear: “if you are afraid” (7:10). He sends Gideon into the enemy camp–his servant’s accompaniment proves he is still afraid–where he hears a Midianite soldier interpret his friend’s dream with these words: “This is nothing less than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has handed the entire Midianite camp over to him” (7:14). This is another sign that Gideon could have freed Israel on his own.

Gideon is led to worship God as a result, but this is pretty much the end of God’s role in the story. God is given credit in 7:15 for handing the Midianites over to Gideon’s soldiers, and Yahweh ultimately defeats Midian in 7:22 by making them confusedly fight each other, so again–Gideon could have defeated Midian single-handedly.

But that’s the beauty of our God. He will accomplish what he will accomplish, even if we have little faith and only obey partially. God is not dependent on us to accomplish his will. But how beautiful would this world be if we were more obedient? If we lived fully by faith?

But Gideon’s story continues after the torches and pitchers story we learned as children in Sunday School (7:15-23)–and God is pretty much absent from the rest of his tale. The next time Yahweh is mentioned is in 8:34, which reiterates that Gideon’s story was just a brief parenthesis in the people’s love of idolatry and subsequent subjugation by foreigners.

Gideon’s fear was his downfall. He had gathered an army, but not from the people through whose lands the Midianites ended up fleeing, so they were upset with Gideon (8:1). He moved on from there, crossed the Jordan River, and ended up in the territory of Gad, where Succoth is located (Joshua 13:27). When the people of Succoth and nearby Penuel refuse to help Gideon and his exhausted men (8:4-9), Gideon promises violent retribution. Gideon is so twisted up at this point he promises violence “when I return in peace” (8:9). Sure enough, he is victorious, and he slaughters the inhabitants of Penuel and tortures the people of Succoth (8:16-17).

After all is said and done, Israel wants to crown Gideon their king (8:22). Gideon refuses and says, “Yahweh will be your king” (8:23), though his actions say otherwise. He commanded Israel to give him gold and he created an idol that Israel worshiped instead of Yahweh (8:24-27). He also named his son–who was likely conceived during the Midianite battle excursion–Abimelech, which means “my father is king.” Even though he denied the title publicly, he believed it privately.

May God’s speaking to us never split us like it did Gideon–pious in public but prideful in private. May it never lead us to turn against those we are called to love. May it never lead us to think we’ve got it from this point.

Luckily, unlike Gideon, Christians always have the Spirit of God. He doesn’t come and go with us like he did in the Old Testament. But we can quench and grieve the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19; Ephesians 5:30), so let’s foster intimacy with him in the hope of hearing from him more, walking more faithfully, living out of faith, and loving others from the love he imparts to us.

If God’s voice to you doesn’t foster love and peace, then it’s not God’s voice.

In this with you.

Thanks for reading.

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Notes and References

1. Jamie Winship, Living Fearless: Exchanging the Lies of the World for the Liberating Truth of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Revel, 2022), 17. ↩︎
2. John Eldredge, Beautiful Outlaw: Experiencing the Playful, Disruptive, Extravagant Personality of Jesus (New York: FaithWords, 2011), 154. ↩︎
3. It is worth noting that I first started drafting this post in early July. ↩︎
4. Joshua Wingerd, Stranded: Awakening, book 1 (Victorville, CA: Wingerd Writings, 2017), 274 ↩︎
5. Moses and Saul of Tarsus would be the two exceptions, though in both cases the audible voice was connected to some sort of physical manifestation (Isaiah and Ezekiel are similar), and it is likely that in all these cases, it was Jesus who appeared to them. I consider an audible voice different from God coming to someone in a dream. But this question deserves further study. ↩︎
6. According to Joshua 21:45, these promises were all completely fulfilled before the death of Joshua. ↩︎
7. This would flip my dad’s old aphorism on its head: “You might have heard me but you weren’t listening.” ↩︎
8. I’m currently reading a thick volume on a better way to understand the violent passages of the Old Testament, that still takes Scripture seriously. I will offer more thoughts on this conundrum as I uncover them. Follow me on Threads or Facebook for “Thought for the Day” posts from my reading. A quote I read this morning: “The depth of our love and the vibrancy of our relationship with God can never outrun the beauty of our conceptions of him” (Gregory A. Boyd, The Crucifixion of the Warrior God: Interpreting the Old Testament’s Violent Portraits of God in Light of the Cross, volume 1 [Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2017], 19. ↩︎
9. Throughout, I will replace any usages of “the LORD” with “Yahweh” when I quote Scripture. Otherwise, the quotations should follow the HCSB. ↩︎
10. Even when I’ve heard God speak through a pastor’s sermon, it hasn’t been the exact words the preacher spoke, but thoughts inspired by the words the preacher spoke. Check out this post for examples. ↩︎
11. This number is based on a search in the NASB for “do not fear” and “do not be afraid.” The same search in the HCSB registers 54 results. Neither returns Joshua 1:9, a classic text on “do not fear” because it uses the word “terrified” instead. Additionally, they return Malachi 3:5 which is an indicative and not an imperative. So the actual count might be significantly higher than 105 results. ↩︎
12. Trent C. Butler, Judges, WBC (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2009), 208: “Gideon is a man of fear, not faith, even after God passes the tests Gideon imposes.” ↩︎
13. See Bill T. Arnold and John H. Choi, A Guide to Biblical Hebrew Syntax, second edition (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021), 156-157. For their discussion of the verbal form that has the conjunction prefixed, see pp. 97-101, though it is worth noting that the main point of this form is succession of events. “It sometimes has other nuances as well, such as expressing the result of a previous clause” (Ronald J. Williams, Williams’ Hebrew Syntax, third edition [Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007], 75, emphasis added). Arnold and Choi discuss this feature of the form on p. 99. Regardless, use of this form alone indicates no judgment regarding the righteousness of said event, even if it logically follows the prior (e.g. 1 Samuel 16:13 and 2 Samuel 11). ↩︎

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