Gideon was already in trouble. The Midianites kept stealing everyone’s food just as it was ready for harvest. All those months of waiting, hours of hard work, just to have them swoop in and steal it at the peak of ripeness.

What a powerless feeling. It had been going on for years, and the Israelites had resorted to making caves and other coping mechanisms. No peace here.

Gideon was hunkered down in a winepress. Not threshing on a big space where the ox and the wind could do the bulk of work to process the grain. He was working in small batches and small spaces to salvage what he could for survival.

And if the fear of the enemy’s imminent arrival weren’t enough, the terrifying Presence of God showed up in Gideon’s hideout.

Israel was in this devouring predicament by their own wrongdoing. And they’d already been told so. They were brought low, but not to repentance. In these days of the Judges, “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). A low, perverted, self-serving standard. What a mess.

If the all-consuming Holiness had now shown up to judge the train wreck they’d made, Gideon probably realized he had bigger problems than Midianite raiders. “Game over. I have seen the Lord’s face.”

But the Fear of Israel unexpectedly speaks the word Gideon longed for most:

Peace.

To you.

You mean He’s not perennially angry with us? You mean He’s here? You mean this is good news?

Then things are better than we thought.

God, my perception of You is warped by false projections of how I think You will act toward me.

I treat You lightly. Or make You out to be an ogre. I conclude You’re not paying attention. Or that You will be harsh. I assume You see everything the same way I do. I forget that You are infinite—and just how big that is.

Then You show up unexpectedly in my life. In one word You can speak to the heart of my problem. You see all of me and all that surrounds me. Nothing is hidden from You.

And You surprise me with words that communicate life. Hope. You speak peace. You’re here to bring peace. You ARE peace.

You are bigger and better than I gave You credit for in my small, distorted understanding. In the encounter, my heart enlarges another inch in its capacity to know You. My vision expands another couple degrees. This is how You grow my faith.

I have seen the Lord and I am not consumed. To the contrary—I am amazed by peace.