Judges 6:14 Commentary

When God called Gideon, He found him hiding in a winepress, threshing wheat in secret to keep it from the oppressive Midianites. Gideon was the least likely hero — fearful, doubting, and from the weakest clan in his tribe. Yet God's call transformed this timid farmer into a mighty deliverer.

The phrase 'Go in this thy might' is remarkable because Gideon had no apparent might. His strength was not in his muscles or his army but in the fact that God had sent him. The divine commission itself was the source of his power.

The period of the Judges was characterized by a recurring cycle: Israel would sin, God would allow oppression, the people would cry out, and God would raise up a deliverer. The Midianites had oppressed Israel for seven years, destroying crops and livestock, driving the people into desperate poverty.

Gideon's call follows the pattern of other biblical figures who were called from obscurity — Moses at the burning bush, David from the sheepfold, and later, the fishermen disciples. God consistently chooses the unlikely to accomplish the extraordinary.

The Hebrew phrase lek bekohacha zeh ('go in this thy might') is intriguing because zeh ('this') points to something specific. What might? The might of knowing that God has sent him. The strength Gideon needed was not his own but the assurance of divine commissioning.

The word shalach ('sent') carries the authority of the sender. When God sends someone, He backs them with His full power and resources. The rhetorical question 'have not I sent thee?' is not seeking information but declaring certainty.

Judges 6:14 teaches that God's calling is itself the qualification. Gideon did not need to become mighty before God could use him — God's commission made him mighty. This principle runs throughout Scripture: God does not call the equipped; He equips the called.

The verse also reveals that God sees potential where humans see inadequacy. While Gideon saw himself as the least, God addressed him as a 'mighty man of valour' (Judges 6:12). God's perspective of who we are is always greater than our self-assessment.

Many believers disqualify themselves from God's purposes because they feel inadequate, unworthy, or ill-equipped. Judges 6:14 shatters that excuse. If God has called you to something, His calling is your qualification. You go not in your own might but in the might of His commissioning.

This verse encourages believers to stop waiting until they feel ready and to step out in faith, trusting that the God who sends them will sustain them. The question is not 'Am I able?' but 'Has God sent me?'