6:33–40 The Fleece
and the Dew
Overview:
Gideon asked for another sign, not due to lack of faith but in order to signify
divine mysteries. The fleece was placed on a threshing floor to symbolize a
plentiful harvest of virtues from among the Gentiles. The dew wrung out of the
fleece into a basin prefigures the Lord’s washing of his disciples’ feet (Ambrose).
The absence of dew on the fleece illustrates how, in former times, God’s
justice was manifested in the law (Augustine). The appearance of dew symbolizes
Jesus’ ministry, first to the Jews, then to the Gentiles (Augustine, Caesarius
of Arles). As the Lord was to come down like rain upon a fleece, the dew is
recognized as the divine Word (Origen, Ambrose). God’s truth, like dew, ceased
to fall upon Israel and began to water the rest of the world (Jerome). Like
moisture in a cloud, the dew-filled fleece represents God’s grace hidden within
Israel, whereas the dew on the floor represents the manifestation of God’s
grace through Christ. Since grace is no longer hidden but openly manifested,
Christians who contend that righteousness is a result of nature are in error
and without excuse (Augustine). Mary, the mother of the lamb of God, is
recognized in the fleece (Maximus of Turin).
6:36–40
Gideon Asks God for Signs of Victory
Speaking
in Mysteries. Ambrose: Someone perhaps will enquire
whether Gideon does not seem to have been lacking in faith, seeing that after
being instructed by many signs he asked [for] still more. But how can he seem
to have asked as if doubting or lacking in faith, who was speaking in
mysteries? He was not doubtful then, but careful so that we would not doubt.
For how could he be doubtful whose prayer was effectual? And how could he have
begun the battle without fear, unless he had understood the message of God? For
the dew on the fleece signified the faith among the Jews, because the words of
God come down like the dew. On the Holy Spirit 1, Prologue 6.
A
Plentiful Harvest. Ambrose: Nor was it without a reason that he
put the fleece neither in a field nor in a meadow, but in a threshing floor,
where the harvest of the wheat is: “For the harvest is plenteous, but the
laborers are few;” because, through faith in the Lord, there was about to be a
harvest fruitful in virtues. On the Holy Spirit 1, Prologue 10.
Washing
the Disciples’ Feet Prefigured. Ambrose: Nor, again, was it
without a reason that he dried the fleece of the Jews and put the dew from it
into a basin, so that it was filled with water, yet he did not himself wash his
feet in that dew. The prerogative of so great a mystery was to be given to another.
He was being waited for who alone could wash away the filth of all. Gideon was
not great enough to claim this mystery for himself, but “the Son of man came
not to be ministered to, but to minister.” Let us, then, recognize in whom
these mysteries are seen to be accomplished. Not in holy Gideon, for they were
still at their commencement. Therefore the Gentiles were surpassed, for dryness
was still upon the Gentiles, and therefore did Israel surpass them, for then
did the dew remain on the fleece.
Let us come now to the gospel of God. I find the Lord
stripping himself of his garments and girding himself with a towel, pouring
water into a basin, and washing the disciples’ feet. That heavenly dew was this
water, this was foretold, namely, that the Lord Jesus Christ would wash the
feet of his disciples in that heavenly dew. On the Holy Spirit 1, Prologue
11.12.
The
Law and the Fleece. Augustine: Again on this subject it is
written: “For through the law comes the knowledge of sin. But now, apart from
the law, the justice of God is made manifest, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets.” When he says “made manifest” he shows that it had
existed but was like the dew for which Gideon asked; then it was not visible on
the fleece, but now it is made manifest on the ground around. Therefore, since
law without grace could only strengthen rather than kill sin—as it is written:
“The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law”—and as many flee
to grace for refuge from the face of sin which had been so enthroned, to grace
lying manifest, as it were, on the ground, so at that time few fled to it
[grace] for refuge, invisible as it were, on the fleece. Indeed, this division
of times belongs to the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge
of God, of which it is said: “How incomprehensible are his judgments and how
unsearchable his ways!” Letter 177.
Dew
Signifies Jesus’ Ministry. Augustine: “And he shall come down like
rain into a fleece, and like drops distilling upon the earth.” He has reminded
and admonished us that what was done by Gideon the judge has its end in Christ.
He asked the Lord for a sign, that a fleece laid on the floor should alone be
rained upon and the floor should be dry; and again, that the fleece alone
should be dry and the floor should be rained upon; and so it happened. This dry
fleece, which lay upon a floor in the midst of the whole round world, signified
the former people Israel. Therefore, Christ came down like rain upon the fleece
while the floor remained dry; concerning this he said, “I was sent only to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel.” There [in Israel] he selected
a mother through whom he would receive the [bodily] form of a servant in order
to appear to humanity: there he gave this command to the disciples, saying,
“Don’t go in the direction of the nations or enter into the cities of the
Samaritans: go first to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” When he said,
go “first” to them, he also showed that afterward, when the floor was to be
rained upon, they would also go to other sheep who were not of the former
people of Israel. Concerning these he says, “I have other sheep which are not
of this fold; I need to bring in them also, that there may be one flock and one
Shepherd.” For this reason the apostle also says, “For I say that
Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the
promises of the patriarchs.” Thus rain came down upon the fleece, while the
floor remained dry. Regarding this he continues, “so that the nations should
glorify God for his mercy,” and, when the time arrived, that what
he says by the prophet should be fulfilled, “a people whom I have not known has
served me, in listening attentively it has obeyed me.” We now understand that
the nation of the Jews has remained dry of Christ’s grace, and all the nations
throughout the whole round world are being rained upon by clouds full of
Christian grace. He has indicated this rain with another phrase, as he says
that “drops [are] distilling” no longer upon the fleece but “upon the earth.”
For what else is rain but drops distilling? I think that the above [Jewish]
nation is signified as a fleece either because they were to be stripped of the
authority of teaching—just as a sheep is stripped of its skin—or because he was
hiding that same rain in a secret place and did not desire that it should be
preached to those who were not circumcised, that is, to be revealed to
uncircumcised nations. Explanations of the Psalms 72.9.
The
Dew of a Heavenly Visitation. Caesarius of Arles: Now,
although Gideon was brave and confident, still he sought fuller proofs of
victory from the Lord, saying, “If indeed you are going to save Israel through
me, as you promised, O Lord, I am putting this woolen fleece on the threshing
floor. If dew comes on the fleece, while all the ground is dry, I shall know
that you will save the people through me, as you promised.” That is what took
place. Afterwards, he added that the second time dew should pour over all the
ground and only the fleece be dry; and so it happened. The dew on the fleece
was faith in Judea, for the words of God descend as dew; for this reason Moses
says, “May my discourse be awaited like the rain, and my words descend like the
dew.” Thus, when the whole world was dried up from the unproductive heat of
Gentile superstition, then there was the dew of a heavenly visitation upon the
fleece, that is, in Judea. However, after “the lost sheep of the house of
Israel” (foreshadowing, I think, the figure of the fleece of the
Jews) refused the fountain of living water, the dew of faith dried up in the
hearts of the Jews, and that divine stream turned its path to the hearts of the
Gentiles. For this reason, the whole world is now moist with the dew of faith,
but the Jews destroyed their prophets and advisers. It is no wonder that they
submit to the dryness of faithlessness, since the Lord God deprived them of the
fruitful rains of the prophets, saying, “I will command the clouds not to send
rain upon that vineyard.” Salutary is the rain of the prophetic cloud, as David
said: “He shall be like rain coming down on the meadow, like showers watering
the earth.” The sacred writings of the whole world promised us
this rain which watered the world at the advent of our Lord and Savior with the
dew of the divine spirit. Thus, the dew has already come, and also the rain;
the Lord came and brought with him heavenly showers. For this reason, we who
thirsted before now drink, and by an interior drinking [we] absorb that divine
spirit. Therefore, holy Gideon foresaw that by perceiving faith, even tribes
and nations would drink the true heavenly dew. Sermon 117.4.
The
Dew of the Word. Origen: But now let’s see why, in the first
sign, “dew fell upon the fleece, whereas the ground was dry,” and in the second
sign, “dew fell upon the ground, while the fleece remained dry,” an indication
which Gideon accepted as a pledge that the Lord would save Israel through his
hand. The rationale for this mystery is to be seen in what I remember from one
of our preceding books, which characterized the people of Israel as a “fleece,”
with the surrounding ground being the Gentiles, while the dew that fell “upon
the fleece” was the word of God written for this people alone. For only to
Israel did the dew of the divine law arrive, whereas all the surrounding
nations remained dry, none of them being infused with the moisture of divine
locution. In the second sign, however, where he asked that the dew fall on the
ground and that the fleece remain dry, a completely different rationale can be
observed. We should see this entire people, who were gathered together from
nations around the world, now having within themselves the divine dew; see them
infused with the dew of Moses, irrigated by the word of the prophets; see them
green from evangelical and apostolic water. The fleece, however, that is, the
Jewish people, suffers aridity and dryness in the word of God, according to
which it is written: “The children of Israel will be for a long time without
king, without prince, without prophet; they will have no altar, no victim, no
sacrifice.” You can see how they remain arid, how they are stricken with
drought of the word of God.… Even the seventy-first psalm, as I have often
discussed with them, moves me to this conclusion because, when it describes the
advent of Christ, it foretells his coming as rain on a fleece and as showers on
the earth. Here in Judges a fleece is mentioned and in the psalm, also,
“fleece” is the word chosen. For he will “descend like rain,” it says, “on a
fleece.” He descends, therefore, on that fleece of the people of circumcision
and “like showers upon the earth,” meaning that our Lord Jesus Christ descends
on the remainder of the earth, dripping upon us and bringing the “dew of
heaven” to us Gentiles also, that we too may drink who were on the previously
arid surrounding land. Homilies on Judges 8.4.
The
Dew of the Divine Word. Ambrose: But what does this mean:
“Until the day on which the Lord shall send rain on the earth”? except that he,
too, “shall come down like rain upon a fleece, and like the drops that water
the earth.” In this passage the mystery of the old history is disclosed where
Gideon, the warrior of the mystic conflict, receiving the pledge of future
victory, recognized the spiritual sacrament in the vision of his mind, that
that rain was the dew of the divine Word, which first came down on the fleece,
when all the earth was parched with continual drought, and by a second true
sign, moistened the floor of all the earth with a shower, while dryness was
upon the fleece. Concerning Widows 3.18.
The
Dryness of Israel. Jerome: The truth of the Lord reaches even
to the clouds. The clouds are the apostles and prophets; to them he gave the
command not to rain upon Israel. This is in agreement with history as recorded
in the book of Judges, where it speaks of the fleece that was dry while rain
fell upon the rest of the world. It means that Israel is dry and the rain is
pouring down over the whole world. Homilies on the Psalms 24 (Ps 96).
Christ,
the Sweetness of Dew. Augustine: What did Gideon’s fleece signify?
It is like the nation of the Jews in the midst of the world, which had the
grace of sacraments, not indeed openly manifested, but hidden in a cloud or in
a veil, like the dew in the fleece. The time came when the dew was to be
manifested in the floor; it was manifested, no longer hidden. Christ alone is
the sweetness of dew: him alone you do not recognize in Scripture, for whom
Scripture was written. But yet, “they have heard all the words of your mouth.” Explanations
of the Psalms 138.7.
Grace
Hidden, Then Manifested. Augustine: But some, like the Jews in
former times, both wish to be called Christians, and—still ignorant of God’s
righteousness—desire to establish their own, even in our own times of open
grace, of the full revelation of grace that was previously hidden, that is, in
the times of grace now manifested in the floor, which had before lay hidden in
the fleece.… Gideon, one of the righteous men of old, asked for a sign from the
Lord, and said, “I pray, Lord, that this fleece which I put on the floor would
be wet with dew, and that the floor would be dry.” And it was so. The fleece
was wet with dew while the whole floor was dry. In the morning he wrung out the
fleece in a basin—since grace is given to the humble—and you know what the Lord
did to his disciples [with water] in a basin. He asked for yet another sign: “O
Lord, I [pray] that the fleece would be dry, and the floor wet with dew.” And
it was so. Consider how, in the time of the Old Testament, grace was hidden in
a cloud, as the rain in the fleece. Note also the time of the New Testament: if
you consider the nation of the Jews, you will find it like the dry fleece,
whereas the whole world, like that floor, is full of grace, not hidden but
manifested. Therefore we are greatly compelled to grieve for our brothers who
strive against openly manifested, rather than hidden, grace. There is allowance
for the Jews, but what shall we say of Christians? For what reason are you
enemies of Christ’s grace? Why do you rely on yourselves? Why are you
unthankful? Why did Christ come? Wasn’t [human] nature here before, which you
only deceive by your excessive praise? Wasn’t the law here? But the apostle
says, “If righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.” What the apostle says of the law, we say regarding nature concerning these
people. “If righteousness comes through [human] nature, then Christ died in
vain.” Sermon 81.9.
Comparing
Mary with Fleece. Maximus of Turin: Rightly, then, do we
compare Mary with fleece—she who conceived the Lord in such a way that she
absorbed him with her whole body; nor did she undergo a rending of that same
body, but she was tender in submission and firm in chastity. Rightly, I say, is
Mary compared with fleece—she from whose offspring saving garments are woven
for the people. Clearly Mary is fleece since from her tender womb came forth
the Lamb who himself, bearing his mother’s wool (that is, flesh), covers the
wounds of all peoples with a soft fleece. For every wound of sin is covered
with the wool of Christ, tended by the blood of Christ, and, so that it may
receive health, clothed in the garment of Christ. Sermon 97.3. (Old
Testament IV: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1-2 Samuel [Ancient Christian
Commentary on Scripture; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2005],
123-27)
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