God's View is Different

The angel of The Lord came, and He sat  under the oak that was at Ophrah, which belongs to Joash, the Abiezrite. His son Gideon was threshing wheat in the wine vat in order to hide it from the Midianites. Then the angel of The Lord appeared to him and said: "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior."

Gideon said to Him, "Please Sir, if The Lord is with us, why has all this happened? And where are all the wonders that our fathers told us about? They said, 'Hasn't The Lord brought us our if Egypt?' But now The Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian."

The Lord turned to him and said, "Go in the strength you have and deliver Israel from the power of Midian. Am I not sending you?" Judges 6:11-14

It is interesting that Gideon said what he said. Why would God bless a people who had turned to idolatry, Gideon's own father had established an idol.

It is also interesting that Gideon's name meant 'he who tears down.' Gideon's first job was to tear down his father's idol.

The Lord speaks faith into Gideon. He speaks of who he will become, not who he currently is or how he thinks of himself.