Threshing stick

Judges 6:11

Joash (his name roots back to Joseph) means 'Yahweh has given'. This guy is an Isrealite, a man of the tribe of Manasseh, of God's chosen race. But now he worships baal. Although he ain't royalty, he is quiet well off. He has some power, land, livestock and servants. One of his sons is called . . . .

Gideon. His job (at the begining of this story) is to help bring in the 'secret harvest' of grain. Using an old winepress by Terebrinth (sacred tree). If the Midianites found out they would take it for themselves. He was the youngest son (so had nothing going for him!)

Inside the winepress there was no room for oxen or sledges to aid the threshing. They were forced to use a threshing stick to beat the grain and took it in turns. This was a slow, back-breaking process. Gideon would have been humiliated by 1 of 2 things (or maybe both!);

1) The pagan neighbouring tribes couldn't even be bothered to conquer the Isrealites and claim their land. They just sat back, waited for harvest time and swooped in and took the fruits of their labour and left. (A bit like the grasshoppers in the film Antz)

2) The fact of having to use a threshing stick. This was a farm tool used by the poor (Ruth 2:17)

The winepress should have been a place of joy, rejoicing, celebration at the prospect of new wine ("woo hoo! Party!"). But now it was the scene of humiliation, anger, bitterness and fear (?) [Lamentations 1:15 / Joel 3:13]

Now Gideon notices someone watching them working . . . "How dare he! every man should be helping with the harvest!"

More next time

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