The angel of Yahweh appeared to him, and said to him, Yahweh is with you, you mighty man of valor.
Moreover, he had not only seen war, but he sighed for peace, because he was himself feeling the mischief of it. The dread of the conflict had come to his own mountain farm at Abiezer. There he was himself, threshing wheat by the wine press, in an unusual place, in an inconvenient place, that he might hide a little grain, for winter’s food, from the Midianites who were eager to devour it. Aye, and when carnage smokes at your own door, and rapine is at your own gate, when you yourself are straitened and are hiding for fear, then comes from the deep recesses of the spirit the cry, “﻿Oh, that God would send us peace, for this is a weary oppression; these ravens and wolves devour us utterly.﻿”
