Gideon said to him, Oh, my lord, if Yahweh is with us, why then has all this happened to us? and where are all his wondrous works which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not Yahweh bring us up from Egypt? but now Yahweh has cast us off, and delivered us into the hand of Midian.
The strength of Gideon to which the Angel referred (Judges 6:14) was what God’s promised presence and commission guaranteed (Judges 6:14; Judges 6:16). Gideon did not disbelieve the Angel as much as he failed to understand how he could be God’s instrument of deliverance. He was the youngest and therefore the least esteemed in his father’s household. Furthermore his family was a comparatively insignificant one in Manasseh (Judges 6:15). Gideon was looking for natural signs of leadership, but God was promising supernatural enablement.