Yahweh said to him, Surely I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.
Gideon could not understand why the Israelites were suffering as they were, if Yahweh was indeed with His people (Judges 6:13; cf. Deuteronomy 31:17). He failed to realize that their condition was the result of their abandoning God, not His abandoning them.