For those of you who would like to know more about Gideon his story can be found starting in Judges chapter 6.

Reading through Judges 6:36-40 we find several things about fleeces:

“And Gideon said unto God, ‘If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said,’”

Here I need to stop and say that I have never before realized that the fleece was for confirmation, not guidance. God had already told Gideon what to do. Gideon was just looking for confirmation. He already knew what he was supposed to do.

“’Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said.’

And it was so: for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water.

And Gideon said unto God, ‘Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew.’

And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.”

Gideon was looking for a supernatural sign -- not something that could be explained naturally. Hence when he realized that perhaps the first sign could be explained naturally since the ground would dry long before the fleece, he asked to have the process reversed so that there would be no doubt that this was confirmation from God. The second time would be a supernatural event, i.e., something that could not have happened without God’s intervention. Notice the first time around though, he got a FULL bowel of water out of the fleece, not just a little. Gideon wanted a sign that could not be questioned because it could not be explained away naturally. My guess is that the next morning the fleece was tinder dry while the ground around it was soaked.

So number one, Gideon used the fleece not for guidance, but for confirmation.

Second, he asked for a supernatural sign, not something that could be explained naturally, but a sure sign from God.

The question arises, why did Gideon even need to put out a fleece? Had not God told him what to do? Here we see God condescending to a man of weak faith to assure him of victory. I think that most of us today often feel that Gideon was a man of great faith. After all, he had only 300 men against tens of thousands. And yet this man’s faith was so weak that he needed a supernatural sign to assure him.

This makes me wonder, how much faith do I really have? If God were to give me the same command, I’m sure I would, like Gideon, want assurance that this was God’s will. God gave Gideon a command regarding a battle he was facing. What about other areas of our lives? I believe that God still can -- and does -- give such assurances today in answer to our prayers.

Notice that Gideon prayed and then waited on God for the unexplainable to happen for assurance. If we want the same assurance, we must make sure we are right before God and walking in his will, and we must pray about what he has told us to do.

But there should be a point in our lives where we do not require a sign from God, that when he tells us to do something, we do it without asking for a sign, or an assurance, because we know it is the Lords will.

Otherwise we can become like the Jews of the New Testament. In 1 Corinthians 1:22 Paul says, “For the Jews require a sign.” Throughout Christ life, what did the Jews want? They wanted signs & miracles; they were always looking for a sign. Throughout their history, they were always looking for a sign of some kind, be it for battle, for the messiah, whatever, they always wanted a sign.

Paul goes on to say, “But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block.”

The sign the Jews were looking for had become a stumbling block to their understanding and acceptance. They were overlooking the will of God because they were still looking for a physical sign.

In our lives, perhaps there will be times where an appropriate fleece is needed, but let it not become a stumbling block to us. Let us not wait on everything until we receive a sign. If God has told us to do it, then an assurance of his will -- a fleece -- is not needed unless our faith is lacking.