14
Then the Lord ordered him, "Go with all your great strength and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I myself am sending you."
15
Gideon replied, "But Lord, how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least important member of my family."
16
The Lord answered, "You can do it because I will help you. You will crush the Midianites as easily as if they were only one man."
17
Gideon replied, "If you are pleased with me, give me some proof that you are really the Lord.
18
Please do not leave until I bring you an offering of food." He said, "I will stay until you come back."
19
So Gideon went into his house and cooked a young goat and used a bushel of flour to make bread without any yeast. He put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, brought them to the Lord's angel under the oak tree, and gave them to him.
20
The angel told him, "Put the meat and the bread on this rock, and pour the broth over them." Gideon did so.
21
Then the Lord's angel reached out and touched the meat and the bread with the end of the stick he was holding. Fire came out of the rock and burned up the meat and the bread. Then the angel disappeared.
22
Gideon then realized that it was the Lord's angel he had seen, and he said in terror, "Sovereign Lord! I have seen your angel face-to-face!"
23
But the Lord told him, "Peace. Don't be afraid. You will not die."
24
Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and named it "The Lord is Peace." (It is still standing at Ophrah, which belongs to the clan of Abiezer.)