As Block correctly observes: “One of the greatest obstacles to God’s work among his people and in the world is their faithlessness. Gideon is one of these faithless persons. He refuses at first to follow the call of God. Only after he has presumptuously subjected Yahweh to a series of tests and after he has witnessed Yahweh’s gracious answers”—ironically, ultimately in the mouth of a Midianite—“does he finally accept the call to deliver his people.”101
