After Gideon realized he had seen the Angel of the Lord face to face, he feared for his life. The Lord comforted him by saying, “Peace be with you; do not fear.” One of the paradoxes of the Christian life is that the Lord gives us peace that He might send us out to war! In response, Gideon built an altar to worship God, which he called YHWH Shalom: The-Lord-Is-Peace.

The same night, the Lord instructed Gideon to tear down the community altar of Baal on his father’s property and build an altar to the Lord in its place (6:25). Gideon’s first altar in verse 24 was a private altar of worship, and this next altar in verse 25 was a public altar of testimony. The order is significant. The apostle Peter tells us that we also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God (1 Pet. 2:5). He goes on to say that we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that we may proclaim the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9). We are a holy priesthood and a royal priesthood. As holy priests, we enter the sanctuary of heaven by faith to worship. As royal priests, we go out into the world to witness.

We cannot expect to be effective witnesses for the Lord Jesus without first spending time with Him in prayer and the Word of God. We need to be transformed ourselves if we are to reflect His image to a needy world (2 Cor. 3:18). We must be sanctified and filled with the Holy Spirit in order to be vessels of honor, useful for the Master (2 Tim. 2:21)!