There are questions that rise from the lips almost instinctively when life caves in—questions that have echoed through history, across continents, and from hospital rooms to battlefield trenches. One of them fell from the trembling lips of Gideon: “If the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us?” (Judges 6:13).

It was not spoken by an atheist, nor by a cynic. It came from a believer—confused, weary, and frightened. Israel was living like hunted animals. The Midianites swept through the land like locusts, devouring crops, stealing livestock, and reducing God’s people to starvation and fear (Judges 6:1–6). When harvest came, hope vanished. When Gideon threshed wheat, he did it in hiding. And it was there—in a winepress—that God’s angel appeared and said the unthinkable: “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” (Judges 6:12).

Gideon’s response was not bold faith—it was raw honesty.

If God is with us, why does it look like this?