Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Judges 6:7-10
Yahweh Sends His Prophet (Judges 6:7).
‘And so it happened that when the children of Israel cried to Yahweh because of Midian, that Yahweh sent a prophet to the children of Israel, and he said to them, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel”.'
When His people repented and responded to Him Yahweh heard them, and sent a prophet to them to remind them of His goodness to them in the past, with words which reminded them of His covenant with them. We are not told who the prophet was, but it does remind us that God had not left Himself without a witness. There were always Yahweh inspired men among them.
“I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage, and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out from before you, and gave you their land.”
Yahweh now repeated what He had said in the opening words of the covenant (Exodus 20:1), that of His free grace and goodness He had delivered them from Egypt and from the bondage there, had rescued them from the pursuing Egyptian army, and from all who had oppressed them since (as previously described in Numbers, Joshua and Judges), and had driven out their enemies in as far as they, His people, had been willing to be obedient, and He had given them their land. There was nothing of what He had promised that He had not done for them.
“ And I said to you, I am Yahweh, your God. You shall not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But you have not listened to my voice.”
The first words of the covenant (Exodus 20:1) were now applied to their present situation. Because of what He had done for them, and because He was ‘the One Who is there', the ‘I am' (Exodus 3:14), He had told them that they should not ‘fear', that is stand in awe of and worship of, the gods of the Amorites, the people of the land. They were to worship Him only. But they had disobeyed. They had ‘feared' them and not Him. They had not listened to His warning. That was why their problems had come on them.
So the prophet of Yahweh was sent to bring home to them the words of the covenant, and in response to their repentance, to seal it again with them. He was proof that the Spirit of Yahweh was now about to act, and was indeed acting through him. For the ensuing narrative would demonstrate that He was now acting again on their behalf.