:
21 Then the angel of the LORD put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the LORD departed out of his sight.
Previous
Next
[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Judges 6:19-21
Gideon, moved by that message, when he heard that though thousands of the people failed, God would deliver his own from their enemies by means of one man, offered a kid, and according to the word of the angel, laid its flesh and the unleavened cakes upon the rock and poured the broth upon them. And as soon as the angel touched them with the end of the staff which he bore, fire burst forth out of the rock, and so the sacrifice which he was offering was consumed. By which it seems clear that that rock was a figure of the body of Christ, for it is written: “They drank of that rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.” This certainly refers not to his Godhead but to his flesh, which watered the hearts of the thirsting people with the perpetual stream of his blood.Even at that time was it declared in a mystery that the Lord Jesus in his flesh would, when crucified, do away the sins of the whole world, and not only the deeds of the body but the desires of the soul. For the flesh of the kid refers to sins of deed, the broth to the enticements of desire, as it is written: “For the people greedily lusted, and said, ‘Who shall give us flesh to eat?’ ” That the angel then stretched forth his staff and touched the rock, from which fire went out, shows that the flesh of the Lord, being filled with the divine Spirit, would burn away all the sins of human frailty. Wherefore, also, the Lord says, “I have come to send fire upon the earth.”

Source: ON THE HOLY SPIRIT 1, PROLOGUE 2.3
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Judges 6:19-21
“But I say to you that whoever looks on a woman lustfully has committed adultery with her already in his heart.” “The pus is wiped off,” therefore, when sin is not only severed from the deed but also from the thought. It is hence that Jerubbaal saw the angel when he was winnowing corn from the chaff, at whose request he immediately prepared a kid and set it upon a rock and poured over it the broth of the flesh, which the angel touched with a rod and fire came out of the rock and consumed it. For what else is it to beat corn with a rod, but to separate the grains of virtues from the chaff of vices with an upright judgment? But to those that are thus employed the angel presents himself, in that the Lord is more ready to communicate interior truth to the extent that people are more earnest in ridding themselves of external things. And he orders a kid to be killed, that is, every appetite of the flesh to be sacrificed, and the flesh to be set upon a rock and its broth to be poured upon it. Whom else does the rock represent except him of whom it is said by Paul, “And that rock was Christ”? We “set flesh upon the rock,” then, when in imitation of Christ we crucify our body. He too pours the broth of the flesh over it who, in following the conduct of Christ, empties himself even of the mere thoughts of the flesh themselves. For the “broth” of the dissolved flesh is in a manner “poured upon the rock” when the mind is emptied of the flow of carnal thoughts too. Yet the angel directly touches it with a rod, in that the might of God’s assistance never deserts our striving. And fire issues from the rock and consumes the broth and the flesh, in that the Spirit, breathed upon us by the Redeemer, lights up the heart with so fierce a flame of remorse that it consumes everything in it that is unlawful either in deed or in thought.

Source: MORALS ON THE BOOK OF JOB 3.30