So far, this chapter has been about the calling of Gideon. Now, you might expect Gideon to begin his mission, but there is a pause first, and later in this chapter there will be another interlude, when Gideon asks for a sign and places a fleece on the threshing floor. Gideon is commanded by God to tear down the altar of Baal and build a new altar to the LORD.
Judges 6
25 And it came to pass that night that the LORD said to him, “Take the young bull from your father’s bull, the second young bull seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah pole that is beside it.”
26 And build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of this fortress, and prepare it…
a young bull
Gideon is to take a “young bull” and sacrifice it, remembering that every sacrifice foreshadows Christ. It is a young bull, which speaks of a new generation and new life. Other translations say: a fertile bull, because although it is a young bull, it is one that is mature and capable of producing new life.
the second bull
It had to be the second bull. This is important, because in the Bible we see that God takes away the first and replaces it with the second (Heb. 10:9). We know many examples of this: not an old creation, but a new one (2 Cor. 5:17), not the first, but the second man (1 Cor. 15:47), not this heaven and earth, but a new heaven and earth (Rev. 21:1), etc. This story illustrates how the old covenant must make way for the new covenant.
The bull was seven years old. Israel had been given by God into the hands of the Midianites for seven years (6:1). But the solution—the sacrifice that is a picture of Christ—was already there when the problem began.
End of the Old Covenant
Gideon is commanded by God to tear down his father’s altar and build a new one. He is a picture of Christ, who would end the old covenant, “the religion of the fathers,” and establish a new covenant.
Lord
Baal means lord, or owner, and is a masculine word. Just as we also refer to God as Lord or Owner. Asherah means: happiness, or: prosperity. She was the Canaanite goddess of fertility and the wife of Baal. The old covenant was also a marriage covenant (Jer. 31:32) between God and Israel.
New Covenant
Gideon is to build the altar to YHWH in the place of the altar of Baal and Asherah: on the top of this bulwark. The former was taken away to establish the latter. The new covenant fulfills the old covenant and replaces it (Heb. 8:6-13; Rom. 10:4).