Judges 6:11-27

Now we meet Gideon.

Judges 6:11-18
Gideon, the smallest son, in the least family, in an insignificant tribe is to be lifted out of his obscurity to be the saviour for the nation.
The angel of the Lord appears and gives a very strange address to Gideon. Gideon is hiding his handful of wheat from the Midianites he certainly is not behaving like a might man of valour.
Somehow he becomes persuaded that it is the Lord who is speaking to him. He asks the Lord to wait until he brings out a present for him.

Judges 6:19-24
This is the passage which offers Gideon all the assurance he should need. He offers his gift to the Lord, the gifts are received and the Lord vanishes from his sight. Even after he has vanished the word of the Lord still comes again to Gideon, 'Peace be to you. Do not fear'.

Is it an angel of the Lord who has appeared to Gideon, or is it the Lord himself? At one level, since the angels are all ministering spirits who perfectly reflect the word of the Lord given to them there is no practical difference. But, there are angels, a category of creation who are not the Lord.
Is Gideon merely being polite, 'my lord', or 'sir'. That certianly won't work for v. 15.
I don't think we need to go so far as to read this as a pre-incarnational visit of the Lord Jesus. The Lord is able to appear to his people in whatever form he chooses, according to his own purpose.

Judges 6:25-27
This section ends with Gideon fulfilling the word of the Lord and destroying the Baal statue and the Asherah in his own father's garden! Gideon is in himself an unlikely person to choose to lead the nation into a war, but his father has foreign idols in the garden, how much less likely can Gideon become?