Many assume so. But is this something completely positive? Was the reason why the Lord appeared to Gideon in the first place that he would give him peace? Did God appear to Gideon so that Gideon could go around saying, Peace, peace,
when there was no peace? Hardly. God had told Gideon to go and wipe out the Midianites! So Gideon should have instead gone out and gotten to work delivering his people. Instead, he builds an altar. How often in the Old Testament does God not say that he would rather have obedience than sacrifice?1 Gideon worshipped privately in order to postpone what he’s supposed to be doing in public—bringing about conflict with the enemies. He prefers to do things on his own time instead of the Lord’s.
24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD and called it, The LORD Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.