April 30, 2024 | Be God's Light
Gideon Delivers Israel with 300 Men
Scripture: Judges 7 (NIV)
1 Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. 2 The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ 3 Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.
4 But the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”
5 So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.” 6 Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.
7 The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.” 8 So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others.
Now the camp of Midian lay below him in the valley. 9 During that night the Lord said to Gideon, “Get up, go down against the camp, because I am going to give it into your hands. 10 If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah 11 and listen to what they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp.” So he and Purah his servant went down to the outposts of the camp. 12 The Midianites, the Amalekites and all the other eastern peoples had settled in the valley, thick as locusts. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore.
13 Gideon arrived just as a man was telling a friend his dream. “I had a dream,” he was saying. “A round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed.”
14 His friend responded, “This can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands.”
15 When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed down and worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel and called out, “Get up! The Lord has given the Midianite camp into your hands.” 16 Dividing the three hundred men into three companies, he placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them, with torches inside.
17 “Watch me,” he told them. “Follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do. 18 When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp blow yours and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon.’”
19 Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guard. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands. 20 The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars. Grasping the torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpets they were to blow, they shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” 21 While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out as they fled.
22 When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the Lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords. The army fled to Beth Shittah toward Zererah as far as the border of Abel Meholah near Tabbath. 23 Israelites from Naphtali, Asher and all Manasseh were called out, and they pursued the Midianites. 24 Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down against the Midianites and seize the waters of the Jordan ahead of them as far as Beth Barah.”
So all the men of Ephraim were called out and they seized the waters of the Jordan as far as Beth Barah. 25 They also captured two of the Midianite leaders, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb. They pursued the Midianites and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, who was by the Jordan.
Devotional
Gideon was just a fearful farmer who God convinced was a mighty warrior. He accepted the challenge, but at least he had thirty-two thousand men to fight the battle with him. Until twenty-two thousand left because they were scared, leaving a respectable force of ten thousand men who weren’t scared.
Then nine thousand seven hundred of them were sent home for getting a drink of water in the wrong way, kneeling down and taking their eyes off the horizon.
I have been to the region in Israel where these men might have been culled from the herd. The streams there are very small. In places you could jump over them. Everywhere you could walk through them without getting your calves wet. We’re not talking the mighty Mississippi. Think babbling brook. It makes sense that the men would have to get down on their knees to get a drink. Ninety-seven hundred of them did so.
That left only three hundred men with trumpets and jars and torches, up against a huge camel-riding army. Hardly a fair fight… for the Midianites! They didn’t stand a chance against the Lord God. When they heard three hundred men blowing trumpets, smashing jars, lifting torches, and proclaiming victory shouts, they must have thought there were thousands of soldiers behind each trumpeter. Mayhem followed. The victory was the Lord’s.
The ways of God often don’t make sense to the world. We think bigger is better. More is mightier. Wealthier is weightier. But God’s economy works differently. That’s how God used Gideon, the self-proclaimed least important person in his family, which was the weakest clan of the entire tribe, with three hundred band members from the trumpet section to defeat a vast army of marauders.
In explaining how to get ahead in the Kingdom of God, Jesus said, “the last will be first, and the first will be last” (Matthew 20:16). It’s upside-down. It’s counter intuitive. It’s non-sensical. Except it isn’t. When God is in the equation, all you need is a humble heart and willing spirit.
What does this story teach you about how God works in the world? How might the Lord be calling you?
Poem
Pare Me Down, Lord
Pare me down, Lord
Yes, Lord, whittle away
All the baggage, excesses
Which get in Your way
Things which distract me
Upon which I lean
Keep me from fully trusting
True faith thus to glean
And when I think that
You have whittled enough
You then decide, gently,
On things that are tough
For me to give over
To release unto You
The props I am grasping
Which substitute truth
And then, only then,
Send me forth to the fray
As I’m now liberated
From what gets in Your way
To show Your full glory
Through me, Your weak vessel
As to battle I go
As with evil I wrestle
Yes, pare me down, Lord
Have your will, have your way
As I witness Your power
And as You win the Day
