Living for Christ is a Confused and Confusing Age

A Study of the Book of Judges

Sermon # 7 

“What God Can Do Through A Faithful Few.”

Judges 7: 1-22 

        You will remember from last Sunday that we observed as Gideon clearly had the will of God revealed to him. We witnessed an amazing display of the compassion of God as he miraculously and graciously provided Gideon’s request of confirmation through the fleece. Gideon was now out of excuses. And to his credit he was ready to lead the Israelites to a great victory over the Midianites. Gideon had called for all the able-bodied men in the area to join him and 32,000 men had shown up. He no doubt looked out over this group and thought, “Cool, this just might be possible?” Verse one of chapter seven says, “Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the well of Harod, so that the camp of the Midianites was on the north side of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley.”

But now God says, in verse two, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ (3) Now therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.’ ”And twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained.”

In line with Deuteronomy 20:8 all the fearful ones were allowed to go home, a ploy that thinned the army from 32,000 to 10,000 in a moment.

But God is not yet through he says to Gideon in verse four, “… The people are still too many; bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. Then it will be, that of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ the same shall go with you; and of whomever I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ the same shall not go.”(5) So he brought the people down to the water. And the Lord said to Gideon, “Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set apart by himself; likewise everyone who gets down on his knees to drink.” (6)  And the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men; but all the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink water. (7) Then the Lord said to Gideon, “By the three hundred men who lapped I will save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go, every man to his place.”

God has successfully reduced the number if Gideon’s army to a mere 300. It is a popular notion that God kept only Gideon’s best soldiers, those who were wary and watchful as they drank, distinguished from those who “carelessly” fell to their knees to drink. The problem with this kind of a interpretation is that there is no support for it in the text. We could just as easily say these were the most fearful of Gideon’s troops. The issue is to engage the enemy with a handful of soldiers to display God’s power. The water drinking episode was just the method God chose to further reduce Gideon’s army.

       From this story in the life of Gideon I want to draw four great principles on, “HOW CAN GOD RENDER A GREAT VICTORY WITH A FAITHFUL FEW?”  

First, God Can Render A Great Victory With A Faithful Few Who Will Be Entirely Dependent on Him. (v. 8)

“So the people took provisions and their trumpets in their hands. And he sent away all the rest of Israel, every man to his tent, and retained those three hundred men. Now the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.”

        If you work in corporate America you are no doubt familiar with the management concept of downsizing—we’re told to “do more with less”. However, nations don’t usually downsize when preparing for war! They mobilize their reserves and cancel all leaves and requests for discharge and retirement.

        Yet God frequently trims our resources to get us to depend entirely on Him. When God takes away what we think we need, often He is taking away what He knows we do not need!  Sickness, financial reversal, family conflict, and other difficulties cause us to turn our lives over to God. When the odds seem overwhelming, God over-whelms the odds!

Gideon’s force was already hugely outnumbered. The Midianite army was 135,000 strong, and yet Gideon’s army had gone from 32,000, to 10,000 and now stood at 300. Gideon must’ve been pondering his slim chance of survival.

To guarantee that history would record this battle as a divine victory, God issued an order for a massive reduction-in-force. It’s been cynically observed that “God is on the side of the army with the most men.” Gideon’s army proved otherwise, that victory is in the Hand of God. After returning most of his army to civilian status, Gideon’s only hope was in the Lord of Hosts. The down-sizing resulted in Gideon being left with a meager 300 troops. He was left virtually without an army. His only option was to trust God or perish.

Who gets the credit when we’re successful? Do we bask in our victory, or praise God for His work in our lives?

In his book, Hearts of Iron, Feet of Clay, Gary Inrig states: “You cannot be too small for God to use, but you can be too big. If you want credit for what God is doing, God will not use you…that is why, as you look around, you will see God working in a powerful way in the lives of some very weak people. They are people who are careful to give God the glory.” [Gary Inrig. Hearts of Iron, Feet of Clay. (Chicago: Moody,1979) p. 125]  

We can imagine Gideon’s state of mind. The odds weren’t very good to begin with, and then got worse. But there is a principle here. Gideon is looking over the valley of Jezreel, where the Battle of Armageddon will one day be fought. He looks at the 300 men he has left and then he looks at the hated enemy. He felts an overwhelming sense of inadequacy. And that is the principle. That is exactly what God wants. He wants us to come to the place where we realize that we are bankrupt in our selves.

Unlike popular psychologists, God does not propose that we should believe in ourselves. Our modern society celebrates self-reliance. But God strips us bare, forcing us to recognize our frailty and inadequacy. God shows us that human resources are insufficient for the battles we face. God then teaches us the lesson of dependence, which results in confidence, not in ourselves but in Him. The Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:5 (New Living Translation) “It is not that we think we can do anything of lasting value by ourselves. Our only power and success come from God.” Paul affirms that our sufficiency comes from God alone for he told the church at Philippi, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13).

Gideon’s army had been reduced to such proportions that they really had no alternative, they could trust in God or they could die.

God Can Render A Great Victory With A Faithful Few who Will Be Entirely Dependent on Him and…  

Secondly, God Can Render A Great Victory With A Faithful Few who Will Receive Their Encouragement from Him!  (vv. 9-15)

 “It happened on the same night that the Lord said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand.

(10) But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant,

(11) and you shall hear what they say; and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.” Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp. (12)

Now the Midianites and Amalekites, all the people of the East, were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude. (13) And when Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said, “I have had a dream: To my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian; it came to a tent and struck it so that it fell and over-turned, and the tent collapsed.” (14) Then his companion answered and said, “This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel! Into his hand God has delivered Midian and the whole camp.”

(15) And so it was, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, that he worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel, and said, “Arise, for the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand.”

Well aware of Gideon’s weak faith, God reassures him by arranging for Gideon to overhear a conversation between two enemy soldiers. As Gideon conducted a covert reconnaissance of the enemy, he and his servant Purah gather some encouraging intelligence. In concealment, Gideon listens in as two Midianite soldiers discuss a strange dream (in ancient times dreams were highly regarded as means of predicting future events). In the dream, a hard loaf of barley bread rolls into the Midianite camp and flattens one of the tents. They conclude that the loaf represents Israel. The Midianites had plundered Israel and stolen their wheat harvest. The impoverished Jews had to resort to barley bread. The tent could only represent the nomadic Midianites. One of the soldiers cries out in awful realization, verse 14: “This is nothing less than the sword of Gideon…God has given Mideon and all the camp into His hand!” This was not chance, or a “lucky break”; the sovereign God gave Gideon a sign of His own.

God so loved Gideon and the Israelites that he not only protected Gideon during his incursion into enemy territory; but he makes a man dream that a barley loaf will come rolling into the Midianite camp and destroy it. Gideon walks right into the only guy in camp who had that dream. Isn’t that just like our loving and wonderful God? God led Gideon to one specific tent; He then timed Gideon’s arrival to hear about a dream and its interpretation. Gideon’s heart needed to be encouraged, so he not only hears of the dream, he hears the interpretation of it. The pagan Midianite says that God is going to deliver them into Israel’s hand. Gideon’s fears and doubts were overcome. He was mentally prepared for combat. Not only was Gideon encouraged but the report was circulated throughout the Midianite camp preparing the hearts of the enemy to tremble.

God often works like that! Have you ever felt led to speak to someone about something? I mean really feel burdened to speak to them and finally get around to go and see them? When you do they say something like, “That’s strange. I’ve been thinking about that for four days!”

 God Can Render A Great Victory With A Faithful Few who Will Receive Their Encouragement from Him and… 

Third, God Can Render A Great Victory With A Faithful Few who Will Be Completely Obedient to His Instructions. (vv. 16-20)

“Then he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet into every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and torches inside the pitchers. (17) And he said to them, “Look at me and do likewise; watch, and when I come to the edge of the camp you shall do as I do: (18) When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you also blow the trumpets on every side of the whole camp, and say, ‘The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!’ ” (19) So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outpost of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just as they had posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands. (20) Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers—they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing—and they cried, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!”

       Pitchers, torches and horns hardly awe inspiring weapons. Gideon’s ammunition supply point was strange indeed. Assembling his army of 300, he then divides them into three companies, arming them with trumpets, empty clay jars, and torches (v. 16). It seems like Gideon sent his military band and supply personnel into battle!

        This miniscule force had one thing strategically in its favor, the element of surprise. How else could 300 troops take on a multitude? At Gideon’s command, they took positions outside the perimeter of the enemy camp. Then out of the night came the startling cacophony of 300 jars being smashed on the ground, the blinding light of 300 torches piercing the darkness, and the blare of 300 ram’s horns signaling an attack. With one voice the Israeli force shouted a blood-curdling battle-cry (v. 20): “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!”

God Can Render A Great Victory With A Faithful Few who Will Be Completely Obedient to His Instructions and… 

Fourth, God Can Render A Great Victory With A Faithful Few who Will Have the Commitment to Stand in the Place Where God has Put Us! (vv. 21-22)

“And every man stood in his place all around the camp; and the whole army ran and cried out and fled. (22) When the three hundred blew the trumpets, the Lord set every man’s sword against his companion throughout the whole camp; and the army fled to Beth Acacia, ….”

Panic seized the enemy. The Midianite army imagined they were being attacked from all sides. In their unpreparedness and confusion they hastily began attacking each other in the dark, not knowing who was friend or foe. The Jewish soldiers held their positions, staying a safe distance from the deadly chaos before them. King Solomon later wrote, “The wicked flee when no one is pursuing, but the righteous are bold as a lion” (Proverbs 28:1).

They stood their ground, each man precisely in his place, doing exactly as he was commanded to do! The result was a stirring victory. “Our responsibility, too, is to blow the bugle – proclaim the Gospel; hold high the torch – live the life of light in a dark world; and shout aloud for the honor of our God. When we do, God will grant victory.”

[W. Philip Keller. Mighty Man of Valor – Gideon: The Sword of the Lord. (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming Revell Co., 1979) p. 78]