July 17, 2021
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Reading along with us in Judges? Here’s today’s reading:
Judges 7 (NIV)
Gideon Defeats the Midianites
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.’........Continue Reading
So awesome that God wanted to send a clear message that the battle belonged to him so He scaled the army back from 32,000 to just 300! Once again God was victorious through people without weapons and under dismal odds.
This is an astonishing story on so many levels. 20,000 men leave, all but 300 sent home and battle is won without much trouble. This could only be God.
7The 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.” 8So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others.
Although very familiar, how can we not be amazed by what God does here? Who but Him would ever think the better military strategy is to lessen the army to just a fraction of what it was? But He makes it clear that this is necessary so the Israelites could not say that victory came through them. It should cause us to consider how often we allow what we seem to lack to keep us from overcoming and doing the things God calls us to. As well as wondering how many times God has to cut us down in order to humble us?
It is also amazing to me that God asks Gideon if he wants further proof that He will hand the Midianites over to him and he takes Him up on His offer and goes down to the camp and hears what the sentries are saying. I wonder if the signs already provided would have been enough for us to say…”No God, I already know you’ve got this.” Now that’s not to say that it isn’t interesting to hear this dream and the pursuant interpretation. It makes you wonder if God replicated that dream throughout the camp and that is what supported the hysteria that brought about the Midianites to destroy themselves. But how ever God did it, it just becomes one of the many accounts we come across that causes us to stand back in awe of our great God and wonder why the Israelites or us ever doubt/disobey Him?
In Chapter 6 Gideon tested God….and now perhaps God is testing Gideon by decreasing his army. God offers further assurance by allowing Gideon to eavesdrop on the enemy.
I know that we aren’t supposed to test God, but I think that one thing we can learn from Gideon is that God can handle our doubts when we bring them to Him. What is the nature of our heart in our doubts? I think sometimes our uncertainty isn’t in God, but in our own discernment of what it is that He wants us to do.
Judges 7