Well, please turn with me in your Bibles to Judges chapter 6. Taking a few weeks of the summertime off from our study in the Gospel of Matthew, I wanted to look at Judges, specifically two of the more well-known Judges, Gideon and Samson. Last week we considered Gideon's call and preparation for his role as deliverer in Israel. And this morning we'll focus on chapter 7, though we will begin reading in chapter 6 at verse 33.
Then all the Midianites and Amalekites, the people of the east, gathered together, and they crossed over and encamped in the valley of Jezreel. But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon. Then he blew the trumpet, and the Abesarites gathered behind him. And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, who also gathered behind him.
He also sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they came up to meet them. So Gideon said to God, if you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said. And it was so.
When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. Then Gideon said to God, do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more. Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece. Let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew.
And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground. Then Jeroboam, that is Gideon, and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the well of Herod. so that the camp of the Midianites was on the north side of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley. And the Lord said to Gideon, 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.
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 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained. But the Lord said to Gideon, 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. 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. And the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was 300 men. But all the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink water. Then the Lord said to Gideon, buy 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. 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. 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.
But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Pura, your servant, and you shall hear what they say. And afterward, your hand shall be strengthened to go down against the camp. Then he went down with Pura, his servant, to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp. 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.
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 overturned, and the tent collapsed.
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. And so it was when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation that he worshipped. He returned to the camp of Israel and said, Arise, for the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand.
Then he divided the 300 men into three companies and he put a trumpet into every man's hand. with empty pitchers and torches inside the pitchers. 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.
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. 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. 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 said, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. And every man stood in his place all around the camp. And the whole army ran and cried out and fled.
When the 300 blew the trumpets, the Lord set every man's sword against his companion throughout the whole camp. And the army fled to Beth, Acacia, toward Zerahrah, as far as the border of Abel, Mahola, by Tadath. And the men of Israel gathered together from Naphtali, Asher, and Almanassah, and pursued the Midianites. Then Gideon sent messengers throughout all the mountains of Ephraim, saying, come down against the Midianites and seize them from the watering places as far as Beth Barah in the Jordan.
Then all the men of Ephraim gathered together and seized the watering places as far as Beth Barah in the Jordan. And they captured two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeb. They killed Oreb at the Rock of Oreb, and Zeb they killed at the winepress of Zeb. They pursued Midian and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeb to Gideon on the other side of the Jordan.
Amen. Well, let us pray.
Opening Prayer
Our Father, we thank you for the written word and we pray now for the ministry of your Holy Spirit to be upon each and every one of us. God, we see this passage, we see your sovereignty, your might, your power, delivering your people from their oppression. We ask that you would cause us to be encouraged, cause us to see in this a good, and the gracious and the merciful God. As well, our Father, may we appreciate the great lengths you have gone to to save your people from their sins.
We ask that you would wash us now and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We pray for forgiveness. We pray for your mercy and your grace to be upon each one of us. And God, for those outside of Christ, we pray that today would be the day of salvation, that the Spirit of the Lord God Most High would come upon men and women and boys and girls and bring them forth onto everlasting life in and through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And we pray these things in His most blessed name. Amen.
Introduction
Well, as we consider this section that I read, we will see that this is the emphasis in the account. Gideon fares, or Gideon is recorded in Judges 6-1 all the way through chapter 9 verse 57. As we considered last week, his call, his preparation, his readiness for the particular ministry that God had entrusted to him. Chapter 7 takes up the victory over the Midianites, but as I said, we'll begin back in chapter 6 at verse 33, and we'll carve up this large narrative.
We won't look at every detail of the text, but we'll carve it up into four broad categories. First, the preparation for war, verses 33 to 40 in chapter 6. Secondly, the reduction of troops in verses 1 to 8, absolutely contrary to what we would expect. When we would prepare for war, or battle, or combat, we would marshal up as many troops as we possibly could.
But God is going to reduce the number of troops in Israel because there's something more important in this victory than simply them defeating their enemies. It is the glory of God Most High that is at stake. So then thirdly, we'll consider the encouragement of Gideon in chapter 7 verses 9 to 15, and then fourthly and finally the victory over the Midianites in verses 16 to 25. Now I mentioned last week that the Gideon portrayed in the book of Judges is not flannel graph Gideon.
He's not the little figure that you put on your flannel board and put a little stick in his hand and move him over to the enemies called the Midianites. What we find in this passage is a bit alarming for our delicate sensitivities here in New Covenant Christianity. But we ought to appreciate the reality that apart from a Gideon, humanly speaking, we would not be here. God used this man to preserve the nation of Israel.
God used this man to crush the oppression of those who brought down heat upon the nation of Israel. We all stand, in many respects, very much indebted to the life, ministry, and service of our brother Gideon. As he's mentioned in Hebrews 11, he is a man of faith in verse 32. But
Preparation for War
let's look first at the preparation for war chapter 6 verses 33 to 40 we see the the enemies are assembled and it's a formidable foe notice in verse 33 all the Midianites and Amalekites the people of the east gathered together and they crossed over and encamped in the valley of Jezreel so they're on the east side of the river Jordan they cross the river Jordan they come into the mainland of Israel. Remember as we saw in chapter 6 verses 1 to 5, their particular task or their particular activity when they came into Israel was to decimate Israel, specifically in crop production. in agriculture. They knew that if they could starve the Israelites, well then obviously victory would be theirs. As well, the Midianites would take those things for themselves and for their vast armies.
So we see they're assembled, they're gathered together in place. And again, this is a formidable formidable foe. There are a lot of Midianites. There is a big problem.
And this is what the author wants you to understand. And that sets up the contrast with what we find in verse 34, where we see, but the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon. The author is saying it doesn't matter how many Midianites there are. It doesn't matter how many Amalekites there are.
It doesn't matter how many enemies of the Lord there are. When the Spirit of the Lord comes upon Gideon, victory is assured. The language of the text is pretty special as well. It is literally the Spirit put on Gideon.
The Spirit clothed Himself with Gideon. And so what the narrator is telling us is that all of these enemies are assembled together against the Lord's people. It is the Lord Himself who is going into combat against these men. And we ought to appreciate that reality in our new covenant setting.
What does the Apostle Paul say in Romans chapter 8? If God is for us, who can be against us? It doesn't matter the number of foes. It doesn't matter the number of enemies.
It doesn't matter the number of hardships. We have battles against sin, against our own flesh, against this world, and against the devil. And it's amazing to me that so often Christians think that they're beaten down. We've got the Lord God Almighty on our side.
We've got the God of Gideon, the God of Samson, We've got the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. There ought not to be any enemy in our life that we cower from, that we are afraid of, and that we will not face, clothed in the Spirit of the Lord Most High. As I said, we read these passages, and unfortunately we don't understand the emphasis that the author is giving. This massive army assembles, but the Spirit of the Lord comes upon Gideon.
At this point, the faithful Israelite reader would be doing one of these numbers. He would be saying, I don't know how it's all going to turn out in terms of logistics, but I do know the end. The Midianites are going down. They will lose as they assemble together before the Lord God Most High and before His servants.
Do we have anything of that in our lives? That's one of the things about the Judges. It's a messy book in a lot of ways. Not everything is tidy in the days of the judges.
Not everything is neat and compartmentalized as we like it to be in our New Covenant setting. You know, there's something that these brethren had and manifested that I think far too often is missing today. We operate in sort of a feminized Christianity. We're limp-wristed.
We're prissy. We're very delicate. We're very sensitive. We have no wherewithal of the battle that we're in, we have no understanding of the resources with which we are equipped, and we have nothing of the confidence that marked these men.
But lo and behold, as we look at even a Gideon, we'll see that he wavered, we'll see that he struggled, but we'll see that his God is good and his God upholds him along the way. So we see the Spirit of the Lord comes upon Gideon, as well the army, the good guys, then assemble, of course, according to verse 35. We move from that section where Gideon tears down the altar to Baal, and the clan wants to destroy him or kill him, and now they're assembling behind him to go into battle. We have to attribute that to the reality that the Spirit of the Lord came upon him.
But then notice, very specifically, that
Gideon's Fleece and Wavering Faith
Gideon wants a sign. If we had a top 10 list of Bible verses that were misunderstood, we could throw the fleece on there, couldn't we? Have you ever met the Christian who's, I'm trying to figure out the will of the Lord. I'm trying to understand what God wants.
I'm going to throw out the fleece. That has nothing to do with what's going on here. Gideon knew exactly what the will of the Lord was. Gideon knew expressly what the will of the Lord was because the Lord God himself told him in verse 16, I will deliver Israel through you.
That was his calling, that was his task, that was his mandate. So when he goes before God and he says, I want a sign that you will do as you have said. The test isn't, what do you want me to do? The test is, are you trustworthy?
Can I take you at your word? Look at the text. Verse 36, so Gideon said to God, if you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said. And then at the end of verse 37, as you have said.
I think the only thing that we can pull out of this is that very often, we know what God has said, that's not the issue. We're lazy, or we're rebellious, or we just don't want to do what the will of God is for us. Well, in this instance, Gideon is struggling. Gideon has a lapse.
Gideon is wanting in faith. But again, we ought to cut him some slack. We do this on a daily basis when it comes to some of the most mundane things. If you or I were being called to go into battle against the Midianites and the Amalekites, and we asked God to give us a little sign, to give us a boost in the arm, I like to think that we cut each other a bit of slack on this.
But this is what Gideon says, "...if you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said." It's what happens next that really ought to dazzle, impress, and amaze us. And it was so. What's the author telling us?
Your God is good. Your God is kind. Your God is gracious. Your God is patient.
What would you have done if you were God and you have done all these things for me?" And then he actually has the audacity to cry out for a sign. Are you kidding me? I'm God. I'm not giving you a sign.
Do what I command and do it promptly. That's how I do it. I've got to confess. Ask my kids.
They'll tell you. That's how my dad would respond. He'd yell at me and tell me to go do what I'm supposed to do. He wouldn't give me a sign.
He wouldn't affirm it. He wouldn't confirm it. He'd simply say, I command it. I'm the authority.
Go and do what you're told. You see, Gideon is struggling along and he says, Lord, please give me this sign. And it was so. But that doesn't stop.
Look at what then happens at the end of verse 38. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. Then Gideon said to God, Do not be angry with me. He knows he is treading on delicate ground.
He says at the outset, don't get upset. I know I'm pushing my luck. I know I'm pressing the limits. I know you've already delivered once.
I know you've already condescended to bless me in this particular event. So please don't be angry. You see his disposition. But let me speak just once more.
Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece. Let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew." And God did so that night. See, there's theology proper that throbs on the pages of the book of Judges. That's your God.
That's your patient Father. That's the one of whom the psalmist writes in Psalm 103, 13 and 14. He knows our frames. He pities us.
He understands that we're but dust. We look at Gideon, we say, men up, take charge, go do what you're supposed to do. But Gideon is stumbling along, he's fumbling along, he wants signs from the Lord. And the Lord graciously condescends and puts water on the fleece in the first instance, and in the second he covers the ground with water, and yet the fleece, which is highly absorbent, doesn't bring any of the water into it whatsoever.
He is affirming. He is confirming. He is, in fact, giving giddy in what he asks for. And I'm always reminded, not always, at least in passages like these, when we see the struggles of men, I'm reminded of Matthew Henry, commenting with reference to Job in chapter 4, verses 1 to 6.
Matthew Henry said, it is true, If thou faint on the day of adversity, thy grace is small. Proverbs 24, 10. But it does not therefore follow that thou hast no grace, no strength at all. When we see Gideon's struggle here, we ought not to assume an attitude.
We ought to assume the posture of praise God, that he bends down and that he sustains those who struggle. He lifts us. He encourages us. He blesses.
He strengthens. Matthew Henry says, a man's character is not to be taken from a single act. Oh, that the Church of Christ would get something of that ethic in their hearts and minds. It's easy to Monday morning quarterback these brethren and say, how in the world could you have ever done such a thing? and yet go out in this world and betray the Lord God Most High in something far less, because we struggle.
Now
Reduction of Troops
notice the reduction of troops, chapter 7, verses 1 to 8. On the heels of this affirmation, on the heels of this confirmation, we are reminded what is at stake in chapter 7 verse 1. Then Jeroboam, that is Gideon, and all the people who were with him, rose early and encamped beside the well of Herod, so that the camp of the Midianites was on the north side of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley. A little later on in the chapter it will describe how many people are in the camp of the Midianites, they're like locusts.
Locusts don't individually come and eat your crops. Locusts come in mass. There are scads of them, an enormous amount of locusts in order to do the devastation. What are we reminded here in chapter 7 at verse 1?
This is a huge battle. This is big potatoes. This is something that isn't going to go away without a fight. If Israel is going to oppose the Midianites, if Israel is going to crush the Midianites, if Gideon is going to be victorious over the Midianites, well then certainly they're going to have to have a strategy wherein they go and decimate these Midianites.
Again, it's just the opposite. Notice, the troops reduced in verses two to eight. The Lord said to Gideon, the people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands. I would imagine Gideon probably disagreed.
He had 32,000, didn't he? The numbers of the Midianites was probably 100 to 120,000. Gideon's probably saying, no Lord, I don't have enough troops. Some master of supply that God is, I need troops and you're telling me to reduce what I have.
Look at the Lord's point, and this is the point in this section of the narrative. It's about God in this battle against Midian. This is what he specifies in verse 2, "...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." This is the main point of this particular narrative. It does us well not to miss it.
In fact, isn't this the whole point in the Gideon section as a whole? I would argue in the entirety of the book of Judges, a book again dedicated to the reality that Yahweh saves his people. Judges isn't simply a book filled with blood and guts and people holding up heads of Oreb and Zeb, but it's a book that demonstrates that salvation is of the Lord. But notice, the emphasis in the entire Gideon cycle is on God perfecting his strength through weakness.
Sounds like a New Testament concept, doesn't it? Sounds like something the Apostle Paul learned in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. My grace is sufficient. My grace is manifested in, through, and by your weakness.
When the Apostle Paul hobbled into a town, and he proclaimed the excellencies of Jesus Christ, and people got converted. It wasn't because Paul was a powerful orator. It wasn't because Paul was a winsome man. It wasn't because Paul had more effective argumentation than the Stoics or the Epicureans around him.
It was because God Most High, in His sovereign power, reached down through that word, and He saved to the uttermost all whom He had purpose to bring into His blessed covenant. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 that God takes the gospel treasure and he puts it in earthenware vessels so that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of men. When Gideon and his ragtag bunch of 300 men go in and utterly decimate the Midianites, who do you glorify? You do not glorify Gideon and his 300.
You glorify God. when you follow out their battle tactics and their strategies. It isn't even to be seen in the amount of power and warfare and weaponry that they possess. They have torches, they have jars, they have noise. That's how they go and engage battle against this foe that is filled with military strategy.
God's Glory Through Weakness
Verse 2 is the hinge upon the entirety of the narrative. The emphasis in the whole section is on God's perfecting his strength through weakness. Israel's helplessness, chapter 6, verses 2-6. Gideon's small beginnings, chapter 6, verse 15.
Remember when God calls him to the service of being a judge? He says, who am I? I'm the least in my father's house. I'm from a small clan.
I'm a nobody, Lord God." Gideon's fear of his family and his town. Remember when he went to go break down that altar of Baal? When did he do it? Did he march in there on noonday sun?
No, he went at night because he was afraid of the townspeople. What's the point? God takes insignificant, lowly people and he raises them up and he does great things through them so that God is glorified, so that God is praised, so that God is honored. Think about the church for a moment.
It is quite hip to bash the church. The church really hardly ever gets credit for any good things they do. But the church is full of hypocrites, the church never gives money, the church has no love, and the church betrays the most vulnerable among them. That's pretty much the common report about what we hear concerning the church.
Do we ever entertain for just a moment that the church is made up with a bunch of Gideons? The church is made up with a bunch of redeemed sinners who nevertheless have remaining corruption? that there are times to be sure when we are hypocrites, there are times to be sure when we don't exercise benevolence and love like we ought, there are times to be sure when we are not engaged in the good works that the Lord has commanded as we ought, but by and large, by the grace of God, the church seeks to march on doing what she is supposed to do, so that through her foibles, through her weakness, through her powerlessness, God manifests His glory in the salvation of sinners, in the assembling together of a great multitude that no man can number, people from every tribe, people, tongue, and nation, so that one day they will enter into His presence and praise Him world without end. Amen. God is in the midst of the weakness, and He is manifesting His power and His glory and His majesty through it.
Gideon's request for a sign, the reduction of Gideon's army, Gideon's fear and his need for encouragement. All these things evidence for us that we would probably not have voted for Gideon as the deliverer or the judge in Israel. Would you? All that said about Gideon.
Would you say, he's got my vote. Do guys go out on the campaign trail saying, you know, I'm weak. I come from an insignificant town. I struggle greatly with fear.
I mean, I'm afraid. I need affirmation. I need confirmation. I need constant and perpetual stroking.
That's just me. Vote for me. We don't want that. We want the cock of the lock.
We want the guy who says, I was raised here. I did that. I accomplished this. I accomplished that.
Well, what happens when that man is victorious? He gets the praise. When Gideon is victorious with 300 men, and we see the heads of Zorab and Zeb, it's God who gets the praise. That's the point.
It's how you're supposed to read the section. It's how you're supposed to understand what's going on. The Lord knows our propensity to claim glory, doesn't he? Doesn't he? what he says, lest Israel claim glory for itself against me.
Ralph Davis makes this perceptive comment, does not 7.2 speak to us? Does it not? He says, does it not tell us there is a certain deviousness in God's people, a tendency to steal God's praise? Does it not teach us that sometimes he cannot trust us with his work unless we realize how inadequate we are to do it?
This may explain why God frequently chooses such unlikely instruments. There is in each of our hearts that little desire for some glory, isn't there? There is in each of our hearts a little bit of a doubt. Maybe not in all of us, but in some of us.
Some of us less sanctified ones. We want to be able to pat ourselves on the back. We want to just take a shred of credit. We make some progress in holiness and we want to write books to help people.
Sure we do. We want people to praise and celebrate the holy accomplishments of brother so-and-so. God will not give his glory to another. Sometimes this path of humility is a difficult one.
Because if we're proud and we're arrogant, the Lord God has his ways of knocking us down. What was Peter's claim? Lord, if everyone else denies you, I will not. Peter.
You will deny me three times before the cot crows. I think I've shared with you before, this is why the weather vane of the rooster is on the top of buildings. The weather vane of the rooster. You think, what does a rooster and weather have in common?
Nothing. What is that weather vane telling us when we look at that rooster? Remember Peter. Remember from whence you've come.
Remember the reality of how easy it is to be caught sure in one sense and then deny the Lord in another. God's not going to share His glory. So what does He do? The first troop reduction.
He says, bring the 10,000... Actually, first tell them Deuteronomy 20. Deuteronomy 20 ain't specified. that there were psychological reasons for men not to go to combat. If you're fearful and you can't stand there in combat, we don't want you there.
If you're gonna shake when you're holding a rifle, or you can't swing a sling, or you can't use a knife or a sword because you're paralyzed with fear, it is stipulated in Deuteronomy 20 that you can leave. Go ahead. The preparations for war, there was a humanitarian privilege. If a man just got married, you don't have to go to war.
You can enjoy your wife for a year. Isn't that nice? We look at the old covenant Israelites and say, what a barbaric situation. Do you know how many guys are away from their families, serving in the military, that would love something like that?
But there was this psychological privilege. If you can't stand fast and fight, then go. I'd like that. Who hasn't thought about that in the church?
If you ain't with us, then go. I don't mean that literally. Don't get up and walk out right now because you're tired. There's a mission to accomplish.
We've got to be on board, man. So God says go. Look what happens. 22,000 of the people return and 10,000 remain. What do you think Gideon is thinking?
Gideon's watching his army walk away. We forget the human element. We forget the human dynamic. Gideon's already expressed his fear.
Gideon already once, not once, but twice, asked for God to put water on the fleece or on the ground. Gideon's not this macho man for Jesus, saying, get out of here, like I just did. He says, I want you to stay here. I want my troops.
We're going into a hard battle. God says, get rid of them. Okay, well I guess 10,000 is going to have to do it. So what does God say?
Take the 10,000 down and let them drink water. Now there's two categories here. The text is a little rough in five and six, but the idea is lappers versus kneelers. You have those who lap, 300, and you have those who kneel, 9,700.
Some have in here an evidence, a mark, of the strategy and the ability of the lappers. The text tells us no sort of thing. Listen to Davis. Davis says, the commentators who see the distinction based on ability rather than sovereignty.
He says, it is amazing how virtuous the lappers become in the view of expositors. They are heralded as the vigilant. Watching the enemy. Though at this time, the enemy is miles away.
They couldn't have seen him with night vision goggles. But they're vigilant. The kneelers, they don't pay attention. All they think about is themselves and their gluttony for water.
Nothing could be further from the passage. Davis says, it is amazing how virtuous the lappers become in the view of expositors. They are heralded as the vigilant, watchful ones who lean down, scoop a little water always with their eyes on the enemy, while the kneelers are the careless who think only of their thirst. The text doesn't indicate that at all.
It is simply a means by which God whittles them down from 10,000 strong men to 300 strong men. Gill is a much more perceptive commenter. So is Davis. He's just rehearsing what others do.
Gill says, though it seems that all the 10,000 men were men of courage, they were because the others left, he says, And this method was taken not to distinguish those that were the most courageous from those that were the least so, but only reduce the number that should be engaged in this battle. It has nothing to do with whether you're a lapper or a kneeler. The lappers didn't say, good with you, I'm glad you're gone, you wretched kneelers. It was a means under the sovereign hand of God to whittle the army.
Why? Verse 2, Last, Israel claimed glory for itself, and say, My hand has delivered me. The point is absolutely crucial of verse 2. Davis again says the 300 are the sign of Israel's weakness, not the epitome of her strength.
If we take that wacky position, then we'll have to see these 300 are the very strategically minded. They're the watchers, they're the vigilant. But that's exactly the point of the passage, is to tell us that the victory does not come about because of their vigilance, because of their ability, because they are crack shots. It comes because of God.
Davis then, I think, beautifully illustrates this point with a lesson from church history.
William McCulloch and Cambuslang Revival
Perhaps you've heard of the Cambuslang Revival. was a place, Cambuslang, where George Whitefield ended up going and preaching during a time of great revival in the First Great Awakening. You see, even before the arrival of George Whitefield, revival had broken out. And this is what Davis says concerning a particular William McCulloch. Few would have ever suspected William McCulloch of kindling a revival.
He was a parish minister in Cambuslang, Scotland about 1740. A scholarly pastor excelling in languages, especially Hebrew, he had nevertheless little gift for the pulpit. His own son described him as not a very ready speaker, not eloquent. His manner was slow and cautious.
Thanks, son. Let me get a text today from Josh. Micah will text me from Idaho. Yeah, guess what?
Do you get the point? McCulloch is not Spurgeon. McCulloch is not Whitfield. McCulloch is not Edwards.
Nobody wears a t-shirt today that says William McCulloch is my homeboy. Nobody knows who William McCulloch is. We all know Whitfield, we all know Edwards, and people do wear shirts that say, George Whitfield is my homeboy. In fact, he was called an ale minister.
That's right, A-L-E, minister. Which meant that when he rose to speak, a number in the audience left to quench their thirst at the local tavern. Yet, God chose to use William McCulloch's ministry as the means of revival in Cambuslang, sometime before George Whitefield visited there. Davis muses, now I cannot divine the divine ways, but I wonder if God was pleased to use William McCulloch in order to make it clear that the Cambuslang work could not be explained by eloquence or human dynamism, but only by the Spirit of God.
The necessity of weakness, that is often Yahweh's method. You see, that's what God is doing. Get rid of the guys that are afraid, out. Get rid of the kneelers, out.
Dwindle it down to 300 men, and they received instruction in verses 7 to 8. 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. 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.
Encouragement of Gideon
Now let's move thirdly to the encouragement of Gideon. Gideon probably needed a shot in the arm about this time, don't you think? We already see that he struggles. We already see that he puts out the fleece.
We already see that he needs God to give him some assurance, some sign, some wonder, so that Gideon will have the wherewithal to go into battle against the Midianites. Now, in this instance, what is truly amazing is that Gideon doesn't seek a sign here. Notice that in verses 9 to 15, it is God who undertakes to encourage Gideon. Look at verse 9.
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. Look at our God in verse 10. But if you are afraid to go down, He knows His servant, doesn't He? He knows Gideon, doesn't He?
Do you think when you come to the Lord, you say, Lord, I'm so scared, I'm so frightened. He's like, what? I don't get it, I don't understand. How are you like that?
Get back out there. No, He understands His servant. He comes to His people. He is our rock.
He is our shield. He is our defender. He is our protector. He does deal with us as a Father.
Pities His children. Gideon, if you're afraid, I have another sign for you. Do you want this sign, Gideon? What do you think Gideon says?
Yes, give me this sign. I don't want to go into battle yet. Lord, I've got 300 people. I don't know how we're going to do this.
They've got scads of men, soldiers, Midianites, Amalekites. God says, come on, Gideon. I want to show you one more piece of evidence. I want to show you one more piece of affirmation.
I want to give you one more confirmed sign so that you will go with joy in your heart to the battle that I have set before you. And what's the point? In verses 9 to 15. He tells him to shimmy his way down with his associate, with a lieutenant, and listen to what the men of Midian are speaking about.
Note that God uses two pagan privates, private being the lowest soldier in an army. These are two privates, they happen to be discussing things, and Gideon and Purah are in earshot, able to hear what is going on. Isn't this glorious? Isn't this amazing?
God's not going to put a sign in the heavens and say, go do this. God's going to send you on your way to listen to the enemy speak for a moment. Just get an earshot, Gideon. Just listen to what these two privates have to say.
Just listen to them discuss their common everyday things. You want to talk about the sovereignty of God? You want to argue that God is not sovereign? How does God orchestrate all these things apart from his absolute sovereignty?
Sovereignty in a Pagan Soldier's Dream
Two pagan men standing together, chilling out, just speaking about things that are on their hearts. Gideon and Peor are there, they want to hear what is being said. The one man says, I had a dream last night. And in this dream, this little barley loaf rolled into camp and it knocked down the entire tent.
Now again, if you struggle with sovereignty, you should probably go away. What does the other private say? How does he possibly know this? Because God is in the heavens and He does whatever He pleases.
He takes the pagan, he forms the words so that Gideon will hear what this pagan private testifies in verse 14. Then his companion answered and said, This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash. Now, you have to imagine that in the Midianite army, with these hundred thousand people, you find the two privates, one of which had a dream about a barley loaf rolling into camp and knocking down a tent, and he happens to be standing with a man who interprets dreams. Do you not see sovereignty?
Do you not see providence? Do you not see God in this passage? 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.
It's amazing, isn't it? Gideon thought it was the only time in the book of Judges where it is said that an Israelite worships Yahweh. They are said to worship in other contexts, but it's Baal or Ashtoreth. You see, for Gideon this was a showstopper.
Gideon didn't struggle with sovereignty, Gideon embraced sovereignty. Gideon understood that the report of these two men, the one dreamer and the one interpreter, was a sign in the significance of which under God was, Midian, take these 300 men and go decimate Israel, or Midian. Verse 15, and so it was when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation that he worshipped. He returned to the camp of Israel and said, arise for the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand.
Victory Over the Midianites
And that brings us finally to the victory over the Midianites. He explains the strategy. It's a simple strategy, isn't it? It's got 300 guys.
Take this torch, take this jar and do what I say. Do what I do. Verse 16, then he divided the 300 men into three companies and he put a trumpet into every man's hand. with empty pitchers and torches inside the pitchers. And he said to them, Look at me and do likewise.
Watch, and watch the whole camp. You shall do as I do. 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." Now if you were watching this on CNN or Fox News, you were looking at the war room and Gideon was plotting his attack on Midian, you'd probably be screaming at your television right about now saying, I don't know that that's going to work. Gideon, I don't know that that's the way to do this particular task.
I don't know that that's going to successfully carry out the desired effect of bringing victory to the armies of Israel. He explains the strategy. Now notice they wage the battle in verses 19 to 22. The troops are placed, the troops cry out, the troops are devoted to what they're supposed to do, but notice specifically the victory.
You see, if we're watching this strategy, if we were listening to what he said, if we were thinking in strictly human terms and military strategy, it would be destined to fail. You see, the necessary element involved in all of this is the God of heaven and earth, the God of the armies of Israel. And specifically what happens in verse 22 is this. Most of the soldiers in Midian are asleep.
It is about midnight. They're resting peacefully. Have you ever had anybody come and yell in your ear while you're resting peacefully? If you've been in the military, you've had that.
They have this nasty practice of yelling at you at 5 a.m. to get out of bed, get your stuff in order, get outside. I mean, it's just amazing. You know what happens when that horn goes off and the men start yelling? There's pandemonium.
There's panic. It takes a moment to gather your thoughts, doesn't it? Somebody came to your house and said, come on down, we gotta go. Wait a minute, let me have coffee first.
What happened? The crashing of the jars, the sight of the torches, the sound of the soldiers threw them off. In their panic, Midianite took up sword against Midianite. This is what the text says.
Our God is in the heavens. He does whatever He pleases. The 300 are outgunned. But 100,000 men in chaos in Pandemonium, armed with swords, start swinging and hacking at anything near them.
And they're killing their own soldiers. So verse 22 indicates, when the 300 blew the trumpets, the Lord set every man's sword against his companion. Gil says, "...and so slew one another, either suspecting treachery, and so in revenge, wrath, and indignation, drew their swords on each other. Or through the terror and amazement that they were in, at the sounds they heard, and the blazing torches dazzling their eyes, they knew not what they did, or who they fell upon, taking their friends for foes, supposing the Israelites were got into their camp." within our lifetimes.
I think we've seen something of this. I remember a particular instance where at least a federal government descended upon a particular compound that they wanted to overtake. They played very loud music and they just kept lambasting it upon this particular compound. What does that do?
It messes with you psychologically. Daniel Bloch sees it this way.
Midian's Rout and God's Method
The bedlam in the enemy camp is described in three verbs. And they, all the camp, ran. And they cried out wildly, and they fled. He says, this is the natural response of those who have been awakened from the deepest of sleep at midnight to the sound of horns blowing, jars smashing, people shouting, and the sight of 300 blazing torches around the camp.
He says, this is psychological warfare at its best. You see, God doesn't need 100,000 in his army. God needs 300 obedient men who do exactly what he says, and he will bring victory on the camp of Midian. They then pursue.
He tells the tribe of Ephraim to go in pursuit. And what does Ephraim do? They find the two princes, Oreb and Zeb, and they bring those two men's heads to Gideon. Again, our delicate sensitivities are put off a little bit.
I mean, they had to be dripping blood. I don't want to be too gross or too callous or too harsh, but these were heads that had been recently severed from their bodies. We think, oh, that's icky. No, that's victory.
It's God undertaking on behalf of the Midianites. I have to think that if I was in one of the occupied countries at the time of the Nazi regime, and my guys came walking into town holding two heads of Third Reich lieutenants, I'd probably rejoice. I'd much prefer to see them than the Gestapo walking down my road taking my food." You see, it's a matter of perspective. Oreb and Zeb, in all of their bloody gore, highlight this fundamental truth, that God, the Lord of Israel, saves His people.
That's what those heads ought to teach you.
Application
Well, as we conclude, we ought to recognize a few things by way of reminder, and then we close. First, the whole account demonstrates the power of the spirit. Gideon is not a self-appointed man. Gideon was not elected by popular vote.
Gideon's tactics are not renegade, they're not maverick. Gideon functions as the man of God, chosen for a particular task, clothed with the Spirit of God, or even more better, the Spirit is clothed with Gideon so that he can undertake to break the oppression of Israel's enemies. It's the Spirit at work in this section of Judges. As much as we appreciate and as much as we enjoy reading the book of Acts and seeing the Spirit coming down and filling the place where the disciples were, we ought to appreciate the manifest of the Spirit of God in the destruction of Israel's enemies in this particular context.
Secondly, we have cause to note, again, the patience and mercy of God. It is God who is patient with Gideon. He gives him the assurance of the fleece. He understands that he's afraid, so he sends him and Purah down to listen to these two pagan privates talk about a dream.
Every step of the way, it's as if God takes him by the hand and marches him along to do the task that he has called him to. And shall we not hear our Lord's words in the Great Commission? Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." What does he underscore all of this with? And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
When the Church is facing Hermitianites and Amalekites, she does not do it in her own strength. She does it held by the hand of her Lord Jesus Christ. So that when we preach the gospel, when we worship our God, when we testify our witness, we can be assured that our Savior is with us. Thirdly, the sovereignty of God is conspicuous.
The emphasis in the entire section is on His power in delivering Israel from Midian. Verses 2, 7, 9, 14, and 22. the means that God employs. Again, I think we have sufficiently brought this out by a way of reminder. His sovereignty is underscored in his choice of Gideon.
The sovereignty is underscored in the reduction of troops. The sovereignty is underscored in the dream of the private. And his sovereignty is underscored in the strategy employed. He turned Midianite against Midianite.
And as well, we ought not to leave this passage without appreciating the emphasis of verse 2. We really need to struggle to fight against pride. We really need to pursue humility. You know, over this past year, especially I think when I prepared this particular message for our Wednesday night study, it had come out that there were a handful of evangelical pastors in America that had paid money so that books they had written would make it to the New York Times bestsellers list.
God doesn't need that. He can use a non-bestseller. He can use a non-Spurgeon. He can use a Gideon from a small clan that is insignificant.
He can use 300 men armed with nothing more than a trumpet, than a jar, and a torch. You see, we've got it exactly backwards today. We wouldn't hire Gideon. We wouldn't let him pastor us.
We wouldn't let Paul pastor us. How does Paul describe himself? When I came to you, I came trembling and in weakness. We'd say, no, we need a man up there that's a take charge fellow, a CEO, a commander, a man who gets things done.
Paul, you go find the door. Today, in evangelicalism, and some, unfortunately, within the Reformed world, we're driven by this celebrity mindset. We won't go to a conference where there's some unknown guy that's speaking, but if Sproul is there, and this isn't anything ill against Sproul, or if Piper's there, or if so-and-so's there, we've gotta be there. Why is that?
Because we don't understand the mindset of God in Judges 7-2. I don't want you to praise Piper. I don't want you to praise MacArthur. I don't want you to praise Butler.
I certainly don't want you to praise Spurgeon. I want you to praise God. Has the church understood that? Do we get that?
Is 2 Corinthians 4 a reality? Gospel treasure is placed in earthenware vessels so that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of men? This is something Judges 7 holds out to us, and we need to grapple with, and we need to understand. And then finally, if you're here this morning and you're an unbeliever, you're not a Christian, you probably think it's odd that we're preaching about this.
Well, first, it's in the Bible. We love the Bible, so we preach the Bible. Two, you wonder, how does this affect me in the 21st century? I'm not a Christian.
What can you tell me this morning that is good news? Well, I think from this passage I can tell you this, that salvation, that means God coming to you to draw you out of sin or save you from your sin and give you the righteousness of Christ, salvation involves the destruction of enemies. And I think we learned that at least from Oreb and Zeb. Hopefully Oreb and Zeb remind us of John in 1 John chapter 3.
You say, well, how does Oreb and Zeb remind us of John? Because John tells us that Jesus came to forgive us of our sins and he was manifested so that he might destroy the works of the devil. Oreb and Zeb indicate for us that God's salvation involves the destruction of His enemies. And if you are not a believer this morning, your primary enemy is sin.
It's got a hold of your heart. It has made a slave and a captive out of you. It has caused you to think irrationally. It has caused you to pursue those things that Pastor Cam mentioned before. whether it be money, whether it be sex, whether it be status, whether it be whatever.
Anything that you pursue more than God is an idol, and it's folly, and it's wickedness, and it's terrible. That enemy needs to be destroyed. Oreb and Zeb tell us that there is a greater than Gideon that is able to cut the head off of your sin, that is able to break the back of your sin, that is able to destroy your sin, because the Father sent His Son and hung Him on the cross and punished Him in the place of sinners. Oreb and Zeb teach you and tell you that there is forgiveness in our Lord Jesus Christ.
As well, the Bible shows us that men outside of Christ are subject to the devil. Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 to 3. The devil doesn't play games. This conception of the devil in a suit with his horns and his pitchfork and the long tail is probably nothing like the situation.
He's perfectly content thinking you don't believe that he's there. He's perfectly content, you thinking there is no devil, thinking that this is a whole bunch of fairy tale and fable. The devil has you where he wants you, and the only sufficient power to break that oppression is the cross. It's Jesus.
He was manifested so that he might destroy the works of the devil. And then you know what else we're all subject to? It's death. Isn't that the reality of it?
Isn't that a promise? The wages of sin is death? In Adam all die. In Christ, we have everlasting life, but there is a physical death that we must go through. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 tells us that currently, right now, current session of Christ, he is lowering his foot on all of his enemies.
The last enemy that Jesus Christ will destroy is death itself. So when you see Oreb and Zeb, you think about the power of the Christian gospel. You think about the power and the magnificence of Jesus Christ. You think about the ability and the competency of our Christ to defeat the enemies of God, to defeat the enemies of sin, the enemy of the devil, and death itself.
And if you have not come to Christ, believe. I gotta tell you, Midianite oppression in chapter 6 verses 1 to 5 is a walk in the park compared to being outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not just lacking for food that you will undergo. It will be exclusion from the presence of God Most High and from the presence of the Lamb Himself.
The way of escape, the way of hope, the way of help and salvation is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father in Heaven, we thank you for your word and we thank you for this passage in Judges 7. We thank you that Gideon points us forward to a greater than Gideon. We thank you that all these earthly judges and all the kings, the good kings, the monarchs in Israel point us forward and typify the great King of Kings and Lord of Lords, even Jesus Christ our Savior. I pray that you would deal in the hearts of men and women and boys and girls here I pray that there would be conviction for sin and that you would show men, show women, boys and girls, that Christ alone saves to the uttermost.
Cause there to be faith in Him and repentance unto life and rejoicing in heaven today. And we ask through Christ our Lord. Amen.