Judges 7:2 “And the Lord said unto Gideon: ‘The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying: mine own hand hath saved me.”
We have all heard this story in Sunday School and it is a story that I keep coming back to whenever my head gets too big to rest comfortably on my shoulders. God raised up Gideon, just an average Joe like you and me, no special talents, no special skills the only thing he had going for himself was his name, Gideon, which means mighty warrior. Yet, God raised him up to deliver Israel from the Midianites. Like you and me old Gideon stopped and thought about it, “Yeah, right, me a great warrior, me delivering a whole nation, ain’t gonna happen.”
God deliberately chose the least likely person to deliver Israel for a good reason, given a victory by the hand of great general and the people would vault themselves against God. The word vault in Hebrew is pa’ar which means to beautify and adorn. It is in a Hithpael form so what God is saying is that Israel has a tendency to beautify and adorn themselves ali. Ali is a preposition with many usages but I think the use that fits this context is on behalf of. In other words they would beautify and adorn themselves on behalf of God… steal His thunder so to speak. I am sure none of you can relate to this. I seem to be the only one who speaks in the name of God and gets all this praise on how holy I am and I just sit back and soak up all the glory. I go to bed at night reading the positive reviews on my books thinking what a great fellow I am to share about God’s heart. Count yourself lucky you don’t have a problem like mine, God tends to deal very harshly with someone like that to bring them to the point of crying “Uncle, ok, God it is you and only you that has accomplished this.” I am like a modern day Robin Hood who robs the rich of their glory, gives it back to God only I keep about 25% – 50% for expenses and efforts. After all, I am an American and in my culture we expect some return for any efforts we put forward.
Anyway, back to old Gideon. Not only is he insecure in his leadership role but now when he is called upon to gather an army he can only muster 22,000 soldiers. Not a bad army if you are going against 10,000 enemy soldiers. Only problem is that the Midianites had an army 110,000 strong. That is like being outnumbered five to one. Yet God came to Gideon and said, “Too many, even if I give you victory with 1-5 odds you will still say, ‘Hey look at us, look at what we have done, and look how powerful we are.”
So God told Gideon to tell all the chicken, yellow bellied cowards to go home to mamma, all except for him of course. When the dust settled, Gideon almost getting trampled by the rush of those who had better things to do than getting killed, he was left with less than half his army. 12,000 sissies left poor Gideon in the dust and now he was left with only 10,000 soldiers. The odds were now 1-11 and getting better for Midian.
Would you believe it, God said there were still too many. Even outnumbered 11 to 1 Israel would be in all their splendor taking credit for the victory. No God had to do it in a way that there would be no doubt in Israel’s mind that it was God who gave them their victory. After a water test which eliminated all but the best warriors, the ones who were focused and alert to any sign of attack and ready to do battle when it came Gideon ended up with just 300 men going against 110,000. Let’s see that makes the odds what 1-366. Not only that, only Gideon was allowed to have a sword. The rest of the army got a clay pitcher and a torch. Now you see why God wanted only the true warriors who were focus on their mission. Only a true warrior would say, “Oh, right that makes it about even.”
Now here is the part of the story I love. The night before the attack God came to Gideon in Judges 7:10 and said, “Gideon if you are still afraid I want you to do something for me.” Gideon said, “I’ll do it.” God said that he would give Gideon the confidence and faith he needed for victory but he had to go into the Midian camp to do. He had to go right into the midst of what he feared the most and could only take his servant, poor Purah as a body guard. Actually Purah was basically going as an eye witness to confirm what Gideon would experience or probably in Gideon’s mind to carry his head back after the Midianites lopped it off.
Well, you know the story, God allowed Gideon to hear a Midianites dream of defeat. Gideon had a little charismatic meltdown right there in the Midianite camp and then rushed back to put God’s plan into action which resulted in such a victory that Israel suffered not one casualty. God even protected Gideon from having a heart attack. I mean surely an experience like that has to be hard on your heart.
You know there are times we have gone as far as can, we have used up every resource in trying to carry out God’s will and we just stumble and fall. Finally when it seems like we just can’t go on or we just don’t want to go on God says, “Tell you what, I will give you the confidence and faith you need, just do one thing for me, walk down to the enemy camp.”
There is the story that when D.L. Moody was holding his crusade in London he was so successful that he became an international celebrity. The people and the press began to praise him for his oratory ability and ability to attract audiences and then the testimonies started as to the lives that were changed. Yet there was a little incident that Ira Sankey, his music director, related that showed D.L Moody kept his head on straight. They were walking down a street in London when a man who was totally inebriated, reeking of alcohol, staggered up to Moody and declared, “Why, if it isn’t D.L Moody, am I glad to meet you, I am one of your converts.” Moody looked at the drunken man and replied, “Yeah, you look like one of MY converts.”
I have walked this earth three score and four years, I have sought to serve God all my life, I have sought to always give him the glory and honor for everything and I have continually failed in the quest, even up today. I am now old and gray I have learned a real truth, once you get the slightest idea that you have some special gift or talent, expect to get your army chopped down to a size that convinces you that you will never fulfill God’s call on your life. Then cap that off with going into battle with just one sword for three hundred soldiers. When you finally stand there and say, “God, that’s it, it just ain’t gonna happen, I have nothing left.” Then God will say, “Ok, one more thing, walk into the enemy camp.” By this time about the only reason you will go to go into the enemy camp is on the hope that you will get your head lopped off to make your end quick and easy.
I read the story of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Hurricane Hunters in the National Geographic magazine. It told of the scientists who fly into a hurricane for reconnaissance to help give early warning as to where a hurricane may strike. In the very center of the hurricane, surround by all that turbulence and violent winds is the eye of the hurricane where it’s calm and peaceful. The pilot of the reconnaissance aircraft said that turbulence caused by the hurricane is the most violent just before you pass through the eyewall into the peace and calm of the hurricane eye. There you are surrounded by the most violent winds on earth but in the eye you are at flying in peace.
Somehow I cannot help but think that God designed hurricanes for the modern Christian to learn from. Once we step out of the center of God’s will, the eye of the hurricane so to speak, we enter the violent winds and turbulence. God has to strip us of all our trust in ourselves as we pass through the turbulence trying to find our way to the eye of the hurricane or the center of God’s will. As we get closer to the center of God’s will the enemy will throw everything he has at us tempting us to turn back. The worst will come just before we break through the eyewall. But if we go into the Midian camp God will show us and the world that the resulting victory came from Him and Him alone.
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