Gideon: When The Lord Gave Him The Promised Victory Series

Introduction: Some of the military’s greatest strategists mentioned never going into action against the enemy unless you have two or three times more of everything than they do. Gideon had blown the trumpet, basically the same thing as declaring war against Israel’s enemies, and many of the local tribes had responded to the call. That strategy didn’t and wouldn’t work against Israel’s enemies, but God had a plan that guaranteed victory if Gideon followed it.

1 The selection: the best were the worst!

Text: Judges 7:1-8, KJV: 1 Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people that were with him, rose up early, and pitched beside the well of Harod: so that the host of the Midianites were on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley. 2 And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me. 3 Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand. 4 And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there: and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go. 5 So he brought down the people unto the water: and the LORD said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink. 6 And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water. 7 And the LORD said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place. 8 So the people took victuals in their hand, and their trumpets: and he sent all the rest of Israel every man unto his tent, and retained those three hundred men: and the host of Midian was beneath him in the valley.

Gideon had “blown the trumpet”, which was about the same as declaring war against an enemy, and in reply 32,000 men of Israel came to him. That sounds like a lot of men, but compared to the enemy forces of 135, 000 (Judges 8:10), Israel was at a little over a 4-to-1 disadvantage! It’s good that so many responded to Gideon’s call—freedom is a powerful motivation—and an appeal to rid the homeland of invaders is usually effective, too. Somewhere I remember reading a brief saying: When attacked, attack!

But even though Gideon may have thought he had a fighting chance, outnumbered 4 to 1 as he was, God had other ideas. He expressly told Gideon, “You have too many soldiers, and if you win the battle, they’ll take the credit for it, and nobody will remember Me (paraphrased).”

This got Gideon’s attention, and that wasn’t all. God also told Gideon “Tell the people that if anyone of them is fearful and afraid, go home now!” This, by the way, was already written in the Law of Moses, Deuteronomy 20:8, and part of that was to remind the people that scared people scare people, to coin a phrase. I mean, take a look at just about any novel about battles, wars, conflicts, and eventually you’ll see a story or narrative about how one or more soldiers gets scared to the point of panic and before long, a lot of other soldiers join in too!

I remember reading an account of a certain battle in the War of 1812 when, as the writer said, “a dough head shouted ‘Run! It’s a dragon!”’ regarding something the British used, basically, as a terror weapon. The writer went on to say, “Before you could say ‘Jack Robinson’, the soldiers were running like ‘Jack Rabbits’”! So all in all, generally the more soldiers the better, but scared soldiers are some of the best weapons the enemy can use. Gideon may or may not have known about this, but God made sure to impress this truth on him.

Sometimes, truth hurts, and I’m sure Gideon was less than happy to see 2 of every 3 soldiers turn around and leave. We can’t forget the shame each of the soldiers must have felt as they knew they had let Gideon, and Israel, down and short-handed to boot.