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.
And Gideon must have also been hurting when he realized that he now had a mighty army of 10,000, leaving him at a greater disadvantage: instead of 4 to 1, he now had the challenge of being outnumbered 13 to 1! Can you see Gideon trying to find an aspirin or any kind of pain killer at this moment?
Even worse news, though, was to come—humanly speaking. God and Gideon saw that 22,000 recruits decided to leave and God told Gideon, “You still have too many. Bring them down to the water and give them a test. I’ll tell you the ones to keep and the ones to send back home.” The test was to see how the soldiers would drink the water. Remember, wheat harvest was in the summer and the temperature in Israel was HOT during that time. It’s anybody’s guess how long the men had been at the camp, so to speak, and as we’ll see, these men were thirsty.
They—all 10,000 plus Gideon—went down to the water (the specific body of water is never specified) and prepared to drink. And here’s the test, even though none of the soldiers knew it: the test was how each man would drink the water. Would they kneel down to drink, or would each man do something else?
The results speak, and spoke, for themselves: all but 300 dropped to their knees and tried to gulp as much water as they could! The other 300 “lapped”, which means they put their hand to their mouth. It’s not clear if each soldier used one hand or both hands to get the water.
(Here in the sermon I tried to demonstrate—rather unsuccessfully, may I add!—what some of us have done when we don’t have a glass or other container. Some of the folks laughed!)
And God told Gideon, “The 300 who ‘lapped’ are the ones who will deliver Israel. Send the others back to their homes (paraphrased).” So now, out of the remaining 10,000 soldiers, all but 300 were dismissed and sent back home. Nothing is mentioned about their reactions but they seemed to accept the decision.
Now Gideon has his army, 300 of perhaps the worst, most scared, too afraid to admit they’re scared, but soldiers selected by God Himself to bring victory over the enemy.
And yet, Gideon still wasn’t completely ready to bring the battle to the enemy. God knew this and gave Gideon a confirmation before the preparation. You won’t believe the people who gave Gideon the confidence he needed before the attack!
2 The preparation: getting ready for the battle
Text, Judges 7:9-14, KJV: 9 And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said unto him, Arise, get thee down unto the host; for I have delivered it into thine hand. 10 But if thou fear to go down, go thou with Phurah thy servant down to the host: 11 And thou shalt hear what they say; and afterward shall thine hands be strengthened to go down unto the host. Then went he down with Phurah his servant unto the outside of the armed men that were in the host. 12 And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea side for multitude. 13 And when Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along. 14 And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: for into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host.
Gideon seems to still be a little unsure of himself, so the LORD told him to go “down into the host” or Midianite army. Now, I’ve read this passage a number of times, and thought, “oh, the LORD is just giving Gideon some confidence” or something similar. But there may be another angle to this: Gideon was scared, and the LORD knew this—and that’s one reason why Gideon overcame his fear by getting close to the enemy camp! He and his servant Phurah, another unsung hero of the Bible (Sermon Central accepted my illustration about this man), made their way to the camp, close enough to hear what two of the soldiers were saying to each other.
There is some debate as to just where these two enemy soldiers were located, whether in a tent or if they were walking as sentries or guards. No matter where, one of these men had a dream and he was troubled by it. Doesn’t that remind us of Pharaoh, when he had a pair of dreams that bothered him, and eventually he called for Joseph (Genesis 41)? Other pagans had dreams where they realized God was speaking to them, like Abimelech, Nebuchadnezzar; even Pilate’s wife.
Now, I’ve sometimes wondered, just how these men would know anything about Gideon. Were there Israelites who had gone over to the enemy in order to survive a little better? We’ll never know just how, but some of the enemy knew a lot about Gideon. These two soldiers did, and, it’s sad that they knew what was about to happen but did nothing to change their ways. As far as we know, they not only died in battle, but they also died in their sins, and will be separated from God forever.
Josephus, in his “Antiquities of the Jews (book 5, chapter 6,paragraph 4)” adds some interesting notes to this, by the way, In a word, barley cakes were some of the most awful food anyone could eat! They weren’t “cakes” like we think of birthday cakes or layer cakes, but a lot like unleavened bread. Think crackers or pie crust for similar textures but instead of wheat, use barley. To the best of my knowledge, I’ve never had any barley bread or cakes or anything else made from the stuff, so I can’t comment as to what it would taste like. To be honest, I’m none too anxious to sample any of it, either!
At any rate, this was good enough for Gideon. Verse 15 tells how Gideon, once he heard this dream, interpretation, and his own name mentioned as a conqueror, “worshiped” the LORD and returned to the camp. It’s not stated but my guess is that he went back a lot faster, and in better spirits, than when he left!
The selection was done, the preparation was almost done, and now it was time for action. Gideon had just a couple of things to do, and then victory would come.
3 The outcome
Text, Judges 7:15-23, KJV: 15 And it was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation thereof, that he worshipped, and returned into the host of Israel, and said, Arise; for the LORD hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian. 16 And he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man's hand, with empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers. 17 And he said unto them, Look on me, and do likewise: and, behold, when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so shall ye do. 18 When I blow with a trumpet, I and all that are with me, then blow ye the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say, The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon. 19 So Gideon, and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch; and they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers that were in their hands. 20 And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon. 21 And they stood every man in his place round about the camp: and all the host ran, and cried, and fled. 22 And the three hundred blew the trumpets, and the LORD set every man's sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host: and the host fled to Bethshittah in Zererath, and to the border of Abelmeholah, unto Tabbath. 23 And the men of Israel gathered themselves together out of Naphtali, and out of Asher, and out of all Manasseh, and pursued after the Midianites.
Truth be told, there isn’t much action to speak of in this section. Gideon’s final preparation was to divide the 300 men into three companies or groups of 100 each. Gideon took command of one and then gave each man an empty “pitcher” (also translated “jar”, like the water-pot Rebekah carried on her shoulder or “bowl”, such as what held the “meal” or flour when Elijah arrived at Zarephath in 1 Kings 17). Thus, it wasn’t a small thing, such as a “pitcher” of water but something pretty good sized—big enough to hold a torch or “lamp” inside.
Once Gideon had given each man a pitcher, he also gave each one a “lamp” or torch, plus a trumpet. They put the torches inside the lamps because, as some of the commentators observed, this kept the torch safe and clean, and also invisible, so that the enemy wouldn’t see them.
Now comes one of the strangest battles and best victories recorded in the Bible. Gideon divided the men into groups of 100 each and had them stand “around the camp” of the enemy. Remember, and I’ve sometimes forgotten this, Gideon and the men of Israel were on some high ground and were looking down at the enemy camp. All they had to do now was wait for the signal, as Gideon had told them.
That signal, by the way, was again just one example of how God uses small things, irregular means, and things that defy military logic—or even logic in general—when He pleases. Here we’ll another example how clay jars, bright lamps, loud trumpets, and 300 male voices were everything God needed to bring victory over the enemy!
And this is how they did it. Gideon waited until the “middle watch”, probably anywhere between 10 pm and midnight or so, when the guards or sentries changed. With a camp of 135,000 soldiers and anybody’s guess how much area was under their control, I’m sure it would take at least some time for “turnover”, as some called it. I’ve seen this in several situations, when at shift change, the day shift, say, would go over with the second shift what was going on, what needed to be done, and so forth. That, in and of itself, wouldn’t be a problem.
In fact, for Gideon and his 300, it was no problem at all! It was at that moment when Gideon knew it was time to act. Here’s where it gets very interesting: Gideon had told the men, “I’m going to the outside of the camp. When you see what I do, and hear me blow my trumpet, you men do the same thing, and yell ‘The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon’ with all you’ve got.”
That’s exactly what they did! It wouldn’t have taken long for Gideon’s men to see Gideon’s torch, once the jar was broken, and it didn’t take long for the men to start blowing the trumpets. It’s never stated how many times or how often the men shouted and then blew the trumpets but one possibility is that they would blow the trumpets, take a breath, and then shout. After that, they might take another breath before each man blew his trumpet (sorry, the strategist in me is interested in tactics like these!)
We’ll leave the rest of the story to the text itself. The enemy was so confused that they began to kill each other while Gideon’s men did nothing but shout and then blow the trumpets. A few escaped but they were later captured and met Gideon (and, possibly, their fate). The bottom line is that Gideon followed God’s instructions, and God gave the victory. There is no record in Scripture or the Midianites attacking Israel after this event. Now, it’s not easy to conclude this message but let me say this: God may not deliver us from our enemies as He did for Gideon, but He will deliver us in His way at His time. We can take comfort—God guaranteed it!
Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV).
