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Chapter 7
(Judges 7 KJV) "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.
He starts off with a good sized army. All in all. 32,000 men answered
his call. Now consider what God considers. That gang of midianites was
even bigger:
{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. {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.
God looks at this situation and considers the consequences. We can arm
our 32,000 men and charge into the valley and whip all those people, but a
lot of good men will die in the process. In hand to hand combat, half the
people on the field will probably die the first hour. Half of the
remainder the second hour. So what do we do? The first thing he did was to
cut the size of Gideon’s army. What God intended to do could not be done
with so many. Too many people would die.
{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. {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. {24} And Gideon sent messengers throughout all
mount Ephraim, saying, Come down against the Midianites, and take
before them the waters unto Bethbarah and Jordan. Then all the men of
Ephraim gathered themselves together, and took the waters unto
Bethbarah and Jordan. {25} And they took two princes of the Midianites,
Oreb and Zeeb; and they slew Oreb upon the rock Oreb, and Zeeb they
slew at the winepress of Zeeb, and pursued Midian, and brought the
heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side Jordan."
The moral of this story is that It is much better for us to get on
God’s wavelength, to think as he thinks, to see as he sees. In some cases,
a frontal assault is the best way to go. But in other cases, God wants us
to be as subtle as He is. Gideon got the point.
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The
Sinless Life
Have you ever
considered what it would mean if you could just live a sinless life?
Youth in Action
Never in our history have young people needed Bible learning and Christian
youth programs more than they do today.
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