Gideon—The 300: Judges 7

                              

Last week Gideon needed to learn to see himself through God’s eyes, to place his identity in the Lord instead of how he and others saw him. Gideon needed to root his identity, just as we need to do, in God rather than the identities we choose for ourselves. Now Gideon is going to learn to trust deeply in their powerful faithful Lord to deliver them so that the Lord gets the glory instead of Gideon.

Gideon calls Israel to battle Midian. Jerub Baal, enemy of Baal, is now the mighty warrior the Lord called to battle Baal’s warriors. 32,000 men respond to Gideon’s call, but the Lord tells Gideon that there are way too many fighters and to tell those men who are afraid of the upcoming battle that they can leave Mount Gilead. 22,000 of the men decide to leave.

Gideon now has 10,000 men to go up against Midian’s army of 135,000 men, as we learn in the next chapter, and the Lord tells Gideon that he still has way too many men. The Lord whittles Gideon’s army down to 300 men by having them drink from a stream and those who lap the water like dogs get to stay while the others can leave. 300 against 135,000, that’s crazy odds, that’s looking for a heroic death, not a victory. This is not the movie The 300 based on a fictional retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae during the Greco-Persian War, which the Greeks lost anyway.

The Lord tells Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.” This takes a deep faith and trust in the Lord. Now we understand why the Lord focuses so hard on getting Gideon to understand who he is through God’s eyes; so he will trust in his identity as mighty warrior because his identity is rooted in the Lord, and that the Lord will use him to defeat Midian, even with these crazy odds. Gideon allows everyone but the 300 to leave, and for this act of faith, Gideon is given a place among the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11, “And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.”

Now Gideon is with his men on Mount Gilead, overlooking the Midian encampment that lies like a swarm of hungry locusts ravaging the land. Now instead of Gideon asking the Lord for a sign, the Lord comes and offers Gideon a sign to strengthen Gideon’s faith and calm his fear, “Get up, go down against the camp, because I am going to give it into your hands. If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah and listen to what they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp.” Gideon and Purah go down to the Midianite camp.

The Lord often gives us a sense of peace before he calls us to stand up for him, giving us the strength and courage to be a witness for him when we know that it might things a lot harder for us. Jesus reassures us through the Holy Spirit that he never abandons us, that he’s with us as we walk his path of faithfulness to the Father. The Holy Spirit keeps pointing us to Jesus, to reinforcing in us our identity in Jesus as the foundation of hope and strength we need as we journey through life.

As Gideon heads down with his servant Purah, they quietly come across 2 men talking about a dream one of them had. “I had a dream,” he was saying. “A round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed.” His friend responded, “This can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands.” Gideon hears this and his first reaction is to bow down and worship the Lord even before he actually goes into battle, showing faith and gratitude in the Lord and his faithfulness to his so often unfaithful people. A question struck me as I reflected on Gideon’s reaction to hearing the Midian soldier’s interpretation of his dream, ‘how often do we praise Jesus before he does something for us, before we receive the things we are asking for,’ whether it’s healing, guidance, or whatever? It can be really hard to praise God for healing when healing never comes; does our praise usually depend on what God does rather then on who he is?

The dream of a barley loaf, more biscuit than loaf, a very ordinary loaf overturns and collapses a tent. Israel, small and insignificant against such a powerful enemy; Israel living in caves and hiding and scavenging simply to survive, is seen by this anonymous Midian soldier in his dream from the Lord to have the ability to overturn and collapse the power of Midian and Midian’s god Baal because God has given them into Israel’s hands! Gideon knows without a doubt that the Lord is with his people, as he always has.

Charles Spurgeon sees Gideon’s story as a story of God’s providence being worked out. An un-named Midianite soldier has a specific dream at a specific time and tells it to his fellow solder just as Gideon is creeping up and can over hear him, even naming Gideon by name, and declaring Gideon’s victory over his own army, even though it’s only a dream! The writers of the Bible don’t know anything about coincidence as they see the world and history through the lenses of faith and trust in the Lord. Often, we only recognize how Jesus and the Holy Spirit have been working in and through our lives when we stop and reflect back on our lives. The challenge is to get close enough to God that we recognize the hand of the Spirit in our lives as the Spirit is working right now. This is why the church has developed things like the spiritual disciplines to help us grow deeper in our faith, closer to Jesus. This is why you were given a personal faith plan earlier this fall; it’s meant to help you identify areas and ways to grow in your faith, to help you explore where the Spirit is at work right now in your lives.

Now in an echo of the battle of Jericho, Gideon calls his 300 men together, develops a battle plan to surround the Midianite camp, giving the men empty jars with torches inside, along with a trumpet. He tells them, “Watch me. Follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do. When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp blow yours and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon.’” Everything goes according to plan, and even better than Gideon and his 300 men could ever imagine. At Gideon’s signal, they all break their jars, creating patches of flickering light in the darkness, blowing their trumpets, giving the impression that companies of warriors are attacking in the darkness, sowing chaos and confusion among the Midianite soldiers. The Lord sows panic in the hearts and minds of the Midianites so that they pick up their swords and weapons and begin battling each other. In their fear and panic, the men of Baal begin to run and Gideon and his men watch as the Midianite army destroys itself; a God battle at its best as the Lord shows his power over Baal.

Joni Eareckson Tada writes about the need for a powerful Jesus, “Admit it: When your heart is being wrung out like a sponge, when you feel Morton’s salt is being poured into your wounded soul, you don’t want a thin, pale, emotional Jesus who relates only to lambs and birds and babies. You want a warrior Jesus. you want his rigorous and robust gospel to command your sensibilities to stand to attention…When you’re in a dark place, when lions surround you, when you need strong help to rescue you from impossibility, you don’t want “sweet.” You don’t want faded pastels and honeyed softness. You want mighty. You want the strong arm and unshakeable grip of God who will not let you go—no matter what.”

The men previously dismissed by Gideon now re-enter the story as they respond to Gideon’s call to drive Midian out of Israel. They capture two of the Midianite leaders; killing them and taking their heads. The Lord has stepped in and delivered his people again, remaining faithful to his covenant with them, but doing it in such a way that there can be no mistaking that it was the Lord who saved them, that he is the power God; Baal’s unable to stop God. This points us straight to Jesus being our deliverer and his saving us from the chains of our sin and Satan’s grip on us. Just like there’s nothing we can do to save ourselves from our sins, in the same way, it’s all God, all Jesus, all grace and faithfulness to us where we find salvation, forgiveness, grace, and new life. Accept Jesus as your saviour, confess you cannot do life on your own, and Jesus will give you his Spirit to strengthen you and guide you through the good and hard times of life.