Judges 7
When the People are Too Many
Gideon a man called to fight.
His first order of business…deal with the idolatry in his backyard…then the Midianites.
Get rid of the sin…God will get rid of the sorrow.
v.1-2 Who you need.
v.1 “A few good men”… not persons. Not “all the people that were with him”
When Few are More than Many
Type: Believing remnant…then the LORD destroys the enemy…
v.2 You cannot be too small for God to use…but you can be too big!!!!!
Why the reduction in forces…v.2 Lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me. Salvation is of the LORD…Deut 20:1-4, 8
The strength of smallness… “Little is much…When God is in it”
Mat 18:20 Where two or three are gathered together in my name
Deut 32:30…One shall chase a thousand…two shall put ten thousand to flight.
The strength of weakness…2Cor 12:10 “when I am weak, then am I strong”
When Gideon called 32,000 answered the call:
The odds… 32,000 (v.7:3) vs. 135,000 (v.8:10)… approx. 4 to 1
… 10,000 (v.7:3) vs. 135,000 … 13 to 1 (Reduced by 2/3)
… 300 (v.7:7) vs. 135,000 …450 to 1
v.3-5 Who you don’t need.
v.3 Those who are fearful and afraid…i.e. those not committed and unbelieving 66% sent home
Cowardice often dresses up as prudence or worse yet spirituality. Masquerades
v.4 Those the LORD weeds out…He will try them…he will proves them…He decides!
v.7 Those who are not vigilant but careless…1Pet 5:8 not the careless.
Natural Selection vs. Divine Selection!!!!!!!! 97% sent home
300 of 32,000 0.009375… less than 1%
How do you know the difference?
v.4 Take them to the water… Type of the Word of God
Are there eyes just on the water or also on the enemy…are they self-indulgent or self-restrained.
Neh 4:17 every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon.
v.6-8 The men God uses.
v.7 …By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you
Those that respond to his calling…Yes, but also…committed.
Those that will take a stand, even against their own family and tribe.
Those that are fearless.
Those that are vigilant…not self-indulgent…but self-restrained.
Those that are believing…v.7,9
Those that will go to war and contend with the enemy, though vastly outnumbered…v.7:12
Elijah vs 450 prophets of Baal
Those that obey no matter how great the odds are against us.
King Jehoshaphat 2Chron 20:12 O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee.
Those that go when chances of success, humanly speaking, are slim or none.
David and Goliath…1Sam 17
Those that obey even when it does not make sense.
Red sea…stand still and see the salvation of the LORD
Jordan…feet of the priests touch the water.
Jericho…seven times…then blow the trumpet
Those that are poor…least…small…. Widows two mites…more than ye all
v.8 Those are the ones you need to retain
v.9-15 The last requirement.
v.15a One is not prepared to lead…until he has learned to bow…that he worshipped
v.15b Arise…(second time)
God provides strengthening for the wobbly…encouragement…who is fighting who.
The battle is the LORD’s…
v.17 The sword of the LORD will deliver them…Barley loaf-poor, common
Eph 6:17 the sword of the Spirit, which is the WORD of God.
Strange weapons…
Trumpets…shofar…Ram’s horn
Feast of Trumpets Num 29:1-7, Lev 23:23-ff, Is 58:1… call to repentance
Empty pitchers…pitchers have to be broken to reveal the light.
Lamps within the pitchers… Type of the Holy Spirit
Voice to shout…
2Cor 10:3-4 weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds…
And they took two princes of the Midianites, Oreb (raven) and Zeeb (wolf)
Raven…unclean bird…carrion eater/road kill…evil spirits
Wolf…hireling…false shepherd/teacher …John 10:12