Gideon - Part 6
The army is too big
Judges 7v1-8a
14th August 2015
Gideon had summoned men from the tribes of Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali to fight the Midianites, and they'd come. Gideon assembled them ready for battle:
Judges 7v1
Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian
was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh.
Surely it was time. The Midianites would be defeated and freedom and true religion would return to Israel. But before the fighting started, God intervened.
Judges 7v2-3
The Lord said to Gideon, "You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast
against me, 'My own strength has saved me.'
Now announce to the army, 'Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.'" So twenty-two thousand
men left, while ten thousand remained.
Fighting the Midianite hordes was a daunting prospect, even with the whole army behind him. But God insisted that Gideon reduce the size of the army before he went into battle. He commanded Gideon to excuse from service all those who were afraid to fight. The Israelite army had been 32,000 strong. Now it was reduced to just 10,000 men.
Any commander would be alarmed by such a drastic reduction in his fighting strength, but Gideon accepted the will of God.
God explained his reason for reducing he size of his army. He said that if the whole army had fought, then "Israel would boast against me, �My own strength has saved me'". Had the men of the four tribes fought together, they might have imagined it was their strength that had overcome the enemy. God wanted the glory for the imminent victory to be His and His alone.
And it's the same in England today. God will bring about a great victory over sin and unbelief. Revival is coming. But God will ensure that, when it happens, His church gives Him all the credit for the victory. In order to do so, He is allowing the church to become weaker, so we don't take the glory for ourselves. He says to Christians today, "Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave". And some are doing just that.
Judges 7v4-8a
But the Lord said to Gideon, "There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for
you there. If I say, 'This one shall go with you,' he shall go; but if I say, 'This one shall not go with you,' he shall
not go."
So Gideon took the men down to the water.
There the Lord told him, "Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down
to drink."
Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.
The Lord said to 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."
So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of
the others.
The army had shrunk from 32,000 men to 10,000 but it was still too large for God's purposes. He reduced the number of fighting men to just 300. He'd already dismissed all those who were afraid to fight. This time, He excluded men according to a criterion that was not a matter of bravery or morality. It seems to us to be quite arbitrary; there' nothing wrong will getting down on your knees to drink. Sometimes, we just don't understand why God does what He does, or why He does it the way He does it. We just trust in His wisdom.
But God used this mechanism to separate the 300 men He wanted in the battle from the 9,700 He wanted to send home.
The army was now just the size of a raiding party, but it was enough. And it was just as equipped as the larger army had been. The 300 "took over the provisions and trumpets of the others". They had just as much food, and they could make just as much noise, as the 32,000.
300 passionate, obedient, godly Christians can achieve more in God's power than 32,000 wishy-washy, worldly, compromising people who are primarily concerned for their own welfare.
Even if the national church shrinks by over 99%, as Gideon's army shrank, we still have enough. God provides us with all the strength and power we need for victory.
Let those who are afraid leave the battle. Let those who want to compromise the word of God and water down the Bible leave the battle. Let those who are more interested in their own comfort than in the glory of God leave the battle. God will expel the enemy from our land. We, the remaining 1%, will fight sin and unbelief, but our efforts will be minimal compared to His. Today, our prayer is:
Habakkuk 3v2
Lord, I have heard of your fame;
I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord.
Repeat them in our day,
in our time make them known;
in wrath remember mercy.
God is preparing to answer that prayer. When the lukewarm and the compromising have drifted away, He will move again in power in our land. And we will sing as we've never sung before:
To God be the glory
Great things He has done