We're going to Judges chapter
7 and I would like to read from verse 1. Judges chapter 7 and
verse 1. who is Gideon, so here's a man
with two names, then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people
that were with him, rose up early and pitched beside the well of
Harad, so that the host of the Midianites were on the north
side of them by the hill of Mora in the valley. 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. 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. 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. So he brought down the people
unto the water, and the Lord said unto Gideon, Everyone 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. 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. 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. then just to move towards the
end of the chapter, read a few verses from verse 19. So Gideon had divided his troops
into three groups of a hundred each and Gideon was leading one
of those groups and verse 19 says, so Gideon and the hundred
men that were with him came unto the outside of the camp and in
the beginning of the middle watch, and they had but newly set the
watch, and they blew the trumpets and braked the pictures that
were in their hands. And the three companies blew
the trumpets and braked the pictures 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, And they stood every man in his place
round about the camp, and all the host ran and cried and fled. And the three hundred blew the
trumpets, and the Lord set every man's sword against his fellow,
even throughout all the host. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. Last time we spoke together,
we left the story of Gideon after the Lord had given to this Judge
Gideon a sign, the sign of the woolen fleece. Or maybe it was
two signs, really. The first was that the fleece
was made wet with the dew on the fleece while the ground around
was dry. The second part of Gideon's request
was that the ground was wet all around the fleece but the fleece
itself remained dry. It was a sign of God's presence
with his people and it was a sign to Gideon and to his soldiers
that the Lord would be with them in this fight against the Midianites. We learned before, actually,
at the end of the previous chapter, chapter six, that Gideon had
two names. His father had given him this
other name, Jerob Baal. And so he was called Gideon and
Jerob Baal. That's not altogether unusual
in the Bible that people have two names. In fact, there's many
examples in scripture where people are known by more than one name. And it is interesting when a
new name is given, sometimes it is given following some major
event or some significant incident in the person's life, as it was
indeed with Gideon. And there are other examples.
We might remember Jacob was given a new name. He was called Israel
after he had wrestled with God. And Saul, Saul of Tarsus, was
given a new name after he had met the Lord Jesus Christ on
the road to Damascus. So these were encounters with
the Lord that resulted in the person being given a new name. In Scripture, the Lord often
speaks about giving his people a new name when they trust in
him. And also we're told in the Bible
that we will get a new name when we go to heaven. And that's a new name for a new
creation. for people who are adopted into
the new family, the family of God. So that when we're born
again, we are given this new life in Christ and it's characterised
by having the name of Christ given to us. We read together
in the seventh chapter of Judges, and I'm just going to recount
a few things that I mentioned there in the reading, one or
two other things that were missed out in the limited verses that
we read, and then I want to bring a couple of applications. Gideon's
army, it seemed, comprised of around 32,000 troops, and these had been gathered
from a number of different tribes. We read about that previously.
But the Midianite army was far larger. It might have been four
or five times bigger than these troops that were at Gideon's
disposal. But the Lord did something strange,
something odd, that we really would not expect in a situation
like this. He told Gideon. that his army
was too big. So it was only probably a fifth
or a quarter of the size of the Midianite army, but God told
him that it was too big. It was too big because when God
gave the victory, as he fully intended to do, The fact that
there were so many troops in the Israelite army, the people
would simply think that they had won the battle themselves. They would imagine that they
had won the battle for themselves. And the tribes would brag to
the other tribes about how strong they were and what good fighters
they were. when it really had been God's
work all along. So to prevent that happening,
Gideon must reduce the size of his army. And first of all, he
was to announce that anyone who was frightened, anyone who was
anxious, well, they could leave. They could just go home. And
I don't know whether this would be a surprise to him or not,
but 22,000 of his 32,000 got up and left. You only had 10,000
troops left. but the Lord told him that was
still too many. So the soldiers had to be taken
down to a pool, and there they were to drink water at the pool,
or at the river. And all who knelt on their knees
and drank water off the pool's surface, they were to be sent
away, while all those who scooped and drank the water from their
hand, they were to remain. Only 300 took the water from their hands
rather than drinking it from the surface of the water. And
this 300 became Gideon's army. So the Lord encouraged Gideon
at this time that he was to have another sign that the Lord was
with him and that the Midianite army was anxious and concerned. And what we learn is that the
Lord said, now is the time for the battle. But before you go
into battle, I want you to go down into the camp of the Midianites
and listen to what they're saying. So Gideon and a man with him
went down to the camp of the Midianites and they crept close
enough to hear what people were saying. and they learned of a
dream that one of the Midianites had had. And they heard of this
dream and the dream was interpreted by another man, another Midianite,
and it revealed to Gideon that the Lord had put the fear of
Gideon and the fear of the Lord into the hearts of the Midianites. Gideon was encouraged by this
and in the middle of the night he aroused the soldiers that
were with him, the small band of troops, and they went down
into the valley. in order to face the Midianite
army. The Midianites were all stretched
out along the bottom of a valley and what the Israelite soldiers
did was that they stood, as it were, in a big line around the
outer edge of the camp. but they didn't carry any swords. Now I'm guessing they had their
swords strapped to their waists but their hands were full nevertheless. In one hand they had a trumpet
And on the other hand, they had a lit torch, not an electric
torch, but a torch made of wood and tar that would burn, covered
with a pitcher or a clay jug. And Gideon told his soldiers
that they were to do as he did. and he divided the soldiers into
their hundreds. They stood around the edge of
the camp and then Gideon took the picture off the top of his
lamp. held up the light on the torch
and blew with his trumpet. The jar was broken, revealing
the light, and the soldiers blew the trumpet and shouted with
a loud voice, a battle cry, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. When they did that on this dark
night in the middle of the night, The soldiers in the Midianite
camp awoke and were totally disorientated about what was happening. It
seemed as if from the lights on the hillside, it seemed as
if from the shouts in the camp, it seemed as if from the noise
of the trumpets that their army was encircled and that they were
being attacked from every side. And the Midianites were thrown
into panic and they began fighting with each other in the darkness
and in the confusion. I wonder if you remember, someone
pointed this out, last week when we were thinking about this Midianite
army, we were told that there were actually three different
armies that had all joined together. There were Midianites, there
were Amalekites, and there was a group called the Children of
the East. Well, I don't know whether that
contributed to the confusion or not, but there may well have
been three different languages in the camp at that time, and
three different leaders, and three different command structures,
and all of that would have been in chaos, and it would have added
to the mayhem of that situation. The bottom line was this, that
the Midianites were routed and they fled before this very small
Israelite force. They were fighting amongst each
other, they were killing one another as they fled away. And finally, towards the end
of the chapter, we didn't read it together, but we get this
little note that we're told that the men from Gideon's army, and
I suspect that that's the men that had previously been told
to go home. As they were making their way
home, they realised that the Midianite army was in flight. And so they rallied when they
heard of the fleeing army and they began chasing the Midianites. And Gideon, well, he was wise,
he thought strategically as a good commander should, and he called
upon another tribe, the Ephraimites, to intercept and to cut off the
Midianites as they retreated back to their own country. So
that all in all, a great victory was had by the sword of the Lord
and of Gideon. There's a couple of little lessons
that I want to leave with you from this account today. One
is this. Our perceptions, our thinking
about strength and weakness is usually wrong. When it comes
to spiritual things, when it comes to the Lord's things, It's
usually wrong how we think about relative strength and weakness. Anyone, anyone looking on would
have thought that Gideon was mad for sending home his army
on the eve of a battle. And yet the Lord's purpose was
to give Gideon victory by having Israel's enemies destroy themselves. And sometimes we imagine in our
own lives that the powers that are ranged against us are overwhelming. And by human reasoning, That
might well be true. But there are two great lessons
of God's word that we should always remember in all the challenges
that we face. The Lord says, fear not, for
they that be with us are more than they that be with them. This is a lesson that we all
have to learn. We might think that we are outnumbered
and overwhelmed, that there's so many people against us, there's
so many things against us, we are so few. And yet the Lord
says, fear not, for they that be with us are more than they
that be with them. When the Lord is on our side,
we have a majority. And again, the scripture says,
if God be for us, who can be against us? And I want you to
remember this. There's a lot in this life to
give a believer in the Lord cause for concern. There's a lot of
things can make us afraid. There are lots of grounds, lots
of reasons to be afraid. And yet one of the most frequently
repeated phrases in the whole Bible is, fear not, or be not
afraid. And the Lord would have us remember
that when he is on our side, we shall have the victory. And
furthermore, we note how the Lord gave his servant little
blessings, little encouragements along the way as he led Gideon
to this major victory. The victory was going to come,
but remember the Lord helped Gideon along the way, even in
his weakness, by showing him the fleece. First it was wet,
then it was dry. By allowing him to see the way
in which the Midianite army were also frightened about the impending
battle and to see the way in which the Lord had delivered
the Midianite force into the hands of the children of Israel. The Lord gave little encouragements
along the way, even before the final accomplishment was made. We may be sure of this, the Lord
will have victory. We shall be on the victory side. And until the fullness of God's
purpose is revealed in our lives, he will continue to encourage
and to comfort and to bless his people along their life's path. Here's another thing that we
can learn from this account about Gideon. It's a picture of gospel
victory. We're going to be speaking about
gospel victory a little later as well, but here's another example
from the Word of God. In the Bible, a trumpet is often
used as a picture of gospel preaching. The trumpet is kind of symbolic
of gospel preaching because you hear a trumpet and you hear the
gospel preached. A trumpet gives instructions
in a battle. It gives directions to the soldiers
and it rallies the troops. And the Bible in the gospel does
all that as well. And like Gideon's army, gospel
ministers are few, but they have a message to preach to the nations. They have a light to carry into
this world. How can the gospel win the battle
for a sinner's heart? against all the massed forces
of this world, all the attractions, all the things that take up our
time, all the things that fill our attention, all the opposition
that there is to the gospel of Jesus Christ. How is it that
the gospel can win the battle for a sinner's heart? Well, we
need to remember that the gospel is a superpower. When the gospel
is preached, the power of the Holy Spirit comes as an irresistible
force of grace and truth against the hard, adamant, and otherwise
immovable heart of men and women and boys and girls. but God changes
the heart. He softens opposition and he
opens the door by his grace. Gideon's men shouted, the sword
of the Lord and of Gideon. And preachers speak of the saving
power of Jesus Christ to lost, helpless sinners. And the Lord
will always have the victory. And lastly, here's my final point
today. God will not share his glory. Gideon had to send all but a
few men home because God knew if the whole army won the battle,
the people would brag and boast. How well the Lord knows our nature. and the pride of man. But we
can make some parallels here as well. Do you ever think that
it would be so much better if we were in a big church? It would
be so much better if we had a lot of resources and a lot of people
and we could do mighty things and powerful things. Do you ever
think it would be better if we had much more resource? We could make a bigger noise
and we could get our message out. And maybe we think, you know,
one torch in a clay pot and a trumpet won't ever change the world. But let me tell you, that one
torch can set a fire. That one torch can shed a light
and reach a multitude. And the power of the trumpet
is the power of the message of the gospel. Our God is the accomplishing
God and he accomplishes the salvation of his people and he is gathering
his church one by one. and there may be tens of thousands
in Midian's army, but it was an honour to be one of Gideon's
300. The Lord began building his church
in the Gospel Age with just a few disciples, and he is continuing
that work today with just a few people. and yet he shall have
all the glory. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us today. Amen.