Let's be turning to Judges chapter
7. Judges 7, our text is found in verses 9 through 15. This
is where the Lord encourages Gideon, telling him to go into
the camp of the Midianites in the dark of night. And he tells
Gideon that there he's going to hear a word that is going
to encourage him. Gideon's going to be encouraged
by what he hears. His faith will be strengthened
by what he hears there in the camp. And hearing that word,
he rejoices. And having understanding of that
word, he worships God. And believing the Lord, he goes
and strengthens his brethren with the word that he heard from
the Lord. I was blessed by this passage,
and to help you to be blessed in the way I was blessed, I'm
going to go through it. We'll read through the text together,
and we'll make comments that are specific to what the Lord
did historically there for Gideon and the people. And then we'll
come back and look at it from the perspective of the gospel.
What does this mean to me, Lord? What are you teaching me? And
so we'll see it in that manner. I've titled this message, Faith
Strengthened. Faith Strengthened. So let's
begin in verse 9. And it says there that it came
to pass the same night. The same night. So this is the
day, the night of that day, when the Lord whittled down the army
of Gideon from 32,000 down to 10,000 down to 300 men. On the night of that same day,
it came to pass in the same night that the Lord said unto Gideon,
arise, get thee down unto the host for I have delivered it
into thine hand." Now Gideon believed the Lord. Gideon believed
the salvation of the Lord. When the Lord set forth, Christ
crucified. When the Lord declared Christ
crucified to Gideon, went on that rock, the angel of the Lord
made sacrifice of what Gideon brought to him. It was a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ being crucified. And that blessed Gideon's
heart. The Lord used that picture. and showed him his salvation. Gideon had been a religious man. Gideon heard the word preached. When that preacher, when that
word came in by the prophet into the land, Gideon heard it, but
it didn't prophet him yet. But when the angel made that
sacrifice there on the rock, which pictured Christ, then Gideon's
eyes were open, he heard the word, and he believed his God. And so following then the instruction
of the Lord the next night, he did what the Lord told him. He
tore down the altar of Baal. And the way Gideon tore down
the altar of Baal is he took that second bullock. The Lord said, you take the second
bullock. and you go and destroy the altar
of Baal, meaning he harnessed that bullock up to the altar
with a rope or something and pulled that thing down. That
pictures Christ, that second bullock. There's only two men
that the Lord deals with his people in, the first Adam and
the second Adam. And he, by Christ, who is the
picture of that bullock, that second bullock, which pictures
Christ, by the Lord Jesus Christ, is the idolatry of man taken
down. Those strong towers, those ideas
that we have in our minds about God and how to approach God and
how to worship God are all taken down. by the preaching of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one who destroys man's
idolatrous altars that he thinks to come to God in. And so that
bullock pictured the second Adam, the last Adam, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then, as God instructed him,
he took that second bullock, and he sacrificed that bullock
on the same rock that the angel of the Lord sacrificed on, the
same rock, so that just as Gideon was blessed to see a picture
of Christ declared to him and God saved him, so Gideon went
and declared Christ to the people. The same message that saves the
Lord's people, that saved you, that you heard, When you believe
the Lord Jesus Christ, that's the message we preach to our
fellows, to our families, to our friends, to people that we
come in contact with. It's that same message that the
Lord used to deliver us is the message that's going to deliver
all his people. The Lord Jesus Christ. And so Gideon preached in type. He preached Christ crucified. And the Lord used that to bless
his family, the family of Abiezer, which is the family of Gideon. They, too, were turned and converted
from idolatry, from their false worship of God. They were delivered
from it. There were people there that
wanted to put Gideon to death, and his father Joash said, if
Baal has a problem with it, let Baal put him to death. Let Baal
plead against him. And the people, their heart was
turned, and they followed the true and living God, just like
Gideon did. And it's a picture there of what we do in the preaching
of the gospel. Paul said to the Galatian church,
before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth,
crucified among you. It's not that Paul put on some
show before them. No, he preached Christ. He preached
Christ crucified to the people. That's how we set forth Christ
crucified before the people, the preaching of the gospel.
You cannot save yourselves, your sinners, under the wrath of God. But God has provided salvation
in his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came and put away the sins
of his people and gives life to his people. And his people,
hearing that simple, gospel, gracious message, are turned
from dead works and false hopes that cannot save. And behold,
the servant of God who accomplished the salvation of his people,
who did all the work. So on that same night, the Lord
said unto Gideon, arise, get thee down unto the host, for
I have delivered it into thine hand. And so the Lord told Gideon
that he delivered Midian into his hand, and Gideon received
that by faith. He believed the Lord. But just
as it is with us, we've heard the gospel. Our hope is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's always going to be a walk
of faith. If you're looking for signs and
things to come to pass as you think they should come to pass,
if God is God, then this is how it's going to happen. Not at
all. God's going to confound our flesh. He's going to confound
our wisdom. And we're going to behold, Lord,
help me. We're going to come to the end
of ourselves and see our need of Christ and that only Christ
can save us. And it's not going to go the
way we think it should go. It's going to go contrary to
our flesh. The Lord reveals faith in the heart of his people and
Christ said he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness
It's going to be a walk of faith We're going to believe God. Everything's
not going to happen the way we think it is. The Lord's going
to prove that faith which he's given to us. He's going to prove
it, not to himself, but to us that the Lord has done this. And none could have done it but
the Lord himself. And so that's what he's doing.
And so the Lord graciously says to Gideon, who is believing the
Lord, who is walking by faith. He said, verse 10, but if thou
fear to go down, go thou with Pura, thy servant, down to the
host. The Lord knows that we are weak.
He knows our frame. He knows that he remembereth
that we are dust. And so the Lord gives his people
help. He strengthens his people. He
encourages his people. And to do that, he sends Gideon
down with his servant Pura down to the camp of the Midianites. And so Pura was going to be a
companion. to Gideon. So Gideon didn't have
to go alone. If you were going into the enemy's
camp like that, it would feel a little nicer to have somebody
with you so that you're not all alone. And Pura would also be
a witness both to Gideon and to the others that this is exactly
what you heard. This is what the Lord gave you
to strengthen you. So he would be as a witness of
what was told there as well. And the Lord tells Gideon, Gideon,
you're going to hear a word that's going to strengthen you, that's
going to encourage your hearts to know that I am the true and
living God, and that just as I said to you, my promise to
you, it shall come to pass. You're going to know this, Gideon.
And so verse 11 says, and thou shalt hear what they say. And
afterwards shall thine hands be strengthened to go down unto
the host. Then went he down with Pura,
his servant, unto the outside of the armed men that were in
the host. So during the night watch, the
Lord sends Gideon with his servant Pura to a place outside of the
camp, outside of the camp of the main army of Midian. And he tells them, this is where
you're going to hear. This is where you're going to
be strengthened. and comforted and to know that
I am the true and living God who delivers on all that he says
to his people. He's going to have a clear proof
that God has given him the victory, the victory over his enemies.
Now we come in verse 12 to a description, and this is where it's speaking
of the Midianite forces. And with a little bit of math,
you'll find out that it's 135,000 soldiers that were there. We
will see that in the next chapter, 8 verse 10. You just do a little
math and you see, oh, it's 135,000 Midianite soldiers that are gathered
together against Israel. Gideon having only 300 men makes
that a ratio of 450 to 1. 450 to 1. We count a significant force
to be 10, 20 to 1, if not even 10 to 1 is
pretty significant and hard. If you're the defense and you're
dug in, you might do okay against a larger force like that, but
not 450 to 1. And Gideon wasn't the defense. Gideon was on the the attack. And so these Midianites, we'll
see, they're compared to grasshoppers. Grasshoppers. And grasshoppers
and locusts, they are a plague. They come and they darken the
sky. And they shut out the light of
heaven so that you cannot see the sun. They cover the ground.
They come and they devour and strip bare the land of all that
is green, all that is verdant and living and fruitful that
the people would eat. They strip it bare. And that's
what they came to do, to steal the food, the nourishment from
the Israelites. Verse 12 says, 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 seaside for multitude.
And that word lay along means that they just fell out across
the valley. They were spread out throughout
the whole valley, just sprawled out, cast down, laid out on the
ground there. Now, in verse 13, we come to
the message that Gideon heard. The message, verse 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, and the tent lay alone." In other words, it fell. It was cast down. It was brought
to ruin. It was brought to ruin. So on
that same night, In the dead of night, a man was awakened. Likely, it was his turn to take
the watch. The host would have been sleeping,
and he probably was woken up by the guy whose last watch it
was and said, get up. I'm going to bed. It's your turn
to keep watching. So he gets up. having just had
a dream that the Lord gave him, very, very pronounced in his
mind. Very vividly, he saw this dream,
so much so that it was on the tip of his tongue. And he went
and told the others what he had seen, or at least the other fellow
what he had seen. Now, concerning the dream, he
saw a cake of barley bread. And that barley bread tumbled
into the camp of the Midianites. And it came to a tent and knocked
it over. And not just knocked it over,
but just destroyed it. Just turned it upside down and
caused it to fall completely, spread out, strewn across the
floor of the valley. Now that barley pictures Israel
it pictures well pictures Christ, but it pictures the poor of Israel. It's what the poor in Israel
would eat Barley bread is what poor people typically eat. It's
what you give to your animals and You don't typically want
to eat it if you had a choice between barley bread and Wheat
bread if you could eat it if you never problem with the gluten
you would go for the wheat bread because it's much tastier It's
much tastier and the difference there is because wheat has gluten
in it and barley has very little gluten in it and the gluten is
what seems to help the bread rise. It makes the bread to rise
up so that it's good. And the barley, in contrast to
that, it's flat. It's a flat bread. They would
pound it out, and it wouldn't rise, and they'd cook it really
quickly on the rocks to eat it. And then this barley bread cake,
it tumbled into the camp. And that means it just went tumbling
down there. And that word, tumbled, means
to flash. It can mean tumbled and rolled
in there, but it also means to flash or to brandish. To brandish. Now as a boy who played army
a lot when I was little, when I was 7, 8, 9, 10 years old,
I know that word brandish. It's what you do with your sword
when you pull it out of the scabbard and you brandish it and you attack
your enemies with it. And that's what he's saying.
This piece of bread came into the camp brandishing and flashing. And then it came to a tent. And
it wasn't just any tent. It was the chief captain's tent.
It was the prince's tent. This bread, this poor, weak barley
bread came in as a sword and cut down the head of the host,
destroyed it, laid it bare, knocked it down, and defeated the army of the Midianites. And so God gave that man this
dream. And God gave another fellow the
interpretation of that dream. And so what I said, this is what
he said in verse 14. His fellow answered and said,
this is nothing else save the sword of Gideon. See, that brandishes. When he
described it, he said, that sounds like the sword of Gideon being
brandished. The son of Joash, a man of Israel,
for into his hand hath God delivered Midian and all the host. And so he saw what that was. He knew he was given the interpretation. Just as God gave the dream to
one, he gave the interpretation of it to another. And Gideon,
hearing that dream, hearing that message, That simple message,
broken down, made plain to him. The mystery was solved. Gideon
heard it, and he knew exactly what was being said. The Lord
comforted and encouraged Gideon so that he heard and believed
the word of the Lord. He was encouraged, just like
the Lord said. You go down there. If you're
worried, you go down there and you hear this word that you'll
hear, and it's going to comfort you. You're going to be blessed.
You're going to know that I have defeated all your enemies. Verse 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. The mystery
of that dream was laid bare, and Gideon heard it. And he worshipped
God. Having heard that word, he worshipped
God, knowing that God had indeed delivered on the promise that
he gave him, that surely Midian was defeated. Already Gideon
knew it, that Midian was defeated, and the Lord would give it into
his hand. So that's an encouraging word, right? For Gideon. That's
encouraging to see what historically happened, how the Lord did that.
What is the Lord teaching us? What's the gospel, the good news
in it for us who hear the Lord's word, who are gathered together
to hear his word? Well, it says that it speaks
of the night season. And that's what the Lord, that's
where we are. We come into night seasons, times
of distress, times of darkness, times where we struggle. and
need help. We need help from the Lord. Now, the Lord, our God, has predestinated
all things. He's determined your steps. He's
determined your path and how he shall glorify himself in your
hearts and in your minds. But it's going to be a walk of
faith. You're going to walk by the light
of the Lord Jesus Christ through dark valleys. And you're gonna
be made to believe on the Lord, to trust him, to hear his promises
and to believe that the Lord has and shall do all that he
has promised you, his child, in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not followers of Christ
because we see everything happening the way we think it should happen. We're followers who walk by faith.
We've been given faith, a hope, a good hope in the Lord Jesus
Christ and the Lord proves that faith which he has given to his
people so that they are led of him, looking for him, hungering
and thirsting for his mercy and grace to be revealed to them,
to comfort our hearts when we're struck and when we tremble and
when we fear and are afraid, we look for the Lord to be merciful
to us, to help us in our time of need. And the Lord does that. He strengthens His people. He
strengthens them through the word preached, declaring the
Lord Jesus Christ, declaring what He has accomplished for
His people. He tells his people, you go outside
the camp. You go to the outside of the
camp, and there you're going to hear a word which will strengthen
your heart, which will declare to you that all that I have said
is true and shall come to pass exactly as I said it shall come
to pass. You go outside the camp, and
I will tell you a word. You're going to hear the word
that's going to comfort you, that's going to settle. that
is going to strengthen the faith which I have given to you, my
child." It spoke of the servant Purah going with Gideon. Has not the Father given you
a companion, has he not given you the Comforter, the Holy Ghost,
that he may abide with you forever? And our Lord tells us, He shall
teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance,
whatsoever I have said unto you. The Holy Spirit knows the mind
of the Father. He knows the words of Christ,
and He reminds, He bears witness of them to your heart, showing
you that indeed there is but one Savior. There is but one
salvation. That's all we need, and that's
all that God has provided, and it is enough. It's the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so Gideon and Pura went to the outside parts of the camp. And that's where the Lord sends
his people. He sends them to his churches, his local assemblies
that he raises up. Now these churches, they're outside
the camp. They're outside the popular mainstream
churches and all the big things that you see. They're often little
churches. They don't have to be little
and tiny like us, but a lot of times they are. But the significance
is that it's not The Lord doesn't send us to hear man's tradition,
what man thinks you should do to come to God and to worship
him. We're not here to tell you what we think or what our traditions
are. We're here to declare what God
has revealed in the face of his son, Jesus Christ. We're here
to preach Christ and him crucified. We go without the gates. We're
not listening to what we should do for the Lord. And what we
do in glorifying ourselves, but we come to hear what he has done
for us, what he has accomplished for us in his son. And so we, we Bear that shame. Our Lord was crucified outside,
without the gates of Jerusalem. We go to Him, bearing that same
reproach, knowing that the mainstream of this world doesn't care for
us. They don't agree with us. They think this is how it should
be done. They have their ways of doing things and say that
this is how God will be pleased with you and you doing these
works to try and earn His favor. It's all dead works. We need
grace. We need the grace of God to hear
what he has accomplished, what he has done for us in Christ. And so we go to our Lord without
the camp. Why do we go? Because there we
shall hear a word preached. of what He has done for us that
will comfort us, that will settle us, that will strengthen our
hope and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is where He feeds
His sheep. You're not going to find the
answers to your questions in the world, listening to the radio
or TV or reading worldly books. You're going to hear what the
Lord says to His people in the preaching of the gospel. It's
what He's ordained to teach and to feed his sheep. And so the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was sent to the Father.
And the Father spared him not, but delivered him up for his
people to shed his blood, to make a sacrifice of himself to
atone for the sins of the people. It's not about what we do to
put away our sin, it's what He has done in putting away all
our sin by being made sin for us who knew no sin that we in
Him might be made the righteousness of God. Man's religion turns
the eye away from Christ. and tells them, you need to be
doing this, you need to straighten up that, you need to do this,
that, and the other thing. But the Spirit turns your eye
to the Lord Jesus Christ, to behold, He's done it all. Believe Him. Rest in Him. He is accepted of the Father.
The Father is well pleased with the Son, and He makes His child
to be well pleased with Him, even as He is well pleased with
the Son. Hebrews 13 says, we have an altar. Verse 10 through 14 says, we
have an altar where they have no right to eat which serve the
tabernacle. The Jews and the Gentiles, they
saw Christ. They heard him preach, and they
showed they had no interest in him. They crucified the Lord
of glory, putting him to death. He wasn't a martyr, he went willingly
to accomplish this salvation for his people, but we see how
the natural man despises the Lord Jesus Christ. It says, verse
11, for the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the
sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without the
camp, wherefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people
with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth,
therefore, unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach, for
we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come." This isn't
our hope. This isn't our place. We look
for the Lord Jesus Christ, who's returning to redeem his people
whom he purchased. Now, our Lord, encourages his people to meet
him in Christ. That's where he meets with his
people in Christ. He says, come now, let us reason
together. Sayeth the Lord, though your
sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they
be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Like the Midianites,
like the Amalekites that joined with them and the children of
the East, That pictures the sin which has occupied the land of
this flesh. It's come in like a plague of
locusts. It darkens the light of heaven.
It strips bare the fruit that we would bring unto God. And
it takes all that away. But though your sins be as plentiful
as the Midianite army that would have destroyed Israel, that would
have destroyed the child of God, your God by the Savior, by the
Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, has put away all your enemies. He's conquered all your foes. And he tells you, look to Christ. Look to my son. Look to the servant
whom I've sent to destroy the vain altars of man and to comfort
your hearts and give you assurance this day that he has put away
all your sins. that he's done that work which
was necessary, that you should stand before holy God, before
that throne, where God sits on his throne, his holy throne,
and you shall be accepted, not for your own works, but for the
work, for the glory, for the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ
and what he's done. This is the word, Peter said,
which by the gospel is preached unto you. Like Gideon, the Lord
sends his people to the camp, to the church where the gospel
is preached. There you shall hear this word
which comforts and encourages your hearts, making you to know
God is God. He has provided salvation in
his son. He's done all the work. And he
delights your heart. He delights the heart of his
child. How do I know him, his child? Do you believe? That's
how he reveals those that are his. He reveals faith in them
that says, I know there's no other salvation. I know that
I can't save myself. He's provided it all in his son. Lord, he is the Savior. He is
your salvation. There is no other salvation but
the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, I believe. Help thou mine
unbelief. The Lord reveals that in his
child. Christ Jesus is that barley cake,
that poor man's food, that poor man who has no righteousness,
nothing to bring to God, has no strength, he's weak, he's
flimsy, he's puny. But Christ came in weakness,
and in weakness, being despised by the people, he obtained eternal
redemption for his people. And he's blessed us with every
spiritual blessing, comforting our hearts, revealing that faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ, revealing that hope for his people, which
looks to, not our flesh, but to Christ alone. We come gathered
together to hear this word because this is where the Lord blesses
his people. This is where he feeds them.
This is where he reveals to his child, I've delivered you. I've
put away all your sin. You come and hear the word. Be
strengthened by this word because this is what your God has given
to you. He did it for Gideon. He does it for his people to
this day. And those who hear that dream, that simple, simple
interpretation of the mystery of God revealed in the face of
Jesus Christ, they hear, and they're comforted, and believe,
and they worship God through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what he accomplishes in his people. I pray the Lord bless you. You
that have heard it, go and preach it to others. Go and tell others
what he's done for you. Let's close in prayer and then
we'll be dismissed for 15 minutes. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your grace and mercy. We thank you, Lord, for this
simple message, which speaks of Christ, not of what we need
to do, but what you have done and accomplished in your son.
Lord, reveal this hope, this faith, this good news in the
heart of your child. Cause us to see Jesus Christ
in him only, knowing that you were satisfied with him. Lord,
make us to be satisfied with him as you were satisfied with
him. Lord, comfort our hearts, settle us, establish us in this
faith which you've given to the saints. It's in Christ's name
we pray and give thanks. Lord, we do pray for our brethren.
We think of them who are sick, who have fevers and coughing
and not feeling well. Lord, we ask that you would bless
them and comfort them in the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to
minister to their needs as we're able and as we need to, Lord.
It's in Christ's name we pray and give thanks. Amen.