If you join us tonight in the
book of Judges chapter 7, Judges chapter 7, and I'm going to just
review a little bit by backing up to verse 7 of this, this passage
of Scripture, verse 7 of Judges chapter 7. And I want to open
by saying, faith sends everything back to Jesus Christ. All the
success we see at Gideon, all the success that we may ever
see of the believer is in Him. He is our success. So we see
that brought out here with regard to Gideon. He has been chosen
of God to be a judge. He's been chosen of God to go
up against the Amalekites and the Midianites. They're there
by direct invitation from God, even though they don't realize
that, and they're gonna be put out of the land. And we're gonna
see that that so typifies and pictures what the Lord has done
on our behalf. Beginning with verse seven of
Judges chapter seven, The scriptures share this. And the Lord said unto Gideon,
by the 300 men that lapped, will I save you? Remember, you have
too many. You have still too many. And
out of a great host of 32,000, we have 300. And it says, by
these 300, I will save you and deliver the
Midianites into thy hand and let all the other people go,
every man unto his place." So everybody that were afraid to
go and those that were not chosen there at that water course, make
sure that they get back home. So the people took vittles in
their hand. Now, I had to ask Nancy how to
pronounce that word. because it doesn't look like
that. But it is the word vinyl. And we find that word. It's not
translated like this, but we have that same exact word in
another place that means so much to the church. And that is found
over in the book of Psalms, Psalm 78. Would you join me in Psalm
78? If we go over here to Psalm 78,
we have the same word as used, but it speaks of something so
much higher than just plain villas. And in every respect, the church
gets to enjoy, gets to feast, on the antitype of what we're
going to read about here in Psalm 78. We get to feast on Christ. He is that true bread that came
down from heaven. He is that true manna that came
down from heaven. And here in Psalm 78, We have
these words recorded as the Lord shares with us some more of the
benefits that he gave Israel, even though it tells us there
in verse 22, because they believe not in God and trusted not in
his salvation. Now back up the first 21 verses
of this and you'll have some more information. And it says
in verse 23, though he had commanded the clouds from above and opened
the doors of heaven, They did not, could not trust his salvation,
even though he opened the windows of heaven, the doors of heaven. He opened the doors of heaven
and had rained down manna upon them to eat and had given them
the corn of heaven. He rained on them manna. And
many of them looked at it as detestable. They had a distaste
for it. There was nothing in it that
they wanted, and yet there was everything in it, and the taste
was good, that was necessary to cause them to survive for
all the marches that they were going to make. Man did eat angels'
food. And he sent them meat to the
full. And that word meat is the same word we find over in the
book of Judges, which is vittles. So these people are taking their
vittles with them, and the church takes the manna from heaven.
We are granted the blessing of having the bread of heaven. We have the doors of heaven open
to us in the person Christ Jesus, and we are privileged to enjoy
the manna from heaven, the true manna, the true bread, and that
is the Lord Jesus. Now these folks, as we go back
to the book of Judges, they're taking preparation to go into
battle, and they, verse eight of Judges chapter seven, so the
people took vittles in their hand, and their trumpets, and
he sent all the rest of Israel, every man into his tent, and
retained those three hundred men, and the host of Midian was
beneath him in the valley. And it came to pass the same
night that the Lord said unto him, Arise, get thee down into
the host, for I have delivered it into thy hand. But if thou
fear to go down, go thou with Purah, thy servant down to the
host." So the Lord is saying, go down. I want you to go down
where those Midianites are. And he's going to get so close,
he's going to be able to hear him talking. So the Lord is going
to bless him by taking him down there. He's going to bless him
by what he hears. And he's going to bless him by
what the interpretation of what he hears. He's going to be put
in exactly the right place, not only to hear a dream, but hear
the interpretation of a dream. He is being directed. And in
what a comfort that the Lord gave Gideon, you can take a friend
with you. How blessed it is that when we
get to enjoy the sweet blessings of grace with a friend, someone
who we can converse with and talk about it. I like what we
read earlier, that they get to talk about the blessings of the
grace of God, the great actions of the grace of God. Thou fear,
and then it says here in verse 11, and thou shalt hear what
they say, and afterward shalt thy hands be strengthened to
go down unto the host. Then went he down with Purah,
his servant into the outside of the armed men that were in
the host. And the Midianites and the Amlekites
and all the children of the east lay along the valley like grasshoppers
for multitude. And their camels were without
number as the sand of the sea sighed for multitude. Two in
such in this proximity of such a mighty host of people." 32,000
he had originally, 135,000 we're going to have in this valley
right here, the Midianites. Now that may not be a big army
today, but it was a pretty good sized army in that day. And they
were able to take Israel and rape the land every year of all
of the produce. They did it with this host. So
they've been having control over this land for a number of years. The Lord raises up Gideon, and
getting us now put into a position. that he is going to be used to
deliver the host of Israel from this great host of Midianites
and Amalekites. And it tells us there in verse
12, and the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children
of the East lay along the valley like grasshoppers for multitude,
and their camels were without number as the sand of the sea
by the sea for multitude. And when Gideon was come, behold,
there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow. It's amazing
that there is no coincidences with God. There is no coincidences. There is no time that God has
ever had that there was somebody that met somebody else that was
not on purpose. And we find that following the
life of the Lord Jesus. particularly when we follow him
for that three and a half years of his earthly ministry, how
often he was in the right place and people met him or he went
there and met them. But it was always a singularity. And, you know, we find that the
Lord, I cannot think of an instance where he dealt with them with
the help of others. He was always alone with those. Now, there may have been a crowd
around him. Remember the woman at the well? The disciple said,
what are you talking about? There's a crowd here. Of course,
they're going to touch you. Maybe not on purpose, but he
said, someone has touched me. He knew exactly who that was.
But it was, he's alone with that woman, even though in a crowd.
And I shared with someone the other day, they said, well, what
would you do if someone comes to you and says they want to
be saved? I said, get alone with the Lord. Get alone with the
Lord. If you're serious about it, get
alone with the Lord. I can't get you past here. There's just
nothing I can do. So we find that in practice with
the Lord, he was always alone with his converts, everyone he
dealt with, all those he healed. He was alone, even though he
may have been in a huge crowd with them. 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. Barley bread. That's just common
bread. Barley bread. A cake of barley
bread tumbled into the host of Midian and came into a tent and
smote it that it fell and overturned it that the tent lay along."
What a description in this dream that this man has. And then someone
else comes in and says, I have the interpretation of that. Now,
who gave the dream and who gave the interpretation? Well, we
know who that was. We have someone already in the
camp of the Midianites and the Amalekites, and they're already
in the state of defeat. They are already in the state
of fear. The Lord has brought it that
way. And it says, and the fellow answered and said, this is nothing
else save the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash. the man of
Israel, for into his hand hath God delivered Midian and all
those." What a statement from a pagan. a Baal worshiper, someone
who knew nothing about the gospel, and yet God put his word in that
man's mouth, and he spoke the truth. This is nothing but Gideon,
servant of the Lord, and God has put into his hand, hath God
delivered Midian and all the hosts. Now Gideon does something
right now, and what a thing he does. It tells us there in verse
15, and when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, the interpretation
thereof, that he worshiped. It reminded me of that verse
over in John chapter four, God is a spirit, they that worship
him. Now that's worship. It's not
just fanfare, it's worship. They that worship him must worship
him in spirit and in truth. Now our hands don't worship God.
Our feet don't worship God. Our mind so often doesn't. But we're thankful that part
that God gave us that does worship God. We worship him in spirit,
but we also must worship him in truth. We have to have the
truth. God has had to reveal the truth
to us in order to truly worship him. Now he demonstrates that
with Gideon. He went down there and heard
what God had given a man, and he heard what God had given a
man. He knew the truth about the matter. God had told him
all along through his ministry, since his call, as the judge
of Israel had heard all the way through every step, I will deliver
them into your hand. By faith, we read in the 11th
chapter of the book of Hebrews. By faith, we find Abel offered
a more excellent sacrifice. By faith, Abraham. By faith,
Sarah. By faith, Moses. And it's the
same faith that God granted to Gideon to know that what he had
said, he's going to carry out. that it is the truth. God has
said they're going to deliver them into our hands. Now, it
was amazing to me that as we read through there and found
out, as the Lord spoke to Gideon, you have too many people. And
the reason of it is, if I let you go like you're going, and
you defeat these folks, you're going to brag on it. Someone's
going to go and brag, look what we did, look what we did. So
he pared them down and then pared them down again. And he told
them all the way through that, that I will deliver you. I will
deliver you. I will deliver you. Now, a bunch
of those guys, I think a host of those guys, the 22,000 that
left out of fear, I'm not sure about this. I'm not sure about
that. And you know, almost everybody
we meet that says they are a Christian don't trust God with God. Oh,
you know, I've got to add just a little bit. It's progressive
sanctification nonsense. That's nothing more than not
trusting the Lord to get the job done. and he is our sanctification
beginning to end and we can't add a thing to it. Now God wants
us to be a good neighbor and he wants us to praise him and
so forth but that's not going to add one thing to our salvation. Not of works lest any man should
boast. So Gideon has been brought this
news. He's been shared by God and he's
going to fulfill this. God is going to bless them and
overcome the Midianites. Now, what do we do when we hear
the word of God says, he put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself? What do we have to say? If we
know him, we say, amen. He did it, every sin, not one's
left over. There's nothing that God has
to deal with us over. What does God do when one of
his children's sin Nothing, because he paid for
their sin at the cross. Now he may bring us, he said
that he will, every child, he will correct. Every child he
will correct, but it's not because of the sin, it's because of love.
Sin was paid for at the cross. Oh, to hear people say, you're
going to have to pay for that sin, my foot. That is not true. That's the people that left the
22,000 left out of fear and going to go home because God can't
get the job done. Well, Gideon, no, he could. He
has such a picture of Christ. He is the leader. and he is a
leader that has confidence. You know, I follow the Lord Jesus
Christ and I find a man that had confidence. Everywhere he
went, Jesus was confident that he was able to do exceedingly
abundantly above all that was ever thought or asked. We heard
about a blind man tonight, if thou wilt. And the Lord was confident. He healed him. When he went to
the cross, he was confident that his payment price would be sufficient.
He could be able to ransom the many. Payment would be full.
He was confident when he went before Pilate. He was confident
before Judas. He was confident before his disciples.
He was confident in the law. He was confident in the word
of God. He was a confident person. on this earth, more confident
than we'll ever attain in this life. And yet we find that Gideon
was confident. He's such a picture and a type
and a shadow of that great blessing that we have there. Now, you
know, as we hear those words down in that camp, from that
guy and the interpretation of that, it took me back to Joshua
chapter four. Do you remember those two spies
that came and were put under the flax seed up on that roof
as that lady, that terrible lady hid them? Turn with me if you
would to Joshua, excuse me, Joshua chapter two, Joshua chapter two. Rahab the harlot. You know how Rahab wants to be
remembered? Rahab the harlot. That's why the church sometimes
is called Jacob and sometimes it's called Israel. Don't ever
forget the stone you were hewn from, the pits you were brought
out of. Brother Henry says, never forget
that you are saved out of the same few other people are saved
out of. It's just, there's no position
there. All right, here in the book of
Joshua chapter two, verse nine, this is what Rahab is saying
to two spies that come in to spy out the land. You know, Joshua,
I just look at it. Moses sent 12, two came back
with a good report. Why not just send two? I don't
know if there's anything in it or not, but he only sent two.
And they went in and they came back with this report, but this
report was given them. They didn't know this until Rahab
the harlot shared it with them. And it says, and she said unto
the men, I know that Jehovah, see the big letters, Jehovah
hath given you the land. I know that Jehovah has given
you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all
the inhabitants of the land faint because of you." They're already
defeated. That kind of fear is already
a defeat. For we have heard how Jehovah
dried up the water of the Red Sea for you. How long ago? 40
years. 40 years prior to this. Now, I don't
know if Rahab was 40 years old at this time or had she heard
about this as she grew up, but she knew this in her heart that
God had given them the land and that when they crossed the Red
Sea so long ago, when the Lord dried up the water of the Red
Sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt, and what you did unto
the kings of the Amorites, and were on the other side of Jordan,
Sihon and Og, whom ye have utterly destroyed." So between crossing
the Red Sea and just prior crossing to the Jordan River, that's when
Og and Sihon and Og were killed. They've been watching this, hearing
about it. And then it says in verse 11, and as soon as we had
heard these things, our hearts did melt. Neither did there remain
any more courage in any man. Have you heard the stories about
how people were reacting to the children of Israel marching around
Jericho? Oh yeah, we always hear that. Oh, how funny is that? Look at that. They don't even
know how to carry a sword. Blah, blah, blah. They are in
great fear. And God put that fear in their
heart. They're in great fear because this is the people that
they've already heard is going to take over. Says the Lord,
as soon as we heard these things, our hearts did melt. Neither
did there remain any more courage in any man because of you for
the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and earth beneath. I hear a sister in Christ telling
those two spies what's happened there. I hear someone, and we
read over there, by faith, Rahab. Saving of her house. By faith,
Rahab. She was given faith by Almighty
God, and she reported to those spies, and they went back and
said, oh, Moses, or Joshua, you don't know half of this. And then, He didn't even have
his army get prepared for battle. We're gonna march. All right,
let's go back to the book of Judges, if you would. Judges. Judges chapter seven. And we have that whole incident
there, and Gideon worshiped, verse 15. Gideon worshipped and
returned unto the host of Israel and said, arise, for the Lord
hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian. Not only
has he thought it, now he has spoken it. Not only does he believe
it, but he's now sharing that with others. The Lord hath delivered
the Midianites. This is the end of them. This
will be over for them. They will be taken care of. And
then he divided the 300 men into three companies. You know, there's
a lot of times in the scriptures that the word three has something
to do. You know, we do know that the
Lord was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
But we also know that there are three that bear record in heaven,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And when Gideon goes
into battle, he divides his army into three groups of 100, and
one takes one side, one takes the front, and one takes the
other side. And I just look at that and I said, you know, salvation
is always completed by the Godhead. The Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. They are all involved. I love
reading about the Father giving a gift to the Son. The Father
choosing a people before the foundation of the world. He had
an interest in me before there was a me. But he knew when a
me got here, he was going to be a sinner. When I arrived,
I was a sinner by nature, practice, and choice. My heart was far
from Him. I was a liar from the beginning. In sin did my mother conceive
me. And everything David had to ever say about himself and
all of the rest is so inclusive about every child of God. We're
the ones that understand that point. We know about ourselves. So here we have that these three
are going to go into battle. They're not even gonna have a
sword out in their hands. You know, the Lord, he never
carried a sword. He carried the truth. Everywhere
he went, he carried the truth. He had the truth when he spoke.
He never had to go back and says, oh, I made a mistake. I made
a mistake. I'm sorry. He always spoke the
truth. He carried the truth with him.
And that was so different than all of the other religious leaders
that had ever gone before. Peter was a liar. I don't know
him. And the rest were liars. We don't
know him. But you know what? Jesus never
said, I never knew you. Jesus always said, I know you.
I know you. I'm laying down my life for you.
So we have that wonderful, he divides them, the 300 into three
companies, makes them smaller yet, and he put a trumpet in
every man's hand and an empty pitcher and lamps within the
pitchers. Now, this trumpet is, the word
is zophar. and it means a ram's horn. So
this trumpet is not of man's construction. And so it's going
to be used in such a way that it's not going to be a man's
message. You know, the gospel is not our
message. The gospel is God's message. We just get the privilege
of proclaiming it. So these Zophars, they're ram's
horns, and they were used a number of times in scripture. We find
them being used. That's what they blew there at
Jericho. They blew those Zophars, those
ram's horns, the noise that came out of them, the shout of the
people, But that did not put the walls of Jericho down. God
put the walls of Jericho down. Those people were already scared
to death of this little army that was marching around them.
So we have, he gave them Zophars, he gave them these trumpets,
and they're going to use them in this time of need, this time
when they're going to defeat this 135,000 people. This time,
he's going to use these Zophars, these trumpets. Now, it's interesting
as we follow into the scriptures that that is something that is
so commonly used by Israel. It announced gathering together.
It announced war. It announced feast days. It announced
the Passover. It announced the year of Jubilee.
It announced that was God's way of announcing things. And so
it is today. God's way of announcing things
is through the gospel. No other way. No other way. I'm
so thankful to hear the Apostle Peter share with those people
on the day of Pentecost, repent, knowing full well they couldn't.
But that's our message. Repent and believe. Repent and
believe. That's our message. Now, Gideon
is truly, the statement about Gideon is he's gonna be a tremendous
leader. It tells us here in verse 17, three words that
share so much about Gideon as a type of our savior. It says,
he said unto them, look on me. Now, where was Gideon gonna be?
You know, for how many years the army of the United States
was led by the general? And then we started putting him
in the back and telling other people to take care of it. General
Lee was with his men. General Grant was with his men.
And here we find that Gideon is with his men. On me, look
on me. You know, we find that blessed
thought with regard to Christ, looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Look unto Jesus, looking unto
Jesus. He is the way of doing things. He's the way of the gospel is
going to go out. He is the gospel. So we're looking
unto him. But would you turn with me to
the book of Isaiah for just a moment? Isaiah chapter 55. Isaiah chapter 55, we read these
wonderful words. that are a type and a shadow
and a picture, a statement about our Savior, the Lord Jesus, in
Isaiah 55 and verse four. Isaiah 55 and verse four, we
read this. It says, read the whole chapter,
ho everyone that thirsteth and so forth, but we're just gonna
break in on verse four. I know that's not the way to
do it, but for time's sake, you'll have to mark it down and read
the rest. Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people.
a leader and commander to the people. That's who Jesus is. He's a leader and a commander.
He took the forefront. We're the beneficiaries. He took
the lead. He's the one that stood before
Pilate. He's the one that went to the cross. He's the one that
spoke seven times from the cross. He's the one that said, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He's the one that said, it
is finished. He took the forefront. And we're
the beneficiaries of all that he had to do there as our leader,
as our captain. You know, Joshua outside the
walls of Jericho before they went up against it. He was out
there kind of surveying what's going on and there was somebody
met him. I knew Joshua's words were, are
you for us or are you against us? He wasn't sure of who he was. And then we find, I am captain of the Lord's hosts. And I've given you this city. Captain of the Lord's hosts.
Our leader has all power, complete wisdom, unable to fail. Our captain does not sit back
behind the lines and give orders. He entered in first into the
holy place. Will be the crop, but he entered
in first into the holy place. Now, those trumpets, we have
that the Lord gave them a couple of weapons to go into this battle. And one of them with the weapon
was the trumpet. This instrument was used to call
to war. It was used to call to the feast,
to announce the day of atonement, beginning of jubilee. And we
find out that this is a type and a shadow and a picture of
the gospel, that's all we have, is the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And Paul said, with regard to that trumpet, if the trumpet
give an uncertain sound, how shall people know how to act?
And that's true about the gospel, if it gives an uncertain sound.
If we mix works and grace, that is an uncertain sound. Well,
there's no hope in that kind of gospel. And the gospel that
the Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians about, which is another
gospel, which is not a gospel at all. So the gospel has a certain
sound. It agrees all the scripture with
all the scripture and God gets the glory. It puts man in his
place. and God in his place, rightful
place in the minds of men and women and boys and girls. So
this great thing, this gospel trumpet that we have, this Zophar
that God has given Gideon to give to his men. And then the
second thing that he gave for a weapon was a jar, an earthen
jar with a light in it. Now, I told you last time, it
took a miracle for those to balance both things. Zophar in one hand,
jar with a light in the other hand. I cannot, I can't put that
together, but the Lord did, and Gideon had it all figured out.
But as they're going along, we find that that light and that that jar, this light that we
have, this second weapon, this torch, is the light written in
living word. The light has come into the world.
Just turn with me. I want to read that. John 3,
verse 19. John 3, verse 19. We read this
as the Lord is speaking there just after he's told Nicodemus
he must be born again. Then he brings up a problem that
is so extant throughout the world. This is the condemnation, John
chapter three, verse 19. This is the condemnation that
light is coming to the world and men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. And everyone that
doeth evil hateth the light. This light is glorious light. Now there's another nice thing
about that light. It goes on to say, neither cometh to the
light lest the deeds will be reproved, but he that doeth truth
cometh to the light. That is, deeds may be manifest
that they are wrought in God. The light puts away the darkness. It may be pitch dark, but about
six o'clock right now, or 6.30, You begin to see the light, and
that light pushes that darkness out of the way. It's doing it
24-7. As it goes around the world,
it's pushing the darkness out of the way. And that's exactly
how the gospel works. It pushes the darkness out of
the way. Now he's gonna use this light,
and another interesting thing about it, it is in an earthen
jar. There's a wonderful verse of
scripture that shares with us about earthen. 2 Corinthians
chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Now, this earthen jar is going
to be in one hand and the Zophar in the other hand. And inside
of that earthen jar is going to be a torch, a light. And we
find that the Apostle Paul was used to write this. 2 Corinthians
chapter 4 verse 7. But we have Speaking to the church,
we have this treasure in earthen vessels. What a picture we have
as they go into battle against this great host with a trumpet
and a jar, and the jar is going to be broken. It's going to be
thrown away. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels. What? Why? that the excellency
of the power may be of God and not us. So this earthen vessel
that we have, this old pot of flesh that we have, the Lord
has placed a great treasure in it, the gospel, the person of
Christ, the Holy Spirit, however we want to term it, has placed
us in it, and that is what God uses to preach the gospel, And
that's what God uses to save his people from their sins. It's
the preaching of the gospel. So we have three groups of 100. Gideon's just one of them. He's
not staying behind and directing. He's right in the middle of it.
And he is taking his men into that battle, knowing full well
that this 300 is going to overcome that mighty host. You know, sometimes
we wonder how in the world can God's gospel overcome such a
knothead as Saul of Tarsus? with great power, he won the
battle. There's no resistance when God
gets involved in it. He is not ever, never has been
second place. He will always win every battle
he goes into. So we have this treasure in earthen
vessels. Vessels, jars of clay. Into these are the insignificant
pot that we have the invested, the light of the world, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And no glory can be given to
the clay pot. It's not even going to go into
the battle. It is the gospel that gets taken
into that battle. As we follow this through, we
find there's going to be complete victory that God's going to give.
All right, let's go back over here in the book of Judges, chapter
seven. Judges, chapter seven, and it
says there in verse eight, it says we have the, oh, we almost
cut the head there. Verse 16, he divided the 300
men into three companies, put a trumpet in every man's hand
and empty pitchers and lamps within the pitchers. And he said
unto them, look on me, follow me, do as I do. And when we follow
the Lord, we never have to hear, do as I do and not as I say. No, do as I say, not as I do,
there's the way it goes. We never have to hear that from
the Lord, do as I do, follow me. Says, look on me and do likewise. And behold, when I come to the
outside of the camp, it shall be that as I do, so shall ye
do. When I blow a trumpet, I and
all that are with me, then blow your trumpets also on every side
of all the camp and say, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon.
So Gideon and a hundred men that were with him came into the outside
of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch. And I looked
that up and that's around midnight. They're going to lose some sleep
over this, but everybody else is too. Beginning watch, middle
watch, and they had but newly set the watch, and they blew
the trumpets and break the pitchers that were in their hands. Now,
commentators will say, well, when they saw all of these lights
and the trumpets, they thought that each trumpet and each light
represented a company of men, or a hundred men, or a thousand
men, and they knew they were overwhelmed. I find that very
difficult to believe. I think the Lord had already
been there and stirred their hearts and said, the first thing that
happens is we're going to have to get out of here because he's
coming. Three companies blew the trumpets,
break the pitchers, held the lamps in their left hands, trumpets
in their right hands, and blew with all, 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 hosts ran and cried and
fled. Three hundred men stood still.
301 men stood still, and the rest
of them did all the activity. They cried and ran and fled,
and the 300 blew the trumpets, and the Lord set every man's
sword against his fellow. This is not the first time this
has happened or going to happen. We get over to the Kings and
the Chronicles, we find this happen a number of times, that
the Lord turns, and you know, You just see that people can
split over the most nonsensical thing and turn on each other.
And here the Lord said, this whole host, they're anti-Christ,
they're Baal worshipers, and they turned every man's sword
against his fellow, even throughout all the host, and the host fled
from Beth-shethon to Zareth and to the border of Abimelech, Unto
Tabith, and the men of Israel gathered themselves together
out of Naphtali, and out of Asher, and out of Anasa, and pursued
after the Midianites. And Gideon sent messengers throughout
all Ephraim, saying, Come down against the host, and take before
them the waters of Bethbara and Jordan. Then all the men of Ephraim
gathered themselves together, and took the waters of Bethbara
and Jordan. And the two princes of the Midianites,
Oreb and Zeb, they slew Oreb, upon the rock Oreb and Zeb, and
they slew in the winepress of Zeb, and pursued Midian, and
brought the heads of Oreb and Zeb to Gideon on the other side."
And I think if we go to the next chapter, verse four, we're not gonna,
we're gonna stop right here, but, and Gideon came to Jordan
and passed over he, and how many of them in? 300 men. He went into battle with
300. He's following them, pursuing
them with the same 300. 300 men that were with him, faint
and yet pursuing them. So they routed them. The Lord routed them. Turned
every man against themselves. We're gonna end up that there
was 15,000 left and they are also taken care of. So what an
activity of God, through the use of a trumpet, through a jar
that's left behind, broken, left on the ground, and a torch. They
cried with a loud voice, turned that camp upside down. Men fell
upon each other with their swords, disconfitted themselves, defeated
themselves, and took off and ran the host that was left. And
here we have 300 men still pursuing. I like what it says there. They're
faint, yet pursuing. faint yet pursuing, they're going
after. Well, we'll stop here for tonight
and we'll pick up this eighth chapter of the Lord willing next
time and see what else the Lord does with Gideon and his 300
men.