THE ARMY OF GIDEON
Part 2
The last time I spoke which I think was week-before-last, I started what I said was a multi-part sermon. The first one was entitled The Army of Gideon Part 1. Today I’m going to be giving Part 2. Sometimes you can chew things up too small, and you can get lost in the details. This is going to be the final one, but I am going to make some big jumps through some of it and hope that maybe some of you will fill in more of the details in your own studies.
I started out last week by talking about the Bible saying that all scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, and for instruction in righteousness. Sometimes we look at the Old Testament and feel it is primarily history or it’s good for fill-in when, actually, there are some very powerful lessons. Of course, the New Testament brings that out—talking about our forefathers and the examples that they served for us. I believe the Old Testament is just as full of examples for our instruction and for our encouragement, but we need to closely examine them. When we read them, we may ask, “What does God want me to get out of this? What is He trying to tell me? How can I benefit in my daily Christian life by reading this?”
This week we are going to
continue the story of Gideon. In review,
we talked about the period of the Judges and how, at this point in time before
Gideon,
God selected a man named Gideon who was the youngest of a family of one of the poorest tribes of Manasseh. He didn’t think he was qualified to do the job which, in my opinion, is typical of someone whom God calls to do a job. They usually don’t think they’re up to the task which is one of the reasons that God can use them. Anyone that thinks, “Hey, I’m the one!” … I believe there’s probably something in that attitude that God can’t use. So again, Gideon, typical of those that are humble, thought that he was not up for the job. He said, “I’m the youngest; I’m the least of the least of the least.” And yet we saw that God looked on him as a man of valor, and we see that we should also be that way. In other words, not because of our strength, but because of God’s.
Let’s pick the story back up;
go over to Judges chapter six and verse 12.
Go ahead and set a bookmark in Judges, and we will move it as we
progress through—we’re going to be covering chapter seven and a little bit of
chapter eight. I read this verse last
week and this will be our ‘overlap verse’.
Judges
Judges
In other words, ‘God is not
involved in our lives any more.’ Personally, I know there are times when I feel
that God is involved in my life and things are going on and then there are
other times when you wonder what’s happening.
When you do that, it’s never God’s
fault. God never left us. If that happens, we need to start looking at
ourselves and saying, “What am I doing?
What, in my life, do I need to change because of that?” God doesn’t forsake us. Even when we aren’t doing what’s right and He
does not seem to be involved, God hasn’t forsaken us. When that happens, don’t
look at God; don’t say, “Well, where is He?”
We need to look at ourselves just like ancient
Judges
In other words, have not I
given you this commission, this command?
Now the word ‘save’ here is from the Hebrew word ya^sha. It really
means more than just “to save”, but it also means “to free” or “to deliver”. It means that he’s going to deliver. In fact, the better translation in The New American Standard says that ‘you
shall deliver.’ The New Jerusalem Bible says that ‘you shall rescue’ and the Revised Standard says that ‘you shall
deliver’. The Tanakh says,
Judges
Twelve weeks from tomorrow night we’re all going to be meeting together
to keep the Passover. Between now and then
we should be spending time thinking about our lives and who and where we are
and about our calling. This period of
introspection can be a time for discouragement.
It can be a time for frustration because we look at ourselves, and we
see the mountain ahead of us—we say “it’s too much, I’m not up to this. I just haven’t been able to do this.” Brethren, did God call us and give us an
impossible task? Did He call us to
fail? Are we just not going to make
it? Continue verse 16, and notice how
God replied to Gideon:
Judges
Gideon was looking at himself
and said, ‘I can’t do it—I’m nobody’ And
God says, ‘Gideon, I’m going to be
with you. I’m going to do it for you.’
The New Jerusalem Bible says Yahweh
replied and said, “You shall crush Midian as though it were one man.” In essence He was saying, this mountain—all
of these people that you see and all of this that you’re going to do—it’s going
to be as if it were nothing. It’s going
to be as if it were one man. Don’t look
at the hundred and thirty-five thousand
that are out there and all of the camels and all of the war machine—I’m going
to do it, and it’s going to seem as if it were just one man. It’s going to seem as if it were
nothing. Set your bookmark and turn to
Exodus chapter three. This is the story
of what Gideon talked about a little earlier when he talked about God
delivering
Exodus 3:7 And the Lord said, I have surely seen the
affliction of my people that are in
God is with us. He doesn’t
give us a job without the resources to complete it. At times in corporate
Deuteronomy 31:1 And Moses went and spake these words unto all
God says, “I’m the same yesterday, today and forever.” That same intervention, that same power is available to us. Brethren, if we look at ourselves and we look at the battle—and we will and we do—when we look at ourselves and look at the battle—we will become discouraged. God doesn’t want us to look at ourselves in that way. He wants us to look at Him and let Him be our strength. One of the last words that was recorded that Christ spoke before He ascended to His Father was in regard to this. Look over in Matthew 28.
Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and spoke unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. [In other words He had, at that point, been given that power] 19) Go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; 20) teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, [notice] I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Or as the Revised Standard has, even to the close of the age.
So, He wasn’t just giving that to them; it wasn’t just to those eleven that He was talking to because He said “to the end of the world”. That was and is everyone that God calls—that is us! You see, we can be strong and of good courage not because of our strength, but because we see God and we see what He can do. And most of all we have His promise and, remember, God can’t lie. He says, “I won’t fail you, I won’t forsake you, I’m with you,” and in that, brethren, we can derive encouragement—not because it’s our strength, but because it’s His. Now let’s go back to Judges 6 and start in verse 17:
Judges
He brought an offering and that offering was consumed. There was a similar incident that happened several hundred years before; let’s go back to Genesis 15:9 and let’s look at that. Mr. Fuller gave a split sermon here a few weeks ago about God is Fire. Notice that this offering was consumed by God by fire. There was no doubt that this offering was accepted by God. Genesis 15:9 is talking about Abram:
Genesis 15:9 And He said unto him, Take me a heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old and a turtledove and a young pigeon. 10) And he took unto Him all these and divided them in the midst and laid each piece one against another; but the birds divided he not. [So, on the altar, he laid them; he cut them in half and parted them and laid them out] 11) And when the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away. 12) And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him. 13) And He said to him, Abram, know of a surety that your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them and they shall afflict them four hundred years; 14) And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge; and afterward shall they come out with great substance. 15) And you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16) But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. 17) And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. [So, in other words, just like that, a fire came and passed between those and consumed that sacrifice. Notice] 18) In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, unto your seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.
This ceremony was when a
covenant was made between two; that was one of the ways that it was
ratified. You see, brethren, God called
us and He gave us a seemingly impossible task.
If we were repentant at the time of our calling, and most of us were, we
didn’t think we were up for it. We knew
that it was impossible for us to do it.
We could not defeat an enemy that was, humanly speaking, impossible to
defeat. But God called us and we had an
understanding, we were given a job to grow and to overcome. And the next thing that happened is we entered
into a covenant with God and that covenant was ratified by the blood of Jesus
Christ. It’s ratified by our baptism
and, of course, at that point, we are to walk in a newness of life. We are to walk forward just as the analogy
with Gideon. Gideon was not up for it
and yet God showed him that He was with him, and entered into—so to speak—a
covenant with him. After that covenant,
notice what happens next. Let’s go back
to Judges
Judges
If you think about it, that is what happens to us, brethren, when we enter into that covenant. We’re not going to die. Death no longer has a claim on us and, because of that, we should not fear; we should not live in fear and we should live in peace because we understand that. This does not mean that we can just sit back and say, “Now I don’t have anything to do.” We’ll see Gideon had a lot to do ahead of him. But, at that point, when God says “I’m with you, I’m there, we’re in this together and I’m going to be the strength”, we don’t have to worry. The outcome, as long as we continue with our part, is sure and we’re not going to die, just as He said to Gideon, “You’re not going to die”, that’s the next part of it. And that should bring a peace to us.
When the disciples saw Jesus and realized it was Him, after He had overcome, notice what He said to them. Over in John 20:21; this was the 40-day period between His resurrection and His ascension when He had, on a number of occasions, appeared to the disciples.
John
Why did Christ say that? What does that mean—peace be to you? You know some of the final words of encouragement that He spoke to His disciples before His crucifixion, if you will remember, were in regard to this. Look over in John 14:23, if you will remember, this was in the period just before He was taken.
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep My words, and My Father will love him, [and notice] and We will come unto him and make Our abode with him.
A few weeks ago, Mr. Buchanan mentioned that the last thing that Christ had written to the last era of the church was that He was standing on the outside knocking to be allowed in. Now Christ said, We’re going to make Our home with you. Let’s go read it. Look over in Revelation 3, let’s read that again, just to refresh it in our minds. Revelation 3 and, remember, this was to the Laodicean era which, I believe, is the final era. I personally believe that these do represent successive eras of the church. Notice what He says in verse 20:
Revelation
Go back to John 14 now, verse 24.
John
Again, the very same things
that were told to Moses and that were told to Gideon. And remember, in John, [
2 Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you [and how is that accomplished?] through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus [Christ] our Lord. [So we get that by knowledge.] 3) According to His divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, [and how did He give that?] through the knowledge of Him that has called us to glory and virtue.
Peace comes through that knowledge of who He is, and the available tools that lead to life and to godliness come through the knowledge of Him. Let’s skip forward just a few chapters to 2 Peter 3. That’s not something—that’s not an event—that’s not something that just happens and then we have it. 2 Peter 3:18, notice what it says:
2 Peter
Understand that peace comes from a relationship with God and with Jesus Christ. It’s not something that we can muster up ourselves. It comes by having God and Jesus Christ live in us, by us developing that relationship, and by growing in grace and knowledge. As we do that, we will have that peace that comes which God desires us to have. Let’s go back to Judges chapter six now.
Judges
Gideon had gathered together the people by sending the messengers, in other words, there was a call to assemble—a call for war. Let’s skip down, for the sake of time, to chapter 7:1. I’m going to skip over how Gideon got his name Jerubbaal and later Jerubbesheth but, again, it is an interesting study if you want to do it on your own time. But just for the sake of time (and to avoid a Part 3), I’ll just skip over that. It says,
Judges 7:1 Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the
people that were with him, rose up early, and pitched beside the well of Harod;
so that the host of the Midianites were on the north side of them, by the hill
of Moreh, in the valley. [So they were
at the north side, they were on a hill and, tactically, the Midianites had the
better position. They had the ‘high
ground’ so to speak and they were preparing to start some of their raids.] 2) And the Lord said to Gideon, The people
that are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands,
lest
Now, at this point, the odds were about four to one. There were about 135,000 Midianites and those that were with them and about 32,000 that were with Gideon. So four to one they were outnumbered and God said, ‘look it’s too many, because you’re going to think it was your strength that delivered you.’ You see, they were looking at the army.
There was a time when we numbered ourselves in the church and we were over 100,000 strong. I remember that very well, and I know we felt strong at that time—we felt we made an impact, and we talked about a powerful “work” that we were doing. Brethren we thought it was our power and our strength because we would go to the Feast and see all of those [people]. We felt comfort and “there’s nothing can happen to this; you know, I’m comfortable in this, because look at all these people that are just like me.” God never intends for us to look at ourselves—to look at our strength. Continuing…
Judges 7:3 Now therefore go to proclaim in the ears of
the people saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart
early from
See God said, “Gideon, I’m going to hand select who is going to go with you.” See, brethren, we’re being hand selected by God and there is something that we have, as we’ll see, that we have a part in that. But it’s God that does the selecting, not us. We don’t decide, God is selecting us.
Judges 7:5 So he brought down the people unto the water; and the Lord said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt you set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink.
So the ones that kneeled down and took their hand and brought the water up to the face were one group and the other group was the ones that bowed down—in other words—to put their lips into the water to drink. Now there are three things that I believe are implied here. First is those that brought the water up—that kept their heads up and were looking around—those did not let their guard down; they were vigilant even among their friends and their family. There was a feeling at one time after we went through what we did in the early 90s, and then some groups reformed that me might have thought, “Okay, we can relax—we’re back together.” Now, brethren, we don’t go around doubting and suspicious but, even among friends and family, we are to be vigilant. Nowhere in the Bible does it say be vigilant unless you’re with your friends or be vigilant unless you’re with your family. So this was a group, at this point, ten thousand who were still vigilant. They would not take their eyes off of what was around them.
The second thing is they knew
that they were on a mission and they were anxious to get on with it. And why do I say that? You see, they had answered a call and they
were ready to go to battle. Now, in that
day in
Now, with that in mind, if you look at the armor that was used at that time, you couldn’t drink with it on. You see, the helmet that covered the head—there were two types that were used in those days—one was a helmet that had two temple pieces that were held by leather straps and, if you leaned over to put your head in the water, the temple pieces would get in your way. The other was a coat of mail that was kind of hung as a curtain around the back and sides of the helmet. And, again, if you leaned over to put your head in the water, it would fall into the water and you couldn’t get a drink with your helmet on. And the armor was heavy and to lean over and to become prostrate to drink water, you had to take your armor off. The only ones that would do that were the ones that thought they had plenty of time. They thought this was a social occasion; it’s time to sit down, take off the armor, take a drink, rub your sore feet, talk about the Monday night football game, talk about the wife and kids… When God steps in to save His people, notice how He is pictured in this prophecy. Look over in Isaiah (and hold your place here, we’ll come back). Isaiah 59:16 This is a prophecy of the Savior, it says:
Isaiah 59:16 And He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor; therefore His arm brought salvation unto Him; and His righteousness, it sustained Him. [Notice] 17) For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon His head; and He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad [notice] with zeal as a cloak.
You see, those that lapped, those that just kneeled down on one knee and lapped, they had zeal—they were ready to move forward and they were ready to get on with it. They were vigilant and they were ready for the task at hand. We are to be imitators of Christ. Look over in 1 Thessalonians the fifth chapter. 1 Thessalonians 5:8 says,
1 Thessalonians 5:8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. 9) For God hath not appointed us to wrath [in other words, not to lose] but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.
Another one I know you’re very
familiar with, but let’s go to it.
Ephesians
Ephesians
You see, brethren, those that lapped and picked up the water kept their armor on and they had zeal. They knew they were on a mission and they were ready to do it. Let’s go back to Judges chapter seven and start in verse six.
Judges 7:6 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. 7) and the Lord said to Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, [Notice, will I save you, not they] and deliver the Midianites into your hand; and let all the other people go, every man unto his place.
If people were looking at what they could see, that had to be a scary thing, because, as it says, they’re looking across the valley and these Midianites are like locusts. I can imagine it’s just this continuous dust that’s coming up from that many people and that many camels and they’re sending people home! And first it was 22,000 and then 10,000 and you send all but 300 home. It had to be scary unless they knew where their power really was. As I mentioned, those 300 were on a mission, they wanted to get on with it and they had the zeal to go out and do what they were called to do. Never mind, at this point, the odds were 450 to one. Now, as we’ll cover later, that wasn’t the odds at all, but we’ll talk about that later. God had the army set with what He wanted to do, the way He wanted to do it. Now verse 9;
Judges 7:9 And it came to pass, the same night, that the Lord said unto him, Arise, get you down unto the host; for I have delivered it into your hand. [Notice] 10) But if you fear to go down, [now remember at the beginning, and this is the same Hebrew word fear that He said ‘Look, if anybody’s afraid, let them go home and there were 22,000.’ Apparently, Gideon didn’t have that choice, but God said, ‘Look, if you’re still worried about this] go down with Phurah your servant down to the host;
So He said, ‘Look, if you’re still concerned about this, go take Phurah (and Phurah was probably—it doesn’t say—but, probably his armor bearer)’, but He said ‘I want you to take him and I want you to go into the camp of Midian. Now, it’s interesting that God told him to take Phurah with him—He didn’t just say go down there, He said take Phurah. You see, I believe God made us to not only need Him, but God also made us to need one another. Look over in Proverbs 27. I don’t think we were created to be alone or to just kind of go on our own.
Proverbs 27:10 Your own friend and your father’s friend, forsake not; neither go into your brother’s house in the day of your calamity; for better [notice] is a neighbor that is near than a brother far off.
In other words a companion—better is a companion that you have. When we have a problem, an issue, or something comes up, the first thing we want to do is have someone with us—someone that can empathize with us; that can, perhaps, help us, maybe just encourage but by that we can draw strength. God created us that way. He created us to draw strength and encouragement from one another. He didn’t create us to be solitary beings, but meant that we would spend time together. Look over in Malachi the third chapter. I know you’re very familiar with this scripture—probably have it committed to memory.
Malachi
You see, brethren, God wants us to interact with one another so we can draw strength, especially in times when we are maybe fearful. Look over in Hebrews 10. Again, I know this is a scripture that you’re very familiar with.
Hebrews 10:24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works; [Notice that—let us consider and provoke, which indicates that we’re going to be talking, that we’re going to be interacting to love and good works] 25) Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much more as you see the day approaching.
Brethren, what happens at services—on the Sabbath—is much more than just one person standing up, lecturing or teaching. Service is not just a one-on-many event; it’s many-to-many. You see, there is a lot of encouragement, a lot of strength that is given and obtained during our fellowship before and after services. And I think that it’s a vital part of it. I will tell you that anyone that is forced [to have services] in the living room, of course, you do hear the sermons, but there’s always something missing.
What a blessing when Freda and I were able to come here and to be able to share services with you. It is a wonderful, wonderful thing and I think God made us that way. God intended for us to do that because, when it’s not there, there is a hole. And when some of you aren’t here, let me assure you, you’re missed. There is a hole in services when some of God’s people are not here, because we all draw strength from one another. Again, I don’t know if I can convey the feelings, but if you’ve been through it, it’s just such a wonderful thing that we should never take for granted the fact that we’re able to meet together and we’re able to draw strength from one another.
Don’t turn there, but when
Christ commissioned the original apostles—when He sent them out, remember He
called them and He sent them forth two by two [Mark 6:7]—He didn’t send them in
different directions. He sent them two
by two. Part of that, I believe, is
because God knows that we need one another.
Remember the final witness is going to be delivered by two witnesses [Revelation
11:3]. We were created, brethren, as
gregarious beings. We need one
another. We need to encourage, we need
to pray for, we need to share our lives.
That could be, in itself, a whole sermon. It talks about when you’re happy, let you
sing; if you’re down…[James
Judges
After seeing that and hearing that dream of the barley loaf—and remember a loaf of bread is not as we think of a square loaf but it’s round, it’s like a wheel, kind of like a big pizza—and it says it rolled into camp and it overturned. But that made him realize that it was the Lord that did it. Understand, brethren, the strength of Gideon was not in the 300 men that were going into battle with him. The army of Gideon wasn’t many, it wasn’t the 300, it was One and that One was God. See, that’s what he saw behind him. He no longer had his eyes on the men; he had his eyes on God and he realized the odds were stacked in his favor because he had God on his side.
It’s interesting that God used the barley loaf to signify this to Gideon. Barley has some interesting characteristics that make it unique of all of the grains. Look over in Revelation the sixth chapter; let’s spend just a little bit of time on this because we’ll see why God used a barley loaf to represent this to Gideon. This account is regarding the four horsemen of the apocalypse and in verse six, remember:
Revelation 6:6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A quart of wheat for a denari and three quarts of barley
Barley was considered an inferior grain to wheat. In other words, you could get three times as much barley as you could wheat for the same amount of money. In fact, barley was considered, in the Bible, to be food for poor people and for the animals. It was animal fodder—a self-respecting person would not eat barley. That was low-quality food. Look over in Ruth the second chapter and we’ll go through this, just for the sake of time, fairly quickly. If you’ll remember when Ruth was gleaning Boaz’s fields,
Ruth
So she was very poor and was doing this for her mother[-in-law], Naomi, and she gleaned an ephah of barley. So she was taking of the barley. Two things—one, that was the poor people’s food. Look over in 1 Kings 4:27,
1 Kings 4:27 And those officers provided victual for king Solomon, and for all that came unto king Solomon’s table, every man in his month; they lacked nothing. [Notice verse 28] 28) Barley also and straw for the horses and dromedaries brought they unto the place where the officers were, every man according to his charge.
You see, again, barley was considered food for animals. It was not food that people ate. It was really abhorred by the wealthy, and it was considered a low-quality food. We’re not going to go into it but, if you will remember in John [6:9-13] in the miracle of the fishes and loaves, those were barley loaves. There were five barley loaves and God used the barley loaves to feed the five thousand. It was the lowest quality of food but, remember, it filled them up and there was some left over. Let me just read what Josephus says, he’s talking about the vision. This is book five, chapter six, verse four [The Antiquities of the Jews] and he talks about the dream:
…—He thought he saw a barley cake, such a
one as could hardly be eaten by men, it was so vile, rolling through the camp, and overthrowing the royal tent,
and the tents of all the soldiers. Now
the other soldier explained this vision to mean the destruction of the army;
and told him what his reason was which made him so conjecture, viz., That [is]
the seed called barley was all of it allowed to be of the vilest sort of seed,
and that the Israelites were known to be the vilest of all the people of Asia,
You see, it was significant that God used the barley loaf. Let me tell you what it also represents. First of all, as I mentioned, barley ripened or was harvested in the spring. It was an early crop. Wheat, which was a separate harvest, ripened later. Let’s just look at this. Look in Exodus chapter nine. If you’ll remember, when God was sending the plagues on the Egyptians and He sent the hail,
Exodus 9:25 And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, [so everything in the field was ruined], both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field. [Down in verse 31] 31) And the flax and the barley was smitten; for the barley was in the ear and the flax was bolled, [in other words, they were ready to be harvested] 32) But the wheat and the rye were not smitten; for they were not grown up.
The New American Standard says,
31) Now the flax and barley were ruined, for the barley was in ear and the flax was in bud, but the wheat and spelt were not ruined, for they ripened late.
Now, with that in mind, look over in Leviticus chapter 23 and we’ll tie all of this together. If you will remember, before the Israelites were allowed to harvest, they had to do something and what they had to do occurred during the Days of Unleavened Bread.
Leviticus
And, of course, we know that was the heave offering or the wave offering. They cut a shock of it just after sundown on the Sabbath, and then they brought it and it was presented in the morning right before they were allowed to start harvesting. That was a sheaf of barley. Barley was the only thing that was ripe and, of course, the Jews understand that—the wave or heave offering was always a head of barley because that was the only thing that was ripe.
We know brethren, that the
heave offering represented Jesus Christ after He was resurrected and was
heaved, or lifted up, to the Father to be accepted. If you’ll remember just like barley,
Christ—and I won’t turn there, you can write these down just for the sake of
time—Luke 9:22, remember He said the Son of Man must suffer and be
rejected? Remember He was considered the
vilest of all, just like the barley?
Luke
You see, that barley bread represented the army of Gideon, but that army was Christ, the God of the Old Testament. It was considered vile, but it overcame the Midianites. Christ, represented by the sheaf of barley, was considered vile and was rejected. The army of Gideon, brethren, was not the 300 men that he took with him into battle. The army which was represented by the barley loaf in the vision, was none other than the One that became Jesus Christ. That’s the same One that is our army that will defeat our enemy. It’s not our strength. Look over in Zechariah the fourth chapter.
Zechariah 4:6 Then he answered and spoke unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the [Eternal] of hosts.
That is what’s going to prevail—not might, not power—the true army of Gideon was not the 300. It was not the 10,000. It was not the 22,000. It was the power of God that prevailed. A couple of weeks ago, Mr. Schmidt gave a split sermon where he went into the implements that were used which were, of course, the light, the pitcher that contained the light which they had in their left hand, and the trumpet in their right hand. They went into battle with those tools. And, of course, you know that they divided up into three groups—300 “surrounded” 135,000 with all their camels. They broke their clay pots and, of course, it was right after a watch change. When you first come into a watch, you’ve just woken up—you’re still groggy, haven’t had your cup of coffee yet—and it was timed right after a watch change that they did this. It threw confusion into them and, of course, they ended up in confusion not by being attacked but by their perception. In other words, the fear. Mr. Schmidt talked about the light which we have and the trumpets that we have—those are our tools also. But notice one of the things that they shouted. We’ll go back and read that in Judges 7:20, it says,
Judges 7:20 And the three companies blew the trumpets, and broke the pitchers, and held their lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal; and they cried, [notice] The sword of the Lord and of Gideon. 21) And they stood every man in his place round the camp; and all the host ran, and cried, and fled.
When they did that, the Midianites
ended up killing one another. There was
a rout, and Gideon and his men ended up chasing them more than 80 miles;
completely out of the
Notice what our salvation is. Look in Psalm 149:4:
Psalm 149:4 For the Lord taketh pleasure in His people; He will beautify the meek [In other words, those that don’t think they’re up to it, those that are humble, those that look to God] with salvation. 5) Let the saints be joyful in glory; let them sing aloud upon their beds. 6) Let the high praises be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand.
Look in Revelation the first chapter. What is this two-edged sword? I know you know what it is, but let’s go look.
Revelation 1:13 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. 14) His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire; 15) And His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and His voice as the sound of many waters. 16) And He had in His right hand seven stars; and out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.
You see, the two-edged sword is the word of God. That is what we will use to defeat the enemy. The word of God. Brethren, the army of Gideon and our army are not numbered in humans. It’s One, it’s God living His life in us and through us, through our efforts and us doing out part, and He defeats our enemies.
Brethren, the story of Gideon should have much encouragement for us. We’ve been sorely oppressed and even in some cases impoverished by the world and the system that wants to enslave us. Christ told us through His word that we would have tribulation and trouble and we have; but He also told of us to be of good cheer because we, like Him, can overcome the world. [John 16:33]
God has called us and sees us as men of valor, not because of our army. The sword of the word of God, the armor that He has made available to us, is what we will use. Of ourselves, we’re not going to overcome, but remember we have God’s promise that He’s not going to fail us or forsake us. We, who are the least of the least of the least, are going to prevail and, if we continue, that’s assured.
As we approach the Passover, just twelve weeks away, let’s not become discouraged as we examine ourselves and see the huge battle that’s ahead of us. Remember that the power that is with us is far greater and far outnumbers those that are against us.
Brethren, we will defeat our enemy—we have the Father’s promise, we have His army, and we have His Son, our Deliverer. Let’s be sure that we invite Them into our lives to make Their home with us, to change us, and to defeat our enemies.
Transcribed by kdo May, 2004