Judges 7:9-22 The Midianite camp was in the valley just below Gideon. That night the Lord said, “Get up! Go down into the Midianite camp, for I have given you victory over them! But if you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah. Listen to what the Midianites are saying, and you will be greatly encouraged. Then you will be eager to attack.”
So Gideon took Purah and went down to the edge of the enemy camp. The armies of Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east had settled in the valley like a swarm of locusts. Their camels were like grains of sand on the seashore—too many to count! Gideon crept up just as a man was telling his companion about a dream. The man said, “I had this dream, and in my dream a loaf of barley bread came tumbling down into the Midianite camp. It hit a tent, turned it over, and knocked it flat!”
His companion answered, “Your dream can mean only one thing—God has given Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite, victory over Midian and all its allies!
Now this HAS to be God putting words in someone’s mouth! First, God sends a dream to a Midianite soldier that a loaf of barley bread knocks a Midianite tent flat. Then there’s the interpretation by a second Midianite soldier. Notice that the second enemy soldier names Gideon, including his father’s name as well. God must be speaking through these two men for how else would an enemy soldier learn Gideon’s full name? And how do Gideon and his servant sneak into the enemy camp undetected if God is not hiding them supernaturally?
15-22 When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship before the Lord. Then he returned to the Israelite camp and shouted, “Get up! For the Lord has given you victory over the Midianite hordes!” He divided the 300 men into three groups and gave each man a ram’s horn and a clay jar with a torch in it.
Then he said to them, “Keep your eyes on me. When I come to the edge of the camp, do just as I do. As soon as I and those with me blow the rams’ horns, blow your horns, too, all around the entire camp, and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’”
It was just after midnight, after the changing of the guard, when Gideon and the 100 men with him reached the edge of the Midianite camp. Suddenly, they blew the rams’ horns and broke their clay jars. Then all three groups blew their horns and broke their jars. They held the blazing torches in their left hands and the horns in their right hands, and they all shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!”
Each man stood at his position around the camp and watched as all the Midianites rushed around in a panic, shouting as they ran to escape. When the 300 Israelites blew their rams’ horns, the Lord caused the warriors in the camp to fight against each other with their swords. Those who were not killed fled to places as far away as Beth-shittah near Zererah and to the border of Abel-meholah near Tabbath.
Notice something: Gideon and his soldiers NEVER fight the enemy themselves but cause the enemy to panic so that they kill one another and the stragglers flee in panic. What Gideon’s soldiers shout is one thing, but what do the enemy soldiers hear? Perhaps the enemy soldiers hear the noise of angelic armies and perhaps they see things far more frightening than Israelite soldiers blowing on ram’s horns and waving torches. At any rate, God soundly and completely defeats the Midianites.
What must Gideon’s soldiers have thought when Gideon handed them each a ram’s horn and a torch in a jar? You can imagine some of these battle-hardened men looking at one another and shrugging their shoulders as they think, “Oh well, we’re likely to die anyway. Might as well follow these weird orders.”
God knows His Israelites and He knows that it will take enormous miracles for the Israelites to totally change and return to worshiping Him. So God creates an enormous miracle.
This story points out several things:
- If you want results, you must obey God even when His Will appears foolish. God knows what He’s doing.
- God will confirm His Word when necessary. Look at the dream and its interpretation.
- God can do far more than we can possibly imagine, and the results will be far more lasting. We are limited. God is not.
Today, God might be calling you to something that looks impossible. Trust God. If God could rout an enormous army using 300 men with torches and ram’s horns, He can handle your situation.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to trust where we cannot see. Help us to remember that You can take a nobody like Gideon and use him and a handful of soldiers to rout an entire army. Help us to remember that nothing is too difficult for You. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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