Gideon's Army of 300

Two names. Verse 1 calls him “Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon).” Jerubbaal means “let Baal fight against him.” Gideon got that name when he tore down Baal's altar (6:32). Baal never fought back, because Baal was not a real god. A strange problem. God said, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands” (7:2). Gideon had 32,000 men, and Midian had far more. Yet God said, too many! The real danger. God told Gideon why: “lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me’” (7:2). The biggest danger was not Midian. It was pride. Pride steals praise. Pride says, I did it myself. God wanted Israel to know for sure that He was the One who saved them. Kind to the fearful. Anyone who was “fearful and afraid” could go home (7:3). God's law had already said that a scared soldier could go home (Deuteronomy 20:8). God did not shame them. Watching it shrink. Twenty-two thousand men walked away. That was two out of every three soldiers. God's way. “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit” (Zechariah 4:6). Gideon could lead only because “the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon” (6:34). What this means for you. When you feel too small for a job, remember that God does not need you to be big. He wants you to trust Him.

Harod (7:1). The spring of Harod sounds like the Hebrew word charad (say: khah-RAHD), to tremble. In 7:3 the men who were “fearful and afraid” are, in Hebrew, fearful and trembling. The army camped at the Spring of Trembling, and the trembling men were sent home. Outnumbered already (7:2). Gideon had 32,000 men (7:3). Judges 8:10 says the armies of the East numbered about 135,000. Israel was already outnumbered about four to one, and God still said, too many. Glory (7:2). God would not let Israel “claim glory for itself against Me.” The verb comes from pa'ar (say: pah-AR), to boast or show off. Taking the credit for what God has done is not a small thing. It is pride set against God Himself. God's law obeyed (7:3). Deuteronomy 20:8 told Israel's officers to send home any man who was afraid, so that he would not make others afraid. Gideon obeyed it, even though it cost him two thirds of his army. Gideon's own fear. This was the man who threshed wheat in a winepress to hide it (6:11) and asked twice for a sign with the fleece (6:36-40). God did not send Gideon home. He kept working with him, and in 7:10 He made room for Gideon's fear too. The Spirit (6:34). “The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon.” The Hebrew pictures the Spirit putting Gideon on like a coat. Gideon's courage was never his own. Ephesians 2:8-9. Salvation is “not of works, lest anyone should boast.” The God who would not let Israel say “My own hand has saved me” will not let anyone boast of saving themselves. Why it matters. God often makes His people small so that everyone can see that the power is His.

Gideon had thirty-two thousand men. The enemy army was much bigger. But God said Gideon had too many men! God knew the hearts of His people. If they won with a big army, they would brag. They would say they saved themselves. God wanted them to know who really saved them. So God let the scared men go home. He did not make fun of them. Two out of every three men left. God wants us to trust Him more than our own strength. Every good thing we have comes from God. That is why we thank Him and not ourselves.

God said Gideon had too many men. God wanted His people to trust Him. God does not need a big army. God is strong!

Still too many. “The people are still too many” (7:4). Ten thousand men were left, and God said it again. God chose. “I will test them for you there” (7:4). Gideon did not pick the soldiers. God did. Two ways to drink. Most of the men “got down on their knees to drink water” (7:6). Three hundred lapped, “putting their hand to their mouth.” What mattered. The way they drank was only the way God sorted them. What mattered was that God chose, and the army became very small. A promise first. “By the three hundred men who lapped I will save you” (7:7). God promised the win before the battle began. Trumpets kept. The 300 kept the food and “their trumpets” of the men who left (7:8). Those trumpets would matter soon. Facing the valley. “Now the camp of Midian was below him in the valley” (7:8). Gideon's 300 faced an army that filled the valley like locusts. Only God could win this battle. Strong in weakness. God told Paul, “My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Gideon's army was weak so God's strength could be seen. What this means for you. God may let you feel small and weak. That is not a mistake. It is a chance to see Him be strong for you.

Test (7:4). The verb is tsaraph (say: tsah-RAHF), to refine. It is the word for melting silver so the dross can be skimmed off. God was refining the army down to the size He wanted. God's choice (7:4). “Of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ the same shall go with you.” God, not Gideon, decided who would fight. Lapping and kneeling (7:5-6). Three hundred lapped water from their hands, and all the rest knelt. God's own reason, given in 7:2, was the size of the army, not the skill of the men. The test simply left the smaller group. Less than one in a hundred. From 32,000 to 300 is less than one man in a hundred. Against about 135,000 (8:10), Israel now faced roughly 450 to one. Provisions and trumpets (7:8). The 300 kept the supplies and the trumpets of the men who left. God was already setting up the plan of 7:16. Many or few. Years later Jonathan told his armor-bearer that nothing can stop the Lord from saving by many or by few (1 Samuel 14:6). Gideon's 300 show it. 1 Corinthians 1:27. “God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.” God's choice of the few is the same pattern He uses in the gospel. Why it matters. God's power is easiest to see when human strength has been taken away, so a weak moment can become a place to trust Him.

God said there were still too many men. So He tested them at the water. God was the One who chose, not Gideon. Only 300 men were picked. That was a very small army. Was it a mistake? No, God knew exactly what He was doing. He wanted everyone to see His power. Now there were hundreds of enemy soldiers for each of Gideon's men. Only God could win a battle like that. Before the fight, God made a promise. He said He would save Israel with the 300. God likes to use small things to do big jobs. He can use you too, even when you feel small.

God picked just 300 men. That is a small army. But God is very big. God chose who would go.

Already won. “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand” (7:9). God spoke as if the battle was already over. God knew. “But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant” (7:10). God did not scold Gideon for being afraid. He made a way for him to be brave. A huge camp. The valley was full of soldiers, thick as locusts, and camels “as the sand by the seashore” (7:12). The dream. A soldier dreamed that “a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian” and knocked a tent flat (7:13). Barley bread. Barley made cheap bread, the food of poor people. For seven years Midian had stolen Israel's crops (6:1-4). Israel was poor and small, just like that loaf. The meaning. His friend said, “This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon” (7:14). God had already filled the enemy with fear. Worship first. When Gideon heard it, “he worshiped” (7:15). Before he gave one order, he bowed before God. What this means for you. God is patient with your fears. Tell Him when you are scared, and thank Him for His promises before you see them come true.

Delivered (7:9). “I have delivered it into your hand.” The Hebrew verb is in the past tense, though the battle had not begun. When God promises, the outcome is as sure as if it had already happened. Purah (7:10-11). God named Gideon's fear and gave him a way through it: “afterward your hands shall be strengthened.” Courage would come from hearing what God was doing, not from Gideon's own nerve. The raiders (7:12). Midianites, Amalekites and “all the people of the East” had raided Israel's harvests for seven years (6:1-6). Their camels were “without number,” and Israel had been hiding in caves (6:2). Barley bread (7:13). Barley was the grain of the poor. It sold for about half the price of wheat (compare 2 Kings 7:1). A cheap round loaf flattening a tent was a picture of weak, hungry Israel overturning Midian. God's words from an enemy (7:14). “Into his hand God has delivered Midian and the whole camp.” A Midianite soldier said almost the same words God had spoken to Gideon in 7:9. Worship (7:15). The Hebrew word is shachah (say: shah-KHAH), to bow down low. Gideon bowed at the edge of the enemy camp. Then he rose and said, “Arise, for the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand.” Why it matters. Faith does not mean never feeling afraid. It means taking our fear to God, listening to what He says, and worshiping Him before the answer comes.

God told Gideon, “Go down and attack the camp.” God promised to give Gideon the win. But God knew Gideon might be afraid. God did not get angry with him. He gave Gideon a way to be brave. Gideon took his helper Purah and sneaked close. He heard an enemy soldier telling a dream. A loaf of barley bread had knocked down a tent. The soldier's friend said the bread meant Gideon! Even the enemy knew that God was with Gideon. God cares when we are afraid. He gives us what we need to trust Him. Then Gideon did the very best thing. He worshiped God right there.

Gideon felt afraid. God was kind to him. God helped him be brave. Then Gideon praised God.

Strange weapons. Gideon “put a trumpet into every man's hand, with empty pitchers, and torches inside the pitchers” (7:16). Nobody held a sword. Follow the leader. “Look at me and do likewise” (7:17). The men simply obeyed. Late at night. They came “at the beginning of the middle watch” (7:19), just after new guards had taken their posts. Smash and shout. They “broke the pitchers,” held up their torches and cried, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!” (7:20). They stood still. “Every man stood in his place all around the camp” (7:21). Israel did not even charge in. God fought. “The Lord set every man's sword against his companion throughout the whole camp” (7:22). The enemy fought itself and fled. The chase. Men from other tribes joined in. The men of Ephraim caught and killed the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb (7:25). God's people were rescued. Light from broken jars. Many Christians see a picture here. Paul says, “we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). What this means for you. God does not need you to be impressive. He wants you to obey Him and let His light shine through you.

Three companies (7:16). Gideon spread his men in three groups around the camp. Three hundred horns blowing at once, with torches flaring on every side and jars crashing in the dark, sounded and looked like a huge army. The shofar. The trumpet was a shofar (say: show-FAR), a ram's horn. It called Israel to battle and to worship. Gideon had blown one when the Spirit came on him (6:34). The shout (7:20). They cried, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!” But their hands were full of torches and horns. The sword they shouted about was the Lord's. Standing still (7:21). At the Red Sea Moses said, “The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace” (Exodus 14:14). Jehoshaphat's people later heard, “the battle is not yours, but God's” (2 Chronicles 20:15). Confusion (7:22). The Lord turned the enemy's swords against one another. The victory was His from first to last. Oreb and Zeeb (7:25). Oreb means raven and Zeeb means wolf (say: OH-rev, ZEH-ev). The rock and the winepress where they died were named after them. The day of Midian. Centuries later Isaiah promised that God would break the yoke of His people as in the day of Midian (Isaiah 9:4). Then he named the One who would do it: “For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given” (Isaiah 9:6). Earthen vessels. Many Christians see Gideon's broken jars in 2 Corinthians 4:7: “we have this treasure in earthen vessels.” God's light shines out of ordinary, breakable people.

Gideon's plan looked very strange. His men had no swords in their hands. They held trumpets and jars with torches inside. They blew the trumpets and smashed the jars. Light flashed all around the camp. Then they shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” Gideon's men just stood still in their places. God did all the fighting! He made the enemy soldiers fight each other. The rest of them ran far away. Later, the men of Ephraim caught two enemy princes. They killed the princes, Oreb and Zeeb. God set His people free from Midian. God still fights for His people today.

The men broke their jars. Light shone in the dark! God made the enemy run. God won the battle.

Gideon's Army of 300

🎉 All Matched!