Gideon - Judges 7

The conversation continues this week in Judges 7. This is perhaps the most well-known part of Gideon's story. God is not only going to continue to demonstrate His incredible patience but He will also make sure that everyone knows that He is in control and victory is achieved only by Him. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Hello and welcome back to Cultivating Growth. I want to thank everyone for joining us again this week. This is our second episode of the month talking about the Judge Gideon. Last week we spent some time in Judges chapter 6, and today we will be in Judges chapter 7. And so with that, let's get right to the conversation.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Well, John, if anybody has any familiarity with the story of Gideon, the Judge, their familiarity is in Judges chapter 7. Yep. And it is a story that is fairly well known. It's a story that's talked about, even though we've made mention last week that his story really spans three chapters, six, seven, and eight. It really is chapter seven that that stands out. And for good reason. It is very visual. The battle actually takes place in chapter seven. And uh and there are a lot of really practical things that take place. And we'll talk about uh the separation uh of the army and how uh Gideon uh by God's instruction gets down to the number that he ultimately takes in a battle. But uh as I was reading chapter seven again and thinking about what we talked about last week, there's a lot of carryover in this chapter from where we were even in chapter six, where you had in chapter six when God calls Gideon and he says, Listen, you're gonna be the one that's going to do this and to take, you know, take these people on, and he's not interested in that. I'm my my my tribe is weak, my family is weak, my household is weak, and I'm the weakest and all of and all of them. And he, in a lot of ways, kind of asked God for some help and for some reassurances, and God provides that. We talked about how it was that the uh the angel brings the fire upon the food and you know the fleece, both wet and dry. And even into chapter seven, we see God continuing to encourage Gideon and really to lift him up. We talked about patience, you know, from God's side, you know, last week, and maybe that's where we should start here before we get into Gideon. God's patience continues to be on display here in this chapter.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Well, it does, and and God continues to show that patience toward not only Gideon, but just the people of Israel in general. Uh there's this one of the things that jumped out to me as I read chapter seven was almost this theme of fear and uncertainty that was carried over, as you mentioned, from chapter six. Uh, some of the people of Israel are afraid to go up against the Midianites. Gideon is afraid to go up against the Midianites. Fear was still present regardless of what God has done for them up to this point. The reality is, is they're about to face a really big, really scary enemy. And they're afraid. Gideon had 32,000 men with him, and God said, Hey, whoever's afraid, go on back home. And twenty-two thousand of them leave. Yeah. They're afraid. They understand the enemy that was in front of them, and no matter where their faith was, a lot of them weren't able to overcome the fear of facing this enemy. Even Gideon was struggling with that. We'll talk about that here in a little bit, when God again offers him a reassurance. But but what God does here is he almost uses the fear that all of these people were experiencing to show everyone his power. And I think that's a really interesting concept to consider that sometimes God uses our fear and our apprehension to show us his power. And I think that's what was on display here. You guys are scared, that's okay, because I'm going to use that as a way to demonstrate just how powerful I am and just how much in control of this situation I am. And so fear is a carryover from chapter six that we see in chapter seven, but so is God's power and God's control over this situation.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Yeah, and we kind of see that here at the outset of God really pushing forward the fact that listen, I I'm I'm in control here. I I have things well in hand. Uh you don't have to worry. He's already told Gideon it's it's going to happen. He's already kind of reassured him in in chapter six. And, you know, by the time you get to the beginning of chapter seven, and Gideon is mostly on board, you know, with what you know takes place. And you know, he's probably really on board when he kind of pulls an army together, and as you may mention, 32,000 people and you know, men. That's a pretty sizable, you know, army. And we talked last week, uh, the you know, the Midianites and how diabolical they were and how scary they were. And you know, they were certainly would have been feeling that the Israelites going up against them, and then immediately God telling Gideon, it's too many.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

It's far, far too many. I'm sure Gideon wasn't thinking that it was too many. No. That's my guess. He's like, I don't know. This seems like a pretty good number. But God is like, no, it isn't, and he gives the reason for it. I am the one uh that is in charge here. I'm the one going to battle. I'm the one that's bringing this in. And so he says, Listen, we've got to trim that down. And you made the point where he says, Okay, if you want to go, you can go. Now you don't know how fast some of those guys, you know, hit the road. Probably a few of them pretty quick. But he 22,000 leave and he's left with 10,000. And, you know, I was thinking about Gideon as I was reading this again today. There's a big difference in 32,000 and 10,000. A big, big difference. And I'm sure when God was like, Man, 32,000, that's too much. Possibly Gideon was like, I don't know, that seems about right. But when he gets down to 10,000, I'm sure Gideon was like, Oh, this is not right. And then God is like, still too many. And now I think the fear uh is going to it it certainly can can take a hold.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

Yeah, and so God uses uh this story that we see about uh the men going down to drink water and those who uh kneel down on their knees and those who lap the water out of their hands, and God is going to cut their numbers down to 300. I mean, you you mentioned there's a big difference between 32,000 and 10,000. There's a huge difference between 32,000 and 300. For sure. And now this is the army that God says Gideon is going to take into battle against the Midianites. And then what I think is really interesting is they're in verses nine and ten and eleven, where God says to Gideon, go down against the camp, for I have delivered and didn't delivered it into your hand. But if you are afraid to go down, go to the camp with your servant, and you're gonna hear what they're saying. Well, what does Gideon do? He hightails it down there because he's afraid.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Right.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

I mean, this was again, this was God's way of reassuring Gideon. I know you're afraid. I know you continue to need reassurance, even though God has done everything that Gideon has asked of him to provide him with the reassurance that he needs. Gideon is still afraid, and God continues to be patient with him. It's remarkable how many times God offers Gideon an opportunity to work through this fear. And we talked about that last week. Gideon was working through these uh feelings of fear and apprehension, and God was patient with him every step of the way, offering him reassurance in a variety of different ways to make sure that Gideon got to where God needed him to be. And ultimately, as he goes down and he hears about this vision or this dream that one of the men in the Midianite camp has about a tumbleweed coming into the camp and the tent being destroyed, uh, Gideon recognizes, they even re the Midianites recognize that they're talking about Gideon in that dream, and it is the reassurance that he needs, and he goes back with a plan. And again, God's patience to deal with our fear and to allow us to work through that is so comforting, it's so powerful, and it is so helpful to me as I experience some of these same things in my life, and Gideon's story is an example of how God works with us through those moments.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

I I think just by way of application, I I think it should uh stories like this should have a huge impact on my willingness to share those things with God. Uh to share. Now, listen, he knows, he knows everything that's inside of my head, he knows what I'm thinking, he knows what I'm feeling already. But there needs to be a willingness on my part to share those fears, those concerns, you know, with God. Certainly uh Gideon is doing that. We made mention of Moses from Exodus 3 and 4 last week. Uh that's another good example of it where Moses is really having a back and forth with God, and he's sharing, you know, his concerns to Moses, real concerns. And Gideon, he has fears, real fears. And God knows that and God understands that. And so you see God helping because that's what God wants to do, and that's what God still wants to do. Yeah. He wants to help us through our fears, he wants to help us through our difficulties, he wants to help us through our obstacles. And so we need to be willing to be as open and honest with our concerns with God. And I think sometimes we're hesitant to do that because in our mind, it a lot of times we're like, well, I shouldn't be afraid here, even though I am. I shouldn't be afraid, so I don't want to talk to God about that because I I shouldn't, I shouldn't be afraid here. But if you are, it's absolutely the time you need to be talking to God about it.

SPEAKER_00 10:17

Yep. That that goes back to like what happened in Joshua chapter one, where God repeats to Joshua, be strong and courageous, don't be afraid. Well, the only way you get there is if you learn to trust in God and you learn to work through those feelings of fear. You can't just say, oh, okay, and you flip the switch and the fear is gone. That's not how this works. And God is the one who created these feelings and put them inside of each of us. He understands how we need to process through these things. And so again, it's it's God being patient as his people work through these fears. And what ends up happening is Gideon gets to where God needs him. God had been patient with him, offering him reassurance along the way, and finally Gideon is there, and he comes back with a plan, and these 300 men they go with and they divide up and they go down to the Midianite army with their torches and their pictures, and they do it in the in darkness, and they they have a plan in place, and they break the pictures and they light their torches, and God is with them, just like he said he would. I mean, honestly, it almost seems like the army, if you want to call it that of Israel, didn't really do a whole lot. When all of this transpired, we're told that the Lord set every man's sword against his companion throughout the whole camp, and the army fled. The army that Gideon had didn't really have to do much, but what they had to do was put their faith in God. And that's what all of these reassurances that God provided Gideon along the way were intended to get him to do. Gideon, don't worry about the size of the army. Gideon, don't worry about how strong or mighty you are or you aren't. Put your faith in me. And if you do that, then this is what happens. And so Gideon got there. It took him a little bit of time, but God was patient with him throughout it all.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

There's a beautiful passage. Uh you may you alluded to it in Judges chapter 7, really in verse 15, when Gideon comes back, you know, from you know, hearing this conversation that's happening in the camp, and it says there in verse 15 that, you know, Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation that he worshiped. And he returned to the camp of Israel and said, Arise, for the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand. Two things that really strike me there. First is his worship. He hears that and he worshiped. He gives glory to God as rightly as he should, and he comes back. Now, again, nothing has happened battle-wise, but he is now speaking about it in the exact same way that God is speaking about it. Arise. The Lord has given the hand of Midian uh already into you, into your hand, the Midian into your hands. And you're right, from that point, beginning there in ver in verse 16, uh, you know, a part of the story a lot of people will be familiar with, it's all God. Yeah. I mean, and we should be surprised by this. I mean, God takes an army of 300 men armed with trumpets, pitchers, and torches, and defeats an army. I mean, it is the same God who will take David and arm him with a few stones and a slingshot to take down uh a giant. Or he made mention of Joshua chapter one, just a few chapters later in Joshua chapter six, he's bringing down walls and he asks the people to walk, to be quiet, to shout when they that's it. And so now it is it is God forefront, and that is why you came from 32,000 to 300 to showcase the power that God has, and Gideon is right to worship.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

And that's that's exactly what God said at the beginning of this chapter is if 32,000 of you go into battle, there's a chance that Israel might think they did this, that this was their doing. And God was bound and determined to make sure everyone understood that this was God's work. Everything that was being done was done being done by the hand of God. And this goes all the way back to really what we we talked about at the beginning of this series and this cyclical cycle that the people are in. When the people were being oppressed, they cried out to God for deliverance. God needs to make sure they understand that he is the deliverer. And so it can't be this mighty man who has these thousands upon thousands of people, because then Israel might think they've done that they've done this themselves. God is the deliverer, and he's gonna make it abundantly clear to them and to anyone who reads this story that deliverance comes through the hand of God, nobody else. Now he's using Gideon in this story, and Gideon is a man of faith, but the deliverer is God, and that is ultimately what he needs all of us to see and understand still today.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

Yeah, that's exactly right, and a good place for us to stop. We still have one more chapter in this story, uh Judges chapter eight. If chapter seven is the most well-known of the chapters of the story of Gideon, chapter eight is the least. But to your point, there is something exactly on your line of commenting that happens in Judges chapter eight when the people start to get confused about who's in charge and who needs to be in charge. And I'm looking forward to that conversation next week. But before that, let's close with a passage. We'll go back to Judges chapter 7, and we'll close with the thing that is said specifically from God in verse 7. It says, The Lord said to Gideon, By the 300 men who laughed, I will save you and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go, every man to his place.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

Thank you for listening this week. If you haven't already done so, we'd appreciate it if you would take just a second to subscribe to the podcast on whatever platform you're listening and rate and review the show so we can continue to spread the good news of Jesus as widely and effectively as possible. Thanks again for joining us this week, and we'll talk to you again next week.