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AM Bible Study Group; June 3, 2015 from Judges 7:8b-15

Theme: This passage shows how nothing hindered God from giving the victory to His called-out people.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

As we have studied the important battle Gideon fought against the Midianites—a battle that one Old Testament commentator called the best-known battle in the Bible—we have found that the odds had been made humanly impossible. Gideon himself was a humble man who needed assurance—and was not someone that would ordinarily thought to be a great military leader. His army was ridiculously small—an army that was reduced by God from 32,000 men to only three-hundred; making the odds against them about 400 to one! And the provisions for each solder were the strangest ever issued to an army—that is, to each man a clay pitcher, a trumpet, and a torch.
And yet, the battle was won! And this story in the life of Gideon teaches us an important lesson about the God we serve: Nothing hinders God from winning the victory when the battle is His. We always need to remember that it was God who told Gideon, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man” (6:16). God called him, sent him, and promised him the victory; and therefore it was the Midianites who were hopelessly outnumbered!
Consider that when the battle is the Lord’s . . .
I. A LACK OF RESOURCES ARE NOT A PROBLEM (7:16-18).
A. After having overheard the two Midianite soldiers on the outskirts of the camp discussing a dream, and after hearing one say to the other, “This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel! Into his hand God has delivered Midian and the whole camp” (7:14); we’re told that Gideon then got into action. But what kind of action is this? After departing from the overwhelmingly great army of the enemy, we’re told, “Then he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet into every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and torches inside the pitchers” (v. 16). Would the 300 soldiers have looked at one another and said, “What are we supposed to do with these? Provide entertainment?” But it may be that these strange provisions were the only things at Gideon’s disposal at that point. After all, for seven years the Midianites had greatly impoverished the people of Israel. It may be that Gideon gave them all the ‘weapons’ that they really had.
B. But like the old song says, “Little is much, when God is in it.” We should remember how the disciples were baffled at the prospect of feeding a multitude with only a few loaves of bread and a few small fish. That meager provision became great after the Lord said, “Bring them here to Me” (v. 18). Gideon knew that the battle belonged to the Lord; so the little he had was much in God’s hand. He gave his meager supply to the 300 soldiers; and we’re told, “And he said to them, ‘Look at me and do likewise; watch, and when I come to the edge of the camp you shall do as I do: When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you also blow the trumpets on every side of the whole camp, and say, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!”’” (vv. 17-18). Notice what those things became? They were ‘the sword of the Lord and of Gideon’—just what the Midianite soldiers said in the interpretation of their dream—except that the Lord was now clearly in it! We should never despair having meager resources for God’s work when those resources are brought to the Lord!
II. A LACK OF NUMBERS IS NO BARRIER (7:19-23).
A. Some have thought that the thing that Gideon did next was an example of military genius. And when we hear someone say that, we should respond by saying, “Then YOU try it sometime!” The vast army of Midianite soldiers was “as numerous as locusts”, and they had camels “without number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude” (7:12). And the fact that a mere 300 men with pitchers and torches and trumpets could defeat them by breaking the pitchers, and making a lot of noise, was not a result of brilliant military strategy! It was a miracle of God’s own doing! We’re told that Gideon took 100 men to the outpost of the camp “at the beginning of the middle watch”—that is, around 10 pm, when many soldiers were beginning to fall asleep, and when those on watch were relaxed and unsuspecting. The other two divisions quietly surrounded the camp from other sides. And at the right moment, “they blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands. Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers—they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing—and they cried, ‘The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!’” (vv. 19-20). We can safely say that this humanly ‘far-fetched’ plan would have to have been something given to Gideon by God.
B. And we are clearly told that what happened next was the Lord’s doing. “And every man stood in his place all around the camp; and the whole army ran and cried out and fled. When the three hundred blew the trumpets, the Lord set every man’s sword against his companion throughout the whole camp; and the army fled to Beth Acacia, toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel Meholah, by Tabbath” (vv. 21-22). It may have been that the sudden sound of crashing and trumpets, the sudden appearance of torches, and the sudden surrounding army of 300, set the Midianites in a panic and caused them to head for their homeland. It may have been that the camels were put into a panic and began to run amok. But how can we account for the fact that the Midianites then set their swords against each other and reduce their own numbers? The answer we’re given is that the Lord did that! We might say that the lack of human resources proved not to be a problem, because the Lord was able to provide the manpower through the Midianites themselves! What’s more, once they were on the run, those that Gideon had previously sent home (7:3, 6-7) now—in the providence of God—became handy for capturing the escapees along the way. “And the men of Israel gathered together from Naphtali, Asher, and all Manasseh, and pursued the Midianites” (v. 23). As Joshua once said, “One man of you shall chase a thousand, for the Lord your God is He who fights for you, as He promised you” (Joshua 23:10).
III. EVEN THE FRAILTIES OF PEOPLE CANNOT HINDER GOD’S PURPOSE (7:24-8:3).
A. It’s here in the story that Gideon ran into a problem. At first, the news seemed good. We’re told that Gideon called upon the Israelites in the mountains of the tribe of Ephraim to come and seize the watering places in the south—the ones that fed into the Jordan—to prevent the Midianites from going any further. What’s more, the Ephraimites captured two leaders of the Midianites—Oreb (whose name means “Raven”) and Zeeb (whose name means “Wolf”)—slew them, and brought their heads back to Gideon on the other side of the Jordan (7:24-25). But the victory quickly turned sour. The Ephriamites, after all, were a very proud tribe. Joshua had come from them. The tabernacle had been located in their own city of Shiloh. And their founding father Ephriam had been honored over the founder of Gideon’s tribe Menassah in the blessing of Jacob (Genesis 48:8-20). They confronted Gideon and said, “Why have you done this to us by not calling us when you went to fight with the Midianites?” We’re told that “they reprimanded him sharply” (8:1). This, as it turns out, is a repeated problem with proud Ephriam—expecting to be honored much for doing little (see Judges 12:1ff). We might think of some examples of this in church today!
B. Such arrogant pride is a terrible fault; and it can hinder the work of God through division. But it doesn’t have to. God gave His appointed servant Gideon the grace to respond wisely. He could have silenced them by pointing to his own clear call from God; but instead, “he said to them, ‘What have I done now in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer?’” (v. 2). Gideon was an Abiezerite; and he was saying that Ephriam’s act of capturing and slaying the two princes is far greater than the work of Gideon’s humble army. He added, “’God has delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. And what was I able to do in comparison with you?’ Then their anger toward him subsided when he said that” (v. 3). It may not have been a fair comparison; but it was a wise one to make. God gave that answer to him. When we remember that “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” (Proverbs 15:1), then not even the frailties of pride and jealousy have to stand in the way of God’s work getting done!

* * * * * * * * * *

As followers of Jesus, we are called upon often to enter into battle—not, of course, against flesh and blood; but against overwhelming forces in spiritual realms. But as Paul wrote, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ . . .” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).
Let’s always remember that the God that gave the victory to Gideon is also our God; and when the battle is His, nothing—not lack of resources, not lack of personal, not even our own failings and faults—can hinder Him from giving the victory.

AM Bible Study Group; May 27, 2015 from Judges 7:8b-15

Theme: When God calls His servants to a task, He knows how to give them necessary assurances along the way.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

In our last time together, we saw how God had diminished Gideon army down from 32,000 men to only 300; and affirmed to him that this dramatically small number to be sufficient for Him to give an army of 135,000 Midianites into their hand. This was, of course, because nothing is too hard for our God. But it would have been an unspeakably overwhelming situation for a mere man. And so—knowing the frailty of His appointed servant—God provided Gideon an additional grace of assurance just before the battle. This would be in addition to the confirmation that God had already given Gideon—at Gideon’s request—through the two signs of the fleece (Judges 6:36-40). A new situation of a reduced army needed a new assurance from God. As Matthew Henry so wonderfully put it; “Gideon’s army being diminished as we have found it was, he must either fight by faith or not at all; God therefore here provides recruits for his faith, instead of recruits for his forces.”
There is a great lesson for us in this passage. Our God—who calls us to do great things for His cause—knows that we are weak and frail. And so, when He calls us to the service of His cause, He not only provides all that is necessary externally for the task, but also all that is necessary internally. He gives us needed assurances along the way.
Note how this passage shows us . . .
I. GIDEON’S NEED FOR ASSURANCE (vv. 8b-11).
A. Gideon’s army had just been reduced to 300 men. They took their provisions in hand and prepared themselves for God’s call. It’s then that the passage impresses us with the situation that Gideon faced—as he himself saw it: “Now the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.” If you were to look ahead to verse 12, you’d see that—humanly speaking—it would have been a dreadfully fearful and impossible situation. But God knew how Gideon would feel. And He knew what Gideon would have needed. As Psalm 103 tells us,

As a father pities his children,
So the Lord pities those who fear Him.
For He knows our frame;
He remembers that we are dust (Psalm 103:13-14).

B. Gideon himself may not have fully understood how much assurance from God he would have needed along the way; but God certainly knew. We’re told, “It happened on the same night [that is, the night of the reduction of the troops and of their preparation for battle] that the Lord said to him, ‘Arise, go down against the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand’” (v. 9). Consider that carefully! From the standpoint of God, the outcome of the battle was already a done deal. It had already been “given” into Gideon’s hand. That might be all that was needed. Nevertheless, God says more; “’But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant, and you shall hear what they say; and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp’” (v. 9-11a). To go down to the outskirts of such an opposing army would not have been a natural thing to do if one was truly afraid of that army! But God promised Gideon that if he heard what they were saying in the camp, Gideon’s ‘hands’ would be ‘strengthened’ for the task. Whenever we face overwhelming odds in a seemingly-impossible call of God, if we would simply do what God says—even when it doesn’t make human sense to do it—then we will find that He provides needed encouragement while on the way.
C. We’re told, “Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp” (v. 11b). The fact that Gideon went suggests to us that he did indeed need the encouragement that God was about to provide to him! And note also that, in all this, God also provided Purah to be a companion in the assurance! God not only knows when we need assurance, but also that we need another partner in faith with whom to share it.
II. GOD’S PROVISION OF ASSURANCE (vv. 12-14).
A. The means getting to this necessary provision of assurance certainly didn’t seem natural. Gideon and Purah went to ‘the outpost of the armed men’! That would have been to draw dangerously close to this dreaded enemy. And what’s more, we’re told, “Now the Midianites and Amalekites, all the people of the East, were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude” (v. 12). The sight of this vast army would ordinarily have terrified a fearful man—certainly not ‘assure’ him! God is being honest with His servant—letting him see the situation as it really was. But in showing it all to him, God was also letting him see more than what met the eye.
B. The encouragement came from eavesdropping! We’re told, “And when Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said, ‘I have had a dream: To my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian; it came to a tent and struck it so that it fell and overturned, and the tent collapsed’” (v. 13). The symbolism here is important. A barely loaf was nothing impressive. It was a poor-man’s food. It reflected the manner in which the Midianites had oppressed God’s people—nearly impoverishing them by the destruction of their crops (see Judges 6:1-10). And that’s all Gideon and his army of 300 were—little more than a barley bun. The tent of the Midianites, however, spoke of their establishment in the land, As nomadic people, their tents were solid and strong. They didn’t fall over easily. This reflects the attitude of the Midianites, who had—they thought—set up a stronghold in the land of Israel. The barley loaf did something remarkable. It knocked the tent over—pegs and cords and all—and caused it to completely collapse.
C Then came the interpretation. We’re told, “Then his companion answered and said, ‘This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel! Into his hand God has delivered Midian and the whole camp’” (v. 14). Think carefully of that! How did this man even know who Gideon was? It wouldn’t be because Gideon had assembled a great army, because God had cut Gideon’s army down to almost nothing. And how was it that this man uttered the name of God (Elohim) and not Baal; and said God had delivered the camp of the Midianites into Gideon’s hand—just as God Himself had just said to Gideon? There’s no other way to explain it except that God allowed the one man to give a divinely revealed interpretation to the other—right at the very moment that Gidean and Purah could overhear it!. As the Old Testament scholars Keil and Delizch wrote:

The Israelites had really been crushed by the Midianites into a poor nation of slaves. But whilst the dream itself admits of being explained in this manner in a perfectly natural way, it acquires the higher supernatural character of a divine inspiration, from the fact that God not only foreknew it, but really caused the Midianite to dream, and to relate the dream to his comrade, just at the time when Gideon had secretly entered the camp, so that he should hear it, and discover therefrom, as God had foretold him, the despondency of the foe. Under these circumstances, Gideon could not fail to regard the dream as a divine inspiration, and to draw the assurance from it, that God had certainly given the Midianites into his hands.

God gave the assurance to Gideon that he needed—and right when he needed it!
III. GIDEON’S SHARING OF ASSURANCE (v. 15).
A. Gideon did the right thing with this assurance he had been given. He could tell that this was a gift from God; and so we’re told, “And so it was, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, that he worshiped” (v. 15a). Right then and there—probably not too loudly, though!—he worshiped God and acknowledged not only God’s gift of the assurance, but that God would indeed give the victory.
B. He now had a great story to tell; and couldn’t—and shouldn’t!—keep it to himself. We’re told,

“He returned to the camp of Israel, and said, ‘Arise, for the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand’” (v. 15b).

Purah was there also; and could affirm every word of the encouragement from God.

* * * * * * * * * *

In light of this, consider what we’re told in Hebrews 11; “And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword . . .” (Hebrews 11:32-34a).
And note especially what we’re told after that; that these great heroes of faith (including Gideon) were they who “out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens (v. 34b). When God calls us to a task, we can safely go. He knows how to give us strengthening assurances along the way!

AM Bible Study Group; May 20, 2015 from Judges 7:1-8a

Theme: The limitations that God allows us to experience are so that His sufficiency may be revealed.

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AM Bible Study Group; May 13, 2015 from Judges 6:33-40

Theme: God graciously takes those that He calls through a process that prepares them for the work.

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AM Bible Study Group; May 6, 2015 from Judges 6:25-32

Theme: Returning to the worship of the one true God requires that we tear down what is false.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

There is an important and inviolable principle in the spiritual life: God will not allow Himself to be worshiped alongside idols. Period!
Do you remember how, when the Philistines once captured the Ark of God and tried to place it next to their false god Dagon, that they arose the next day to find Dagon fallen and broken (1 Samuel 5:1-4)? When God told Jacob to go to Bethal and build an alter there to Him, Jacob told everyone in his household, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you . . .” (Genesis 35:2). God is holy; and he will not tolerate being placed as Lord in our hearts alongside that which is an abomination to Him. If we will hold on tightly to our false gods, then He will leave us to them. But if we want Him in our lives, then that which is false and vile absolutely must go.
This principle is illustrated for us vividly in the story of Gideon. The people of Israel had turned away from God and had turned to the false gods of the people around them. So, God allowed them to suffer oppression from the Midianite peoples for seven years. In mercy, God raised up Gideon to be their deliverer. God presented himself to Gideon, and Gideon had begun to worship Him. But now, Gideon had to establish his devotion to God by destroying that which is false.
Notice . . .
I. THE COMMAND THAT WAS GIVEN BY GOD (vv. 25-26).
A. On the same night on which the Lord had appeared to him (see vv. 11-24), God commanded him to take decisive action. He was, you’ll remember, the least of his brethren in the family of Joash the Abiezrite (vv. 11, 15). Yet, he was to (1) take his father’s two bulls—a young one and one that is seven years old, (2) tear down the community altar to the false god Baal that was under the custodianship of his father, (3) cut down the Asherah pole—a vile wooden image built to honor the supposed consort of the false god Baal—both of which were images that celebrated sexual immorality, (4) build and altar—properly arranged—on the rock at which Baal was being worshiped, (5), build a fire on the altar with the wood of the Asherah pole, and (6) offer the second bull—the seven year old bull—as a burnt sacrifice.
B. What exactly was done with the first bull isn’t told to us; but some suggest that it was simply taken away because it was intended to be sacrificed to Baal. Perhaps the seven-year-old bull was offered in order to make atonement for the seven years the people had suffered under Midian (v. 1). But in any case, notice that God called Gideon—as a first step of devotion before he could be used by God—to completely destroy the false worship of false gods, and to set up the exclusive worship of the one true God instead. Nothing of the false worship was left. Only the altar to the one true God remained. As God Himself has established forever: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:2-3).
II. THE CHALLENGE THAT CAME THROUGH FEAR (v. 27).
A. Because Gideon considered himself the least of his father’s house (v. 15), this must have been an intimidating command to obey. But three times in God’s original call, Gideon was told, “The LORD is with you” (v. 12), and “Have I not sent you?” (v. 14), and “Surely I will be with you” (v. 16). “So Gideon”—whose name, by the way, means ‘Warrior’—“took ten men from among his servants and did as the LORD had said to him.” It must have been that those ten men were also convinced of the Lord’s call of Gideon as well.
B. But we also read that Gideon performed this act of obedience under the cover of night, “because he feared his father’s household and the men of the city too much to do it by day . . .” We shouldn’t fault Gideon too much for this. As someone has once pointed out, God does not call us to be fearless—just obedient. But it’s important to note that Gideon’s manifest fear of men didn’t prevent him from obeying God. The challenge of fear is not one of emotion, but of action. The true opposite of courage is not ‘fear’; but rather ‘inaction’. True courage means obeying God as the one and only true God—in spite of our fear of men.
III. THE RAGE THAT AROSE FROM THE WICKED (vv. 28-30).
A. Gideon had good reason, as it turned out, to be cautious of men. When the men woke up the next day to begin their daily rituals of worship of the false god Baal, they found their false altar and all the objects of their worship had been destroyed, and an altar to the one true God set up in its place—with the smoke of the offering of the second bull still rising upward from the altar. Perhaps they also saw the first bull—if it had been intended to be offered to Baal— standing beside it all as if to emphasize how Baal’s altar had been completely destroyed, as if to testify that the false worship of Baal had been completely defeated.
B. Now; remember that these were Jewish men!—men of the tribe of Manasseh (v. 15). The had no business worshiping the vile false gods of the pagan nations around them. And yet, with their false god taken away, they were enraged. They looked into the matter, and found that it was Gideon the son of Joash who had done this. They demanded of Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, because he has torn down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the wooden image that was beside it” (v. 30). We should remember that devotion to the one true God always means the destruction of that which is false—and the immorality that goes along with it. That’s why the world hates devotion to the one true God! It shines a light on their sin. “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19).
IV. THE FAITH THAT WAS INSPIRED BY OBEDIENCE (v. 31).
A. The men of Ophrah couldn’t see the irony of this—that they were mad at mere man for having destroyed the worship of their “god”. But the irony didn’t escape Joash. It might have been that he was also, at first, outraged at Gideon for destroying the community altar. But then, he began to think: “If Baal is truly a mighty god, then why would men have to defend him? Why couldn’t he defend himself? Could it be that—just as I suspected all along—Baal is no real god at all? That’s when he stopped the men from killing Gideon. He told them, “Would you plead for Baal? Would you save him? Let the one who would plead for him be put to death by morning! If he is a god, let him plead for himself, because his altar has been torn down.”
B. What a great answer! If the many false systems of belief of this world—including, as it is fair to point out, certain divisions of Christendom at certain point of its history—had followed this policy, a lot less people would have been killed in the name of religion. But more—notice how Gideon’s act of obedience awoke his own father from out of the stupor of false worship. Apparently, it began to do the same for all the others as well. Later on, Gideon was able to call forces behind him from many tribes—including Manasseh (v. 35). Bold obedience to God often angers the wicked; but it also sometimes awakens and inspires those who are marginal in the faith to a renewal of obedience and devotion.
V. THE NAME THAT WAS GIVEN TO GIDEON (v. 32).
A. Gideon’s name meant “Warrior”. But now, his father gave him a new name—Jerubbaal— which means “Let Baal Plead”; saying “Let Baal plead against him, because he has torn down his altar.” Gideon became ‘The Baal Fighter’; and he came to be known by the name Jerubbaal name often (Judges 7:1; 8:29, 35; 9:1, 2, 5, 16, 19, 24, 28, 57; 1 Samuel 12:11).
B. When we set the one true God in his proper place, and His Son as Lord in our hearts, then all that is false shows itself for what it is—and gets torn down!

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What Gideon was led by God do to needs to be a regular practice in our own lives—that is, to repeatedly ‘tear down the altars to Baal’ that we have set up in our lives. God will not share His rightful throne in our hearts with another! Let’s regularly ask, “God, what stands in the way of Your having my total devotion? What false altar do You find in my heart that You want torn down?”