Only after the dust of the battle settled, can we find the numbers that were slain in the LORD’s victory through Gideon. The kings of Midian retreated to a place where they felt secure. All that was left was 15,000 Midianite soldiers; 120,000 had fallen to the sword of Gideon and Israel.
Judges 8:10-12 ESV Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their army, about 15,000 men, all who were left of all the army of the people of the East, for there had fallen 120,000 men who drew the sword. (11) And Gideon went up by the way of the tent dwellers east of Nobah and Jogbehah and attacked the army, for the army felt secure. (12) And Zebah and Zalmunna fled, and he pursued them and captured the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and he threw all the army into a panic.
Who was this man of faith whose name is recorded among the faithful of the LORD in Hebrew 11:32? We need to look at what was going on in Israel at the time. Israel had gone back to worshipping Baal and the LORD was allowing the Midianites to severely punish Israel. They were raiding all of the crops and consuming all, until nothing was left. It looked as if locus had invaded the land. There were so many that Israel could not stop them.
Judges 6:5-6 These enemy hordes, coming with their livestock and tents, were as thick as locusts; they arrived on droves of camels too numerous to count. And they stayed until the land was stripped bare. (6) So Israel was reduced to starvation by the Midianites. Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help.
The LORD heard their cry and went to a man named Gideon. When the LORD appeared to him as an Angel; he was threshing wheat at the bottom of a wine press, to hide his food. The Angel called him a mighty man of valor and said that the LORD was with him to rescue His people Israel. Gideon tried to negotiate his way out of this assignment. Not convinced that this was a messenger from God, Gideon asked for a sign. Gideon prepared a goat with broth and unleavened cakes; and brought it to the angel. The angel told him to put it on a rock and pour the broth upon it. The angel touched it with the tip of his staff and fire instantly consumed it all. Gideon built an altar and worshipped the LORD.
Judges 6:21 ESV Then the angel of the LORD reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight.
That night, the LORD told Gideon to take his father’s bull and a second bull and tear down his father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole standing beside it; make an altar to the LORD and sacrifice the bull, using the Asherah for wood. Gideon took ten of his servants and did this at night because he was afraid of members of his father’s house and the people of the town. In the morning there was quite a stir over this. The town’s people wanted Gideon dead; but his father Joash stands up for his son and challenges their god Baal.
Judges 6:31-33 ESV But Joash said to all who stood against him, "Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down." (32) Therefore on that day Gideon was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, "Let Baal contend against him," because he broke down his altar. (33) Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East came together, and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel.
With invincible faith in God, Gideon assembled 32,000 soldiers to fight against 135,000 Midianites. Being outnumbered more than 4 to one by the enemy, God told Gideon to send home, anyone who was afraid to fight. Leaving only 10, 000 soldiers; outnumbered now almost 15 to one.
Judges 7:3 ESV Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, 'Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.'" Then 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained.
God said that they were still too large of an army for God to give the battle to Gideon. A third dismissal left only three hundred men, to go into battle against 135,000. Each man would have to personally face-down 450 enemy warriors.
Judges 7:5-7 ESV So he brought the people down to the water. And the LORD said to Gideon, "Every one who laps the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set by himself. Likewise, every one who kneels down to drink." (6) And the number of those who lapped, putting their hands to their mouths, was 300 men, but all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water. (7) And the LORD said to Gideon, "With the 300 men who lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand, and let all the others go every man to his home."
That night God spoke to Gideon and assured him that the Midianites would be given into his hand. Armed with only trumpets and torches hidden in clay pitchers, the three hundred men were divided into 3 companies that surrounded the camp of the Midianites. At Gideon’s command, they blew their trumpets, broke the clay pitchers revealing the light of their torches. The noise and the three hundred lights in the dark of night put the enemy into a panic and the Lord set them upon themselves. The enemy slew their fellow soldiers.
Judges 7:20-22 And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon. (21) And they stood every man in his place round about the camp: and all the host ran, and cried, and fled. (22) And the three hundred blew the trumpets, and the LORD set every man's sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host: and the host fled to Bethshittah in Zererath, and to the border of Abelmeholah, unto Tabbath.
Imagine the power of the three hundred lights that drove 120,000 Midianites to slay one another. Three hundred lights and voices, with three hundred trumpets sounded victory for the Lord and Gideon. God put an illusion in the minds of the army of Midian that 300 legions of a 1.000 men in each or more than 300,000 were coming against them in the night.
We always have a tendency to fight God by wanting to do things our way; relying on our own strength. Here God piled seemingly impossible odds against Gideon and his 300. They were out numbered 450 to 1. God wants us to face equally impossible odds because that is the only way we are going to grow in faith and in God’s own character. God still speaks to His people today; He speaks to you and me. God lead me to abandon the security of my very comfortable life of being well established in Madison Wisconsin. The LORD called upon me to uproot my life after He had established me in both the community and in His church. This was hard! My negotiations with the LORD failed, just as Gideon’s negotiations failed. God said, “Go!” The LORD moved me from working with a church and ministry that targeted a community of maybe 900,000; to join with a ministry that is targeting a community of 9.2 million. What God has planned is beyond human reason; but God is blessing my life and ministry. He wants to bless your life and ministry as well. We all must surrender to do it God’s way, against all odds.
My Father in Heaven; I thank you from leading me to what you are blessing. Thank you for moving me out of my complacency and fear. Help me to be strong and courageous in your ways; in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Copyright © 2006, 2011 Thomas C. Blake
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