What is your greatest achievement in life? As you look back, do you gain most satisfaction from your academic qualifications, from your career accomplishments, from successfully raising a family, or from something else entirely? And whatever achievement does springs to mind, to whom do you give most credit for your success?
Because the story of Gideon, which we are studying this morning, is a healthy reminder that, ultimately, its God who deserves most credit for anything we’re able to achieve in this life. Today’s passage in Judges is a valuable reminder that, without God, we can accomplish little. Indeed, our time, our talents, our life are all his gracious gifts. A healthy dependence on God is the proper posture – the correct attitude – of a wise man or woman seeking true success in life and real hope for eternity.
A nation under attack – Midian invades Israel
Today’s passage begins with a depiction of a nation under siege. The people of Israel have once again fallen under foreign occupation. This time it is the Midianites who have lain waste to their land. Like a swarm of locusts, they have consumed the Israelites’ crops and devoured their livestock. Indeed, the Israelites had been forced to flee to the hills to avoid the marauding Midianites. They had to hide to keep themselves (and their possessions) out of the hands of their oppressors.
Wisely, the people of Israel recognised that they had reached the end of their own resources, and cried out to the Lord for deliverance. They prayed that God would save them from the Midianite siege.
And God’s answer comes to a man named Gideon – an ordinary man with no particular pedigree or prominent social position. Indeed, Gideon describes himself as ‘the least’ even within his own family. But once again – as we’ve seen already with Ehud and with Deborah – God has chosen an unlikely individual to be the hero of the hour, the saviour of the nation.
God’s angel finds Gideon threshing wheat inside a winepress, trying to keep his head and his harvest out of sight of the Midianites. He greets him with the words “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior!” To Gideon’s evident amazement, God has chosen him to lead the rebellion against Midian. The Lord has selected him to be the instrument through which he would liberate his people. Despite Gideon’s doubts about his own ability, the Lord reassures him that he will be with him. His strength will be sufficient for Gideon’s mission to succeed.
You may remember that the Lord Jesus made the same promise to his disciples, when he gave them their Great Commission. He said: “I will be with you always.” And so, as Jesus’ disciples today, we need to learn the same lesson as Gideon, don’t we? We need to learn the healthy habit of seeking the Lord’s help before undertaking any important task, before embarking on any mission. We need to seek the guidance and strength that only his Holy Spirit can supply. Humble, dependent prayer is the secret to a truly successful, fruitful life in the eyes of God.
A drinking army is shrunk in size!
Returning to our passage, chapter 7 of Judges tells us that Gideon assembled a large army with which to fight back against the Midianites. But the Lord will have none of it, will he? Twice, in two different ways, he tells Gideon to radically shrink his army in size. The first method, described in verse 3, is to let ‘anyone who trembles with fear’ to return home. This immediately reduces Gideon’s army by two-thirds, from thirty thousand to just ten thousand.
Stage two is described in verses 5 to 6. The Lord said to Gideon: “‘Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.’ 6 Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.’ With those 300 men the Lord will rout the Midianite hordes. A victory so ‘against the odds’ that he alone would get the credit.
In other words the Israelites would be safe from any delusion of self-sufficiency. A delusion that we are all still so prone to fall into – a delusion that forgets we’re creatures rather than the Creator. A delusion that fails to recognise our debt to our Heavenly Father.
A dream fulfilled – victory is won!
With Gideon’s army suitably diminished, a God given dream reassures him of success. The dream is given to a Midianite soldier encamped the valley below, a dream that involves a round loaf of barley bread rolling straight through their camp, scattering them in all directions.
This dream is fulfilled, of course, when in the middle of the night Gideon and his men give a loud shout, blow their trumpets and hold aloft some flaming torches. This provokes chaos and confusing in the Midianite ranks, sending them running in all directions, fleeing for their lives.
With this, the Promised Land is liberated, and God’s people can once more enjoy all that God wanted to give them – a land flowing with milk and honey – a land in which they could know and love him as their Lord.
As Christians we too have a promised land to look forward to, a land where our past sins are forgiven, a land in which we can enjoy the Lord’s blessings forevermore. And our access to that new creation, that kingdom to come, is by grace not works, by faith not our own unaided achievements.
As Gideon discovered, it is by trusting in the promises of God and the power of God that we can be saved. It is through faith in the Lord Jesus that we are made fit for Heaven. God’s grace, not unaided human effort, is the essential ingredient for success in life – and salvation for eternity.