Judges 7:16-24
Gideon and the three hundred men of Israel were ready to go against the thousands of fierce men of Midian, camping in the valley of Jezreel.
God had given wisdom how they should do: Gideon divided the men into three companies; each man had a trumpet in one hand and a lighted lamp, or torch, hidden in a pitcher, in the other hand. They were told to go down to the edge of the enemy’s camp and stand around it, and when. Gideon blew his trumpet and showed his light, every man was to do the same.
They went quietly down the hills. It was night, and we can imagine that great crowd of men asleep, close together in their blankets on the ground, some, or perhaps all, in tents. New guards had just taken their places, at what is called, the “middle watch”, thought to have been near midnight. They did not see or hear the men of Israel.
Suddenly, Gideon and the men with him blew their trumpets, and quickly broke their pitchers to let their lights show. So almost at once the three hundred lights shone around the dark camp, and the men of Israel shouted, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon.”
The noise of the trumpets awakened the men of Midian. Seeing all the lights and hearing the shouts around them, they, no doubt, supposed a big army had come. They were so frightened they fought and killed one another; while those who lived fled toward their own country.
Gideon and his men followed after; later, other men of Israel helped them, and the great enemy was driven from Israel’s land.
Gideon and his men won this great victory because they believed God and had done as He had shown them. Gideon is named with others who had faith in God (Heb. 11:32).
Surely this story was written to teach us, for as that big enemy had been robbing Israel of their food, so there are those now who would keep us from enjoying the Bible, which is the food of our souls.
If Christian boys and girls tell others the words of God, and show in their ways that they believe His Word, they will be using their “trumpets” and “lights.”
“Among whom ye shine as lights’ Philippians 2:15.
ML 07/24/1938