Judges 7.
THIRTY-two thousand men joined Gideon, but so weak in faith were they, that when in the presence of the Midianites, twenty two thousand of them were ready to go back to their homes. So, easily is the pride of man raised that spite of their timidity, the people would, if God gave the Midianites into their hands, say, “Mine own hand hath saved me” (verse 2). The number is yet too great, for God’s hand alone must be seen in the overthrow of the enemy. Only those may remain who drank hastily, more concerned with the prospective battle than with their comfort and ease. This reduced the number following Gideon to 300, but his faith is strong; he no longer looks at himself, but to God, trusting in His word Who said, “I have delivered it (the enemy) into thine hand.”
The ways in which God acts on behalf of His own people are various, as we are reminded by the case of the Midianites. Their soldiers are spread out in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude, yet there is terror in their breasts, fear put there by God. “Into his (Gideon’s) hand hath God delivered Midian and all the host” says one soldier to another (verse 14). Gideon, directed by God to go down to their camp that he may learn what they are saying, hearing this, returns to his feeble, unarmed band of 300 men, saying, “Arise, for the Lord hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian.” It is God who does everything for Israel; the trumpets and lamps only announce His presence and that of His servant Gideon, and the terror-stricken enemy, amid the darkness of the night, kill each other, for the Lord set every man’s sword against his fellow even throughout all the host.
Now the men of Israel come out of their cities to pursue the enemy, profiting by the work of faith, though without faith themselves, and so the chapter ends. What power in God, open to the appeal of faith; what weakness in man, however he may he blessed!
ML 11/15/1925