The next characteristic we see in this man Gideon, we have in the 14th verse: "And the LORD looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?"
What was his might? That God sent him! That is all the might you need. If God sends you, if He commissions you, He will be with you; He will be your strength.
Now we find the true state of the man coming out. And he says, "O my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel?" What am I? "Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house." What a wonderful confession! That is the kind of person God can use. It was Gideon's very weakness that was the source of his strength; that was the reason God appeared to the man; it was the spirit of the man. God as much as says, That is the kind of man I can use. Does not the Word of God say, "When I am weak, then am I strong"? Indeed it does.
"The time would fail me to tell of Gideon"-and so it will—-but we will just anticipate a little.
Further on, he faced the time when there was a whole host encamped against him. What was the difficulty that confronted him? Not that he had too few with him, but he had too many! He got rid of 22,000, then 10,000, and finally simmered down to 300 men (Judges 7). What a tremendous slaughter and cleaning out of the Midianites results from that little handful! It was not multitudes they needed-it was not the power of man's arm they needed-it was not the arm of flesh they needed. They needed to feel their weakness, and when they did, God gave them the victory. It is a grand thing if, by the grace of God, we can go on feeling our weakness. God does not despise weakness.
When the Lord Jesus was here it was said of Him, "A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench." Isn't that lovely? A bruised reed-of what account is it? He will not break it. That blessed, gentle Man would not break that bruised reed. And "smoking flax"-that is a lamp with a flaxen wick. It is smoking-not giving much light. He will not quench it-not put it out. He will tenderly remove the crust and coax it back until it gives light. God does not despise weakness. Saints of God, do not surrender and give yourselves up to indifference because you have little gift, or because there are only a few. Numbers do not count with God; they do not.
Go through the life of the blessed Lord Jesus and see how often you find His ministry to one individual; He was not too busy to sit down and spend an hour with some lone individual man or woman. He was not too big a Man to listen to little children. That blessed Man went up and down the pathways of Galilee and, except for that little trip up around Tire and Sidon, so far as I know, He was never out of that country, save as a Babe in His mother's arms. He was not too busy for the small things of life.
Now we find Gideon knows what communion is, and he brings an offering to God, and God accepts it-perhaps not in the way that Gideon expected, but in a much better way-not as a present, but as a sacrifice. What was the result? Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it Jehovah-shalom -The Lord send peace.
Now there is peace, there is communion, and Gideon can go forth to battle. He is ready to go forth in the cause of his Lord. First, he learned his nothingness, and then he learned that the Lord was his peace; and now he is in a position to do the will of the Lord.
Sometimes when we think we would like to do a little something for the Lord, we are rather disappointed because we find it begins so near home. Is not that the truth? The Lord said to one who wanted to follow Him, "Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee." Gideon had to start at home, and is that not true with us? What kind of Christians are we at home? What about the home folks? Sometimes we find ourselves in positions very difficult. So did Gideon; his father was an idolater. Isn't that sad? He had an altar to Baal, and Gideon gets the commission to break down that altar and do away with it. That is quite a responsibility, to take his own father's bullock and offer it for a burnt offering, destroy the altar of Baal, and establish the worship of the true God.
Gideon is not a self-confident soul; he has becoming modesty; there is a bit of fear; he is like Timothy, a timid soul. He gathers his company together and says, We will do this by night; I am afraid to do it in the daytime. God bore with that. Dear soul, God will bear with your timidity; He will bear with that kind of thing far better than arrogant self-confidence and pride. So Gideon and his company went forth in the middle of the night and cut down the image of Baal and the grove; and when morning dawned, all had disappeared, and there was the altar to the true God. What will his father say? Did you ever feel that way about the folks at home? Have you a father who is not in sympathy with your stand? You might have those at home who would seek to hinder your following the Lord. Earthly relationships do not count if the glory of Christ is at stake. "If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple." Luke 14:2626If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26). Does that sound extreme? Does it sound cruel? It isn't. The Lord had a right to say that, dear friend. Anything in this world that offers competition in your life and in your heart to loyalty to Christ is a hateful thing, regardless of what it is. We know the Lord does not want you to hate your father, or mother, etc.; but He meant if you were allowing that affection for them to keep you from following Christ, you are to cast it from you as a thing detestable to Christ. The sooner that thing is judged and set aside, the better. God came in and honored Gideon's faith, and many times it is like that. Gideon's father sided in with him. He saw •the folly of it all and said, "Will ye plead for Baal?... if he be a god, let •him plead for himself." We might say his father got converted.
We see in the end of the chapter that Gideon is a timid soul again, and he puts out a fleece; first he wants dew to be on the fleece only and dry upon all the earth; then he wants the fleece to be dry and upon all the ground dew. Do we not marvel at the patience of God! I want to tell you, if my God and Father had not been infinitely patient with me, I would not be speaking to you here this afternoon. He has patience with our weakness, with our timidity, and our failures. He never excuses sin. He has no patience for sins, but for our weakness and failure He has infinite patience. So He answers Gideon according to his request, and now Gideon gets his army together.
We have already seen how he sorted that army down to three hundred men. What marked those three hundred men? When they stooped to drink, they did not put their mouths to the surface of the water, but scooped up the water and lapped, putting their hand to their mouth. Why? I do not know that I am right, but they could not be very watchful with their heads down and lips to the surface of the water; they would not know much about what was going on around them. These men were on the watch, and while refreshing themselves their eyes were scanning the horizon, ready for any surprise the enemy might seek to bring upon them. "Watch" is the word for us. "What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch" (Mark 13:3737And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch. (Mark 13:37))
We are not all alike; some of us too forward and some too backward. Some of us are too timid and some too self confident.
God knew what kind of a man Gideon was, and said to him, "Arise, get thee down to the host;... but if thou fear to go down, go thou with Phurah thy servant" (isn't that nice?). As it were, He says, I want you to slip down and listen to what is going on in the camp of the enemy. They went down and heard a man telling a strange dream: "A cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it," etc. "And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: for into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host."
He got his answer from the lips of the enemy themselves, and he and his armor bearer made their way back to the host of Israel. How can they lack any confidence now? When that army of three hundred men started out, it was the strangest army I suppose the world ever saw. They went out with a candle in a pitcher in one hand, and a trumpet in the other; there is not a word about a sword. When the proper signal was given, they broke their pitchers and blew the trumpets and cried, "The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon." The usual way was to have one trumpet for perhaps a thousand men, so when there were three hundred trumpets, the enemy thought they were surrounded by a tremendous multitude and were mad with fear and turned every one upon another in the most awful civil war. Chaos broke out, and they kept at it all night long; and the next morning there were a hundred and twenty thousand corpses. What a scene! What brought it to pass? "The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon." What was his sword? Obedience to the word of God. He followed directions; and dear soul, that is worth, everything. He got the victory. Isn't that wonderful on God's part to include Gideon in that? Oh yes, God is pleased to use human instrumentality. God could get along without any one of us. He could convert every soul that is going to inhabit heaven without you and without the speaker! But He condescends to use us. It is by the preached word that God reaches souls, and we are workers together with God. What a great honor that is! The enemy is put down, and Israel is mightily delivered.
We will hasten on because "the time would fail to tell of Gideon." The people now are not thinking so much about the "sword of the LORD"; they are thinking about Gideon. So long as Gideon was a vessel and felt his nothingness, he got along fine; God was with him; the pitcher was broken, and the light shone out. But now the people begin to flatter Gideon, and they want to make him a king; they want to make something of the servant. Is not that sad? It is a picture of what is taking place around us in Christendom today.
I was a day late in getting to this meeting. I had a funeral service on Saturday. When I got there, a paper was handed me, and I saw there that I was the "Reverend-." Perhaps that causes a smile to go over the audience, but I did not tell it to smile at. What does God think of flattering and exalting titles in the sacred and holy things of God? Turn to Psalm 111:99He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name. (Psalm 111:9), and there you will see the Lord addressed as "holy and reverend is His name." I believe that is the only place in the Bible that word "reverend" is used. It tells a story of what has happened in Christendom: making much of the servant, exalting man; but what havoc it has wrought! It is Nicolaitanism; God says He hates the deeds of the Nicolaitans.
They come to Gideon and want to make him a king. "And Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the LORD shall rule over you." Isn't that lovely? His answer is orthodox all right, but the man's heart is already away from the Lord; he can utter pious things, but his heart is not right.
"And Gideon said unto them, I would desire a request of you, that ye would give me every man the earrings of his prey. (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.) And they answered, We will willingly give them. And they spread a garment, and did cast therein every man the earrings of his prey. And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was a thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold; besides ornaments, and collars, and purple raiment that was on the kings of Midian, and besides the chains that were about their camels' necks. And Gideon made an ephod thereof, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel went thither a whoring after it: which thing became a snare unto Gideon, and to his house." Judg. 8:22-2722Then the men of Israel said unto Gideon, Rule thou over us, both thou, and thy son, and thy son's son also: for thou hast delivered us from the hand of Midian. 23And Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the Lord shall rule over you. 24And Gideon said unto them, I would desire a request of you, that ye would give me every man the earrings of his prey. (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.) 25And they answered, We will willingly give them. And they spread a garment, and did cast therein every man the earrings of his prey. 26And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was a thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold; beside ornaments, and collars, and purple raiment that was on the kings of Midian, and beside the chains that were about their camels' necks. 27And Gideon made an ephod thereof, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel went thither a whoring after it: which thing became a snare unto Gideon, and to his house. (Judges 8:22‑27).
That is sad, isn't it? Gideon was willing to accept a little flattery. He wanted the earrings, jewels, and ornaments taken from the prey; and they became a stumbling block to his people, himself, and his house. There is a warning there for us, dear saints of God. You may be used of the Lord mightily, as Gideon was, but if you do not keep that same meekness and lowliness that characterized him as humble and broken in spirit, you are going to get away from the Lord. When Gideon got away from the Lord, he took others with him. When you get away from the Lord, you are going to take others with you. His own son got into the snare.
God does not say a word about that in the 11th of Hebrews; it is omitted. God is there giving a record of those men as men of faith, not as men of failure; they are going to be in that glorious resurrection in that coming day, "that they without us should not be made perfect." They are candidates for that better resurrection. He passes over all their failure; isn't that lovely! That is the kind of God and Father we have. Down here in this world we have to reap the fruit of our ways. Yes, we do; but thank God, when we get through the wilderness journey, when we are gathered home to the Father's house, we will be there without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
Dear young people, it is a wonderful thing to be a child of God-to know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, and to seek according to the measure of our faith to live for Him the little time we are left here.