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“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” (Judges 7:20).
Read Judges 7:15-23. This was a most unusual battle, for Gideon had only 300 men, while the Midianites had thousands. Yet the Lord defeated the Midianites, and it tells us in the next chapter that 120,000 of them died that day. But what is strange is that Gideon’s men did not have any weapons. They had lamps (or torches) in their left hands, and trumpets in their right hands; they did not have any hand for holding a sword. Yet the Midianites were defeated.
The Lord allowed the Midianites to fight with one another, for it says that “the Lord set every man’s sword against his fellow.” Then, when other Israelites saw the Midianites running away, they too came out and helped chase them.
Of course, there was a time later when Gideon and his men did use their swords, but not until after the battle was won. The Lord used Gideon, but He got the praise for it, and that is how it should be. The Lord works that way in our lives too. He may ask us to do something, but He supplies the power, and then He gets the glory.
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