[Music] to say amen.
Our first scripture reading this morning comes from the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 20, beginning at verse 1. Please turn with me.
“When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And when you draw near to the battle, the priests shall come forward and speak to the people and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies. Let not your heart faint; do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’
Then the officer shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Is there any man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it. And is there any man who has planted a vineyard and has not enjoyed its fruit? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man enjoy its fruit. And is there any man who is betrothed to a wife and has not taken her? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her.’
And the officers shall speak further to the people and say, ‘Is there any man who is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go back to his house, lest he make the heart of his fellows melt like his own.’
And when the officers have finished speaking to the people, then commanders shall be appointed at the head of the people.”
From Deuteronomy, we return back to the book of Judges, chapter 7, beginning at the first verse.
That is, Gideon and all the people who are with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Herod, and the camp of Midian was north of them by the hill of Mora in the valley. And the Lord said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, ‘Say, whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.’” Then 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained.
And the Lord said to Gideon, “The people are still too many. Take them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. And anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ shall go with you, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ shall not go.”
So he brought the people down to the water, and the Lord said to Gideon, “Everyone who laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps, you shall set by himself; likewise, everyone who kneels down to drink.” And the number of those who lapped, putting their hands to their mouths, was 300 men, but all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water.
And the Lord said to Gideon, “With the 300 men who lapped, I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand, and let all the others go, every man to his home.” So the people took provisions in their hands and their trumpets, and he sent all the rest of Israel, every man to his tent, but retained the 300 men. And the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.
This is the word of the Lord; thanks be to God.
Let us pray.
Lord, You are the Wonder of Wonders and the source of every miracle. Help us to be encouraged and not discouraged when the numbers and the odds do not seem to be in our favor, because You can do—you alone can do—so much with so little or nothing at all. Having created the whole universe from nothing, we ask that this story and the scripture be an encouragement to our hearts and strengthen us, building us up in faith and our trust in You. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
So, recall back to when Gideon was called by the angel of the Lord. The conversation went like this: Gideon said to him, “Please, my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
And the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do I not send you?” And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest of Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”
And the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.”
See, the Lord was sending Gideon to save Israel using his human might, promising to be with him to surely defeat them. Against all odds, God did not send him on his own but clothed him in the Spirit of the Lord, equipping him for the task ahead. However, Gideon… however God also wanted Gideon and Israel to know, understand, and remember exactly who is responsible for their deliverance—the Lord God Almighty.
So he ordained this coming battle to be an opportunity for Gideon and Israel to more deeply lean upon their faith in him and participate in his victory. Leaning into his calling, Gideon summoned the nearby Israelite tribes to rally around the Lord’s banner. Manasseh, his own tribe, came out in force. Asher, a coastal tribe that did not come to aid Deborah or Barak before against Sisera, also appeared. Zebulun and Naphtali arrived, putting aside any differences or resentments which they might have had to fight alongside their cousins who did not come help them previously.
Thus, the combined might of four tribes was gathered together under Gideon’s leadership in faith against the encamped Midianites. The Dribbable, that is, Gideon and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Herod, and the camp of Midian was north of them by the hill of Mora in the valley.
The Lord said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying ‘My own hand has saved me.’”
What? Hold up. Now this assembled host of Israel was too big, too great, too powerful. How were there too many of them for God to grant Israel victory? That’s pure craziness! It’s such a foolish notion. Does God not know? Does God not understand that victory in battle usually goes to the army with the greatest number of soldiers, with the best weapons and the best, most charismatic leaders?
How could an army ever be too big to win the victory?
I mean, that was, and still is, really the conventional worldly wisdom and general assumption concerning mass warfare during every time period in history. It’s one of the reasons cited for our American government’s presence avoidance in engaging and provoking China—they have too many soldiers, many more than we do. There’s also the dubious and unsubstantiated quote often attributed to the World War II Japanese Admiral Yamamoto, who allegedly said, “You cannot invade the mainland United States; there would be a rifle behind every blade of grass,” an idea suggesting that with the quantity of firearms and firearm owners in this country and our social virtue and the continuing high value of American patriotism, if our homeland were to ever be invaded then the number of citizen soldiers who would muster to defend the USA would rival or outnumber the soldiers of any other nation’s standing army.
See, we still believe in our worldly wisdom that numbers matter just as Gideon and the Israelites did. Like them, we forget the example of Barak against Israel, his mere 10,000 ill-equipped foot soldiers standing firm against the enemy chariots of iron upon unfavorable terrain.
And we forget about the many victories won by Joshua during the wilderness wanderings and the conquest of Canaan, victories that were won against professional soldiers by shepherds and plain old normal people. Most especially, we forget about the Lord’s great victory over Pharaoh and his army and chariots—a victory won by supernatural means when the waters of the Red Sea poured in over their heads as they pursued the Israelites and drowned them.
Or lest we forget, the greatest modern example of the American Revolution against England, where farmers, hunters, and other ordinary people fought and defeated the world’s best-trained and most well-equipped army standing firm against insurmountable odds for their homes, their families, their faith, and the idea of a country ruled by the people and for the people.
Sisters and Americans, we love the underdog, and every Christian does too. We all love stories about underdogs because of the hope they build up in our hearts, especially the underdog stories found in scripture because of the examples of faith and dependence upon the Lord shown by the men and women of the Bible: David and Goliath, Rahab against the citizens of Jericho, Elijah against King Ahab, Daniel and his friends against Nebuchadnezzar, or Jesus and his apostles against the religious and political authorities of their time. And of course, Gideon, because their examples encourage us and our faith when we are the underdog.
The Reformation Memorial in Geneva, Switzerland has a quote from John Knox saying, “A man with God is always in the majority.” The whole history of the Christian religion is the ultimate underdog victory story. The ultimate come-from-behind story. Yet in truth, being on the Lord’s side, we are never behind, nor are we the underdog. Instead, we are always the odds-on favorite because Jesus is the only sure thing.
My point here being, is that numbers—the number of soldiers mustered—is not always the greatest assurance for military victory. But numbers do help. However, Gideon’s not the one initially concerned over the numbers. He was not worried about how many soldiers had come; he thought that he had enough, maybe more than enough. He had the numerical advantage, and more and more men were coming into the camp every day, flocking to his banner. So his confidence in Israelite victory must have been growing every day.
No, the Lord. The Lord was the one concerned about their numbers. God said, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand.”
Again, the Israelites were too many for God to give them the victory.
Why were they too many? “Lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’”
God did not want the Israelites to claim credit for the victory themselves. God did not want them to think that they had secured their own victory and glorify themselves. God did not want them to begin to believe that maybe they did not need the Lord’s help.
The Lord did not want them to develop a sense of self-reliance and self-assuredness that would lead to overconfidence and a lack of restraint. The Lord did not want them to increase their sense of entitlement and superiority and so build up a belief in a manifest destiny and go off on an aggressive campaign of conquest and expansion.
God said Gideon had too many men in his army because he did not want Israel to get too big for their britches and think that they had done it all themselves, forgetting that he alone— that God alone is the Lord, the God who brought them out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, especially when they had not obediently completed the conquests of Canaan as tasked.
The Lord wanted them to have no doubt as to who delivers Israel. And even though so many men responded to Gideon’s summons, God wanted Israel to face such negative odds that the glory for victory could only come from him and not by the strength, cunning, or craft of Israel’s army.
So instead of increasing the odds against Israel, the Lord chose to whittle down Gideon’s forces. Next, God told Gideon, “Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.’” Saying basically if you are scared then that’s okay. If you are afraid then you don’t have to hide, and you may go home without anyone thinking less about you.
Then 22,000 of the people returned and 10,000 remained.
Wait just a moment—hold on now. The Israelites had gathered an army of 32,000 fighting men to challenge the Midianites. When Deborah and Barak fought against Cicera and his chariots, they only had 10,000 foot soldiers. But when Gideon summons up three times as many, God says that is too many soldiers.
What in the world’s going on here?
We’re finally starting to see the size of the force which Gideon was called to command—a very large army which, despite its size, still caused them to doubt whether the Lord was actually with him in this coming conflict to deliver Israel. We would expect numbers like this to be a great encouragement, a source for human confidence.
Knowing his earlier doubt, despite the size of this army reinforces our understanding of what that real reason for Gideon’s doubt was: self-doubt and the uncertainty that God was personally with him.
However, we also begin to better see why God said to Gideon that Gideon had too many soldiers for the Lord to deliver Israel. Having that many fighting men would justifiably be viewed as the reason, the source, or cause of Israel’s victory— their strength of arms and their courage in the face of danger rather than their trust, hope, and faith in the Lord.
Clearly, that’s why God said they were too many. However, are we really going to believe that 22,000 out of 32,000 men were so frightened, so frightened that they would abandon the field? Had they never heard about strength in numbers? Yes, I realize that if you speak to any soldier or combat veteran, I am certain they will tell you that anybody who says that they are not afraid on the eve of battle or during combat itself is lying.
Sure, even though a person might be too busy to be actively afraid while the bullets are flying and the dying begins, the fear still remains.
So it seems unreasonable that fully two-thirds of Gideon’s army would leave because they were afraid, leading us to our companion text from Deuteronomy for the explanation.
Deuteronomy chapter 20 is part of the rules of warfare that the Lord gave to Israel to govern warfare against all their enemies. Whenever Israel is settled for battle, first the priest would come forth and offer an exhortation of encouragement, blessing, and invoke the Lord’s favor upon the Israelite army and their coming endeavor, saying, “Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies. Let not your heart faint; do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.”
Then, next, the officers would come forth and, after acknowledging the faithfulness and dedication shown by the people by answering this call to arms, they would dismiss those who met certain criteria: those who had just built a new home, those who had recently planted a new vineyard but had not yet enjoyed its fruit, and those who had just gotten married. They were also allowed to return home, and we learned elsewhere that they were given a year-long reprieve so they might have the opportunity to produce a child to carry on the family name.
Good thing I wasn’t planning on joining the army, right?
But lastly, they were just to dismiss those who were fearful and faint-hearted, lest he make the heart of his fellows melt like his own.
So the Lord’s command to Gideon to dismiss whoever’s fearful and trembling was not unusual, strange, or odd; it was a very ordinary requirement for Israel.
Scripture’s mention of only that single provision for dismissal carries with it the reminder of the other three criteria, which better explains this loss of 22,000 soldiers or two-thirds of his army. What’s more unusual, or perhaps surprising in this case, is the need for the reminder and God’s expressed commanding.
Perhaps Gideon did not know about that provision of the law, which is likely during a time of apostasy like he was living in. Or perhaps Gideon was just neglecting to dismiss them, preferring to preserve the bulk of his army and shore up his and the army’s confidence by their show of strength and power—causing the Lord to rightly say, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand.”
Either way, once the Lord called Gideon out on it, he obeyed and began dismissing people and shrinking his army. And after the first round of dismissals, he still had 10,000 men remaining—a sizable force as many as followed as Deborah and Barak. Yet then the Lord commands another extraordinary test to qualify the soldiers in the army of God and further reduce Gideon’s numbers.
And the Lord said to Gideon, “The people are still too many. Take them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. And anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ shall go with you, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ shall not go.”
So he brought the people down to the water, and the Lord said to Gideon, “Everyone who laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps, you shall set by himself; likewise everyone who kneels down to drink.”
Now, I’ve got to admit that listening to the description of this test, it is rather difficult to visualize. I needed to read it through several times rather slowly just to make sure that I understood what it actually said rather than relying upon a mental picture that I had from hearing the story growing up.
So indulge me for a moment. Look at the cover of your bulletin. Kerry did a great job finding us a picture that accurately depicts the difference between the man which God will divide down by the river.
God told Gideon to set aside the men who did one of two things: everyone who lapped the water with his tongue as a dog laps or everyone who kneels down to drink. In other words, he means for everyone who got down on the ground and stuck their face into the water, or who got down onto their hands and knees to drink, to be set apart from the rest.
And the number of those who lapped—putting their hands to their mouths—was 300 men, and all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water—meaning 9,700 men were set aside, leaving only 300 who scooped up water with their hand to drink.
So picture this: after everyone had gotten a nice, cool, refreshing drink of water, they formed two lines—9,700 plus one in one, and 300 in the other. And then God said to Gideon, “With the 300 men who lapped, I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand, and let all the others go—every man to his home.”
And he sent all the rest of Israel, every man to his tent, but retained the 300 men.
God chose the smaller group of soldiers to fight for him—a small force, the underdog. The Lord must have really, really wanted Gideon and Israel to feel disadvantaged, to understand how unimportant to the battle Israel’s army actually was, how little they needed to contribute against the Midianites in the coming battle.
Gideon’s army went from 32,000 down to 300—an army less than one percent of what he had started. A mere remnant! Surely with such an army, only the Lord could give them victory so they could not claim any credit for themselves. They were fighting on the Lord’s side, and all they really needed to do was show up, watch, and then glorify God for his deliverance.
And apart from being just such a small, inconsequential force, why else would God have chosen these 300?
The Lord chose them because he wanted quality over quantity in the army of God. It’s like another analogy or expression: for many are called, but few are chosen.
So just as many Israelites came to Gideon at the Lord’s call, these few were chosen to serve the Lord according to his divine purposes and his plan of election. So too, there were many people within ethnic Israel who claimed descent from Abraham and membership in the visible expression of God’s covenant people, but merely being circumcised and knowing your genealogy did not ensure you salvation in a place in the kingdom of Heaven.
And just as the gospel is being proclaimed and offered to all people, it’s only those few who are regenerated by the Holy Spirit and who respond to Christ’s offer of grace, mercy, and forgiveness with contrite repentance and faithful obedience going forward that are being shown to be members of the true Israel, the elect.
Only the few people chosen by God before the foundation of the world are able to enjoy fellowship with Christ, are justified by faith, saved, and will be raised up into eternal life and be glorified with Jesus.
God’s called and chosen people are the ones whom he equips for service. They’re the ones whom he regenerates, giving us new hearts and is sanctifying us, transforming us into conformity with the image of God the Son, who is the highest quality and the only example of perfect humanity—making us into better people and the best versions of ourselves by his grace and power.
Now, I do not mean to say this as a declaration of some kind of innate Christian superiority over any other person. But truthfully, God’s elect are a better quality of human—or at least we will be better once we are ultimately raised and glorified by the grace of Jesus Christ at his return.
Just as the Lord’s 300 chosen warriors were a higher quality soldier than all the rest, these 300 men were better soldiers because everyone else was putting themselves and the whole army at risk every time they took a drink.
The others put themselves—they put their bodies—in compromising positions, kneeling down on all fours with their head down and all their weight being put forward. They sacrificed situational awareness for a drink of water. They could be easily caught unawares, be caught off guard, attacked, and killed all before they might even try to draw their sword. Right off the bat, they were bad candidates to be soldiers.
The 300, on the other hand, were excellent examples of soldiers, scooping and cupping the water, bringing it up to their mouths instead of taking their mouths to the water. This allowed them to keep their eyes up and looking around to keep their weapon hand free, and also enabled them to get up and move away quickly in case of danger.
These 300 men were always ready. They were prepared to do battle at a moment’s notice, just as we Christians are charged to be always ready to preach the word, to be ready in season and out of season, to approve, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching, because we are each soldiers in the army of the Lord.
This Gideon, who’s already lacking in the confidence department, was left with less than one percent of the army he started with. Now he was definitely unable to depend upon himself or the power of numbers, and he had no choice but to depend wholly on the Lord and his promise: “With the 300 men who lapped, I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand, and let all the others go, every man to his home.”
So what was the Lord trying to teach Gideon, trying to teach Israel, and trying to teach us with this lesson about the army of 300?
Our natural human inclination is to build ourselves up. We each seek to stack the deck in our favor, to gather up every advantage to ensure our victory and success. So we frequently need to be humbled and reminded that we only ever contribute a small amount, or one percent—that we don’t even contribute one single percent to God’s work in this world or our lives, including and especially our salvation.
God does not need our help or participation with anything. The Lord is the sovereign Creator of the universe. What help could we possibly hope to offer him? He is the Potter, so he has every right—he has the only right—to determine whatever shall be done with his creation.
Jesus can and will save whomever he wills, whenever he wills, and however he wills—entirely independent of us. Why then does the Lord give Gideon even one percent to help him deliver Israel?
God included Gideon, and God includes us by inviting us to actively participate in his works of deliverance, even at a minimum capacity, because God works through human people. And to remind us that the totality of our salvation was worked out by the singular person, Jesus Christ, who’s fully God and fully human.
However, I’m not saying that we participate in any way except passively for our eternal salvation. Salvation is the monergistic work of the three persons of the Trinity: God the Father elects and decrees; well, Jesus, God the Son, is obedient and satisfies all the requirements of righteousness, dies as our atonement, and is raised as our sure promise and hope for eternal life in him, while God the Holy Spirit applies, imputes, and credits the righteousness of Jesus Christ to us, justifying us before our Heavenly Father by his grace through our given faith in Christ alone.
Our participation comes after salvation, after our regeneration, during our sanctification, through our repentance, by our faithful obedience, by our acts of good works done in response and by our return in glory and praise to him.
The Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit—they do all the hard work for our deliverance, while we get to enjoy the benefits and fruit of their labors. Paul writes, “Be thanks to God who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.”
And so we participate by joining the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the triumphal procession—entering into the kingdom together as one great, glorious, and victorious host. All of our best efforts and attempts to help are those of a young child—a son helping his father work on the engine of a car, or of a daughter helping her mother work in the kitchen by mixing ingredients or stirring the pot.
We’re not very much help at all, at least at first, but with practice through examples and events like these in scripture, we are being discipled. We’re being taught how we’re supposed to act obediently and trust Jesus by faith. That is the lesson which Gideon needed to learn, as the lesson we each need to learn and to have reinforced and be regularly reminded of once we know it.
God gave Gideon all the tools he needed to deliver Israel. God gave him a massive army, but Gideon was nervous and filled with doubt. So the Lord humbled him and took away most of that army, leaving him with less than one percent.
Jesus does the same to all of us. Whenever we have all that we need, and we become either so self-assured or we begin to doubt God’s promises, then he humbles us—he takes it all away so that we hit rock bottom, and we remember the rock at the bottom and turn to Christ in faith, our last, first, best, and only hope for salvation or anything else at all.
So I encourage you: take stock of what God has given to you. Recognize and appreciate the quality of what you have. Pray for his wisdom and guidance so that your eyes might be opened and you may witness how much Jesus can and will do in this world and in your life with your measly one percent.
We are not underdogs if we stand with the Lord. And with Jesus, our victory is sure because his victory has already been won.
So when we stand in triumph, remember to be grateful and praise God for the privilege of being used as part of his work and will. Thank him for graciously letting you help him, even though he never needed it, because only he can do so much with so little.
Amen.