Sermon notes from Judges 7
verses 7 – 17 on Sunday 29 September 2013
The story of Gideon overcoming the Midanities and the Amalekites with just 300 men
He faced an uncertain future.
It could come right down to anyone of us. If we were to arrive at work tomorrow and
discover that we no longer had a job we would automatically think “what am I going
to do?” We see an uncertain future. That is what Gideon saw. He felt the call of God, the prompting of God
to do his work but he faced an uncertain future. "And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by he sea side for multitude." (chapter 7 verse 12) Let us look through Gideon's eyes.
This man Gideon was looking down into this valley and saw the Midianites
and Amalekites as grasshoppers with their camels without number. He looks at his own army of 300 people and
wondered how he would overcome this situation.
In the midst of this situation God was already there. Whatever situation we find ourselves in God
is already working. In chapter 6 verse 11 we see Gideon has gathered in some of the harvest because the Midianites and Amalekites
would come down just at that time and do a lot of damage in destroying the crop. By this stage the Israelites had fled because
they were afraid of what might happen to them – verse 6. The Lord sees what you are going through at
this moment in time but he is working behind the scenes. “And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord,
wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am
the least in my father’s house.” (verse 15)
In other words “I can’t do it, my family is one of the poorest families,
could you not ask one of my brothers?”
Gideon begins to gather up an army of 32,000 men but we soon see 22,000
of them turn back and walk away from Gideon – chapter 7 verse 3. They left him in dire straits. At this point some of Gideon’s confidence started to ebb away. God comes again and
he is then left with 300 men. I’m sure
he wondered how he would ever defeat this multitude. If we are honest and faced with as big a
problem as this we would probably get before the God of heaven and pray. If we pray we think God will take it away but
maybe he doesn’t do as we think. Then we
begin to think God has failed us. In
your darkest hour God’s ways are far higher than your ways. Through the eyes of human nature things do
look bleak. Remember Elisha’s
servant? He looked out of the house and
saw the enemies on the hills surrounding them but when Elisha came out he saw
beyond and saw the host of God. Is there
something in your heart causing a great hindrance? Do you face an uncertain future as a
result? In 2 Kings 18 we read about
Rabshakeh coming against Hezekiah the King of Israel. He asked Hezekiah “Now on whom dost thou
trust, that thou rebellest against me?”
He didn’t realise God was working behind the scenes. Hezekiah set out the letter he had received
and prayed before God asking him to save them.
That is exactly what God did because he was working behind the scenes.
He had an unwarranted fear. A fear
that gripped his heart. He is trying to
think how he will win the day, to save Israel.
He wasn’t going to win because it was God’s victory and he will do it
for us too. An uncertain future has
brought an unwarranted fear. God told
Gideon “By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you.” (verse 7) Gideon had sunk to his lowest when he looked
at the 300. He was happy with the 10,000
but God wanted to use only 300 men. Remember
when the disciple brought Jesus the 5 loaves and 2 fishes to feed the
5000? He said “what is that amongst so
many?” He didn’t realise it was all in
the hands of the Lord and something tremendous would happen. Chapter 6 verse 6 “And Israel was greatly
impoverished because of the Midianites and the children of Israel cried unto
the Lord.” What was God going to do for
them to bring deliverance through Gideon?
Have we got our ears open to God today?
Maybe there is someone in your family circle and they are crying to God
for deliverance. The God of heaven is
drawing alongside you because he will take you into that situation that you
might bring about that person’s deliverance.
What if we ignored it? God is
saying to you “I want you to go, the victory is not yours but God’s.” The victory would be here in the 300. I’m sure the enemy when they found out that all
these people had walked away would have been amazed. That which is despised God takes up and
uses. Remember Ananias when told to go
and help Saul who had just been converted on the Damascus road? The first thing that happened was his heart
was gripped. Saul was praying his heart
how, he had been changed and God had drawn close to him. Ananias was afraid to go, he had heard so
much about the havoc Saul was causing the church. Remember Moses when he prayed “Lord if thy
presence go not with me carry us not up hence.” (Exodus 33 verse 15) Remember also the Laodicean church who had
Christ on the outside.
There was also an unsettling of the foe. God dealt with Gideon and told him to go down into the
enemies camp and listen at the door of one of the tents. When he does that he hears the story of a
dream one man had of the loaf of bread rolling the hill and flattening the
tent. The man listening to the story
interprets the dream “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.” (verse 14) Remember: the Lord
will bring you through this difficulty!
