GIDEON'S ARMY
JUDGES 6-7
INTRODUCTION
The battle that Gideon fought with the Midian-ites was one of the most remarkable in the history of the world.
1) THE CALL
2) CONFESSION- I AM THE LEAST IN MY FATHERS HOUSE
3) CONSOLATION- GO IN THIS THY MIGHT
4) CAMP- 32 000 SOLDIERS
5) COMPLAINT- TO MANY 22000 RETUR-NED 10 000 REMAINED
Gideon had under him the 32 000 soldiers who had volunteered to go with him into battle. They were all Israelites, circumcised, and members of what might be called God’s visible Church on earth. They had all volunteered, and were in good standing, as respectable members of ‘s Israel. It has been estimated that the Midianites numbered nearly one million, and Gideon’;s small army was only a drop in the bucket compared to their enemies. And yet God said to Joshua, “The people are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves; saying, Mine own hand hath saved me.” This was pre-eminently God’s battle, and of all the battles in human history, this was one in which God alone should get the glory, and so He determined to weed out all possible glory of the flesh.
THEY JUDGED THEMSELVES
Gideon made a proclamation that all who were afraid should return and depart from Mt. Gilead, and there returned of the people twenty-two thousand, leaving ten thousand with Gideon. The division was made on the basis of fear; and each man was to sit in judgment on himself, and made an open profession of his cowardice by leaving the battle and returning home. You see God did not pick out the cowards, but he so arranged it that every one should pick himself out as a coward. This in God’s method in judgment, for we are told that every man shall give an account of himself unto God. When a man sits in judgment on himself, he has no one to complain of, and he cannot accuse another of misjudging him. God is the only Being in the universe who has this method of judgment. That is, men of their own accord confessed that they were not true soldiers, that they did not have in them the courage to destroy the enemies of the Lord. They had the name of Israelites, but a Paul says, “They were not of Israel,” and did not have the heart of Israel in them. This is God’s sample picture of the visible Church on earth. If we take thirty-two thousand church members as they come, twenty-two thousand of them will confess that they are not born of God, and have never had saving faith in Jesus Christ; and that while they have a name in live and to be members of the body of Christ, yet in heart and in reality they are none of His, and so are utterly unqualified to fight the battles of the Lord.
6) CONDITION-I WILL TRY THEM
The second division of the army was of a different nature and on a different basis. God will not only make a division between those members of the Church which are born again, and those who are not converted, but he will proceed to make another division between those who are partly carnal and those who are entirely yielded to Him; and have in them the spirit of perfect consecration, and perfect love, and heart loyalty. After separating all those who did not have the true heart of an Israelite, the Lord said again unto Gideon, “The people are yet too many; bring the down unto the water, and I will try them there, and it shall be that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee, and of whomsoever I say, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go.” So Gideon brought the people down to the water, and the Lord said, “Every one that lappeth of the water as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink, and the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men, but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink. And the Lord said, “By the tree hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thy hand.”
This is a very remarkable passage of Scripture; and had been inspired by the Holy Ghost, nothing like it would ever have occurred to any human mind in all the world. It is a clear revelation of things in the kingdom of God, and in the history of God’s people in all history there are spiral providences, both in the outward life and in the inner experiences, by which the Lord proves and tests every virtue of the soul preparatory their final destiny. God intended in reduce the size of Gideon’s army to the lowest minimum, for the perfection of their faith, so they would be compelled to give God all the glory.
The best of saints often wonder why they are kept in such reduced circumstances and loaded with so many infirmities, not understanding that this is God’s plan to destroy all self-dependence and self-glory, that their faith may be perfectly pure and centered in God alone.
7) COMPANY- 300 SOLDIERS
Gideon’s three hundred needed to made perfect as soldiers, and hence it was needful to subject them to a special test that TO reveal the qualities of a soldier. It is one thing to be a citizen, and another thing to be a soldier.
The Apostle Paul teaches us that when we become justified we are citizens of the household of faith; but alter that, it is by the baptism with the Holy Spirit that we put on the whole armor of God, and become soldiers to fight the Lord’s battles.
The bridehood saints must not only be citizens of the kingdom of Heaven, but they must all of them be soldiers, and have the qualities of a true soldier.
There are certain actions that naturally flow out from citizenship, and there are other actions that flow out from the character of a soldier, and in this testing of Gideon’s army. God was planning to make the men reveal those qualities which would best express the nature of a soldier. It was by a special providence that all the ten thousand should be thirsty at the same time, and that the whole army should all want to drink water at the same time and thus God would discover by the way they drank water a to who they were that had in them the true character of the vigilant soldier.
This is exactly what God has been doing with all His true saints in all generations, and He is dealing with His people at the present time on the same plan, that each one may be led to manifest the deepest qualities of faith and character which will decide whether they are prepared to be in that chosen company which forms the Bride of the Lamb.
The word TRY, found in the fourth verse, is a very striking expression: It is the regular Hebrew word for “sanctification” and the same word that is used in Malachi, where the Lord says, “I will purify the sons of Levi.” The real meaning of the passage is, when you bring them down to drink water, I will find who the sanctified ones are. I will put them to a test of their fitness for front rank service, by the way they drink water. Here we see again that God did not pick out those who were the bravest, and those who were really fitted to be saints, or to be in the bridehood company, but He arranged for each man to reveal his own character, and his own fitness for front rank in the kingdom of God, in an unconscious way, which is always the best way to get the revelation of true character. God is an infinite gentleman, and never behaves Himself in a rude or uncultured way with His people, If God had in some visible manner picked out those three hundred to spiritual pride, but God’s way are absolutely perfect, far beyond the conception of human minds, true inwardness of his own being, so that the absolute truths is manifested, and in such a way that no one can lay the blame on God.
In this, they manifested the supreme qualities of vigilant soldier, and without being aware of it, they were manifesting to God their fitness for the very highest rank of service. This is exactly the way God is working among His people. Those believers who are not fully purifies, though they are soldiers, yet they have in them the love of ease, the love of self, a lack of watchfulness, a lack of understanding, a lack of prompt and swift obedience. This lack of sanctification is constantly manifested by them in unconscious ways.
They are sluggish in prayer, in testimony, in obedience; they do not discern spiritual things, or the approaches of the enemy, and always inclined to take the side of self, or to take the easy side of religion, and in so many ways, without knowing it, they avoid the way of the cross, thus manifest the lack of inward holiness.
Those who are accounted worthy to be in the three hundred have in them the very spirit of diligence, prompt obedience, watchfulness, are ever on the alert to see God, and to see the enemies, and to move forward in every duty, in every service, with a promptness, and eagerness, with a courage and freedom of spirit, which is often criticized by weaker and sluggish Christians.
8) COURAGE-
Their armor. They had no arrows, or spears, or slings, they had no implements of death in their hands; and this goes to show it was a battle for God, and not a plan of carnal warfare.
a) TRUMPETS–Word of God which is to be proclaimed in preaching, exhortation, and testimony.
b) LAMPS– Holy Spirit You have this treasure in earthen vessels
c) PITCHER–EARTHEN VESSEL our earthly human nature. It is only as we are broken that the glory of the light can be revealed.
9) CONFIDENCE–The sword of the Lord and of Gideon. this was all the fighting that they did. If we are in Christ filled with the Spirit of God we know that greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. We are on the winning side.
10) CONCORING —