God Chooses the Weak to Shame the Strong

Scripture: Judges 7: 1-23

Sermon: God Chooses the Weak to Shame the Strong

Topics: Strength, Weakness,

Preached: October 11, 2009

Rev. Mike Abma

INTRODUCTION

The Wednesday morning Bible Study group is looking at the book of Judges this fall.

The judge who gets the longest treatment in this book is Gideon (he just edges out Samson if you count the number of Hebrew words).

This evening we cannot read the whole Gideon story – it simply is too long.

But we are going to read the heart of the Gideon story – chapter 7.

But before we do that, we should know a little about the book of Judges, and about Gideon.

In the book of Judges there are 12 judges mentioned – clearly meant to mirror the 12 tribes of Israel (and also, in a way, to anticipate the 12 disciples of Jesus).

In the book of Judges, things go from bad, to worse, to horrendous.

The 12 judges reflect the time they lived in.

The best or least flawed judges are the first ones.

The most flawed are the last ones.

Gideon appears in the middle – not the worst, but not the best either.

Gideon lived during a tense time.

The Midianites, Amalekites, and other eastern tribes were raiding Israel.

These were Bedouin tribes – camel-riding nomadic tribes that would swoop in,

ravage crops, steal livestock, then ride away again.

In the book of Judges, they are described as a swarm of locusts:

Too many to count,

And ravaging everything in their path.

The result is that the Israelites resorted to fleeing to mountain caves whenever these camel-riding marauders came.

This went on for 7 years.

And then an angel of the Lord shows up to a young man named Gideon.

Gideon is hiding in a wine press.

He is trying to thresh some wheat without any raiders seeing him do it.

So this angel shows up and says, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”

You can’t help but sense how funny this is.

A guy hiding in a winepress, and the angel calls him “mighty warrior.”

But it gets funnier.

Gideon says to this angel, “Listen, if God is so great and mighty, why is there all this trouble? Where is God when we need him?”

Angel says, “Great idea! You go and deliver Israel from the Midianites.”

Gideon: “What? You must be crazy! Not me!

I’m from the weakest clan in the tribe of Manasseh.

And I’m the youngest in my family.

Angel: “Don’t worry, the Lord will be with you..”

For the rest of the chapter, Gideon is hemming and hahhing,

Asking for signs,

Asking for confirmations,

Not really convinced he is the right person for the job.

But finally, by the beginning of chapter 7, he has reluctantly accepted the job.

We’re going to read this story, but in installments.

Judges 7: 1-8 TOO MANY

Jerub baal became Gideon’s name because he destroyed the baal idols in his hometown. When people complained, Gideon’s father wisely said, “If Baal has a problem with this, let Baal take care of it.”

So that is how they left it – let Baal contend.

Let Baal contend is Jerub-baal — which became Gideon’s name.

Gideon Surprises and Routs the Midianites

7Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the troops that were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod; and the camp of Midian was north of them, below^* the hill of Moreh, in the valley.

2 The Lord said to Gideon, ‘The troops with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand. Israel would only take the credit away from me, saying, “My own hand has delivered me.” ³Now therefore proclaim this in the hearing of the troops, “Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home.” ’ Thus Gideon sifted them out;^* twenty-two thousand returned, and ten thousand remained.

4 Then the Lord said to Gideon, ‘The troops are still too many; take them down to the water and I will sift them out for you there. When I say, “This one shall go with you”, he shall go with you; and when I say, “This one shall not go with you”, he shall not go.’ ⁵So he brought the troops down to the water; and the Lord said to Gideon, ‘All those who lap the water with their tongues, as a dog laps, you shall put to one side; all those who kneel down to drink, putting their hands to their mouths,^* you shall put to the other side.’ ⁶The number of those that lapped was three hundred; but all the rest of the troops knelt down to drink water. ⁷Then the Lord said to Gideon, ‘With the three hundred that lapped I will deliver you, and give the Midianites into your hand. Let all the others go to their homes.’ ⁸So he took the jars of the troops from their hands,^* and their trumpets; and he sent all the rest of Israel back to their own tents, but retained the three hundred. The camp of Midian was below him in the valley.

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God

CHALLENGE

So here we are, on the eve of battle.

Gideon has gathered soldiers from four different tribes: his own tribe, Manasseh, as well as Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali. They were in the region just south of the Sea of Galilee – just about 5 or so miles northwest was the town of Nazareth.

There are two armies:

Gideon managed to muster 32,000 troops. They held the high ground on the slopes of Mount Moriah.

The Midianites, Amalekites, and of the other …”ites” were in the valley of Jezreel. According to the numbers given in chapter 8, they had a total of about 135,000 troops.

So the odds are against the Israelites: over 4 against 1.

Then God comes with a surprising message to Gideon: “You have too many.”

Too many? You must be kidding?

But God is insistent: “Yes, too many, because if you win, you will say You did it, not I did it. Tell the ones who are already nervous and trembling to go home.”

So, 22,000 are sent packing, leaving 10,000 to face a force of about 135,000.

Then God comes with another surprising message: “Still too many. Take them to the water for a drink and I’ll let you know which to keep and which to send home.”

Now here is the part of the story that I admit I have tended to remember in a certain way.

This is the way I want to remember this story.

There were the vigilant soldiers who scooped water with their hands, stayed on their feet, and carefully drank their water — always alert.

Then there were the careless soldiers who got down on their knees and drank the water like a dog.

I want to remember this story in that way because it seems to make most sense:

That God let the careless lapping ones go because they wouldn’t make the best soldiers.

And God kept the careful ones who scooped the water with their hands and clearly showed they would be better soldiers.

Like that movie “300,” we almost want to imagine this was a fighting force of 300 Jason Bournes, 300 James Bonds, 300 of the top fighting men in history.

But I am simply remembering this story the way I want to remember it.

Look at it carefully.

Who are the ones who stay?

They are the ones who lap their water like a dog.

Do you think lapping like a dog is a compliment?

I don’t either.

The truth is, if anything, God picks the worst, not the best.

He is choosing the weakest, not the strongest.

God is making sure that there is no possible way this rag-tag group of 300 will be able to claim victory through the strength of their own hand.

From 32,000 down to 300.

That is a drop of 31,700.

That is a 99% drop in troop strength.

300 versus 135,000.

Suddenly the odds are 450 to 1.

300 barley farmers who lapped water like a dogs.

Can you see how a reluctant Gideon might be even more reluctant now?

Let’s read on.

CONFIRMATION Judges 7: 9-15a

That same night the Lord said to him, ‘Get up, attack the camp; for I have given it into your hand. ¹⁰But if you fear to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah; ¹¹and you shall hear what they say, and afterwards your hands shall be strengthened to attack the camp.’ Then he went down with his servant Purah to the outposts of the armed men that were in the camp. ¹²The Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the east lay along the valley as thick as locusts; and their camels were without number, countless as the sand on the seashore. ¹³When Gideon arrived, there was a man telling a dream to his comrade; and he said, ‘I had a dream, and in it a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian, and came to the tent, and struck it so that it fell; it turned upside down, and the tent collapsed.’ ¹⁴And his comrade answered, ‘This is no other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, a man of Israel; into his hand God has given Midian and all the army.’

15 When Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshipped;

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

CONFIRMATION

We already know Gideon was not the most confident, self-assured leader there was.

So God’s next command — that this was the night for the attack – is combined with a reassurance: “If you fear to attack (and with those odds, who wouldn’t be trembling), go down to the camp with your servant Purah.”

When you think about it, there is quite a bit of God-sanctioned spying in the Bible.

There are the spies who check out the Promised Land in Numbers.

There is this passage in which Gideon and Purah eavesdrop on the Midianites.

Later Saul’s son Jonathon and his servant will spy on the Philistines.

Our story wants to make sure we know how large the Midianite camp was.

That is why their huge number is repeated in three different ways:

Thick as locusts;

Their camels were without number;

They were as countless as the sand on the seashore.

But then Gideon and Purah overhear a Midianite talking about his dream.

His dream is about a round loaf of barley tumbling and then smashing into the tents of the Midianites.

It did not take a Joseph or a Daniel to interpret this dream:

clearly the barley loaf referred to the barley farming Israelites

rolling over the tent-dwelling nomadic Midianites.

What happens next is telling.

Gideon does not high-five his servant Purah.

There are no fist-pumps, no slam-dunk moves, nothing like that.

Instead, we are told Gideon worshipped God, right there, right then.

He worshipped convinced that God was with them.

Here he is, giving thanks, and the battle hasn’t even begun.

But he knew.

It is Gideon’s best moment.

JUDGES 7: 15b – 23 VICTORY

and Gideon returned to the camp of Israel, and said, ‘Get up; for the Lord has given the army of Midian into your hand.’ ¹⁶After he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and put trumpets into the hands of all of them, and empty jars, with torches inside the jars, ¹⁷he said to them, ‘Look at me, and do the same; when I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do. ¹⁸When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you also blow the trumpets around the whole camp, and shout, “For the Lord and for Gideon!” ’

19 So Gideon and the hundred who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set the watch; and they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. ²⁰So the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars, holding in their left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow; and they cried, ‘A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!’ ²¹Every man stood in his place all around the camp, and all the men in camp ran; they cried out and fled. ²²When they blew the three hundred trumpets, the Lord set every man’s sword against his fellow and against all the army; and the army fled as far as Beth-shittah towards Zererah,^* as far as the border of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath. ²³And the men of Israel were called out from Naphtali and from Asher and from all Manasseh, and they pursued after the Midianites.

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

THE BATTLE ITSELF — VICTORY

Gideon returns from his spying expedition on fire and ready to go.

He divides his 300 soldiers into 3 groups of 100.

Each person is given a clay jar, a torch, and a trumpet.

Then they silently went to surround the Midianite camp to begin their attack right at the beginning of the middle watch.

The middle watch – when was that?

The Romans divided night watch into 4 watches.

6-9;

9-midnight;

midnight-3am;

3am to 6am.

The Hebrews divided night watch into 3 watches:

Sunset to 10 pm;

10 pm to 2 am

2 am to sunrise.

So it was just after 10 pm that Gideon gave his signal to begin:

* when he blew his trumpet, they all blew their trumpet.

* when he smashed his jar, they all smashed their jar.

* when he shouted, “For the Lord and for Gideon” they all shouted

“For the Lord and for Gideon”

These are the only weapons these soldiers had to wield:

break a clay jar,

wave a torch

blow a trumpet,

and shout

Those three weapons — Jars, Torches, and Trumpets – have deeper Biblical meaning.

It is hard to hear about a clay jar without thinking about 2 Corinthians 4,

and how we have the treasure of God’s glory in the clay jars of our bodies.

so that when we are crushed, or struck down,

we nevertheless persevere not by our own strength

but because of the power that comes from God.

Then there are the torches. I must admit, I wondered how these torches stayed lit inside of those jars. But apparently, a torch of smoldering pitch or tar once it is waved in the air quickly blazes to light.

When I hear about the torches hidden in these jars I cannot help but think of the all-surpassing glory and power of God hidden within us.

Then there are the trumpets. Trumpets .

Trumpets were used for so many things in Old Testament times:

To gather people;

To begin worship;

To enthrone leaders;

To announce the beginning of the Year of Jubilee and its freedom.

Trumpets … announcing the triumph of life and love

against all odds.

Gideon and his men held their position.

Blowing their trumpets, waving their torches – and the huge Midianite camp went into chaos, fighting among each other, and simply trying to flee.

What about this victory?

Perhaps it is partly this – that oppression is self-defeating.

Live by the sword and you will die by the sword.

Live by injustice and one day it will catch up to you.

But a deeper message is that God chooses the weak of this world to shame the strong (1 Corinthians 1: 27-29).

That was his way then.

That remains his way now.

CONCLUSIONS

Being invaded is a scary business.

My father and mother both lived through the German invasion of the Netherlands.

My father’s birthday was May 10.

On May 10, 1940 the German tanks came rolling over the border.

I read somewhere that the Germans had 750 tanks; the Netherlands: 1.

My father tells me that was the day everyone forgot it was his birthday.

Being invaded is a scary business.

The Christian Reformed Church had begun it first global ministry in southern China in a town called Rugoa (Roo-gow) in 1921. Less than 30 years later Communism had swept through China like a swarm of locust.

All the missionaries were forced to leave Rugoa.

Not so long ago, some CRC people returned to Rugoa.

They wondered if anything was left of the church that was planted long ago.

But realistically, what could be left

with no clear leadership.

no resources.

nothing, really, except some curious rice farmers.

But lo and behold, when they visited they were totally surprised to find a worshipping community of over 500 people meeting every Sunday.

The group was so large they had totally outgrown the building they were meeting in.

How was this possible?

But that is God’s way.

God chooses to work with the small, the weak, the seemingly insignificant

to work his will.

God chooses the weak of this world to shame the strong (1 Corinthians 1: 27-29).

What do you remember when you think about the Second World War?

For me, I think about those lines and lines of Panzer tanks swooping over Europe.

But what catches my attention, what causes me to stop and wonder,

are the stories of the farmers who resisted occupation;

the stories of the people who, at great risk, hid Jews in their homes;

the stories of people, often very ordinary people, who shamed the strong.

People like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who, though a German himself, resisted everything the Nazis did.

Bonhoeffer ended up being executed by the Nazis in 1945.

To the very end, he preached and lived the gospel of the cross.

In one of his sermons he said:

Do not desire to be strong, powerful, or honored …

But let God alone by your strength, your fame, your honor.”

Like Gideon, who achieved faith in fear and doubt,

We kneel and pray,

Lord on the cross,

Be our one and only God.

Amen.