Tonight, we return to our consideration of the Judges, particularly the Judge Gideon, as I ask that you turn with me to Judges 7. We begin at verse 15 and read through chapter 8, verse 17. In some respects, it may seem like a bit of an odd place to start and an odd place to end, but there's so much to cover here, and these are, in a sense, new sections as well. But we had considered last time a lengthy section from Judges chapter 6 and 7, including Gideon putting out the fleece and also putting together an army that was cut from 32,000 down to 300. The last thing we considered was that Gideon was given a preview of the outcome of the battle. We begin in verse 15 of Judges chapter 7 as we give our attention to the reading of the Word of God. When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he worshipped God. He returned to the camp of Israel and called out, Get up! The Lord has given the Midianite camp into your hands. Dividing the three hundred men into three companies, he placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them with torches inside. Watch me, he told them. Follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do. When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp blow yours and shout for the Lord and for Gideon. Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch just after they had changed the guard. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands. The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars, grasping the torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpets they were to blow. they shouted a sword for the Lord and for Gideon. While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out as they fled. When the 300 trumpets sounded, the Lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords. The army fled to Beth-Sheta toward Zerera, as far as the border of Abel-Meholah near Tabath. Israelites from Naphtali, Asher, and all of Manasseh were called out, and they pursued the Midianites. Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim, saying, Come down against the Midianites and seize the waters of the Jordan ahead of them as far as Beth Barah. So all the men of Ephraim were called out and they took the waters of the Jordan as far as Beth Barah. They also captured two of the Midianite leaders, Oreb and Zeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb and Zeb at the winepress of Zeb. They pursued the Midianites and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeb to Gideon, who was by the Jordan. Now the Ephraimites asked Gideon, Why have you treated us like this? Why didn't you call us when you went to fight Midian? And they criticized him sharply. But he answered them, What have I accomplished compared to you? Aren't the gleanings of Ephraim's grapes better than the full grape harvest of Abiezer? God gave Oreb and Zeb, the Midianite leaders, into your hands. What was I able to do compared to you? At this, the resentment against him subsided. Gideon and his 300 men, exhausted, yet keeping up the pursuit, came to the Jordan and crossed it. He said to the men of Succoth, Give my troops some bread, they are worn out, and I am still pursuing Ziba and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian. But the officials of Succoth said, Do you already have the hands of Ziba and Zalmunna in your possession? Why should we give bread to your troops? Then Gideon replied, Just for that, when the Lord has given Ziba and Zalmunna into my hand, I will tear your flesh with desert thorns and briars. From there he went up to Peniel and made the same request of them, but they answered as the men of Succoth had. So he said to the men of Peniel, When I return in triumph, I will tear down this tower. Now Ziba and Zalmunna were in Karkor with a force of about 15,000 men, all that were left of the armies of the eastern peoples. A hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen had fallen. Gideon went up by the route of the nomads east of Noba and Jogbaha and fell upon the unsuspecting army. Ziba and Zalmun of the two kings of Midian fled, but he pursued them and captured them, routing their entire army. Gideon, son of Joash, then returned from the battle by the pass of Heras. He caught a young man of Succoth and questioned him. And the young man wrote down for him the names of the 77 officials of Succoth, the elders of the town. Then Gideon came and said to the men of Succoth, Here are Ziba and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me by saying, Do you already have the hands of Ziba and Zalmunna in your possession? Why should we give bread to your exhausted men? He took the elders of the town and taught the men of Succoth a lesson by punishing them with desert thorns and briars. He also pulled down the tower of Peniel and killed the men of the town. Well, beloved people of God, the battle really was over even before it started. Remember in the section before where we started tonight, the Lord had said to Gideon, Get up! Go down against the camp because I am going to give it into your hands. And then, in order to give Gideon a confirmation of his word, the Lord allows him to hear about the dream and its meaning. You see, this was just one more wonder in the Lord's resume of blessings with which Gideon had been blessed so far. God gave Gideon a preview of a battle that was already a done deal. The round barley loaf of bread rolls down a hill and completely overturns a tent. And the interpretation is clear at least to the Midianites. And the one to whom the dream was told interprets it and says in chapter 7, verse 14, this can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon, son of Joash the Israelite. God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands. As we said last time, God convinces Gideon through the mouth of his enemy. This Midianite actually speaks the Word of the Lord. And what's more awesome, I believe, is that he specifies the two names God and Gideon. God had put fear into the hearts of the Midianites. He had already delivered them unto fear. And then tonight we consider the outcome of the Word of the Lord. We see that God keeps His Word. And we must rejoice. We really must rejoice in the faithfulness of the God whom we serve. I preached to you tonight about the crushing power of the Lord of Reformation. And the Lord's crushing power, first of all, delivers Gideon's oppressed brothers. Gideon hears the dream and what it means. And what does he do? Verse 15 says, he worshipped God. He finally believes in what he hears and it's starting to make some sense to him. Gideon is beginning to understand the style of the Lord's work of salvation and he's also beginning to see that 300 men versus 135,000 men are still really too many men. 300 is too many. Because this is the Lord's battle. And God's will is to be done through panic that has already struck the enemy. Again, Gideon and Israel are being delivered from fear while the Midianites are being delivered unto fear. We know that in a battle situation, generally the side that possesses confidence wins and the side that possesses fear loses. But Gideon is now prepared. God has prepared him. God has equipped him. God has built up his faith And that faith then directs Gideon's battle plans. Remember, he didn't have any important strategy to follow. He didn't have in his possession any maps of the enemy's territory. He didn't have any particular strike zones. He didn't have any briefings of strategy. He simply says again in verse 15, Get up. The Lord has given the Midianite camp into your hands. And then I can almost hear him say, And we get a front row seat. And it's going to be quite a show. and then Gideon equips each of the 300 men of his army with a trumpet, a torch, and a jar. But now wait a minute. What kind of weapons are these? Cadets, would you give the men those kind of weapons for war? A trumpet, a torch, and a jar? Some of you have probably recently been through the archery badge. You might think, well, he should give them a spear and a sword or a bow and arrow. Or to put it in our terms today, give them machine guns and hand grenades and missile launchers. Those are the weapons that they need for war. But a trumpet, a torch, and a jar, you see, the trumpet would provide the signal, the torch would provide the light, and the jar would provide noise. But basically, Gideon's army violated the cardinal principle of fighting, which is to keep their hands free for combat, but their hands were filled with strange battle weapons. But the Midianites were in for a battle like they had never seen before. We read the story together. We're familiar with it. Gideon divides his men into three companies of a hundred men each, and these group take up their positions around the Midianite camp. We're told that they reached the enemy's camp at the beginning of the middle watch, which means that the Midianite army was already in a deep sleep, And then it happens. Everything breaks loose. Shattering jars, screaming, torches lighting the sky, and trumpets blowing wildly. You see, 300 men with the right equipment can make an awful lot of noise. Try to imagine being awakened by something like that, especially when you're in a deep sleep. And the Midianites thought that they were being overrun for sure, and in the screaming they heard what? A sword for the Lord and for Gideon. Remember, two names that had already put fear into their hearts. And in reality, they had no idea how many men really followed each torch. It could have been a thousand men following each torch. They didn't know. But Gideon and his men held their positions, we're told, and they simply watched the Lord's deliverance of His oppressed people. All they had to do was watch as the panic-filled Midianites tried to flee Many of them, did you catch that? Many of them killing each other. A hundred and twenty thousand of them killed themselves. The three hundred never laid a finger on them. All they had was their torches and their trumpets and their jars. You see, this was the Lord at work. And people of God, this reminds us of the Lord's work of wiping out Pharaoh and the Egyptians at the Red Sea. And just before Israel crossed the sea, we read in Exodus 14, verse 13, Moses answered the people, Do not be afraid. Stand firm, and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring today. Stand firm and watch the Lord's deliverance of His oppressed people. That's what Gideon and his band of 300 did. The congregation, that's what happened. That's how it was so many years ago. But Gideon is dead. Midian is gone. And all of this is just a memory covered with the dust of history and many have even forgotten this event. So then we need to ask, so what? So what? But you see, all of this isn't really about Gideon. All along throughout this mini-series with Gideon, which we have called Reformation, God's way from beginning to end, this business of Reformation is the Lord's doing. Remember, the angel of the Lord, the pre-incarnate Christ, called Gideon. And the spirit of the Lord possessed Gideon. The God of Gideon still lives today. He still calls today. He still possesses people today. And He still fights today for you and for me. Many of you have heard the saying, the new is in the old concealed. The old is in the new revealed. Speaking about the Old Testament and the New Testament. The New Testament is concealed in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is revealed in the New Testament. We know that the Old Testament dispensation was considered the time of shadows and promises. They had the promise of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. But that's just what it was. A promise. The New Testament dispensation experienced the reality or the fulfillment of that promise. Jesus Christ came. The reality of Jesus Christ was concealed. in the Old Testament. Gideon, of course, was a type of Christ. And as an appointed Savior for God's people, for the Israelites against the Midianites, he points forward to the coming of Christ and the salvation that he would bring to all of the elect of Christ. And of course, then when Christ came, he revealed that which Gideon was pointing to, namely to Christ himself. And all of the different judges recorded in the book of Judges, we know, along with Gideon, were types of Christ. Samson, Deborah, Ehud. But so were men like Moses and Noah and David. God used them all in His reformation work. And beloved, reformation in Jesus' name exists in every age. God is at work reforming His way even today. And since the ultimate Savior, Jesus Christ, came, God doesn't have to raise up temporary judges anymore like Gideon. He works through His Holy Spirit. He uses you and me, those who have been washed by the blood of the Lamb. And He continues today to deliver His oppressed people out of sin. When Jesus Christ was hanging on the cross, His disciples and His mother stood there helplessly. There was no help they could give Him. But what did they see? They witnessed the deliverance of the Lord's sin-oppressed people. And on Judgment Day, all of His enemies, all of the Lord's enemies will be filled with panic, trying to flee, crying out for the mountains to cover them. But those delivered by Christ will be safe and secure, standing firm on the solid rock of salvation. In the second place, then, notice that the crushing power of the Lord of Reformation pacifies Gideon's quarreling brothers. pacifies. Boys and girls, to pacify means to calm down, to settle down. We think of a baby pacifier. Maybe some of you know it by a different name, but the little thing that the baby sucks on in order to calm that baby down when the baby is crying. The Lord of Reformation pacifies, calms down Gideon's quarreling or arguing brothers. Again, the Midianites who had not been killed by their own people, a mere 15,000 of them, were trying to get away. And we know, of course, from earlier on that they owned many camels, which apparently was a fairly new military tactic in those days. And obviously, they had much more speed traveling on a camel than on foot. And many of the Midianite warriors possibly mounted camels and they were headed toward the Jordan River. If they could get across the Jordan River, they had a good chance of escaping. So Gideon calls back the men that the Lord had him send home earlier, and they were called back then to capture the fleeing Midianites. But this time, notice Gideon also summons the Ephraimites. If we jump back to Gideon's original call after he blew the trumpet in chapter 6, verse 35, we see that he called the tribes of Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, but not the tribe of Ephraim. But now he sends a message to Ephraim to guard the escape routes by the Jordan. Maybe it's because they were closer. But Ephraim responds and they were given success. They captured and they killed two leaders, two princes, which was good work and they should have been happy. But they weren't. Instead, they felt slighted. They felt overlooked. They criticized Gideon sharply. In essence, they said that Gideon didn't have any family manners. He didn't include them. But notice they didn't bother when Gideon blew the trumpet the first time to put together that original army. They didn't bother to ask Gideon if he could use their help. They didn't bother to volunteer and ask what kind of instructions that he had from the Lord that conveniently somehow slipped their minds. And now, instead of rejoicing over their own deliverance because they too had been delivered, the Ephraimites complained that they had been left out. Beloved, I believe that Ephraim's motivation here was jealousy. Remember that Ephraim and Manasseh were brothers, sons of Joseph. Gideon was from the tribe of Manasseh. And Ephraim thought that Manasseh through Gideon was trying to wrongfully take over their place in Israel, their place which had been established by Jacob's blessing in Genesis 48. Normally, when a father blessed his sons, the greater blessing went to the older son. But when Jacob blessed Joseph's sons, he put his right hand, the hand that symbolized power, on Ephraim's head. Ephraim was the younger son. And he placed his left hand on Manasseh's head. Manasseh was the older. Ephraim received the greater blessing and they indeed were a great and powerful tribe while Manasseh, as Gideon says in verse 6, was the smallest in Israel. So now here Ephraim saw Gideon's work as a tribe for the top spot. But it wasn't. Gideon was just an instrument of the Lord's liberating power. But Ephraim saw him as one who was trying to make a name for himself and his tribe. Ephraim's actions were brought about by jealousy and selfishness. They thought they were better than their brothers. But Gideon's response to them was a good one. He says in chapter 8, verses 2 and 3, What have I accomplished compared to you? Aren't the gleanings of Ephraim's grapes better than the full grape harvest of Abiezer? God gave Oreb and Zeb, the Midianite leaders, into your hands. What was I able to do compared to you? At this, the resentment against him subsided. See, Gideon basically says that their work, as short as it was, really produced more than his work. It's not quantity, Ephraim. It's quality. Let's not quarrel, my brother. Was it not the Lord who fought for both of us? He used Gideon to start the battle, which is what the full grape harvest of Abiezer refers to. And he used Ephraim to capture these two leaders, which the gleanings of Ephraim's grapes refers to. Ephraim captured two important leaders. What could be better than that? Remember what we said with Ehud and Eglon? When the leaders are gone, the army is basically useless. But we need to appreciate what Gideon does here. He makes it clear that the credit doesn't go to him, nor does it go to Ephraim, but it goes to the Lord. He said God gave. And beloved, we must also appreciate Gideon's tact. Many of us would be tempted to fly off the handle in anger if we were accused of doing what Gideon was accused of doing. But not Gideon. By the grace of God, God pacified. He settled down. He calmed down these quarreling brothers through Gideon's soft words. Proverbs 15, verse 1 says, A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Maybe Gideon's soft answer was the motivation for writing Proverbs 15. But I believe one of the things we're being taught here is how to deal with each other, beloved. Especially in the midst of difficulties and struggles that Satan would use in the church to try to tear us apart. Ephraim clearly misinterpreted Gideon's motives for what took place. But what about us? What about us? What are our motives? What are our motives for doing whatever work we do in the church? for being a cadet leader, for example, and many other tasks. What are our motives for the work that we do? What are our motives for telling others about our faith? What are our motives for being here tonight for worship? Again, all good things you see, but what are our motives? Are they selfish motives to be seen by men? Or hoping that somehow our work in God's kingdom will gain us a little more favor with Him? If that's the case, then may we redirect our attention to who is really doing the saving around here. Who really gets the credit? Reformation, God's work, God's power, and God's way. And there's one more situation we want to look at tonight, and that deals with Gideon's apostate brothers, boys and girls, apostate those who had fallen away. The crushing power of the Lord of Reformation disciplines Gideon's apostate brothers. These apostate brothers include the cities of Succoth and Peniel, which were located east of the Jordan River in the territory of Gad. Peniel, you may recall, was the place where Jacob wrestled with the Lord many, many years earlier. Now Gideon and the 300 were in hot pursuit of Ziba and Zelmun, the two kings of Midian. But remember, when the battle started, Gideon and the 300 were equipped for a surprise attack and not for a lengthy chase. Gideon fully expected, as he ought to have been, he fully expected to be able to get supplies from his fellow Israelites. At first they stop in Succoth. Gideon asks for bread for the men because they are still in pursuit of these two kings. And the men of Succoth won't give it to them. And the same thing happens in Peniel. Gideon knew, Gideon was confident that the Lord would also deliver these two kings into his hands. He threatens, or maybe we should say, he promises both the men of Succoth and Benio that he would be back and they would be punished. But what happened here? You see, in a sense, this is where we scratch our heads because this is really sort of unexplainable. You see, beloved, God had also delivered these two cities out of Midian's hand. In fact, we might say that they would be among those who would benefit the most because they were border towns. They were usually among the first to get hit when the Midianites entered the land. But instead, the men of Succoth make fun of Gideon. Verse 6 of chapter 8. Do you already have the hands of Ziba and Zalmunna in your possession? Why should we give bread to your troops? We tell you what, you go get them first. And then when you have them, then maybe we'll talk food. But this is nothing short of mockery. I mean, after all, in a practical sense, how will Gideon catch these camel-riding Midianites without any physical strength? The men of Succoth and Peniel were laughing at the salvation program of the Lord through Gideon. In their eyes, you see, there was no victory yet. It's no doubt that they had already heard about the Lord's power, but you see, they were scared themselves. They had their own necks to worry about. After all, what if they did give Gideon bread, and then Gideon himself was captured? Then who would come back looking for them? Not Gideon, but the Midianites. To them, the judgment of the Midianites would be worse than God's judgment. how often don't we fall prey to that same attitude, maybe not even realizing it, when we're afraid to witness, let's say, because we're afraid to be laughed at. But we forget that God's judgment upon those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ will be worse than man's judgment could ever be. But Gideon and his band of 300, they leave to do their work. They take care of the Midianites. They capture the two kings and they came back to visit their brothers in Succoth and Peniel. And Gideon, as promised, carried out the judgments on these two cities. In Succoth, he whipped their flesh with thorns and briars. In Peniel, he tore down their tower which served as their defense against Midian. We might wonder whether or not Gideon really needed to carry out these punishments against these two cities. But the answer is definitely yes. You see, they didn't sin against Gideon. But they sinned against God. They were faithless and apostate. This was not uncontrollable revenge by Gideon, but it was church discipline. Church discipline in the form and the manner of that time. These were men that not only refused to participate in the Lord's Reformation program, but they hindered those who did. They showed a lack of confidence in God and they stood in the way of God's work. These apostate brothers had left the way that leads to Jesus Christ and in a sense, they had joined forces with the enemy. They were in the church, but they were not of the church. They were the tares that Jesus says, grow among the wheat. People of God, Reformation forces you and me to make a choice. Whose side are you going to be on? You see, the ever-present danger that we face on this side of glory is the temptation to become too comfortable with this life. And sooner or later, we don't want to create waves in the church or in society. So the truth of God gets watered down and even ignored. And the danger is losing sight of the program of salvation and the need for salvation and losing sight of the progress of the Bible and the advancement of righteousness. Losing sight, becoming numb. To the joy of salvation. We all need to think about this and consider this, even the young people. When you think about the joy of salvation, does that do something to you? Does that cause your heart to jump for joy? Does it make you excited about what you have in Christ Jesus? You see, true reformation is not about becoming comfortable with your faith. May not any one of us ever become comfortable with our faith. But true reformation is about constantly advancing and becoming stronger in your faith by the grace of God. To be reformed means to always be transforming by the renewing of our minds through the sanctification of the Holy Spirit. The danger we face is losing the distinctiveness and separateness which is a natural part of true faith. God's people are distinctive from and separate from the world, but sometimes we don't want to be, do we, young people? But we are to be. Beloved, when we compromise our faith, when we compromise whether it be by not standing up for the truth or by blending in with society or by being too comfortable with our church and the faith that we no longer have a heart for the lost, then we stand in the way of true reformation. We stand in God's way. And the truth is we stand in the way of the gospel, of the advancement of the gospel in so many ways. Pastors can stand in the way when they are more concerned about everything but faithfully preaching the Word of God and everything but the needs of the congregation. They stand in the way, for example, when they turn the call process into a business negotiation process which is being done more and more these days. The pew sitter can stand in the way by bickering with each other over non-essential things that cast a stain on the communion of the saints and joy in Christ. Young people, and boys and girls, you stand in the way when you know that others know that you claim to be a Christian. But then you do things and you treat others in a way that is hateful and is not loving and does not fit the character of being a Christian. We stand in the way when we are stingy with our finances and with our time and when we have a lack of commitment to the Lord and the spread of His gospel. We stand in the way of true reformation in our own lives, in the privacy of our homes. Indeed, it's not possible to escape the wicked influence of the world that we face each and every day. That's not possible. We depend every day upon the strength of the Holy Spirit to give us what we need in the face of the world. But we stand in the way, even in the privacy of our own homes, by the things that we watch on television. This is something that I have been struggling with personally, especially in recent weeks. Television shows that I enjoy, but I come to realize that I've become numb to what they show. They violate the commandments of our God. Adultery, time and time again, I've become numb to it. Or taking God's name in vain. Or bearing false witness. Or things that promote spite and hatred and malice. It's all there. You know it as well as I do. Is it time to take our televisions to the dump? Now, it's not the TV that's sinful, is it? But it's the misuse of it. But congregation, our daily sin causes us to stand in God's way. And for those who don't confess their sins, they will be crushed by the Lord's power for eternity because in truth, God steps on those who stand in His way. But for those who by God's grace confess their sins and repent of them and seek the Lord's forgiveness, the Lord's crushing power delivers them for all eternity. How do we know? Look to the cross of Jesus and see that the Lord has already delivered His sin-oppressed people. It is finished. Praise God that reformation is His way. Praise God that the power of the Lord of Reformation continues to deliver His people through the blood of Christ and continues to pacify His people by the unifying Spirit of Christ and continues to discipline His people by the use of Christ's keys of the kingdom. Discipline by God. Something we ought to be thankful for, right? The writer of Hebrews says, the Lord disciplines those He loves and accepts as sons. May we be thankful for the Lord's discipline and chastisement in our lives. Praise God. The salvation of souls is what it's all about. And our response? Well, may our desire be to give thanks to God, to be at peace with Him, and may we strive to submit our whole being to Him as soldiers of the cross of Jesus. Amen. Shall we pray? Dear Heavenly Father, we stand amazed when we consider the truth of your power. Your power revealed in the Old Testament stories, especially in the story we have considered tonight. Your power over 135,000 enemies of your people. Your people didn't even have to lift a finger because you can do it all. And may we be reminded too that you are powerful over all of the enemies of the cross of Christ, even our enemies. We pray, Father, that you would draw us ever closer to yourself each and every day. That you would increase our knowledge and our assurance in the most holy faith. That you would make us more faithful servants of the Most High God, those who ever walk closer with you as soldiers of the cross of Jesus. And Father, may we be pleased to give to you all the glory and the honor and the praise. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.