This evening, I'll be reading from Judges chapter 7, Judges 7, that's in the beginning of your Bible, just after Joshua. It's on page 244 in the Pew Bible, Judges 7, page 244, Judges chapter 7. Then Jerubal, 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 Morah 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. 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. 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 three hundred men. And the camp of Midian was below him in the valley. That same night the Lord said to him, Arise and go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand. But if you're afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah, your servant, and you shall hear what they say, and afterwards your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp. And then he went down with Purah his servant to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp. And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the east lay along the valley like locusts in abundance, and their camels were without number, as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance. When Gideon came, behold, a man was telling a dream to his comrade. And he said, behold, I dreamed a dream. And behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down so that the tent lay flat. And his comrade answered, this is no other than the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel. God has given into his hand Midian and all the camp. As soon as Gideon heard the telling of the dream and his interpretation, he worshiped. And he returned to the camp of Israel and said, Arise, for the Lord has given the host of Midian into your hand. And he divided the 300 men into three companies and put trumpets in the hands of all of them, and empty jars with torches inside. And he said to them, look at me and do likewise. When I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do. When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp and shout, for the Lord and for Gideon. So Gideon and the hundred men who are 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. And the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars and they held in their left hands torches and in their right hands trumpets to blow. And they cried out, a sword for the Lord and for Gideon. Every man stood in his place around the camp. And all the army ran. They cried out and fled. When they blew 300 trumpets, the Lord set every man's sword against his comrade and against all the army. And the army fled as far as Beth Shittah towards Zerorah, as far as the border of Abel, Meholah, and Tabith. And the men of Israel were called out from Naphtali and from Asher and from all Manasseh, and they pursued after Midian. Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, Come down against the Midianites and capture the waters against them, as far as Beth-berah and also the Jordan. So the men of Ephraim were called out, and they captured the waters as far as Beth-berah and also the Jordan. And they captured the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeb. And they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeb they killed at the winepress of Zeb. And they pursued Midian, and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeb to Gideon across the Jordan. let's pray together that the lord would help us understand his word let's bow our heads lord we come to worship your holy name and we ask that you would cleanse our hearts from all distracting thoughts all worldly concerns all sin in our minds lord just help us to concentrate upon your word help us to focus and learn by your spirit would you please convict and comfort us with this word your holy and true word, Lord. We're eager to hear your word now, and Lord, we ask that you'd bless the hearing of it, make it profitable through your Holy Spirit. Please illumine our hearts to the preaching of the gospel and give us understanding. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. This evening, we're looking at the story of Gideon, and Gideon's in the book of Judges. Throughout the book of Judges, there's cycles that happen over and over in which Israel sins against the Lord, the Lord sends a just judgment upon their sins, Israel cries out for help from the Lord, and then the Lord sends them a Savior or a Redeemer to pull them out of their suffering. We find ourselves in the middle of one of these cycles here in chapter 7, But in chapter 6, we see that Israel has grievously sinned against the Lord. And the Lord sent the Midianites and the Amalekites and the peoples of the east against Israel as a judgment. For seven whole years, the Israelites are under the thumb of this army. This mass of people, it's said they're uncountable, right? They're like the sands of the seashore, like a horde of locusts. And they're eating all the produce, all the crops, all the livestock of Israel. Israel's greatly suffering. It says they were brought very low because of the Midianites. And what they do is they hide in dens and caves. The Israelites are greatly suffering, and they cry out to help from the Lord. In chapter 6, the Lord appoints Gideon to be their redeemer. But Gideon's reluctant. And if you recall the story of the fleeces, we see Gideon is unsure. He needs assurance from the Lord. He's wavering and weak in his faith. But nonetheless, he does what the Lord asks of him. And here in chapter 7, we see he's appointed to lead the army of Israel against the Midianites, Amalekites, and the people of the east. Chapter 7 begins with the armies drawn up for battle. It says the Israelites are up on a hill. above the people of the east that are down in the valley of Jezreel and they're looking upon this army and it's massive. With the numbers we get in chapter 8 we see it's at least an army of 135,000 men and the numbers we get for Israel are 32,000 men. That means that the people of the east are at least over 100,000 more than the Israelites. It's four Midianites to every one Israelite. These odds are very difficult. It would be an amazing battle, an incredible accomplishment if they could beat this army. But God says, the people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into your hand. And that's in verse 2. And I think it's really important to focus on verse 2 because I think it frames up the rest of the passage for us. It helps us interpret what comes next. And I think it really is the main point. So look at verse 2 with me. 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. There we see God's great concern in this passage is his own glory. God does not want man or Israel or anyone to boast over him. He doesn't want Israel to think that they've saved themselves. If they won this crazy battle with an army that's 100,000 stronger, he knows man's heart. He knows that they would boast. So he says, the people with you are too many. He says, if anyone's afraid, send him home. 22,000 men leave Gideon's forces, leaving him with 10,000 men. It's now 10,000 against this uncountable army. The odds went from an exceedingly difficult battle to now unthinkable. It's unthinkable that this army of 10,000 could win. But in verse 4, God says again, the people with you are still too many. Even with 13 Midianites to every one Israelite, God knows man's heart is desperately wicked and deceitful, and he knows that the Israelites would still boast and think that they somehow won this battle, that it wasn't the Lord, but they saved themselves. So God says, the people with you are still too many. And he tells Gideon to lead the people down to the water, and he will test them there. So every man that kneels down to drink water, put them aside, and everyone that scoops up water and laps it like a dog, set them aside. 300 men lap water like a dog. And it doesn't say the 300 strongest warriors, the 300 most skilled men, it just says 300 men. It seems like an arbitrary choice, maybe even derogatory, but it's clear that the point is 300 men. It's now no longer an army. Gideon's men is no longer an army to face another army. It's a fighting force at best. But the Lord says in verse 7, with the 300 men who lapped, I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand. God again saying, I will save. You're not saving yourselves. So with 300 men and why so few? Remember that God does not want Israel to boast. God does not want Israel to think that they've saved themselves. God wants all the glory for himself because he is redeeming Israel. So, the odds went from exceedingly difficult to unthinkable to now impossible. A small fighting force against this massive, uncountable, devouring army. There's no way. It's impossible. But God chooses to work through weakness that His name might be more glorified. So what we see here, God working through weakness, and the purpose is to subvert our human expectations of power. You see, you and I, all humans, naturally trust in physical and tangible works of earthly power. It makes sense to us. We trust in horses and chariots is what we see in the Psalms. But think of it, military might in tanks, in jets, in rifles. When we see a lion, we think power and dominance. That's just naturally how we think. I remember when I first shot a gun, I was 12 years old, and I went hunting with my father. I'd seen him shoot. I knew what a gun does. I'd been trained on how to use it, but the first time I shot it, I cried just because of the sheer force and power in a 12-gauge shaka, and I couldn't believe it. And it makes sense why when we see something like that, we trust in it. But in the Psalms we sang today and in many other places, the Lord says, don't trust in these things. Don't trust in your own strength, in your might. Don't trust in swords, in bows, in chariots, in horsemen, in horses. Don't trust in these things because the battle is the Lord's. So God chooses to work through weakness to subvert our human expectations of power. And He does this all throughout redemptive history. He does this all throughout the Bible. Think even of the barren women. Think of Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Hannah, these women were barren, and especially Sarah thinks that maybe by earthly means she could continue the covenant line. She's 90 years old and has lost hope that God will bring the covenant child through her. She thinks, I'll give another woman to my husband, and she will bear the child. But God, bringing her to the point of desperation, chooses to work through weakness through an impossibility to have a 90-year-old woman bear a child, that she might know it could only have been God that did this. This is not natural power. This is not how things normally go. It could only have been God. God does the same thing when Israelites come into the land and they come upon Jericho. God didn't give them the greatest army the land had ever seen. He didn't give them new weapons for warfare. There wasn't a great lightning bolt that came and destroyed Jericho, but they marched around and blew trumpets and shouted. And then the walls came down, and the people could only say that the Lord had done this. Now we see God doing the same thing with 300 men, Gideon and 300 men. but it's not just 300 soldiers. It's 300 unarmed men. It's particularly a weakness that we see in verse 20. They only hold torches and trumpets. It says, in their left hands, they held torches, and in their right hands, trumpets to blow. They're out of hands. They're not holding swords. They're not holding shields or spears or bows. 300 unarmed men against this uncountable, massive army of the people of the east. And naturally, Gideon is afraid. Gideon's afraid. How could, it's not even army, how could this little fighting force with no weapons defeat this great army of the east. But the Lord recognizes that Gideon's afraid and he says, I will strengthen your hands. If you're afraid, go down with Purah, your servant, to the camp. Sure enough, he brings Purah with him. Gideon is very afraid, but God strengthens his hands with a dream, a dream from the enemy, interestingly enough. And this dream is a piece of barley bread, a cake of barley bread rolling into a tent. You could think like a little piece of pita bread rolling down a hill and hitting a tent, and the tent flips over and lies flat. It's kind of a ridiculous dream. One commentator said it's as ridiculous that that little piece of bread would be devoured by a swarm of locusts in the same way Gideon's little fighting force would be devoured by that great army. Yet we see this piece of bread knock over a tent and lie it flat. So too with Gideon and his men, they vanquish the Midianite army. But how does this battle go down. Let's think about that. Remember, it's at night. It's at night, and they sneak up on this camp. Gideon says, take torches and put clay jars over the top of them. It's to conceal their approach as they sneak up. And he says, take trumpets. Now, in verse 8, it says that they took the trumpets from the greater army. So, they had more trumpets than a normal force would have. If you think when an army goes to battle, usually everyone's carrying weapons, and only a few people have torches and trumpets. But here, Gideon's plan is everyone's holding torches and trumpets so that they appear as a larger army, and they sneak up on the Midianites. It says it's at the middle watch, which means midnight. The middle of the night, the darkest point of the night, and it says the watch was just changed. So, these Midianites are just rolling out of their tents, half asleep probably, and suddenly Gideon and his men up on the hill surround the Midianite camp. They surround them on all sides, and they have their torches covered. They shatter the jars on the ground. So, these men, half asleep, hear a shattering. Suddenly, torches are lifted up surrounding them, And then they hear a great shout and trumpets blaring, and they start scattering. They start to flee, and God supernaturally stirs up commotion and confusion in the camp so that the Midianites, Amalekites, and people of the east slay one another. They kill each other with their swords, and Gideon and his men weren't holding a weapon the whole time. Chapter 8 tells us 120,000 men fell. A massive number of the army. This huge devastation of the eastern army, but Gideon and his men, unarmed. Yet, in man's sinfulness, it seems that Gideon is still grasping for glory in some way, somehow wants to take credit. We see this in what they shout. We didn't look at that little detail yet, but look at verse 18. What do they shout when they surprise the Midianite camp? He says, for the Lord and for Gideon. What is Gideon's name doing next to the Lord's there. It kind of jumps out on the page, especially reading in light of verse 2. Lord does not want man to boast. Why are they shouting for Gideon? And then when the people actually shout it in the battle in verse 20, they say, a sword for the Lord and for Gideon, which again is ironic because verse 20 says they're not holding weapons, yet they shout, sword for the Lord and for Gideon. So what do we see except men taking credit for themselves? Men thinking that they in some way can share in the glory. And then we see later Gideon even calls in reinforcements. God told him to win this battle with 300, but Gideon wants to call in reinforcements to clean up the last little bit, to go get the princes, to get them as they're running away. Brothers and sisters, we've seen that God wants it to be clear that he alone saves. God wants all the glory to himself. He does not want to share his glory because he wants it to be clear that he has done the work. And if this is how God is saving Israel, how he saves Israel from their oppression of the Midianite army, is that not how God will save you and I? How he'll save his church in such a way that he gets all the glory working through weakness and do we not find ourselves in a similar position to Gideon we have grievously sinned against the Lord we need a redeemer and we have a greater enemy it's not just 135,000 men it's not just an earthly army. But we stand against sin, death, the devil, our very own flesh, this whole world, the principalities and powers of the air, these cosmic powers over the present darkness. We have a ferocious, a fearsome enemy, much worse, much greater than the Midianite army. Yet, when we face this greater enemy, God uses even weaker means that he might get even more glory. We see God doesn't use 300 men, but God uses one man to redeem us from this greater enemy. And God uses this one man crucified on a cross. This man spat upon, despised, lowly, hated, mocked. God uses this man to save us from our great enemy. Think about 1 Corinthians 1, verse 26. For consider your calling, brothers. not many of you were wise according to worldly standards not many were powerful not many were of noble birth but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong God chose what is low and despised in the world even things that are not to bring to nothing things that are so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, so that as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. So we see the same scenario where God does not want man to boast, so he uses Jesus Christ to come in the flesh, to suffer, and to be so lowly and mocked, apparently weak, right? It's foolishness to the Greeks. It's a stumbling block to Jews. But to us who are being saved, it's the power of God. The very gospel of Jesus Christ, we see this weakness is for God's glory, that we might not trust in ourselves. But we have to ask ourselves, if God saves through this gospel of Jesus Christ crucified for our sins, do we in some way think that we can share in that glory, that we can take some of the credit, that it's Jesus and us that did it? We had a little bit to do with our salvation. Did we save ourselves? Do we call in reinforcements to think that we can finish the job ourselves? Jesus got us to where we need to be, and then we take that last step over the finish line. Brothers and sisters, if we're adding anything to Christ's work, we're misunderstanding the gospel. Christ alone saves. God alone saves. Because Christ was not just a man, but very God. And John Calvin says, we will never truly glory in him, Jesus, until we've utterly discarded our own glory. The elect are justified by the Lord in order that they may glory in him and none else. We can't look to another Savior. We can't look to a sinful Savior like Gideon. We need to look to Jesus Christ alone to save us from sin, death, the devil, our flesh, the cosmic powers. It's only Jesus Christ that could do this. Now, if you're like me, you might feel guilty that sometimes you have somehow thought that you are contributing to your salvation. But take comfort that it's by faith alone in Jesus Christ. It's by faith that we get this salvation. It's not the strength of our faith, but just the fact that we have true faith. And we see that in Gideon. Gideon is shaky the whole time. Three chapters about Gideon, 6, 7, and 8, and he sins in every chapter. But we see when it comes down to it, he did believe the Lord, even though he was wavering, even though he was sinful. He led Israel into sin. He even boasted in himself, but he did believe the Lord. In chapter 7, we see that when the Lord strengthened his hands and comforted him and told him this weak plan that he has to do, Gideon bowed down and worshiped. He did believe the Lord, and he followed through with the weakness of this plan, no matter how afraid, no matter how weak his faith was. And what do we see? That in Hebrews 11, Gideon is counted faithful. It says, time would fail me to tell of Gideon. Then it says, who through faith was made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, and put foreign armies to flight. weak Gideon is called strong. He was made strong in his weakness. It's in faith realizing that he cannot do it himself. So he puts his trust, his wholehearted trust in Jesus Christ. And Gideon's counted faithful even for all his sin. It's remarkable to read that passage in Hebrews because it casts a different light when we're reading Judges that he's counted faithful even in all this sin. So we ought to put our faith in Jesus Christ and trust the weakness of the cross, trust the weakness of God's plan, and be comforted knowing that it's the faith that God has given us that will give us all the beautiful benefits that are in Christ Jesus and Christ Jesus himself. So let us not trust in men, let us not trust in ourselves, and we're in the trumpets of war, but let us wait for that last trumpet as the scriptures say in the end the son of man will send his angels with a great trumpet to gather his elect the last trumpet will sound and god will give his faithful ones victory over the last enemy for the lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of god and when the elect when you and I are gathered up and brought into heaven, God will place a crown on our heads. But we will know that we don't deserve any glory ourselves. We will take that crown and cast it at God's feet and say, Lord, no, it could only have been you. If you had left any part of my salvation to myself, I would have messed it up. But Lord, it could only have been you. It always has been you. So to you be all the glory. Amen. Let's pray together. Lord God, we are prone to try and steal glory from you as if that were possible. Please forgive us, Lord. You alone saved by your great might, so to you be all the glory. Would we all boast in your name alone and boast in the cross of Jesus Christ, our Savior, To the world, Lord, it's foolishness to believe that the God-man has died for our sins and secured our salvation. But to your people, to your elect, Lord, it's the most blessed truth that we know, the very power for our salvation. So strengthen our faith, we ask, in the truth of the gospel and the weakness of the cross. Amen.