Thursday, September 24, 2020 Submitted by Lara Cook
And he divided the 300 men into three companies and put
trumpets into the hands of all of them and empty jars, with torches inside the
jars. 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.’ Judges 7:16-18
Unconventional Miracles from an Unconventional God
This past Sunday Brother Van wrapped up his sermons on Gideon,
and this devotional will be the last one about Gideon for now. The story of Gideon is so powerful and there
are so many lessons we can have taken away from it, and we have just barely
scratched the surface. One very distinct
and unusual twist in the story of Gideon is the battle scene itself, which
Brother Van didn’t have time to talk about last week. There are two specific points about the
battle scene that really stand out: the strategy and the weapons.
So
Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp
at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just posted the watch; and
they blew the trumpets and smashed the pitchers that were in their hands. Then
the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held in their
left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow. And they
cried out, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!”
2 Judges 7:19-20
The Strategy
The bible says that Gideon’s army approached the outskirts of the enemy’s
camp at the beginning of the middle watch.
There were three night watches.
The first was from 8:00 pm to midnight, the second or “middle” watch was
from midnight to 4:00 am and the last watch was from 4:00 am to 8:00 am. This makes midnight the beginning of the
second watch, which was when Gideon and his men surprised their enemies. This is the middle of the night, the darkest
part of the night and the beginning of the new shift. Gideon divided his 300 men into three groups
of 100 men in each group. Then he told
them to circle all around the camp – the very large camp housing literally
thousands of enemy soldiers. He wanted
them to be heard and seen from every direction around the camp. This is a great idea, but when you take 300
men and stretch them out all the way around a camp that big, in the darkest
part of the night, it was almost as it they were all sent out to fight
alone. Some scholars believe they were
probably so far apart that they couldn’t even see the person next to them,
especially given the darkness. It would feel much like fighting a battle
literally all alone. Not to mention the
weapons they were given.
The Weapons
This may be the most unbelievable part.
Here was Gideon’s little army of three hundred going up against this
army of thousands and I am sure all of their jaws dropped when Gideon told them
what their weapon would be. After he
divided the men into three groups, he gave them each a trumpet, an empty
pitcher, and a torch to go inside the pitcher.
He did not even give a “normal” weapon, not a sword or even a shield to
hide behind.
These two aspects are so very typical of how God works. He is
a miracle worker and wants His power to be evident to all. I believe His power
was quite evident to Gideon and his men since the enemy scattered as fast as
they could when they started blowing trumpets and smashing pitchers in the dark
of the night. I am sure the Midianites were confused and terrified as they were
startled out of their sleep by these loud noises coming from all sides of their
camp. I would imagine this made 300 men sound more like 300 thousand!
Our God fights our battles using the most unconventional
weapons and strategy. If He did things the way we think He should, what would
distinguish Him as God? He will not be predictable or conventional. His ways
are not our ways – thankfully! When despair takes over, we need a God who can
work above and beyond what we can comprehend. It is the limits we put on Him, because
of the limits of our human comprehension, that cause us to despair. He is a
miracle worker and miracles are only miracles because there is no way in the
human mind that we can work it out. If we could figure it out, we would think
we can do it in our own power and where would be the miracle in that? Thank Him
today for His limitless and boundless power to work unconventional miracles in
our lives – power that He never withholds - even when we don’t deserve it.
But Jesus looked at them and said, With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Matthew 19:26
