JUDGES 7
Read Judges 7:1-25
In Chapter 6 Gideon emphasised his weakness. He was anxious about taking on the role of leader of God’s people and spoke about his lack of status not only within Israel but also within his tribe and family. He needed God’s reassurance because he was afraid of the reaction of the townspeople and his family when he destroyed their idols. Gideon is not a very heroic hero. But in Chapter 7 we see him growing into the role that the Lord has given him. Gideon trusts the Lord when his friend has a dream about the battle ahead and his reaction is to worship. He may not be in a position of strength but he trusts his God.
In this chapter God once again shows his strength through weakness. Gideon had assembled an army to defeat the enemy, the Midianites, but God cut it down until there was no more than a handful. Why? So that the Israelites could not boast about how strong they are and how they could defeat the enemy. God wanted to make sure that they realised that it was God who was fighting for them, that it was God who gave them victory (just as he did throughout the Book of Joshua). We are very good at taking the credit for success when we should really be giving thanks to God for what he has done for us. Gideon and his men caused a disturbance but were basically just bystanders, ‘each man held his position around the camp’ (v21). It was the Lord who ‘Caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords’ (v22). The victory was God’s work.
Again, the Old Testament shows us the way in which God works. When we come to the ministry of Jesus on the cross, we see that the victory was God’s work again. There is nothing we can do to contribute to our salvation. Like Gideon and his men, we are present, we can make our voices heard, but the victory is his and his alone.
Gideon appears in that wonderful passage known as ‘The Heroes of Faith’ in Hebrews 11 which speaks of the great people of the Old Testament. But the writer makes sure that although their faith is to be admired and that they were ‘all commended for their faith’ (Hebrews 11:39), that we note that their ‘weakness was turned to strength’ (11:34). It was God who enabled all these people to achieve what they did. Having recounted the deeds and the faith of all these Old Testament characters, the writer of Hebrews said, ‘Therefore . . . let us fix our eyes upon Jesus’ (12:2). This could be read as ‘let us look away to Jesus’. OK, we have seen these great heroes of faith, [the writer of Hebrews is saying to us] but let us not dwell upon them however great an example they are, rather, let us look towards Jesus, because it is Jesus who is the author and perfecter of our faith and it is to him, and him alone, that we look for our salvation.