Judges 7:1-8, “Gideon’s Three Hundred Men”

INTRO:

Good Evening, it is so good to see you guys. I hope you were able to enjoy the break and the Super Bowl Game. But I am excited that we are back and able to jump into God’s Living Word to see what our God has for us.

I say this often, but I love how we serve a God who saves and is not silent…

Our God wants to save, speak, and steer us and our lives towards his Son…

And we can always go to him consistently, continually, and constantly and he always welcomes me…

SCRIPTURE OPENER:

Psalm 71:3 (ESV)

Be to me a ROCK of REFUGE,

to which I may CONTINUALLY come;

you have given the command to SAVE me,

for you are my ROCK and my FORTRESS.

REFUGE = “A Shelter from Danger or Hardship”

He is my refuge… My shelter from danger or Hardship…

CONTINUALLY = “Always”

I am always welcome… and I can always go to him…

SAVE = “from ruin, destruction, or harm”

He saves me from ruin, destruction, and harm

FORTRESS = “A fortified defensive structure”

And he is my defensive structure… the one I can truly count on that can not be over taken…

This is why I love God’s Word… because it is truly breath taking… and reveals to me the way God thinks, how God acts, and how he views someone like you and me…

This is why I tell you guys each and every week to bring a physical copy of God’s Word with you each week… to highlight, circle, and underline it… Get to know it… let God’s voice be familiar and not far off…

If you are someone who does not bring your Bible with you… I would you encourage you to stop thinking about what others might say or think…

And concern yourself far more with what God thinks and pleasing him… Fall in love with God’s Word and what others think of you will fade…

TRANSIITON - MAIN PASSAGE - JUDGES 7:1-8…

We will be spending the next 2 weeks in the Book of Judges…

This week will be diving into Judges 7:1-8…

Judges can be found in the Old Testament… Before the book of Ruth and after the book of Joshua…

Please follow along with me as I read Judges 7:1-8

Judges 7:1–8 (ESV)

Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod. And the camp of Midian was north of them, by the hill of Moreh, 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, “Every one who laps the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set by himself. Likewise, every one 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 300 men. And the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.

CONTEXT

Before we can unpack these verses… it is important that you know and understand the context… Why?

Because the CONTEXT gives us a CLEAR PICTURE of the CIRCUMSTANCES SURROUNDING the STORY…

In other words, CONTEXT always you to truly COMPREHEND what God is COMMUNICATING through his WORD…

WHAT IS THE CONTEXT?

ABOUT: Before the Book of Judges, the Israelites had just entered into the Promise land - being led by Joshua… Joshua was the guy who took over after Moses… Joshua Had called them to be faithful to the Lord their God when they entered into the Promised Land… Judges begins with Joshua deaths… and describes the Israelites complete failure to be faithful to the Lord… The Book’s Name - JUDGES - comes from the type of the leader that oversaw the Israelites before there were kings… The book of Judges is is not a cuddle comforting book… Rather it is filled with violence… and describes the failures of leadership and moral corruptions of the people - the Israelites…

DATE: This is an estimate and not exact, but many scholars believe that the book of judges was written between (1010–970 B.C.)…. that would be about 1,000 years prior to the Birth of Christ…

AUTHOR: Many Scholars believe that Samuel was the Author of Judges… although the Scriptures do not explicitly express it

AUDIENCE: Was originally intended for the Jewish people - Nation of Israel

SETTING: This passage - Judges 7:1-8 revolves around a character - Gideon. In Judges Chapter 6 we would see that the Lord calls Gideon to save the Israelites from the oppression of the Midianites. The Israelites did not obey the Lord… therefore, the Lord allowed them to be oppressed by another people - The Midianites. The Midianites would wait until the Israelites were going to harvest their crops, then they would come in and plunder the crops and the produce of the land… God appears to Gideon… to save the Israelites from their enemy… the Midianites in Chapter 6… But there was a problem…

You see Gideon would not be your first choice for a hero… he was the least of his fathers house (see Judges 6:15) and his clan was the weakest. You see Gideon was not a confident man, Gideon was not a natural born hero, and Gideon was not able to do anything within his own power to overcome the Midianites…

I know this because in Chapter 6 Gideon asks God to perform multiple signs proving that God would be with him… Gideon performs a task for God - destroying the tower of Baal at night, because he was too scared to complete it during the day…

All of this leads and builds up to a battle that is about to take place in Judges 7… where in the beginning of Judges chapter 7… Gideon starts out with 32,000 men… and the Lord shaves Gideon’s army down to 300 men… so that Gideon would not think that he saved the Israelites by his own hand or strength… and to show that God receives the glory for saving the Israelites…

If we were to read on we would see that Gideon and his 300 defeated an army of 135,000 men…

TRANSITION - TWO QUESTIONS

Our Goal this evening… is to ask ourselves two questions from the text…

The first question is: What is God Teaching us through this text?

The second question is: How does that teaching apply to our lives today?

This leads me to point #1 which is:

POINT #1: Every BOAST belongs to GOD

Look at Judges 7:2…

Judges 7:2 (ESV)

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.’

BOAST = “To Show Off Verbally”…

In other words, the Lord is saying… I am making your army 300 men so that no one can try to show off and take credit for something that I have done…

That when you defeat the army of 135,000 with your army of 300… all will know that your only Boast, that your only Brag will be about me… that your lips will proclaim that the Lord saved me… not of any power of my own… but because of the of the LORD!

People like you and me… far to often… take credit and claim the success that truly belongs to our savior… and we verbally show off and speak as if we have earned and deserved God’s favor… As if God is lucky to have someone like you or me on his team…

FULL TRANSPARENCY - HOOK - SLOW DOWN

God is showing me that I often like to BOAST in my abilities… in what I can do… because I do not like think of myself as weak or as someone who has insecurities…

Because for every BOAST I BRAG about is really hiding and protecting an INSECURITY…

Boasting allows me to hide the real me and my insecurities… Boasting in myself allows me to feel like I have value… that I am capable… and that my failures do not define me…

But when we Boast and Brag about God… it reveals our insecurities… and how God can do mighty works even with people like you and me… who are week…

People who Boast in anything besides God are actually hiding behind insecurities and are weak…

People who Boast in God truly realize and can say… my success has nothing to do with me…

EXAMPLE - GOOD DEEDS

Personal Devotionals - 113

Weekly Prayer Journal

Intentionally Reach out to Others

Worship Team - The Lord provided Jake Norton

Terrified of public speaking - face would turn red when people would see me

Full Ride for Soccer

Married my wife - shy as can be

But how do these things relate to the passage and Gideon?

Remember… Gideon was no hero… Gideon was the least of these… the weakest of the tribes… the runt of the family… and yet, Gideon defeats his enemies… because God uses what is weak to witness to the world His Glory…

If you are not BOASTING in GOD… then you do not truly understand that God receives all the Glory…

Anyone who takes credit for what God has done in their lives only proves verses like Jeremiah 17:9 to be true…

Jeremiah 17:9 (ESV)

The heart is deceitful above all things,

and desperately sick;

who can understand it?

I bring this verse up because that puts on full display… just how wicked we truly are… we are so wicked and deceitful that we will tray to take credit for and brag and boast about the things that God has done for us… and act as if we accomplished them all on our own…

In fact that Word DECEITFUL means = “Marked by deliberate deceptiveness”

In other words, the heart is truly known for being intentionally misleading, illusive, and deceiving…

Even to the point where you start to take credit, brag, and boast about the things that God actually has done and deserves the praise, glory and credit for…

Question: How you taken credit for things that God deserves glory for in your own life? Do you boast about how far you come, things that you are proud of, or good gifts that God has given you? Or do you look back and boast in the LORD?

I have often found that boasting in God… typically requires me to confront my insecurities because boasting in God reveals my weaknesses and exposes how God has changed me…

POINT #2: We have to STOP putting GUARD RAILS on what GOD can DO

I already revealed the spoiler… You already know that Gideon and his men defeat their enemies who had 135,000 men…

So you know that Gideon is victorious… and we can see from this passage that God is constrained or limited to what he can or can not do…

And I have found that throughout my lie… I have believed the lie that there are some things that God can not do…

I have believed this lie in many areas of my life…

You see I would acknowledge in my head that we can do all things in Christ… and that God is not limited… Yet in my heart I had doubts…

I doubted that God could break me of my sinful habits…

I had doubts that God could help me with my temper

I had doubts that I could truly feel accepted and loved by God and God alone and that be enough

I have had doubts that I am not a good spiritual leader for my wife…

I have had doubts that my brother will ever come to faith in Christ…

I have doubts that my brother and I will ever mend our relationship and that we could enjoy each other as brothers should…

I have doubts that I am a good enough speaker…

I have had doubts that I am not smart enough to always make the wise decision…

I have had doubts that God could establish an actual prayer life in my life

I have had doubts that I would be able to read through the entire Bible…

I have had doubts that I would be a good friend…

I have had doubts that I can stop loving myself and my personal time so much…

I have had so many doubts where I have looked at God acknowledge that he can do all things in my head but not truly believed he do them in my heart…

You see I read the account of Gideon in Judges and all I see is me… A guy who is week… questions God… and is scared…

My question to you this is evening is… what areas of your life have you put God on guard rails? What areas of your life have you thought, I don’t know if God can fix this… I do not know if God could actually change me in this way… what areas of your life have you said, I know God can do anything… but I do not believe he will do it for me?

I want to leave you with hope… The longer I have walked with God… the more he has revealed to me… that he never selected me strengths… rather, he selected me because I am weak… and chose to love someone like me, like Gideon, like you… who is weak… so that he could provide you with strength… Some of you need to know that the Lord loves you…

Some of you need to hear that the Lord sees you… cares for you… knows that you are struggling… knows that you feel weak… that at times you feel insufficient… that at times the world and your circumstances are staring back at you and it is overwhelming… and God is here saying… I am your strength… let me show you what I can do…

Isaiah 40:29 (ESV)

He gives power to the faint,

and to him who has no might he increases strength.

FAINT = a person who is weary…

in other words, God gives power to those who are weary, weak, worn-out, exhausted, and fatigued…

Students and leaders if you are feeling weak… God desires to give you strength that can only come from him…