Uncommon Weapons and An Uncommon Victory

We are at this time, engaged in an unjustifiable war in Iraq.  We are also engaged in an unnecessary war in Afghanistan.   And as terrible as these two are, you and I are engaged in a daily battle with Satan.  And since we are battling him daily we must by properly armed.

Israel is now under Midianite oppression.  An angel of the Lord has found Gideon of the Tribe of Manasseh threshing wheat by the winepress. And he tells him, that you o man of valor, will deliver Israel from the hand of the Midianites.  And on three different occasions, Gideon needs reassurance from God that He would be with him in delivering Israel.  Gideon and 32,000 men are now camped next to the spring of Harod.   God tells him that he has too many men, for if he goes to war with 32,000 men, Israel would become prideful and say that there own power has given them the victory.  God tells Gideon to tell the men, “That those who are cowards and are scared to go home.” 22,000 leave, but 10,000 remain.  God tells Gideon that you still have too many.   God tells him to take the men to the water, and separate those that lap the water like a god from those who kneel and drink.  300 lap the water like a dog.  And it is with those 300 men, that God tells Gideon, that He will by there hand, deliver Israel.  That same night, God tells Gideon to arise and go down, for He has given Midian in to his hands.  But Gideon is afraid.  God tells him that since you are afraid; take Purah your servant and go down to the camp. And when you hear there conversation, your hands will be strengthened.  Gideon obeys.  When Gideon reaches the camp, he overhears a man relating a dream to his friend.  The man said, “Behold I has a dream, a loaf of barley bread was tumbling into the camp of Midian, and it came to the tent, and struck it, and turned it upside down that it laid flat”.  His friend replied,” This is nothing less than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given Midian and all the camp into his hands.”  When Gideon hears the account of the dream and its interpretation, he bows in worship. 

Brothers and sister, when God gives you confirmation or grants your requests, worship him.  I pray God that you have not allowed 365 days to go by, without tell Him thank you.  And you should be maturing in your relationship with God, that before you worship Him for what He has given you, you should be worshipping Him for who He is.  He is love, joy, long-suffering, patient, kind, mericiful, Wonderful Counselor, The Mighty God, The Prince of Peace.  He woke us up this morning, started us along our way. We are here because of Him. And anything else that He does for us, is just icing on the cake.

Now if you would notice, Gideon is not in a synagogue, he is not in a churrch, he is outside. He is on the outskirts of a war camp, but he still worships.  Don’t wait until you get to in between these four walls to worship. I don’t know where you might be when it hits you how god God has been to you. You might be in the shower, in your car, at your job, in the restroom doing one of you bodily functions. But wherever you are, when you think about the goodness of Jesus and all he has done for you, bow in worship.

When Gideon comes back to the Israelite camp, he says arise, for God has given Midian into your hands.  He divides the 300 men into 3 companies of 100. And instead of giving them axes, spears, or swords, The Lord leads him to give the men uncommon weapons. He gives them trumpets (ram's horns), jars (earthen vessels) and torches (lamps). Now this seems illogical, because they are about to go to war. But if God is leading the battle, then he chooses which weapons to use. And our God specializes in using uncommon weapons. Moses, who stands with Red Sea in front of him and Pharoh's army behind him, does not have a sword in his hand, he has a staff. And the same staff that opens the Red Sea and allows Israel to cross on dry land, is the same staff that destroys Pharaoh's army. Sampson when he killed 1,000 Phillistines, did not use an axe, but he used a fresh jawbone of an ass. David did not come kill Goliath with a spear, but he used a smooth stone and a slingshot. Have you any rivers that seem are uncrossable? Have you any mountains that you can’t tunnel through? God specializes in things thought impossible. And He will do what no other power can do. Brothers and sisters, in this spiritual battle that we are in, we have only one common weapon and that is The Word of God. Put down your futile weapons of manipulation, hatred, envyand strife. And pick up The Word of God. God's Word had been tested, proven and tried. When Jesus was tempted of Satan on three different occasions, he defeated him with The Word. And you and I, when we Satan comes to buffet us we will always succeed when we use The Word of God. There is power in the Word, there is strength in the Word, there is deliverence in the Word.

And Gideon tells the men, to look at me and do and I do. When I blow my trumpet, blow yours and shout, "For the Lord and for Gideon". Gideon and the men go into the outskirts of the Midianite camp, when there watch had just been posted. And all together, they smashed there jars, held there torches in there left hand and trumpets in there right hands for blowing, and said," A sword for the Lord and sword for Gideon." Each man stood in his place, round about the camp and host ran, crying as they fled.

And The Lord caused the Midianites to turn on one another with there own swords. Now a common victory allows you to take the credit for defeating your enemy. But it's a uncommon victory when the enemy kills there ownself. Gideon and the 300 men cannot take credit for doing something that they did not do. They did obey the direction they were given, but it was The Lord who fought the battle. The battle is not yours, it's The Lord's. Do what The Word says, Love your enemies, bless them that curse, do good to them that hate, pray for them who despitefully use you, and God will make your enemies your footstool and He will make them to even be at piece with you. God will give you the victory!

Brothers and Sisters, I am about to close now. But in the beginging Gideon thanked The Lord because he received confirmation. But no where do we read, that he thanked God for the victory. When God gives you the victory, do at the end what you did at the begining and Thank Him. Because he didn't have to give you the victory. Not only thank him for the victory,....