Gideon's 300: Trusting God's Plan

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible Guys. I'm Chris and I'm. Jeff and so you are you whatever your name is. Oh, that was terrible. That was rough. Okay, let's let's go try it. Let's let's go on better things. Because Desiree has encouraged us to kick off this segment with a thing called guess the word. It's kind of like taboo ooh. And our listeners have an opportunity, yes, to make some huge points. Yes. So those of you that are longtime listeners and you've been collecting points, here's an opportunity to take a big jump forward. Yes. And so here's what's going to happen. Hopefully, if you're watching, we will put the words that I cannot say on the bottom of the screen. Uh. And it's my goal to get Jeff to say the words. We have five words and I'm not allowed to say any of the uh. But what keywords? Right? And if you accidentally say one of those words, our listeners get a thousand points. Yeah, yeah, which is which is huge incredibly generous. Yes, although I'm on record saying, why are we getting weigh a thousand points at a time? Should be like ten thousand. Dude, the good things are worth a thousand a thousand, you know. Sure, you got to teach, you got to teach the value of points. Okay, all right, so. Here we got ready. What being set fire to Gideon's offering an angel? Boom? Wow? That was easy, right, because, yes, right, yes, to your story. I wasn't allowed to say wings, devil, heaven, halo. Or white. Oh wow, so so isn't that isn't that easy? That was great? Good job? Right now. I don't know the rules. I don't know the rules of this, but I'm but I'm going to do what I think and you can tell me whether I violated the rules. Ready, okay, okay? Uh? What makes this. Sound a baby? But done? Yeah? Okay. I wasn't allowed to say infants, cry, child, boy, or diaper. Yeah. I don't know if you're allowed to do sound effects. Huh, I don't know. Well that's what she didn't say. It doesn't say it in the rules, that's right. The rules just say if you accidentally say, if you say any of the italicized words, our listeners get a thousand. Point Well, Jeff, that's what I'm about. I'm about the rules. I'm about going as far as I can, Okay with the rules. Okay, very good? All right, all right, here we go. Ready, Christmas is about Jesus' there it is. I wasn't allowed to say death, woman, baby day, or date. Wow, So I just used an example. Okay, right? Right? So so how about that? Uh? These generally start with the words hear ye, hear ye. That's called a proclamation. Oh, that's a good one. What's another one? An announcement? Yes, an announcement? Very good? Yeah, proclamation was a much better word for hear ye. But I wasn't allowed to say wedding, or the word announcement, of course, birth, broadcast, or engagement. Okay, I was allowed to say any those things. Very good, Chris, all right, but hey, we got a pretty quickly gifted You are gifted at this, all right? And so if if the mystery doesn't work out for you, that could be another job for you? Is that game show hosts or or perennial game game show contestant? Hey, so I have a really I have this next one. I have a way to quickly get you to say the word yes. But instead of that, I'm going to do a longer version to see. If you know it. Okay, just for fun. Okay, if not, I'll build to the quick way. Okay, just for fun. Okay, just for fun, because I've already nailed. For This is going to be deliriously fun. Okay, let me see if anybody of any of our listeners who grew up in church know what I'm about to do. Ready, Oh, where is my hair brush? Yes? I had to get you to say hair hair. Yeah, yeah, they're. Great, Okay, very good. By the way, it's from veggietails. By the way, I thought I was gonna have to the early two thousands right there. I thought I was gonna have to get to that. Oh where, oh where where where? I thought I was going to do that. No, But as soon as I said where. You know, you said I have veggietails officionado. So that's funny. So I wasn't allowed to say brush, of course, comb, blonde, face or head. So I was just going to say, when you call somebody a brunette, it refers to their hair. Yeah, that's what I was gonna say, which is, you know, obviously a quick way to do it. Yours was more fun. Oh yeah, way, way more, way more fun. And I wonder how many of our listeners no vegetails. So I don't think our listeners got any points today. No they didn't. That's right, they did not. Should we give them points if they beat me on an answer? No, no, because because said. Everybody has to know the value of losing. Jeff, no participation trophies. That's right, good losers. Good day, sir, you lose, you get nothing, Good day, sir. I don't remember. It's Willy Wonka. Oh, yes, you stolet Phizzy lifting Drakes. Right, Yes, that's right, Yeah, all that stuff, wow, Willy Wonka. Yeah, well you're pulling them out today. Well you know, okay, So yesterday we talked about if you didn't have an opportunity to hear the previous episode, Gideon was hiding, probably feeling like he wasn't a very courageous person, and from the Midi Knights and the angel Lord shows up and says, hey, mighty warrior, God's gonna use you in a great way. And then he kept doubting. God lays out a fleece all these kinds of things. Finally we get to chapter seven, so that's in Judges chapter six. In chapter seven, jerebel right, which is, Gideon and his army got up early and went as far as the Spring of Herod or Harad whatever. The armies a Midian were camped north of them, in the valley near the hill of Mora. The Lord said to Gideon, you have too many warriors with you. If I let all of you fight the Midian, I say, Israelites will boast to me that they've saved themselves by their own strength. Therefore, tell the people, whoever is timid or afraid, may leave this mountain and go home. So twenty two thousand of them went home, leave me only ten thousand who were willing to fight. Hey, if you're feeling a little nervous, you can go home if you want to. In twenty two thousand leave there's ten thousand left. But the Lord told Gideon there are still too many. Bring them down to the spring, and I will test them to determine who will go with you and who will not. When Gideon took his warriors down to the water, the Lord told him divide the men into two groups. In one group put all those who cup water into their hands and lap it up with their tongues like dogs. In the other group put all those who down and drink with their mouths in the stream. Only three hundred the men drank from their hands. All the others got down on their knees and drank with their mouths in the stream. The Lord told Gideon, with these three hundred men, I will rescue you and give you victory over the Midianites. Send all the others home. So Gideon collected the provisions and rams horns of the other warriors and sent them home, but he kept the three hundred men with him. The Midi night camp was in the valley just below Gideon, and that night the Lord said, get up, go down into the midy night camp, for I have given you victory over them. But if you're afraid the attack, go down to the camp with your servant Pourah. Listen to what the Midi knights are saying, and you will be greatly encouraged, and then you'll be. Eager to attack. So Gideon took Pourah and went down to the edge of the enemy camp, and the armies of Midian Amelek and the people of the East had settled in the valley like a swarm of locusts, their camels that were like grains of sand on the seashore, too many to count. Gideon crept up just as a man was telling his companion about a dream. The man said, I had this dream, and in my dream a loaf of barley bread came tumbling down into the Midnight camp. It hit a tent, turned it over, knocked it flat. His companion answered, your dream can mean only one thing. God has given Gideon, son of Joe Ash the Israelite victory over Midian and all its allies. When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed and worshiped before the Lord. Then he returned to the Israelite camp and shouted, get up, for the Lord has given you victory over the midy Night Hords. He divided the three hundred men into three groups and gave each man a ram's horn in a clay jar with a torch lit in it. And then he said to them keep your eyes on me. When I come to the edge of the camp, just do as I do. Blow your horns too all around the entire camp, and shout for the Lord and for Gideon. It was just after midnight, after the changing of the guard, when Gideon and the one hundred men with him reached the edge of the mid night camp. Suddenly they blew the rams horns and broke their clay jars. And then all three groups blew their horns and broke their jars. They held the blazing torches in their left hands and the horns in their right hands, and then they all shouted a sword for the Lord and for Gideon. Each man stood at his position around the camp and watched as all the Midi Knites rushed around in a panic, shouting as they ran to escape. When the three hundred Israelites blew the rams horns, the Lord caused the warriors in the camp to fight each other with their own swords. Those were not Those who were not killed fled to places as far away as Bethshita near Zara, and to the border of abel Abel Mahola near Tabath. I don't know. Then Gideon sent for the warriors of Naphtali, Asher and Manassa, who joined in chasing the army of Midian. Gideon also sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim saying go down to attack the Midi Knights cut them off at the shallow crossings of the Jordan River at Beth Barra. So all the men of Ephraim did as they were told. They captured Oreb and Zeb, the two Midi Knight commanders, killing Orb at the Rock of Orb and Zeb at the wine press of Zeb, and they continued to chase the Midi Knights. Afterwards, the Israelites brought the heads of Oreb and Zebe to Gideon, who was by the Jordan River. Wow, ending was heads there, you go, yikes, But what an uno. There's a lot of cut off heads in the Bible, by the way, just case you're wondering. For sure for sure, Well, I mean to your point. You know, you've made sort of this statement a long time ago and said, you know, this was all about war, right, And so war was God using the children of Israel to wipe out all the people that you know, blasphemed God and worshiped other gods, and and you know God was just taking them out. Yeah, it really was. And so you know the Bible looks at these things unblinkingly yep. And God had told Gideon I'm going to give you this victory and then just doesn't blink as it happens. Right, it's just really really blunt. So what's amazing about this is how it starts. I mean, the reason why this story is just so unbelievable is because he he doesn't exactly lay out his plan to Gideon as he's meating his army, right, right, So he says, he says, I know you're against unbelievable odds, right, but you still have thirty two thousand troops and that's too many, because that's just enough to say, oh, my goodness, the odds were so great. Look at us, we're so great. He says, I want to make it to where absolutely you will have absolutely no way, right, I mean, it's just an incredible thing to say, Hey, go home if you want to. In twenty two thousand went home leading only ten thousand who were willing to fight, right, and then you're thinking only ten thousand, and then it goes down to three hundred Are you kidding me? And they're going up against How big was the army they were going against? Did the Bible say? Do you remember seeing that? Yeah? I think it's I think it was like one hundred thousand, like a goajillion. Yeah, it was like one hundred thousand, wasn't that? I don't know. I remember seeing it. Yeah, I remember doing a study when I, oh, Gideon's army of three hundred men chasing. Oh no, it says fifteen thousand. We're chasing fifteen thousand. You know what. We should have probably looked that up before we jumped into this story. So the I don't see it anywhere. You know what I'm gonna do. Go ahead, keep talking, I'm going to google it. Okay. So the reason why I was asking about that is thirty two thousand probably felt small, is what I was getting at, right, And sometimes God asks us, he says, he tells us to, you know, go make a difference, whether that's speaking up at your kids' school, or sharing the gospel with your neighbor, or you know, having courage at Thanksgiving dinner with your family whatever. And it feels like we are outnumbered or like we don't have any chance. And then God for Gideon goes, Nope, that's still too many. That's still too many. Right, So I was my instincts were correct. It was one hundred and thirty five thousand men. Yeah, it was the median that army. So only having thirty two thousand right, was already one hundred and three thousand short, right, right, right. And yet God says, no, we're gonna, We're gonna take it down. He takes it down to ten thousand, right, And then then you're thinking to yourself, what's God going to do? And see, that's the big thing about this story for me is God doesn't say, don't worry, I got a plan. He doesn't say calm down. He just says, let me tell you what's gonna happen. You know, I want to get the glory, so therefore do this, And so Gideon does it, and all of a sudden, twenty two thousand leaves and then they're left. At least we're not told that that God comforts them in any way. So can you imagine like all the all the leaders getting together, the ones who didn't hear the voice of God, right, and they get together with Gideon, they go, what are you doing? Like? What is happening? And how is this possibly good idea? Have you lost your mind? Have you lost your ever loving mind? And then with with the with the with the with the drinking thing. You know, God isn't it interesting how God chose the ones who who reached down and grab the water and brought them up to their hand, Because you know, there's a there's a practical. Part to that. Right when you when you just. Throw your face in the river, you leave yourself, you know, available to be attacked from. Behind, right right, you're not being alert. You're not being alert. But if you cup the water with your hand and you bring it up to your mouth, that means that you're a person who is constantly looking around. Did you ever see like a like an antelope or a deer drink from the water, And how how skittish it is, right Like, it waits like ten minutes before it even takes a drink, you know, because it doesn't want to leave itself vulnerable. It's like, that's that's what these warriors were doing. And so he sends home another nine thousand, seven hundred people. By the way, those are the ten thousand that were willing to stay the first time, right, And then he tells them, oh, you you you put your face down to the water, go home, And they're like what And then they all go home? And then and then God, and by the way, do you know why the one hundred and thirty five thousand were fearful just from the lanterns. Well, they would have thought that they had three hundred thousand coming into attack, yes, because it was three hundred warriors with lights and blowing horns, and they would have assumed that that was the leader of a thousand men. Yes, yes, yeah, so the leader of a legion traditionally held a lantern, blew a horn, you know when they were saying charge, right, and they did it at nighttime, right, And so they did at nighttime for several reasons. Number one, so that everybody who was encamped in the Median Army can see the lanterns obviously. And then also when they got up, and it says that they were in such a panic, I would imagine that it would have been so dark they would have just started killing themselves. Yeah, well that's what Bob says. They started fighting each other. Yeah. And the reason probably is if you're assuming that three hundred thousand people are among you, you're assuming everybody's an enemy. Any sword among you an enemy. You're just screaming and panic, just trying to fight for your life. It's such a cool story. It's brilliant. Yep, it's really brilliant. So there's a practicality to it that is just unbelievable, Like who would have ever thought that God would have been so clever to have had that plan, you know. And by the way, what a bluff? Yeah yeah, no, lie no, lie. Well even before that happened, though, we kind of we passed over this again. God is confirming for Gideon over and over. God doesn't do this for everybody. Gideon is I think the only person in the Bible I can remember where God regularly keeps reaffirming for him. Hey, I'm on your side. So he says to Gideon, Hey, I want you to sneak down in the camp and just listen to what they're talking about. Because you know, the camp, if you got one hundred and thirty thousand people, it's like a city, right, So one guy, if he's dressed right, he'd be able to sneak into town and nobody. It's not like he's sneaking into a fortress or onto a military base, right that. It's just tense. So they're set up in an area where they feel like nobody's gonna sneak up to them, and they're getting ready to go to war, but they're out, and so Gideon sneaks into the camp and God says, hey, you're going to hear some conversations. These conversations are going to encourage you. But then he says, but if you're still scared, even though I'm telling you do this, just take your servant Poro with you. And so the next verse says, and so Gideon and Pero go down to the right, right, right. It's such a funny thing. Right. So this is the same voice. Remember I talked about it yesterday. So the angel tells him he makes food for the angel. The angel burns it on a rock and then disappears, and then God's voice says, don't worry. I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm gonna do something great with you. And then God's voice says, okay, now I want you to go and defeat the Midianites put together an army. And he goes, well, I'm not really sure. How about this fleece thing, you know, make it wet, dry ground. Okay, Thanks God. Same voice comes back to him, speaks again, and he goes, thanks God, and this time, make the fleece dry and the ground wet, and God does it again. Then God says, okay, now assemble this army. Okay, I do so. Now he's trusting God. After three four four encounters with God's voice, then God says, okay, do these things. I want you to whittle. Down the army. Whittle down the army, whittle down the army. And I think maybe now he's full of a little doubt. I only had thirty two thousand. I wasn't sure how we were going to bet one hundred and thirty, and now we're down to three hundred. God goes, Okay, I know you're nervous, but I'm doing this because if I send him in with a big army, the Israelites are going to claim they won the battle. And it's not their battle. It's my battle. So just go down in the camp, sneak in, which is dangerous, and you're going to hear some people talking. It's gonna encourage you heart. But if you're afraid, take Poor. So next verse, he takes Poor over him because he's afraid, and they go down in the camp and then these guys are talking to one guy goes, dude, I had a dream and I feel like our camp got wiped out, and now the guy goes, oh, that can only mean that Gideon wins, and Giddy goes, we win, and then he runs back again. So it's just amazing to me how many incredible encounters with God Gideon has, and yet every step he doubts that the next steps the right step. Right until God confirms it right. And and you know, even though that we're not privileged enough perhaps to have such a direct, personalized, you know, confirmation from God, where God, you know, speaks to us audibly and then you know, grants our requests when we say, show us a sign, you know, that kind of thing. Even though that we may not be on the receiving end of that, it is true that God gives us promises and he confirms, you know, his presence. In our lives. And I think that almost every person that I've encountered as a pastor, I think you're you would probably say the same. Right when somebody faces something you know, really difficult and really hard and they're wondering about the future and they're wondering what's going to happen, isn't it true that, like as a pastor, you can look at them if they've been a Christian a long time, you can say, hasn't God been faithful in the past, Like you can look at them and ask them like, hasn't there been evidence in your life where you didn't know what was going to happen and yet God showed up. I'm not sure there's ever been an example where I've looked, where I've asked that question where a Christian who's been a Christian a long time says, No, there's never been that time. There's never been that time. It's always been God's been faithful. Now, he may not necessarily answer the prayers, and we may go through hard times that we don't understand. That's true. But in terms of like God's faithfulness and the evidence of God's showing up and you know, and confirming his presence and his promises, I think every Christian is on the receiving end of God demonstrating himself in a miraculous way. I really do. Yes, me too, Yeah, me too. And then what you have here is the three hundred fighters just stand around and watch God bring a victory right now once. So they're all fighting. The Midi Knights are fighting each other, and then they take off running. The ones who don't kill each other. They take off running. From that point on, now they have to engage and fight, and he has to call in the armies from Ephraim and Naftalai and all these other So those thousands of people that were dismissed now are engaging in the fight, by the way, which I love, and they're running back. And if you read on in the chapter eight, Ephrium is the army behind. They're kind of the rear guard. And the generals are a little frustrated with this, and they come and go, hey, how can we give us, But they're the ones who killed those other generals and you know, Zebe and whatever. Yeah, Orb and. Gideon is like, hey, every role matters, which I love. So on one end, the beginning of the victory was clearly and only God doing it. But then the end of the victory, God chooses to enlist all of his people to come in clean up the mess. Right is what happens there? And so God, as you read all of these wars, all these battles, all these things, God wins victories for his people in so many different ways. One time, the walls just fall down, people come in and wipe out the enemies. Another time. It's lots of times it's just literally hand to hand combat. Right when when when Caleb says, hey, I want that mountain and there's a bunch of giants up there, he knew that was going to be hand to hand combat. They're just gonna write other times. God does miracles like this, and so what we have to do is not expect that God would do the same miracle he did yesterday, but that God's going to do a new miracle today. Whatever's necessary for now He's going to do. And that ultimately God's plan is that everybody always remembers the battle belongs to the Lord. Right, it's not your strength, it's not your might, it's not your numbers, it's not your power, it's not your clever leadership. It's my victory. And I'm going to do it in a different way. But then I'm going to have to use as you. God doesn't just dismiss the people. Now I'll go home. They all chase down the enemy and they wipe them out. So, uh, there's there's work on the on the Israelite side, but it always starts with God doing an extraordinary victory. And that's been my experience in a lot of ways life. I see God doing an outrageously amazing thing, and then you realize, boy, there's a lot of work on the back end of that amazing thing God just did in order to you know, be a good steward of it, to clean it all up, to get ready to move on to the next thing, because they're gonna have new enemies they're gonna have to face in the future, so they have to clean this one up first. So well, hey, that looks like our time. So that was a great story. I'm really glad we took time the time to do it, so hopefully you'll join us next time on the Bible. Guys,