20 March

Bible In 365 Days   

Judges 6-7

Judges 6

After the passing of these forty years, sin again brought punishment. The people passed under the oppression of Midian. It was oppression of the severest kind and lasted for seven years. A terrible picture is drawn of the people of God hiding in dens and caves and strongholds.

In answer to their cry deliverance began. It came through Gideon. He is revealed as a man continuing his work with the bitterness of the whole situation burning like a fire in his bones. He was conscious of the true relation of the people to Jehovah, but equally conscious of the fact that the conditions obtaining were the result of disobedience to the divine government. The words of the angel to him are very significant, "Go in this thy might." This command can be interpreted only in the light of the words immediately following, "Have not I sent thee?"

Thus the deliverer is seen as a man overwhelmingly conscious of the disastrous condition of affairs and yet as definitely conscious of the divine power. It is ever the man who has a double vision of divine intention and human failure who is the man of might and of valor. Moreover, in the consciousness of his own lowliness and insufficiency we discover another element of the greatness of Gideon. He knew that success did not depend on what he was but on what God was. Therefore, submissively to the divine call he erected his altar and seeing through to the prospect of war he called the altar, Jehovah is peace." That is the triumph of faith.

His activity resultant on these convictions is recorded. He began at home. The altar of Baal in connection with his father's house was broken down and the worship of God restored. The second movement was to send out the call. It is in connection with this that we have that remarkable statement that "the Spirit of Jehovah came upon Gideon." Having gone so far, it would seem as though for the moment he became overwhelmed with a sense of fear. Such fear, however, never issues in evil when it drives men to God as it drove Gideon. He asked for signs and they were granted to him.

Judges 7

This is the story of perhaps one of the most remarkable conflicts in the whole history of the people. As we have seen, it was a time when they had been cruelly oppressed as the result of disobedience. It was of the utmost importance that their deliverance should be evidently by divine action. Nothing would have been more disastrous at that time than for them to have imagined that they were able to extricate themselves from the circumstances in the midst of which they were suffering.

Therefore, by divine direction, the first work Gideon was called on to do was to sift the army. In response to his call to arms, thirty-two thousand had responded. The result shows that they lacked the very attitudes necessary for success in war. The first test imposed was a proclamation that all who were faint-hearted and afraid should return. They were given their opportunity to act voluntarily on this principle. The result was that twenty-two thousand went back.

And still the number was too great because the quality of the men making up the ten thousand lacked something of vital importance. A simple test was imposed which revealed these things. Men who bent down to get a drink of water were not sufficiently alive to the danger. An ambush might surprise them. Men who stooped and caught the water in their hands and lapped it were watchers as well as fighters. In other words, men who took no unnecessary time over necessary things were the men who were needed. This sifting resulted in the return of nine thousand seven hundred. Thus the army of Gideon was reduced to a handful of three hundred.