Written by :   Zac Poonen Categories :   Leader Knowing God
WFTW Body: 

It is written in Judges 6:34 that "The Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon". The Holy Spirit came on Gideon like the clothes he wore. Then Gideon was empowered and he blew the trumpet and went out to battle. 32,000 men came out to fight along with him. But the Lord said the people were too many (Judges 7:2). God didn't want all of them, because they were not wholehearted. So Gideon told all those who were afraid to go home.

That's what the Lord says to us too: "Are you afraid of the devil? Then go home. Are you afraid that somebody will call you 'Beelzebul', 'heretic', or 'false prophet'? Then go home. Don't waste your time serving the Lord."

22,000 men went home that day. 10,000 were still left (Judges 7:3). God said that the people were still too many. They too were not wholehearted. Most of them were seeking their own and had to be removed. "Take them down to the water and I will test them there," said the Lord (verse 4). When they came to the water, most of them forgot all about the enemy and buried their heads in the water and began to drink. Many Christians are like that. When they see the attractive things in the world, they forget all about the Lord and His battles and bury their heads in covetous pursuit of wealth. 9,700 of Gideon's soldiers were disqualified that day.

There were only 300 left. These men, when they came to the water, remained alert looking out for the enemy, gathered just enough water with their hands to quench their immediate thirst. These typify those believers who use money and material things, but are not taken up with it. They work at their jobs faithfully to earn their living, but spend the rest of their time doing what they can for the Lord. God says, "Those are the people I want. " And there were only 300 left in that army that day - less than 1% of the original 32,000. The percentage is always small, because the way to life is narrow and few find it. Only 2 out of 600,000 - Joshua and Caleb - made it to the promised-land. But the Lord is happy with those few.

In Judges 7:16, we read that Gideon divided his army into three companies of 100 men each. Each man carried a trumpet and a pitcher with a light inside. They broke the pitcher so that the light showed and then they blew their trumpets. This is a picture of how our life and ministry should be. We are all earthen pitchers but "we have the treasure of the glory of God within our earthen vessel" (2 Corinthians 4:6, 7). But this earthen vessel has to be broken through many trials - "the dying of Jesus" - before the light can be seen by others (2 Corinthians 4:7-11). Otherwise, the light will be forever hidden within us. When he wrote that, Paul was thinking of Gideon's army carrying earthen vessels with a light inside which became visible only when the pitchers were broken. God seeks to break us through many circumstances, so that the light of the life of Christ within us shines forth. Blowing the trumpet is a picture of our proclaiming the glory of the Lord and His Word unashamedly. God is looking for men and women like that today.

Earlier, before Gideon went to this battle, the Lord had told him, "If you want a little more courage, just go down at night to the enemy camp and listen to what they are saying" (Judges 7:10, 11). And when Gideon went down there, he heard that they were all scared of him and his band of people. If you go into the camp of the devil today and listen, you will hear that they are scared of Jesus and of those who follow Him. That should encourage us to go to battle against Satan. The devil is scared of Jesus Christ - and he is really scared of us too - if we are true disciples. So let us call his bluff, whenever he tries to frighten us.