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by Katie Erickson

“Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guard. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands. The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars. Grasping the torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpets they were to blow, they shouted, ‘A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!’ While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out as they fled.
When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the Lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords. The army fled to Beth Shittah toward Zererah as far as the border of Abel Meholah near Tabbath. Israelites from Naphtali, Asher and all Manasseh were called out, and they pursued the Midianites. Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim, saying, ‘Come down against the Midianites and seize the waters of the Jordan ahead of them as far as Beth Barah.’
So all the men of Ephraim were called out and they seized the waters of the Jordan as far as Beth Barah. They also captured two of the Midianite leaders, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb. They pursued the Midianites and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, who was by the Jordan.” (Judges 7:19-25)

For the last few weeks, we’ve been looking at how God was preparing Gideon and his army to go into battle against the Midianites. I encourage you to go back and read those posts (here, here, and here) to get the full story.

Gideon had just given his army the instructions to blow their trumpets and shout as their plan of attack, so that’s exactly what they did. The primary weapons they were using were noise and confusion - trumpets, the sudden light of the torches, and their battle cry. Seems like that wouldn’t be too effective, right? Especially when they were outnumbered well over 400 to 1. But with God on their side, the odds didn’t matter.

The Midianites were surprised and confused. They were suddenly afraid of this supposedly large army, and they panicked. They got confused and thought their enemies were already among them, so they started fighting against themselves and killing one another! The Israelites didn’t have to kill the Midianites; the Midianites took care of that for them.

What was left of the Midianite army fled away, so Gideon enlisted help from another Israelite tribe, Ephraim. His own army had gotten their courage back after seeing what God had done for them, so they pursued Midian as well.

There was no way this battle would have had the victorious outcome that it did except through God’s providence. Think about how silly this would look, to have a huge army turn on itself simply because you surprised them and were loud! This makes no sense to human ways of thinking, but that is exactly the point.

If Israel had won the battle on her own strength, Israel would have gotten the glory. Because the battle was won in such a unique and improbable way, God gets the glory.

What’s going on in your life that seems like a long shot? If it’s truly of God, you will be victorious if you’re obedient to what God is telling you, just like Gideon was.

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