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by Katie Erickson

Today’s passage is a lengthy one, but I encourage you go to read the whole thing here before continuing on with this blog post. The context of this passage is that right before this, Gideon’s small army (with the help of the tribe of Ephraim) fights against the large Midianite army. Midian ran away, so Gideon is pursuing them.

Gideon, still having his small army, requests food for his troops from the people of Sukkoth. Sukkoth was part of the land given to the tribe of Gad, which was part of Israel, so they were all on the same side. You’d think the town of Sukkoth would be willing to help their brethren, but that was not the case. They feared that if the people of Midian (their enemies) found out that they had helped Gideon, Midian would punish them for it. They were geographically close to the site of the battle, so they feared that Midian would regroup, come back, and try to fight them.

So Gideon moves on to Peniel, another nearly town, and makes the same request. The same thing happens again! Gideon then threatens both of these towns with punishment when he goes on to apprehend the kings of Midian, even without their help.

Gideon goes on to meet up with the much larger army of Midian. Midian is again surprised by this; after all, what little tiny kid goes chasing after the huge bully? Midian thought they were far enough away that they wouldn’t be pursued, but they thought wrong. Gideon captured the two kings of Midian, therefore disbanding their army and officially winning the battle.

After this victory, which was again due to God’s power, Gideon remains true to his word. He went back to the towns of Sukkoth and Penial to punish their leaders, and then he killed the kings of Midian.

We see here yet again that it was only through God’s power that Gideon’s small army of 300 was victorious. God was with them, and Gideon had faith and confidence in what God would do. Gideon was called by God and was obedient to Him, so He knew God would bless him for that. It was incredibly improbable that Gideon’s tiny army would defeat Midian’s huge one, but it was because of the faith of their leader, Gideon, that they even attempted such a feat. Gideon needed signs and reassurances along the way, but he kept the faith and was victorious in the end, because of following God’s leading in his life.

Gideon even had opposition from his own people when he asked for help and they turned him down, but he pressed on anyway. Gideon was more concerned with what God was telling him than what the world was telling him.

How often can you say that in your own life? It’s very easy for us to listen to God when He seems to be agreeing with what the world is telling us. But it’s much more difficult to listen to God when that goes against the world’s ideals, and even more difficult when following God could very easily lead to our personal harm.

So how do we be obedient to God, even when the world is telling us not to? Remain strong in your faith. Build up your relationship with God through prayer and reading His Word. Listen to what God is telling you, and like Gideon, have the faith and trust to go for it.

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by Ami Samuels

“A man’s wisdom gives him patience. It is to his glory to overlook and offense” (Proverbs 19:11).

“Don’t be easily offended,” is a phrase that I repeat to myself in my day to day life.

To be honest with you, I am the most easily offended when I am driving. I am not someone who has road rage or gives nasty hand signals, but I do mutter things under my breath, and occasionally out loud in my car, from time to time. Not that this behavior does any good, but this is the perfect example of when I repeat the phrase “Don’t be easily offended, don’t be easily offended” to myself.

Today when people are short with you, push their way in front of you, hurt your feelings (intentionally or unintentionally), cut you off in traffic, or are just plain rude to you, join me as we reflect on Proverbs 19:11, “A man’s wisdom gives him patience. It is to his glory to overlook and offense,” and don’t be easily offended.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by Nathan Buck

When we lived in Ohio, a close family member was rushed to the hospital close to death because of a secondary infection after a surgery. It was sudden, there was no time for me to get there, and the situation was progressing rapidly. I called a friend whom I knew would pray for my family member, with confidence in God's power to change the situation. Then all I could do was pray from a distance and wait.

It's hard when you realize a situation is out of your control. It can be jarring to our heart and mind to realize that even our very best effort has no power to change the situation. It's in that moment that we will see what we really believe. Under that kind of pressure, either our self-willed life will struggle and crumble, or our faith-filled life will surrender to the one who has the power to impact the situation.

Take a moment and read Judges 7:19-25. We are continuing where we left off last week. Gideon was afraid to face 135,000+ Midianites, with only 300 fighting men, and God had him go into the camp under cover to be encouraged. (Read last week's blog post here.)

Now, Gideon has to initiate the battle. God promised this battle was already won, and that it would be clear that God brought the victory. So, the plan was to spread the 300 men out around Midian's camp, and have them shout, smash some pots, and blow trumpets. Now, I don't know about you, but some smashed pots, shouts, and trumpets don't seem like an effective battle strategy for a 300 vs. 135,000 grudge match. But when God prepares the victory, when God's power and purposes are on the field, it's no longer about the strength we bring. We get in our places on the field and do our part. But everyone can see clearly it is GOD who did something way beyond our ability.

Well, this night for the Midianites had to be like camping out with a bunch of middle schoolers who are telling ghost stories and getting themselves all worked up. (It doesn't take but a stick to crack from a deer passing by, for everyone to start screaming and diving into their tents because they believe the "red eyed, one armed, axe murderer" is coming to get them.) Midian's soldiers already believed that Gideon was going to destroy them. God gave them a dream with a message that showed Gideon as the one to conquer them. So when Gideon's men shattered the pots, shouted and blew the trumpets, the whole Midian camp freaked out in terror. They started to run away, and were fighting as they went. The confusion and terror was so great, they never realized they were fighting other MIDIANITES - killing their own comrades!

We find out later that 120,000 swordsmen died that night, and the kings of Midian fled with only 15,000 fighting men left. All because 300 men smashed jars, shouted, and blew horns. The 300 who stood there watching this, even though they were fighting men, knew they had nothing to do with the victory. The battle was won by God before it ever started. They never had to lift a sword until they gave chase to the few who remained.

As I sat in Ohio and waited for word on my family member, I felt so helpless, but I knew God could do anything. I received a phone call the next day from that family member, and they said that they were feeling much better and expected to make a full recovery. They said when my friend started to pray they were aware of how quickly they were slipping away, and not feeling able to fight, to hang on. Apparently, my friend's prayer was bold and loud, because as sick as my relative was, they remember the nursing staff was fixated on this prayer. And when the prayer was over, my family member remembers being at ease, feeling strength, and knowing that things would be ok.

Later the doctors found the infection and removed it, and my relative made a full recovery. Other family members recall that single moment of prayer turned a corner in the declining situation. They visibly saw a change in the pallor and presence of our relative. The change in condition gave the doctors time to do their job.

My friend wasn't the only one to pray for my relative, and it wasn't any power my friend had in himself to rescue people from death. I could have been there and been the one to pray, or I could have prayed and had it make no difference. The power didn't come from the one praying, or from the title of being a pastor, or for me being related and also being a pastor. None of that made a difference. Only God's power made a difference. And everyone who was there knew that God made the healing possible; not my friend, not the doctors, not me. It was not about the "professionals" - with God we have no such title. We each did what we could. It was God who saved and healed, and everyone knew it.

As you look at the impossible situations or the big decisions in front of you, take encouragement from the last several weeks’ blog posts so you can be obedient and do what is wise and good in God's eyes. Like Gideon, go in the strength that you have, do the part you are supposed to do, and then let God show His power to bring about what is best for everyone involved.

Are you willing to let God do His part? Do you struggle with trusting God to deliver on His promises? Maybe you are just too used to making things happen for yourself?

Take time to listen to God, discern His next steps for you, and then as you go forward REMEMBER and TRUST the one who brought you there. God WANTS to be seen in your situation. How are you being positioned to let HIM be seen?

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by Charlie Wolcott

[This blog post is part of a series. The previous post is here, and the next post is here.]

This is my seventh post in my series in prayer and this is one of the most difficult ones to address: distractions in prayer. We are so easily distracted in our attempts to do what God wants us to do. How do we keep focused?

Two weeks ago, I spoke at a local home school conference. Just before the conference, I had a few distractions. I ended up in a heated discussion with someone who believes firmly that we must only use the King James Version of the Bible to understand truth. It was not pretty, but I realized he was being used as a distraction to get my focus off the conference.

This was not the first time I had seen that happen. Last year at the Colorado Christian Writers Conference, a friend and I were co-teaching a “Continuing Session” about spiritual warfare. We used Sun Tzu’s The Art of War as a guideline to help us understand the strategies used in warfare. But during breakfast the second to last morning, we were sharing about our workshop with a conferee and she absolutely did not approve and would not listen to correction. In both these cases, they were distractions from what God wanted us to do. It also reveals a painful reality that sometimes even our own brothers and sisters in Christ can be used by the enemy to try to get us off track.

What distracts us? What gets us off track? What gets our mind off what God is getting us to do? Most might talk about computer time or video games. Spider Solitare, Facebook, Candy Crush, YouTube, internet surfing, etc. I am not against games, but they can be a distraction. How often do we turn to them when we should be focused on our prayer time or Bible study? Again, I am not saying shut them all down, but let us not be on them when we are supposed to be on our God-given task. But there are other distractions?

I do not know about the rest of you, but I have issues in my head with prayer. What kind of issues? The kind where I am sitting there, in a prayer group, and my brain is going after every little detailed rabbit trail that often has nothing to do with anything and NOT on prayer. My brain is like the dog in the movie Up: “SQUIRREL!” Who else can relate to these issues?

One of the causes of such brain activity is the extreme high pace of our culture. With electronics and digital media we are constantly filling our minds with input. It is no hidden thing that students today can hardly keep still because the constant input from their cell phones, music, video games, TV, movies, etc.

But this generation is not the only one that would deal with distractions. So did Jesus. He had crowds pushing him everywhere he went. What was his solution so he could stay focused on prayer? He got away from the crowds, got up well before dawn, and prayed alone. He shut off all the noise, he closed out all the input from other people, and he quieted himself down so he could focus on his Father.

Jesus did not have to go very far. Twice recently I have chosen to get away from the house to go pray. Away from my computer. Away from my music. Even away from my sermons (I only listen to movie/game soundtracks, sermons, and worship.) I did a hike and spent some time in a cave one time, and another time I went to the prayer chapel at my church. I spent time away from the busyness and away from the noise and away from the concerns of life. Here is the problem: Jesus did this on a regular basis. Do we? We constantly see him slipping away in private prayer away from everything, away from distractions. How often do we do this… if at all? I’ve done it twice this year. Gotten away from home, away from my computer. When I pray, I do shut off my computer, and for the time being I have packed away my video games. I simply know I am not to play them during this season. Should I get them out again, I must be careful because I know they can distract me from praying, eating up the time needed elsewhere.

Prayer groups have two major distractions. I am not merely talking about individual prayer, but corporate prayer. How often during prayer meetings or small groups do we spend more time talking about prayer than praying? Now, there is a great importance to talking about prayer. Last week I addressed knowing what God wants prayed for so we can specifically target it. However, too often we have a 1-hour prayer meeting and spend 30-45 minutes talking about prayer needs and 10 minutes praying.

There is a grave danger to talking about prayer rather than praying. One of the greatest sins that prayer groups commit is gossip. Many of us do not even recognize that it is gossip. We will say, “I have a prayer request…” and then proceed to share information that has not been confirmed, has not been validated, or may be something that is confidential and meant to be kept silent. The only prayer requests that should be shared publically are these: those which have been asked to be made public by the person directly involved, those we are personally involved with and know it is appropriate to speak publically, and praise reports. If you absolutely must bring it up, unless you have permission and unless it edifies, do NOT give any specifics. One pastor met with someone for business and a church member saw it. She spread all kinds of rumors that were not even true, and destroyed the pastor’s life, all in the name of prayer. Love covers a multitude of sins; gossip exposes it, even if it isn’t true. We MUST be watchful for this, even in the spirit of love and care. Gossip, no matter how well intentioned, can only destroy.

If you are dealing with distractions, that may be a sign that God is doing something in your life and the enemy does not like it. Leslie Ludy wrote in Wrestling Prayer:

"If you find that you are being constantly distracted by the cares of life, bogged down with emotional or physical "fog", or pestered with irrational thoughts and fears every time you pray, there is a good chance that the enemy of your soul is attempting to create confusion and keep you from entering the cave with your King. Beware of saying, "I'll press into God once these issues are gone." That's exactly how the enemy wants you to respond. Like Nehemiah, we must aggressively pray and fight until the enemy realizes that we will not kowtow to his bullying." (pg 222)

Here Ludy is talking about how David’s Mighty Men were deeply intimate with their King in the Cave of Abdullam, and that is how we should be with our King, Jesus Christ. If you are being distracted in your prayers, it is likely because the enemy fears them and is doing whatever he can to keep it from happening. Press through and keep on target. Be as Jacob did when he pressed through the whole night wrestling with God. Do not be caught off guard. Hold your ground and do not move from your position. All these distractions are feints, they are false moves. Satan has no intention of attacking that ground, but he most certainly wants you to think he is. Hold the position God put you in and take every thought captive to the will of Christ Jesus. If your mind wanders, take every thought captive. Let Christ take command of your thought life. That has been one of my prayer requests lately, that this verse becomes real in my life. It’s not there yet, but I am striving to get there.

Next week, I am going to write about praying with endurance, perseverance, and travail. Could you pray all night if you needed to? I’ll get into that next week.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by Steve Risner

Here we will take a look at a third statement by my high school friend who is an atheist (the first and second statements are here and here). He makes a couple of interesting comments that I will likely only be able to briefly overview.

The statement we'll be looking at today: “I do not want to paint you and all other devout Christians with a thick brush, but getting so worked up over something so minor and acting like every little honest critique of your faith or pointing out that, just maybe, the American system is stacked a little unfairly toward the New Testament crowd, is a full-frontal assault on your precious faith. THAT is where outsiders see such Christians as having a persecution complex!”

It's always something to see when someone says, “I don't want to (do this thing we all know is wrong) but...” Something that this atheist does that is really bad form is the fact that he says he wants to avoid painting with a thick brush right before he goes ahead and paints with a thick brush. He is actually using an interaction with a single person that he's interpreted in a negative way to make generalized statements about all Christians. This is rarely a good way to communicate as it almost always means you're incorrect. His interaction with me and the fact that I had something to say concerning his illegitimate claims about Christianity made him believe I was “getting so worked up.” I wasn't worked up at all, but he's trying to shift the discussion from a factual, reality-based discussion to an emotional discussion.

Actually, he's trying to make it appear that he's taking the high road of sticking to the topic and being calm and cool while he's accusing me of being irrational, basically. He's making the discussion personal rather than objective. That is the attempt often made by someone who is losing ground in a discussion. They will shift the focus towards something else. What I find very curious here is he refers to “every little honest critique of your faith.” I'm not sure how frequently you've been in discussions with atheists about Christianity, but it is very rare in my experience (perhaps it's never happened but I feel that there was probably at least once) that an atheist will honestly and accurately represent Christianity when discussing his or her particular issues with it or with the Bible. This is frequently a strawman. People do this quite often. I've done it as well. It's not always something done with malicious intent. It could be an accident or misunderstanding. However, if an atheist such as this—one who calls himself a “Catholic atheist”—who knows a little bit about the Christian faith makes strawman arguments, it's very likely intentional, although there could be an exception.

Very common arguments atheists put forth include nonsense like, “You think women are inferior.” “You think slavery is okay because the Bible says so.” “You say Jesus was a zombie who was the Son of Himself Who sent Himself to die to Himself to satisfy His own need for blood.” “You think rape and murdering children is good because the Bible says so.” “You think Noah kept 6 million different species of animals on the ark.” Foolish things like this and so many others have often been touted by atheists. These are all absolutely ridiculous claims and easy to knock down. However, taking the time to do so is often frustrating because the person making such claims is rarely interested in the truth. They are interested in denying God and trashing Christianity and the Bible. They will knowingly lie to win an argument simply because they don't care if they're right. An atheist actually told me this and it seems clear from my interactions with others it's true to a degree. They only care if they can satisfy their need to hate God. The point here is that he is claiming to have given an “honest critique” of Christianity when he did no such thing.

He then gets into a subject that I could write for months on but will save you the misery. He claims the American system is stacked in favor of Christianity! I know, I know. It's hard to take someone seriously when they say such things, but he said it and he was totally serious. I will address this statement today and will get into what he expounds on further at a later date.

The “system” as he calls it is not biased towards anyone and, in fact, he later will comment on how the “system” is not for Christians or is concerned with Christians. So he's actually talking out of both sides of his mouth here. His claim is that the government is biased towards Christianity, which I find hilarious. Christianity has been assaulted for decades by both society and the government. The moral decay of our nation supports this. The demonization of anyone who resists that moral decay or speaks out in favor of morality shows quite clearly, to me, that the nation is most certainly not biased towards Christians. Prayer was taken out of school over 50 years ago. Saying the Pledge of Allegiance has been under attack because of the phrase “one nation under God” as well as for other reasons. The nation has slowly turned its back on the God that was instrumental in its founding. The result? Well, does anyone think this place is better than it was just 20 or 30 years ago? I don't want to get too wrapped up in it, but my childhood (which wasn't THAT long ago) was very different than the childhood my kids will enjoy. The America I grew up in was safer, nicer, and, in general, just better. I don't mean that to sound like an old curmudgeon or anything other than what my opinion is on where we are versus where we were, but it's obvious to me that America has made drastic changes in the last 20-30 years (truly the last 100 years) that are not good.

It is true that this nation was founded by predominantly Christian people who structured the government based on predominantly Christian principles to govern a predominantly Christian people. There's really no way around that. I hope to get into that some more next week since this atheist brought it up. But the record is fairly clear—we are a Christian nation. That is not to be confused with a Christian state, i.e. a theocracy or a state ruled by a particular church. But we are quite clearly a nation of Christian-principled people. Those principles are assaulted almost daily and they've eroded significantly, but that doesn't change the history of our country at all. I'll leave the rest of that discussion for next time. Let's take a look at the last remarks here.

My friend complains that pointing out that the nation is clearly not friendly towards Christianity any longer but was once a nation built on Biblical principles is the same as having a persecution complex. This, I thought, was really strange. While it is true that Christianity around America is being attacked from a variety of angles and sources as well as for a variety of reasons, I don't think most of us have a persecution complex. There are those who sort of ask for it, if you know what I mean. Those people that say, “Well, I was sharing the Gospel with the heathens at the factory and they started persecuting me.” When they say “sharing the Gospel” they are referring to telling their coworkers that they're going to hell or that they lectured them on why they shouldn't cuss or drink or whatever. That's not “sharing the Gospel” and I don't blame their coworkers for fighting back. This isn't “persecution” but is simply the result of being stupid. If you've “shared the Gospel” like this and have been attacked for it, perhaps you want to rethink your strategy and how you view their response.

This isn't what the person is talking about, however. Again, he’s making broad statements about all or most Christians because of how he's interpreted one interaction. I think most Christians probably feel the world is against them in one way or another. I don't believe this qualifies as a complex or some such thing. One reason for this is that the Bible tells us the world will hate us. Jesus talked about that here and the same quote can be found here. Jesus further talks about that here. All of these things are good reason to believe we will be hated by the world. I'm okay with that, though. It's because the world’s system is antagonistic towards God and His people and hates the light. That doesn't mean I'll sit back and accept unjust treatment, false accusation, misrepresentation, or the like without speaking up on occasion. One of the reasons I feel it's important to indicate if someone is misrepresenting Christianity, which is most likely the case in these situations, is to correct the person who is in the wrong for their benefit and/or the benefit of others. I think this is important for 2 reasons: 1) they need to know (but most likely already do know) that they are arguing against something that is not a true representation of the faith, and 2) if there are witnesses who are either hearing or seeing the conversation, I would like for them to understand that the mischaracterization of Christianity is certainly not a reason to complain about Christianity.

I've run out of space and need to pause until next week. I hope you stick with me during this series and thank you for reading.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by Bill Seng

“When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the Lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords.” ~Judges 7:22

I'm going to take a moment to talk politics without talking politics. I find politics and politicians to be interesting creatures. They defy common sense in oh so many ways. This election season is no exception as two supposedly reviled candidates have secured their respective party's nomination. But what I find most fascinating is how establishment politicians are quick to throw each other overboard.

One side of the political spectrum is particularly notorious for doing this. They vet their candidates so thoroughly (or so they want you to think) that whenever a serious charge arises against a candidate, to the chagrin of their opponents, they will force that candidate to withdraw from a race or even resign from their current position. There are documented instances of this happening where the accused is 100% proven innocent… after the election has taken place or even 10 years later. Sometimes, allies can be one’s own worst enemies.

In Gideon's conquest against the oppressors of Israel, the battle takes a bizarre and unexpected twist. Gideon's 300 men blow trumpets and somehow that causes their enemies to attack each other. What on earth is going on here?

There are a couple of possibilities, but my honest opinion is that the Lord allowed for the wickedness dwelling within these people to get the better of them. There is an instance in Mark chapter 5 where Jesus commands evil spirits to leave from a demon possessed man. The demons did not want to be disembodied, so they asked to be sent into a herd of pigs. The pigs immediately, after being possessed, ran into a lake and drowned themselves. Under the influence of the demonic, they sought only to destroy themselves.

I can think of subtle instances today where the friends of certain groups of people actually turn out to be enemies. In 2014, a movie was released called The Interview. It was notorious for its ending that included the killing of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Apparently the North Korean government didn't find the ending too funny as they engaged in a cyber war against Sony (the company that produced the film). Studio execs are known to be good liberals – you know, social justice warriors that speak up for African Americans, homosexuals, and other minority groups in the name of multiculturalism. Well, the Koreans released some of the emails from one of the studio execs and lo and behold they were wrought with gay and racial slurs. In their secret thoughts, those who hate God hate others as well.

I would not doubt that the camp fighting Gideon's army wasn't much different. They were gathered to fight a common foe, but in their hearts they hated each other. Thus, the Lord merely turned them over to their inward desires to harm and kill those who they were fighting beside, allowing Gideon's victory to be a cake walk.

Do you harbor hatred against someone that you work alongside? The Bible tells us that "Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in darkness" (1 John 2:9). Hatred is likened to murder, and murder is of the devil. To harbor hatred is to become a subject of the devil, and hatred will surely lead to your own misfortune. Be unified in Spirit with those around you, particularly believers. It was the obedience of the camp of Gideon that unleashed the power of God against Israel's enemies and forced them to destroy each other. Though we don't desire those who hate us to face destruction, abiding in love tear down the barriers that the evil one sets up as we walk in faith, trusting the word of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

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.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.