Judges 7

Good morning. Try to. Try to. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning, we're at Judges, Chapter 7. Going to talk about Gideon. Let's have some coffee. We'll pray. We'll get into God's Word. All right, let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for the blessing it is to get to read your Word. Thank you for time with Nathan. Thank you for time to study. God, we pray to you, please help us to understand. Give us your Holy Spirit to instruct us in the way we should go in Jesus's name. Amen. All right. Judges chapter seven, we're just going to go paragraph by paragraph.
Then Jerubbabel, that is Gideon, and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the well of Herod. so that the camp of the Midianites was on the north side of them by the hill of Mora in the valley. And the Lord said to Gideon, The people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands. Let Israel claim glory for itself against me, saying, My own hand has saved me. Now therefore proclaim in the yelling at the people saying, whoever is fearful and afraid that I'm torn and apart at once from Mount Gilead. And 22,000 of the people were torn and 10,000 were avenged.
All right, so this is interesting. We're just going to talk about this paragraph by paragraph. Keep your feet off my stuff, boy! We keep having this conversation, I just moved all my cords so his feet wouldn't touch stuff and he immediately went out with his feet and grabbed with his toes. You ready to keep moving? Yep. Alright, so what's the problem? What's the Lord say to getting his problem is? Too many people. So what's he tell them? Uh, to just like tell them like whoever doesn't want to be here, just go. Yeah, alright, and so how many leave? Uh, 22,000. Yeah, 22,000. So he's left just with a force of 10,000, right?
So, but the Lord said to Gideon, the people are still too many. Bring them down to the water and I will test them for you there. Then it will be that of whom I say to you, this one shall go with you. The same shall go with you. And whoever I say to you, this one shall not go with you. The same shall not go. So he brought the people down to the water.
And the Lord said to Gideon, Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue as a dog laps, you shall set apart by himself. Likewise, everyone who gets down on his knees to drink. And the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men. But all the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink water. Then, The Lord said to Gideon, by the 300 men who lapped, I will save you and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go, every man to his place. So the people took provisions and their trumpets in their hands. And he sent away all the rest of Israel, every man to his tent, and retained those 300 men. Now the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.
All right, so what happened there? And I was kind of like, well, you know, you still got way too much. Well, it went from $32,000 down to $10,000. And $10,000 was too many? Yep. And so he was like, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to send you down to the river, and if it's weird and lapsed water, there's a dozen people you're going to have. Yeah. And he only has 400 people. 300. 300. Yeah. Gets rid of 9,700 more people. Now he's got like a small little unit. I wonder what happens. Verse 9 through 12. The trumpets in hand. Oh, it happened on verse 9.
It happened on the same night that the Lord said to him, arise, go down against the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand. But if you are afraid to go down, go down to your camp with camp with pura your servant and you shall hear what they say and afterward your hand shall be strengthened to go down against the camp then he went down with pura his servant into into put your finger there bud then he went down with pura his servant to the outpost of the armed men did you lose your spot who were in the camp now the millionaires and um all the people of the east were lying in the valley, as numerous as locusts, and the camels were without number, as the sound by the seashore in multitude. And then Gideon had come there, and now." Yeah, so what happens?
He has the three-inch man, and God's like, that you get the feet down, like you already got them. But you know, sometimes I've noticed men don't have that much feet. So I'm going to tell you, you can go down there and listen, and you'll have even more feet. And what's it look like? There's a lot of them. Yeah, like locusts, right? Like it's just a swarm. Just by the way, a tip, if you put your finger with you as you go, you'll be able to see easier which line you're at.
So And when Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said, I have had a dream. To my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian. It came to a tent and struck it so that it fell and overturned and the tent collapsed. Then his companion answered and said, this is nothing else but the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel. Into his hand, God has delivered Midian and the whole camp. So then you would get this guy telling his dream, right, of like a loaf of bread going down and hitting a tent.
I always thought of it as the pink cheese. Well, it's a loaf of bread. It's a loaf of barley bread, right? Goes down and you probably could watch VeggieTales or something. But anyways, is a loaf of bread an object of warfare? No. No, is it very strong? No, but it hits a tent and the whole tent falls down. And how does the guy in the camp take it? Man, we're in trouble. Not we're in trouble. They're in trouble. Yeah, we're in trouble. That's how the man takes it. No, they take it the good way.
When Gideon had come, there was a man telling his dream to his companion. This is Israelite people talking about this. The Midianites don't even know that Gideon is there yet. Then his companion answered and said, this is nothing else but the sword of Gideon, the son of Josh, a man of Israel. Into his hand God has delivered Midian and the whole camp. This is the Israelites saying, yes, yes, God's giving the Midianites into Gideon's hands. These are Israelites saying this, not Gideon, not Midianites.
Then his companion answered. Nathan, Nathan, Nathan, you're still, the Midianites don't know that Gideon is there yet. He was his companion, the guy he was telling the dream to. I understand, Nathan. It is an Israelite speaking to an Israelite. And they're excited about this dream because it means that God is really the one giving them the victory.
I think you've watched too much VeggieTales. No, you haven't. Like, you keep... I'm talking to you, hey, I had this dream, and then you answer me. This has to be that. Yeah, it's an Israelite who had the dream speaking to an Israelite. And they're going to war against the Midianites. This is a good thing. Are we talking past each other? Yeah, and when Gideon had come down, there was a man. Okay, now what type of man do you think that was? A Midianite? No, it's not a Midianite. It's an Israelite. in the valley.
There's no, they don't know that Gideon is coming. That's part of this whole thing. It's going to be a surprise. It's a shock that it, now I could be wrong. Let's keep, let's go ahead and keep on reading, but I don't think that that's what's going on here. Go ahead. You read verse 15, read that paragraph. We'll see if it's right. I think we're talking.
And so it was when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation that he worshipped, he returned to the camp of his And he said, rise for the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into your hands. Then he divided the 300 men into three companies. And he put a trumpet into every man's hand with the empty pitchers and torches inside the pitchers, torches inside the pitchers. And he said to them, look at me and do likewise, watch. And when I come to the edge of the camp, you shall do as I do. When I blow the trumpet, blow the trumpet and I I and all who are with me.
Then the whole, you also blow the trumpets on every side of the camp and say the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. So Gideon hears about it. He hears about this dream and the interpretation and he worships the Lord for it. He turned to the camp of Israel. This is Gideon turns to the camp. He says, Arise, the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into your hands. This is Israelites who are recognizing this is God who's doing it.
They tell even their commander, hey, I had this dream. It's you're going to win this this battle. And he divided the 300 men into three companies, a 100, 100, 100. It gives each man a trumpet and each one an empty pitcher. and torches inside the pitcher.
And he said to them, look at me and do likewise. Watch, and when I come to the edge of the camp, you shall do as I do. When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you will blow your trumpets on every side of the whole camp and say the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. So Gideon and the 100 men who were with him came to the outpost of the camp, this verse 19. the beginning of the middle watch, just as they had posted the watch, and they blew the trumpets and broke the pictures that were in their hands.
Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers. They held the torches in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands were blowing, and they cried, The sword of the Lord and of Gideon! And every man stood in his place all around the camp, and the whole army ran and cried out and fled. When the three hundred blew the trumpets, the Lord set every man's sword against his companion throughout the whole camp, and the army fled to Beth-Achaia, toward Zarah, and as far as the border of Ebal-Meholoa. by Tabath. And the men of Israel gathered together from Naphtali, Asher, and Manasseh and pursued the Midianites.
It's an ambush. It's a surprise. They don't know about it. And so when they have their torches and the pitcher on top of it, it's getting just enough air to stay lit. They blow the trumpet, break the the pots and what all of a sudden do the Midianites see? All the lights from the torches and all the trumpet blowing and what do the Midianites start doing? Well, they start killing each other. They think it's the heat of battle. It's the middle of the night and they start fighting each other.
That's the whole point, right? It can't be and verses 13 and 14 that this is Midianites who know that Gideon is coming because it's an ambush. The whole point of this attack is that the Midianites don't know junk about Gideon even being there. Wait, wait, wait, wait. So, but God said for Gideon to go down in the valley.
Yeah, he goes, right? So, he sees them in the valley and he's looking over them and he sees them, right? He's not just walking into their camp like, oh, hey guys, I'm here. I'm going to go to war with you. It's nice seeing you. He sees them down in the valley. And so they have the high ground and they surround them. Right. They've caught the Midianites off guard. Yeah.
And God says to go down the valley and listen to what they're talking about. You think he, Nathan. Nathan, I don't think he's going all the way down into the into the enemy's camp. I don't think this isn't this isn't like Frodo going into Mordor and dressing up in the in the goblins armor. I'm not saying that. I'm saying that. How do you think there was Israelites down in the valley? No, the Israelites are not down the valley. The Midianites are down the valley. Then how is he hearing an Israelite conversation in the valley? The Israelites aren't in the valley.
Where did you get? And Gideon had. And when Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. And he said, I don't think I we're gonna just have to agree to disagree on this part You could be right, okay, I'm gonna humble myself here I think you're wrong, but you could be right I'll tell you what when we're done. Well with this We'll look at a couple commentaries and we'll see and you're probably right and I'm a dummy, but we'll see. Okay.
All right So the very final last paragraph here Then Gideon sent messengers throughout all the mountains of Ephraim, saying, Come down against the Midianites, and seize from them the watering places as far as Beth, Barah, and Jordan. Then all the men of Ephraim gathered together and seized the watering places as far as Beth, Barah, and Jordan. And they captured two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeb. They killed Oreb at the Rock of Oreb, and Zeve they killed at the line quest of Zeve. They pursued Midian and brought the heads of Orb and Zeve to Gideon on the other side of the Jordan.
All right, so they like really beat them here, right? So, all right, so we've spent a lot of time on this now. You tell me, what do you think this was about? This was about them having to trust the Lord. Okay, yeah, so they have to trust the Lord. The Lord's going to bring them victory, right? Gideon's surprising defeat over Midian.
What do you think would be the best verse to summarize this section? I don't know. It's kind of a vague section. Well, I think in my Bible, I would probably underline, where's that? Verse two. Then the Lord said to Gideon, the people who are with you are too many for me to give to the Midianites into their hands, lest the Israelites claim for itself against me, saying, my own hand has saved me. Right. So who who's going to get all the glory with this battle? Yeah. So I'm going to go ahead actually in my Bible and just, I don't actually normally have a lot of things underlined for some reason. I don't have anything, but I think that's the best verse to summarize that section.
I find it funny that whoever wrote this book, Judges Up, and they captured Orb and Zeb. They killed Orb at the rock of Orb. And Zeb they killed at the winepress of Zeb. So I think, That probably tells you that this is written after this has happened. Many people think that it was possibly Samuel who wrote the Book of the Judges. It's probably happened after this because it's the well-known rock and roll. And the winepresses.
All right. So what do you think you're C called to do? Trust the Lord. Trust the Lord. Yeah. I think the big thing for me is specifically, right, there are battles in my life that I could never win. Specifically, you can sin and death. And if I could get the glory for my salvation, I would get the glory. But who gets all the glory?
God. Because I get frustrated with you touching things with your toes. Sinfully angry. I get prideful and dig in my heels. I'm right with my Bible interpretation, boy. And I could be wrong. And that's sinful pride. But if I could have pride in my own salvation, I would have it.
But the Lord gets it. The Lord gets all the glory. It's his victory. And we just get to be a part of that amazing story. Are you ready to pray? Yep. Lord, we thank you so much for this day. Thank you for time together. Thank you, Lord, that you are indeed the sovereign Lord, victorious over all your enemies, good to all your people. Please let us walk in your ways and trust you all of our lives in Jesus's name. Amen. May the Lord bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ and we'll see you next time. Bye.