A Journey Through The Old Testament - Elmer Towns

GIDEON: THE READY CRUSADER
(Jud. 7:15-23)
After learning about the barley bread dream, Gideon was a different man. The reluctant
coward was now the ready crusader, prepared to fight the battle of the Lord. His experiments
with the fleece had failed to give him the confidence he needed to serve God as a deliverer, but
when he realized that even the enemy believed God was going to give Israel the victory, Gideon
was ready to worship the, Lord. And he was ready to fight. When he returned to his own camp
that night, he roused his soldiers and began the battle.
Gideon’s battle strategy involved dividing his army into three companies. Each man
would have a torch, a jar, and a trumpet. They would silently surround the Midianite camp high
on the hillside and keep their torches hidden in their jars. Then on a signal from their leader, they
would suddenly break their jars, blow their trumpets, and shout: “The sword of the Lord and of
Gideon” (Jud. 7:20).
Night battles were rarely fought in those days. On the rare occasions when night battles
were fought, about one man in a thousand was given the task of carrying a torch so the others
could see to fight. Also, one man in a thousand was given a trumpet and blew it in battle. When
Gideon’s men broke their jars and blew their trumpets, the effect was stunning. Suddenly the
darkness would have burst forth with bright light. The sound of the breaking jars and trumpet
blasts would echo through the valley along with the shouts of Gideon’s army. Sleeping soldiers
were awakened from their sleep only to see what must have seemed like an ambush by an army
of at least 300,000 men. They thought a thousand attackers represented each torch they saw.
They may already have been afraid of such an attack even before it was launched. Quickly they
grabbed their swords and began cutting at anything that moved in the shadows. Only too late
would they discover they were killing their own army, “for one hundred and twenty thousand
men who drew the sword had fallen” (8:10).
GIDEON: THE RENEGADE CAPTAIN
(Jud. 7:24-8:35)
(1154 B.C.)
In his victory, Gideon took an action which showed his readiness to trust not in the Lord
but rather the strength of Israel. “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 the Jordan’” (Jud. 7:24). Many of those who answered the call to now
support Gideon in the battle were among those God had told him to dismiss from the battle the
day before. The fact that two Midianite leaders were captured and killed as a result of this action
does not justify Gideon’s apparent effort to increase the size of his fighting force when God had
emphasized He wanted a small army “lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, `My
own hand has saved me’” (v. 2).
Gideon continued to chase the 15,000 Midianites who had escaped “and he took the two
kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and routed the whole army” (8:12). But he was now
something of a renegade captain and on his victorious return he viciously beat the elders of
Succoth with thorns and tortured the men of that city because they, had not given him bread as
he had driven his tired army after the Midianites (v.16). When he got to Penuel he destroyed the
city and killed the men because they too had been reluctant to give him the requested supplies.