Gideon's 300: Trusting God's Plan

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in

practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible Guys. I'm

Chris and I'm.

Jeff and so you are you whatever your name is. Oh,

that was terrible.

That was rough.

Okay, let's let's go try it. Let's let's go on

better things. Because Desiree has encouraged us to kick off

this segment with a thing called guess the word.

It's kind of like taboo ooh.

And our listeners have an opportunity, yes, to make some

huge points.

Yes.

So those of you that are longtime listeners and you've

been collecting points, here's an opportunity to take a big

jump forward.

Yes. And so here's what's going to happen.

Hopefully, if you're watching, we will put the words that

I cannot say on the bottom of the screen. Uh.

And it's my goal to get Jeff to say the words.

We have five words and I'm not allowed to say

any of the uh.

But what keywords?

Right?

And if you accidentally say one of those words, our

listeners get a thousand points. Yeah, yeah, which is which

is huge incredibly generous. Yes, although I'm on record saying,

why are we getting weigh a thousand points at a time?

Should be like ten thousand.

Dude, the good things are worth a thousand a thousand,

you know. Sure, you got to teach, you got to

teach the value of points.

Okay, all right, so.

Here we got ready.

What being set fire to Gideon's offering an angel?

Boom? Wow?

That was easy, right, because, yes, right, yes, to your story.

I wasn't allowed to say wings, devil, heaven, halo.

Or white. Oh wow, so so isn't that isn't that easy?

That was great? Good job?

Right now.

I don't know the rules.

I don't know the rules of this, but I'm but

I'm going to do what I think and you can

tell me whether I violated the rules.

Ready, okay, okay?

Uh?

What makes this.

Sound a baby?

But done?

Yeah?

Okay.

I wasn't allowed to say infants, cry, child, boy, or diaper.

Yeah. I don't know if you're allowed to do sound effects. Huh,

I don't know.

Well that's what she didn't say. It doesn't say it

in the rules, that's right. The rules just say if

you accidentally say, if you say any of the italicized words,

our listeners get a thousand.

Point Well, Jeff, that's what I'm about. I'm about the rules.

I'm about going as far as I can, Okay with

the rules.

Okay, very good?

All right, all right, here we go. Ready, Christmas is

about Jesus' there it is. I wasn't allowed to say death, woman,

baby day, or date.

Wow, So I just used an example.

Okay, right?

Right?

So so how about that?

Uh?

These generally start with the words hear ye, hear ye.

That's called a proclamation.

Oh, that's a good one. What's another one?

An announcement?

Yes, an announcement?

Very good?

Yeah, proclamation was a much better word for hear ye.

But I wasn't allowed to say wedding, or the word announcement,

of course, birth, broadcast, or engagement.

Okay, I was allowed to say any those things.

Very good, Chris, all right, but hey, we got a

pretty quickly gifted You are gifted at this, all right?

And so if if the mystery doesn't work out for you,

that could be another job for you? Is that game

show hosts or or perennial game game show contestant?

Hey, so I have a really I have this next one.

I have a way to quickly get you to say

the word yes. But instead of that, I'm going to

do a longer version to see.

If you know it. Okay, just for fun. Okay, if not,

I'll build to the quick way. Okay, just for fun. Okay,

just for fun, because I've already nailed.

For This is going to be deliriously fun.

Okay, let me see if anybody of any of our

listeners who grew up in church know what I'm about

to do.

Ready, Oh, where is my hair brush? Yes? I had

to get you to say hair hair. Yeah, yeah, they're.

Great, Okay, very good.

By the way, it's from veggietails.

By the way, I thought I was gonna have to

the early two thousands right there.

I thought I was gonna have to get to that.

Oh where, oh where where where? I thought I was

going to do that. No, But as soon as I

said where.

You know, you said I have veggietails officionado. So that's funny.

So I wasn't allowed to say brush, of course, comb, blonde,

face or head. So I was just going to say,

when you call somebody a brunette, it refers to their hair. Yeah,

that's what I was gonna say, which is, you know,

obviously a quick way to do it.

Yours was more fun.

Oh yeah, way, way more, way more fun. And I

wonder how many of our listeners no vegetails.

So I don't think our listeners got any points today.

No they didn't.

That's right, they did not.

Should we give them points if they beat me on

an answer? No, no, because because said.

Everybody has to know the value of losing.

Jeff, no participation trophies.

That's right, good losers. Good day, sir, you lose, you

get nothing, Good day, sir.

I don't remember.

It's Willy Wonka.

Oh, yes, you stolet Phizzy lifting Drakes.

Right, Yes, that's right, Yeah, all that stuff, wow, Willy Wonka.

Yeah, well you're pulling them out today.

Well you know, okay, So yesterday we talked about if

you didn't have an opportunity to hear the previous episode,

Gideon was hiding, probably feeling like he wasn't a very

courageous person, and from the Midi Knights and the angel

Lord shows up and says, hey, mighty warrior, God's gonna

use you in a great way. And then he kept doubting.

God lays out a fleece all these kinds of things.

Finally we get to chapter seven, so that's in Judges

chapter six. In chapter seven, jerebel right, which is, Gideon

and his army got up early and went as far

as the Spring of Herod or Harad whatever. The armies

a Midian were camped north of them, in the valley

near the hill of Mora. The Lord said to Gideon,

you have too many warriors with you. If I let

all of you fight the Midian, I say, Israelites will

boast to me that they've saved themselves by their own strength. Therefore,

tell the people, whoever is timid or afraid, may leave

this mountain and go home. So twenty two thousand of

them went home, leave me only ten thousand who were

willing to fight. Hey, if you're feeling a little nervous,

you can go home if you want to. In twenty

two thousand leave there's ten thousand left. But the Lord

told Gideon there are still too many. Bring them down

to the spring, and I will test them to determine

who will go with you and who will not. When

Gideon took his warriors down to the water, the Lord

told him divide the men into two groups. In one

group put all those who cup water into their hands

and lap it up with their tongues like dogs. In

the other group put all those who down and drink

with their mouths in the stream. Only three hundred the

men drank from their hands. All the others got down

on their knees and drank with their mouths in the stream.

The Lord told Gideon, with these three hundred men, I

will rescue you and give you victory over the Midianites.

Send all the others home. So Gideon collected the provisions

and rams horns of the other warriors and sent them home,

but he kept the three hundred men with him. The

Midi night camp was in the valley just below Gideon,

and that night the Lord said, get up, go down

into the midy night camp, for I have given you

victory over them. But if you're afraid the attack, go

down to the camp with your servant Pourah. Listen to

what the Midi knights are saying, and you will be

greatly encouraged, and then you'll be.

Eager to attack.

So Gideon took Pourah and went down to the edge

of the enemy camp, and the armies of Midian Amelek

and the people of the East had settled in the

valley like a swarm of locusts, their camels that were

like grains of sand on the seashore, too many to count.

Gideon crept up just as a man was telling his

companion about a dream. The man said, I had this dream,

and in my dream a loaf of barley bread came

tumbling down into the Midnight camp. It hit a tent,

turned it over, knocked it flat. His companion answered, your

dream can mean only one thing. God has given Gideon,

son of Joe Ash the Israelite victory over Midian and

all its allies. When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation,

he bowed and worshiped before the Lord. Then he returned

to the Israelite camp and shouted, get up, for the

Lord has given you victory over the midy Night Hords.

He divided the three hundred men into three groups and

gave each man a ram's horn in a clay jar

with a torch lit in it. And then he said

to them keep your eyes on me. When I come

to the edge of the camp, just do as I do.

Blow your horns too all around the entire camp, and

shout for the Lord and for Gideon. It was just

after midnight, after the changing of the guard, when Gideon

and the one hundred men with him reached the edge

of the mid night camp. Suddenly they blew the rams

horns and broke their clay jars. And then all three

groups blew their horns and broke their jars. They held

the blazing torches in their left hands and the horns

in their right hands, and then they all shouted a

sword for the Lord and for Gideon. Each man stood

at his position around the camp and watched as all

the Midi Knites rushed around in a panic, shouting as

they ran to escape. When the three hundred Israelites blew

the rams horns, the Lord caused the warriors in the

camp to fight each other with their own swords. Those

were not Those who were not killed fled to places

as far away as Bethshita near Zara, and to the

border of abel Abel Mahola near Tabath.

I don't know.

Then Gideon sent for the warriors of Naphtali, Asher and Manassa,

who joined in chasing the army of Midian. Gideon also

sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim saying go

down to attack the Midi Knights cut them off at

the shallow crossings of the Jordan River at Beth Barra.

So all the men of Ephraim did as they were told.

They captured Oreb and Zeb, the two Midi Knight commanders,

killing Orb at the Rock of Orb and Zeb at

the wine press of Zeb, and they continued to chase

the Midi Knights. Afterwards, the Israelites brought the heads of

Oreb and Zebe to Gideon, who was by the Jordan River.

Wow, ending was heads there, you go, yikes, But what

an uno.

There's a lot of cut off heads in the Bible,

by the way, just case you're wondering.

For sure for sure, Well, I mean to your point.

You know, you've made sort of this statement a long

time ago and said, you know, this was all about war, right,

And so war was God using the children of Israel

to wipe out all the people that you know, blasphemed

God and worshiped other gods, and and you know God

was just taking them out.

Yeah, it really was.

And so you know the Bible looks at these things

unblinkingly yep. And God had told Gideon I'm going to

give you this victory and then just doesn't blink as

it happens. Right, it's just really really blunt.

So what's amazing about this is how it starts. I mean,

the reason why this story is just so unbelievable is

because he he doesn't exactly lay out his plan to

Gideon as he's meating his army, right, right, So he says,

he says, I know you're against unbelievable odds, right, but

you still have thirty two thousand troops and that's too many,

because that's just enough to say, oh, my goodness, the

odds were so great.

Look at us, we're so great.

He says, I want to make it to where absolutely

you will have absolutely no way, right, I mean, it's

just an incredible thing to say, Hey, go home if

you want to. In twenty two thousand went home leading

only ten thousand who were willing to fight, right, and

then you're thinking only ten thousand, and then it goes

down to three hundred Are you kidding me?

And they're going up against How big was the army

they were going against?

Did the Bible say? Do you remember seeing that?

Yeah?

I think it's I think it was like one hundred thousand,

like a goajillion. Yeah, it was like one hundred thousand,

wasn't that?

I don't know. I remember seeing it.

Yeah, I remember doing a study when I, oh, Gideon's

army of three hundred men chasing. Oh no, it says

fifteen thousand. We're chasing fifteen thousand.

You know what. We should have probably looked that up

before we jumped into this story.

So the I don't see it anywhere.

You know what I'm gonna do. Go ahead, keep talking,

I'm going to google it.

Okay.

So the reason why I was asking about that is

thirty two thousand probably felt small, is what I was

getting at, right, And sometimes God asks us, he says,

he tells us to, you know, go make a difference,

whether that's speaking up at your kids' school, or sharing

the gospel with your neighbor, or you know, having courage

at Thanksgiving dinner with your family whatever. And it feels

like we are outnumbered or like we don't have any chance.

And then God for Gideon goes, Nope, that's still too many.

That's still too many.

Right, So I was my instincts were correct. It was

one hundred and thirty five thousand men.

Yeah, it was the median that army.

So only having thirty two thousand right, was already one

hundred and three thousand short, right, right, right.

And yet God says, no, we're gonna, We're gonna take

it down. He takes it down to ten thousand, right,

And then then you're thinking to yourself, what's God going

to do? And see, that's the big thing about this

story for me is God doesn't say, don't worry, I

got a plan.

He doesn't say calm down. He just says, let me

tell you what's gonna happen.

You know, I want to get the glory, so therefore

do this, And so Gideon does it, and all of

a sudden, twenty two thousand leaves and then they're left.

At least we're not told that that God comforts them

in any way. So can you imagine like all the

all the leaders getting together, the ones who didn't hear

the voice of God, right, and they get together with Gideon,

they go, what are you doing? Like?

What is happening? And how is this possibly good idea?

Have you lost your mind?

Have you lost your ever loving mind? And then with

with the with the with the with the drinking thing.

You know, God isn't it interesting how God chose the

ones who who reached down and grab the water and

brought them up to their hand, Because you know, there's

a there's a practical.

Part to that. Right when you when you just.

Throw your face in the river, you leave yourself, you know,

available to be attacked from.

Behind, right right, you're not being alert.

You're not being alert.

But if you cup the water with your hand and

you bring it up to your mouth, that means that

you're a person who is constantly looking around. Did you

ever see like a like an antelope or a deer

drink from the water, And how how skittish it is,

right Like, it waits like ten minutes before it even

takes a drink, you know, because it doesn't want to

leave itself vulnerable. It's like, that's that's what these warriors

were doing. And so he sends home another nine thousand,

seven hundred people. By the way, those are the ten

thousand that were willing to stay the first time, right,

And then he tells them, oh, you you you put

your face down to the water, go home, And they're

like what And then they all go home? And then

and then God, and by the way, do you know

why the one hundred and thirty five thousand were fearful

just from the lanterns.

Well, they would have thought that they had three hundred

thousand coming into attack, yes, because it was three hundred

warriors with lights and blowing horns, and they would have

assumed that that was the leader of a thousand men.

Yes, yes, yeah, so the leader of a legion traditionally

held a lantern, blew a horn, you know when they

were saying charge, right, and they did it at nighttime, right,

And so they did at nighttime for several reasons. Number one,

so that everybody who was encamped in the Median Army

can see the lanterns obviously. And then also when they

got up, and it says that they were in such

a panic, I would imagine that it would have been

so dark they would have just started killing themselves.

Yeah, well that's what Bob says. They started fighting each other.

Yeah.

And the reason probably is if you're assuming that three

hundred thousand people are among you, you're assuming everybody's an enemy.

Any sword among you an enemy. You're just screaming and panic,

just trying to fight for your life.

It's such a cool story.

It's brilliant. Yep, it's really brilliant.

So there's a practicality to it that is just unbelievable,

Like who would have ever thought that God would have

been so clever to have had that plan, you know.

And by the way, what a bluff?

Yeah yeah, no, lie no, lie. Well even before that happened, though,

we kind of we passed over this again. God is

confirming for Gideon over and over. God doesn't do this

for everybody. Gideon is I think the only person in

the Bible I can remember where God regularly keeps reaffirming

for him. Hey, I'm on your side. So he says

to Gideon, Hey, I want you to sneak down in

the camp and just listen to what they're talking about.

Because you know, the camp, if you got one hundred

and thirty thousand people, it's like a city, right, So

one guy, if he's dressed right, he'd be able to

sneak into town and nobody. It's not like he's sneaking

into a fortress or onto a military base, right that.

It's just tense. So they're set up in an area

where they feel like nobody's gonna sneak up to them,

and they're getting ready to go to war, but they're out,

and so Gideon sneaks into the camp and God says, hey,

you're going to hear some conversations. These conversations are going

to encourage you. But then he says, but if you're

still scared, even though I'm telling you do this, just

take your servant Poro with you. And so the next

verse says, and so Gideon and Pero go down to

the right, right, right.

It's such a funny thing.

Right.

So this is the same voice. Remember I talked about

it yesterday. So the angel tells him he makes food

for the angel. The angel burns it on a rock

and then disappears, and then God's voice says, don't worry.

I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm gonna do something great

with you. And then God's voice says, okay, now I

want you to go and defeat the Midianites put together

an army. And he goes, well, I'm not really sure.

How about this fleece thing, you know, make it wet,

dry ground. Okay, Thanks God. Same voice comes back to him,

speaks again, and he goes, thanks God, and this time,

make the fleece dry and the ground wet, and God

does it again. Then God says, okay, now assemble this army. Okay,

I do so. Now he's trusting God. After three four

four encounters with God's voice, then God says, okay, do

these things.

I want you to whittle.

Down the army. Whittle down the army, whittle down the army.

And I think maybe now he's full of a little doubt.

I only had thirty two thousand. I wasn't sure how

we were going to bet one hundred and thirty, and

now we're down to three hundred. God goes, Okay, I

know you're nervous, but I'm doing this because if I

send him in with a big army, the Israelites are

going to claim they won the battle.

And it's not their battle. It's my battle.

So just go down in the camp, sneak in, which

is dangerous, and you're going to hear some people talking.

It's gonna encourage you heart. But if you're afraid, take Poor.

So next verse, he takes Poor over him because he's afraid,

and they go down in the camp and then these

guys are talking to one guy goes, dude, I had

a dream and I feel like our camp got wiped out,

and now the guy goes, oh, that can only mean

that Gideon wins, and Giddy goes, we win, and then

he runs back again. So it's just amazing to me

how many incredible encounters with God Gideon has, and yet

every step he doubts that the next steps the right step.

Right until God confirms it right.

And and you know, even though that we're not privileged

enough perhaps to have such a direct, personalized, you know,

confirmation from God, where God, you know, speaks to us

audibly and then you know, grants our requests when we say,

show us a sign, you know, that kind of thing.

Even though that we may not be on the receiving

end of that, it is true that God gives us

promises and he confirms, you know, his presence.

In our lives.

And I think that almost every person that I've encountered

as a pastor, I think you're you would probably say

the same. Right when somebody faces something you know, really

difficult and really hard and they're wondering about the future

and they're wondering what's going to happen, isn't it true that,

like as a pastor, you can look at them if

they've been a Christian a long time, you can say,

hasn't God been faithful in the past, Like you can

look at them and ask them like, hasn't there been

evidence in your life where you didn't know what was

going to happen and yet God showed up. I'm not

sure there's ever been an example where I've looked, where

I've asked that question where a Christian who's been a

Christian a long time says, No, there's never been that time.

There's never been that time. It's always been God's been faithful. Now,

he may not necessarily answer the prayers, and we may

go through hard times that we don't understand.

That's true.

But in terms of like God's faithfulness and the evidence

of God's showing up and you know, and confirming his

presence and his promises, I think every Christian is on

the receiving end of God demonstrating himself in a miraculous way.

I really do.

Yes, me too, Yeah, me too. And then what you

have here is the three hundred fighters just stand around

and watch God bring a victory right now once. So

they're all fighting. The Midi Knights are fighting each other,

and then they take off running. The ones who don't

kill each other. They take off running. From that point on,

now they have to engage and fight, and he has

to call in the armies from Ephraim and Naftalai and

all these other So those thousands of people that were

dismissed now are engaging in the fight, by the way,

which I love, and they're running back. And if you

read on in the chapter eight, Ephrium is the army behind.

They're kind of the rear guard. And the generals are

a little frustrated with this, and they come and go, hey,

how can we give us, But they're the ones who

killed those other generals and you know, Zebe and whatever.

Yeah, Orb and.

Gideon is like, hey, every role matters, which I love.

So on one end, the beginning of the victory was

clearly and only God doing it. But then the end

of the victory, God chooses to enlist all of his

people to come in clean up the mess. Right is

what happens there? And so God, as you read all

of these wars, all these battles, all these things, God

wins victories for his people in so many different ways.

One time, the walls just fall down, people come in

and wipe out the enemies.

Another time.

It's lots of times it's just literally hand to hand combat.

Right when when when Caleb says, hey, I want that

mountain and there's a bunch of giants up there, he

knew that was going to be hand to hand combat.

They're just gonna write other times. God does miracles like this,

and so what we have to do is not expect

that God would do the same miracle he did yesterday,

but that God's going to do a new miracle today.

Whatever's necessary for now He's going to do. And that

ultimately God's plan is that everybody always remembers the battle

belongs to the Lord. Right, it's not your strength, it's

not your might, it's not your numbers, it's not your power,

it's not your clever leadership. It's my victory. And I'm

going to do it in a different way. But then

I'm going to have to use as you. God doesn't

just dismiss the people.

Now I'll go home.

They all chase down the enemy and they wipe them out. So, uh,

there's there's work on the on the Israelite side, but

it always starts with God doing an extraordinary victory. And

that's been my experience in a lot of ways life.

I see God doing an outrageously amazing thing, and then

you realize, boy, there's a lot of work on the

back end of that amazing thing God just did in

order to you know, be a good steward of it,

to clean it all up, to get ready to move

on to the next thing, because they're gonna have new

enemies they're gonna have to face in the future, so

they have to clean this one up first.

So well, hey, that looks like our time. So that

was a great story.

I'm really glad we took time the time to do it,

so hopefully you'll join us next time on the Bible.

Guys,