Jg. 7: Gideon's Pityin' Midian...No kiddian'

Judges 7:2 "The LORD said to Gideon, "You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands."

Well, with the dew soaking the fleece, that is as good an indicator as any to watch for as far as the LORD being with you. So Gideon gets ready for battle, and has 32,000 dudes at his disposal for war against the Midianites.

But God won't conquer the Midianites with that many men. And He tells Gideon as much. "You have too many men." God tells Gideon he has too great an advantage. Who gets the glory in a rout with that many men? The victory is easy. So God tells Gideon to cull the herd a little, and the people that are too scared go home.

With 10,000 men left, it was still too much. At the river, during a water break, God tells Gideon to send home those who stick their faces in the water to drink. So we have 300 men left to fight. We've seen that number before. Some say it was because they would be more alert to fight in battle, without their heads in the water, but would it matter, if God was already lengthening the odds against Gideon? God stacked the deck against Gideon. That's what's happening here. The longer the odds, the greater the victory, and the greater the glory given to God.

Anyway, that night, God sends Gideon and his armor bearer down to see what the scuttlebutt is down in the valley of the Midianite camp. God says he'll hear something encouraging. For sure.

One Midianite soldier has had a nightmare and is telling another Midianite soldier. And it went a little something like this:

"I had another dream about bread last night."

"You don't say. Please tell me all about it."

"OK, but this wasn't one of those good dreams with toast and fresh baked Italian bread with the oil for dipping."

"Oh, no? I loved that one."

"No, I saw this loaf of barley bread rolling down hill, and it knocked over a tent."

"You know what that means..."

"You don't think..."

"Oh yeah. Has to be the sword of Gideon son of Joash. God has turned our entire camp over to him."

"Ah."

The second Midianite soldier draws the only possible conclusion from a dream about a loaf of rolling bread. Its Gideon, and he's coming to clean house.

So Gideon is encouraged by this bit of gossip, and the very first thing he does is to stop, pray, and thank God. I would have been so excited to knock some heads together, I'da done that first. But anyway, Gideon surrounds the Midianite camp in silence, and then lets loose with trumpet blasts and shattering jars. The Midianites, already on pins and needles from the bread dream lose their minds and kill each other.

Since God had sent 99% of his army home, Gideon needed more Israelites to take over the Midianite land.

Then the Ephraimites capture Oreb and Zeeb, which is an awesome pair of names for military commanders.