The Book of
Judges 7
25 verses≈ 6 min2 peopleBSB
Images are artistic interpretations.
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In this chapter
Where we are
- 1–2Not finishedThe land left half-taken
- 3–5The cycleSin, oppression, a deliverer
- 6–10Gideon and afterA weak man, a strong GodChapter 7
- 11–16Jephthah and SamsonFlawed deliverers
- 17–21No king in IsraelEveryone did as he saw fit
Gideon’s Army of Three Hundred
Early in the morning Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the men with him camped beside the spring of Harod. And the camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh.
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Then the LORD said to Gideon, “You have too many men for Me to deliver Midian into their hands, lest Israel glorify themselves over Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’
Judges 7:2
Now, therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the men: ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand of them turned back, but ten thousand remained.
So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites to their tents but kept the three hundred men, who took charge of the provisions and rams’ horns of the others. And the camp of Midian lay below him in the valley.
Gideon’s shrinking army
Whiteboard
Gideon’s army was not small to begin with. The LORD made it small. First the fearful went home: “twenty-two thousand of them turned back, but ten thousand remained.” Then the water: only “three hundred men” lapped from their hands. The reason came first: “lest Israel glorify themselves over Me.” And below them in the valley lay a camp “like a swarm of locusts.”
Reflect
“My own hand”
God cut Gideon’s army down so no one could say, “My own hand has saved me.” Where are you most tempted to think you did it yourself: your work, your family, your faith? Write it down. What would it look like to give God the glory there this week?
The Sword of Gideon
That night the LORD said to Gideon, “Get up and go down against the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand. But if you are afraid to do so, then go down to the camp with your servant Purah and listen to what they are saying. Then your hands will be strengthened to attack the camp.”
So he went with Purah his servant to the outposts where armed men were guarding the camp.
Now the Midianites, Amalekites, and all the other people of the east had settled in the valley like a swarm of locusts, and their camels were as countless as the sand on the seashore.
And as Gideon arrived, a man was telling his friend about a dream.
A Midianite
“Behold, I had a dream,” he said, “and I saw a loaf of barley bread come tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent so hard that the tent overturned and collapsed.”
His friend
His friend replied: “This is nothing less than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has delivered Midian and the whole camp into his hand.”
Question
Quick question
Gideon crept down to the enemy camp in the dark and arrived just in time to overhear two men talking.
What did the Midianite dream about?
Gideon Defeats Midian
When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship. He returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Get up, for the LORD has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand.”
And he divided the three hundred men into three companies and gave each man a ram’s horn in one hand and a large jar in the other, containing a torch.
“Watch me and do as I do,” Gideon said. “When I come to the outskirts of the camp, do exactly as I do. When I and all who are with me blow our horns, then you are also to blow your horns from all around the camp and shout, ‘For the LORD and for Gideon!’”
Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after the changing of the guard. They blew their horns and broke the jars that were in their hands. The three companies blew their horns and shattered their jars. Holding the torches in their left hands and the horns in their right hands, they shouted, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!”
Each Israelite took his position around the camp, and the entire Midianite army fled, crying out as they ran. And when the three hundred rams’ horns sounded, the LORD set all the men in the camp against one another with their swords. The army fled to Beth-shittah toward Zererah as far as the border of Abel-meholah near Tabbath.
Stylised map · locations approximate
On the map
From Harod to the Jordan
Gideon camped at the spring of Harod with Midian in the valley by the hill of Moreh. When the camp broke, the army fled down the valley toward the Jordan, by Beth-shittah and Zererah “as far as the border of Abel-meholah near Tabbath.” Men were called out from Naphtali, Asher and Manasseh, and Ephraim came down from its hill country to hold the Jordan’s fords “as far as Beth-barah.” The sites of Abel-meholah, Beth-shittah, Zererah, Tabbath and Beth-barah are uncertain.
Then the men of Israel were called out from Naphtali, Asher, and all Manasseh, and they pursued the Midianites.
Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim to say, “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 captured the waters of the Jordan as far as Beth-barah.
0:15
Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain
They also captured Oreb and Zeeb, the two princes of Midian; and they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb and Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb. So they pursued the Midianites and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side of the Jordan.
Pray
The battle is the LORD’s
Gideon heard the dream, worshiped, and said, “Get up, for the LORD has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand.” Thank God that the victory is His, not yours. Ask Him for courage to go where He sends you even when you are afraid, and for a heart that gives Him the glory when it is done.
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Judges 7
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A verse to carry with you
Then the LORD said to Gideon, “You have too many men for Me to deliver Midian into their hands, lest Israel glorify themselves over Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’
Judges 7:2
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