God assured Gideon of victory with this sweeping statement, \u201cI will save you and deliver the Midianites into your hand.\u201d Gideon needed to hear that at this point because the odds against him and his men were about 450:1. Gideon had been painted into such a corner that all he could do was trust in God and God alone. We know that feeling in our own lives spiritually.<\/p>\n
It is difficult to truly rely on God when we have all the human resources needed already available. It is so much easier, in our natural mind, to use available human resources and then \u201cgive God the credit\u201d for what follows. But what about the situations where nothing can happen spiritually unless God interferes? That is when faith is challenged and we must make a decision to trust God to supply. Job said it this way: \u201cBut He [God] knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold\u201d (Job 23:10). He was saying something like, \u201cI don’t know where God is taking me or exactly how He is working, but He does and that is all that matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Job realized that pressure brings usefulness in service, \u201cwhen he has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.\u201d A $3 length of bright stainless steel can be pounded into a couple of $10 horseshoes. With further pounding that steel can become $100 worth of guitar strings. And with even further pounding, it can become $1,000 worth of men’s fine wristwatch cases and mechanisms. It all depends on how much pounding is done! If you feel like you\u2019re being hammered, hang in there; don’t give up; don’t fret yourself into depression. Don’t struggle with where God is taking you, or what He is doing. When all was said and done, Gideon found himself used by God to change the course of a nation.<\/p>\n
“LORD, use us today in whatever place You need us, large or small.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n =============================================================<\/p>\n\n\n\n Judges 7 KJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1<\/sup>\u00a0Then Jerubbaal, who\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>Gideon, and all the people that\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>with him, rose up early, and pitched beside the well of Harod: so that the host of the Midianites were on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley.\u00a02<\/sup>\u00a0And the\u00a0LORD\u00a0said unto Gideon, The people that\u00a0are<\/em>with thee\u00a0are\u00a0<\/em>too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me.\u00a03<\/sup>\u00a0Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand.\u00a04<\/sup>\u00a0And the\u00a0LORD\u00a0said unto Gideon, The people\u00a0are\u00a0<\/em>yet too<\/em> many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there: and it shall be,\u00a0that<\/em>of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go.\u00a05<\/sup>\u00a0So he brought down the people unto the water: and the\u00a0LORD\u00a0said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink.\u00a06<\/sup>\u00a0And the number of them that lapped,\u00a0putting\u00a0<\/em>their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water.\u00a07<\/sup>\u00a0And the\u00a0LORD\u00a0said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the\u00a0other\u00a0<\/em>people go every man unto his place.\u00a08<\/sup>\u00a0So the people took victuals in their hand, and their trumpets: and he sent all\u00a0the rest of\u00a0<\/em>Israel every man unto his tent, and retained those three hundred men: and the host of Midian was beneath him in the valley. 9<\/sup>\u00a0And it came to pass the same night, that the\u00a0LORD\u00a0said unto him, Arise, get thee down unto the host; for I have delivered it into thine hand.\u00a010<\/sup>\u00a0But if thou fear to go down, go thou with Phurah thy servant down to the host:\u00a011<\/sup>\u00a0And thou shalt hear what they say; and afterward shall thine hands be strengthened to go down unto the host. Then went he down with Phurah his servant unto the outside of the armed men that\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>in the host.\u00a0\u00a012<\/sup>\u00a0And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>without number, as the sand by the sea side for multitude.\u00a013<\/sup>\u00a0And when Gideon was come, behold,\u00a0there was\u00a0<\/em>a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along.\u00a014<\/sup>\u00a0And his fellow answered and said, This\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel:\u00a0for\u00a0<\/em>into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host. 15<\/sup> And it was\u00a0so\u00a0<\/em>, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation thereof, that he worshipped, and returned into the host of Israel, and said, Arise; for the\u00a0LORDhath delivered into your hand the host of Midian.\u00a016<\/sup>\u00a0And he divided the three hundred men\u00a0into\u00a0<\/em>three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man\u2019s hand, with empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a017<\/sup>\u00a0And he said unto them, Look on me, and do likewise: and, behold, when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be\u00a0that\u00a0<\/em>, as I do, so shall ye do.\u00a018<\/sup>\u00a0When I blow with a trumpet, I and all that\u00a0are\u00a0<\/em>with me, then blow ye the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say,\u00a0The sword\u00a0<\/em>of the\u00a0LORD, and of Gideon. 19<\/sup>\u00a0So Gideon, and the hundred men that\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>with him, came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch; and they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers that\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>in their hands.\u00a020<\/sup>\u00a0And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow\u00a0withal:\u00a0<\/em>and they cried, The sword of the\u00a0LORD, and of Gideon.\u00a021<\/sup>\u00a0And they stood every man in his place round about the camp: and all the host ran, and cried, and fled.\u00a022<\/sup>\u00a0And the three hundred blew the trumpets, and the\u00a0LORD\u00a0set every man\u2019s sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host: and the host fled to Beth-shittah in Zererath,\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>to the border of Abel-meholah, unto Tabbath.\u00a023<\/sup>\u00a0And the men of Israel gathered themselves together out of Naphtali, and out of Asher, and out of all Manasseh, and pursued after the Midianites. 24<\/sup>\u00a0And Gideon sent messengers throughout all mount Ephraim, saying, Come down against the Midianites, and take before them the waters unto Beth-barah and Jordan. Then all the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and took the waters unto Beth-barah and Jordan.\u00a025<\/sup>\u00a0And they took two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeeb; and they slew Oreb upon the rock Oreb, and Zeeb they slew at the winepress of Zeeb, and pursued Midian, and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side Jordan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" God assured Gideon of victory with this sweeping statement, \u201cI will save you and deliver the Midianites into your hand.\u201d Gideon needed to hear that at this point because the odds against him and his men were about 450:1. 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