Remaining standing, please, and turn to our second scripture reading, which is our text, or I should say part of our text this morning. We'll be referring to several portions of scripture in the book of Judges, not just chapter seven, but chapter seven is perhaps the most famous aspect of this passage. And so we'll read of Gideon's 300 men beginning in Judges chapter seven. If you're using your pew Bible, it's page 200. and six here, the very Word of God, then all that is Gideon and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Herod and the camp of Midian was north of them by the Hill of Mora in the valley and the Lord said to get in the people With you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, My own hand has saved me. Now, therefore, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead. Then twenty two thousand of the people returned and ten thousand remained. And the Lord said to Gideon, The people are still too many. Take them down to the water and I will test them for you there. And any one of whom I say to you, this one shall go with you, shall go with you. And any one of whom I say to you, this one shall not go with you, shall not go. So he brought the people down to the water. And the Lord said to Gideon, everyone who lapsed the water with his tongue as a dog laps, you shall set by himself. Likewise, everyone who kneels down to drink and the number of those who left putting their hands in their mouth. was three hundred men, but all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water. The Lord said to Gideon, with the three hundred men who lapped, I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand and let all the others go, every man to his home. So the people took provisions in their hands and their trumpets, and he sent all the rest of Israel, every man to his tent, but retained the three hundred men and the camp of Midian was below him in the valley. That same night, the Lord said to him, Arise, go down against the camp where I have given it into your hand. But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with pure your servant and you shall hear what they say. And afterward, your hand shall be strengthened to go down against the camp. And he went down with pure his servant to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp. And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the East lay along the valley like locusts in abundance. And their camels were without number as the sand that is in the sea shore in abundance. When Gideon came, behold, a man was telling a dream to his comrade. And he said, Behold, I dreamed a dream and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned upside down so that the tent lay flat. And his comrade answered, There is no other than the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, the man of Israel. God has given Into his hand, Midian and all the camp. As soon as Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshipped and he returned to the camp of Israel and said, Arise, for the Lord has given the host of Midian into your hand. And he divided the three hundred men into three companies and put trumpets into their hands and all of them in empty jars with torches inside the jars. And he said to them, Look at me and do likewise. When I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do, when I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow the trumpets also on every side of the camp and shout for the Lord and for Gideon. So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch when they had just set the watch and they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held in their left hands the torches and in their right hands the trumpets to blow and they cried out, a sword for the Lord and for Gideon. Every man stood in his place around the camp and all the army ran. They cried out and fled. When they blew the 300 trumpets, the Lord said, every man sword against his comrade and against all the army. And the army fled as far as Beshitah towards Zerurah and as far as the border of Ebel Meholah by Tabak. And the men of Israel were called out. from Naphtali and from Asher and from all Manasseh and they pursued after Midian. Thus far the reading of God's word today. Please be seated as we look at this passage and surrounding ones. You may find an outline if you turn over in your worship bulletin to the reverse page you'll find Gideon and Mount Gilead as we continue to see those that God has called to serve him. Particularly those who are called to serve him on mountains or near mountains as we consider the significance of those great events in the scripture and shall we pray for God's blessing. Thank you Lord for the blessings of this your word. May we delight in it rejoice in it learn from it be challenged by it and have great comfort in the gospel in Jesus name. Amen. Like many of you, I have gone to Bible camp when I was young. I think I went starting at about fifth grade and went all the way through college age, I think. And every time when you go to Bible camp, there is an intensive period of instruction. You have two or three classes in the morning, as I recall. And then in the evening, you have yet another service of worship and you have devotions and you talk with your counselor. and you think about the Scriptures and you give testimony of God's grace around the campfire and all of this is a great blessing as we were focused upon the Lord Jesus Christ. It's such an intense experience that when you come home you feel as though you are on top of a mountain. You feel as though you've been strengthened by the Word of God and I'm sure some of you have experienced that. But then sometimes after a little while, you say to yourself, whatever happened to my zeal? I came home from Bible camp and I really wanted to dedicate myself to reading God's word more. But now I feel a little bit let down in my Christian life. That's the so-called and proverbial post mountaintop experience. The focus of our lives upon Christ is certainly needed, but there are times that we have A failure afterwards, and we need to remember again that the Lord is our salvation and we need to focus upon him, not just on certain times of our lives, but every single day. You see that in the book of Judges. You see it in Gideon and Mount Gilead. You see it in the book of Hebrews, chapter 11. And if you notice our scripture reading, he describes in detail all the famous So-called heroes of the faith are really God's people who have been called to live by faith. But he says in Hebrews 11, time would fail me if I would tell of Gideon. However, we have time this morning to talk about Gideon. In addition, if you look at Hebrews chapter 11, you'll probably find other references to the kind of things that Gideon went through in his day. They for example, wandered about in deserts and mountains and in dens and in caves of the earth. This was the time of danger in Israel. Joshua, you remember, had so declared the word of God and so powerfully demonstrated that power in overcoming the people of Canaan that there was an entire generation, it says at the end of the book of Joshua, where Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua. and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work the Lord did for Israel. But as we touched down as it were at various points in the Old Testament, we now come to the book of Judges, which is a different scene entirely. Here we have a time of disobedience, a time of wandering. Perhaps they were so dependent upon Joshua that when Joshua eventually died, they lost some of their zeal and had what you might call their own kind of post mountaintop experience but it was repeated over and over again. God had to deliver them from their own sin from renewed idolatry and from the conquest of surrounding nations over and over again. This was the time of the judges. Now a judge was not only a leader in battle but he was one who ruled during times of peace. So when the Midianites or other people would torture the people of Israel by coming in and taking over their land, they had to oftentimes hide in caves. As it mentions in chapter six, it says the people of Israel made for themselves dens that are in the mountains and the caves and in the strongholds. And they couldn't plant their crops and they couldn't eat and they cried out to the Lord. This is in chapter six. And then God once again decides to raise up what's called a judge. Again, not just one who sits behind a bench and rules on cases, but really a warrior king, one who leads in battle, one who rules in peace. Sometimes they are also in the book of judges called deliverers or saviors. Here we get a hint as to what the judges then were all about. They were pictures of a coming savior, a coming deliverer who would lead in battle and rule in peace. Now, here we have another mountain, as well as another mountain man in Gideon. We have someone who in Joshua chapter six, and I didn't read this part, was called by the Lord to go up this mountain. Many men of faith are chosen with different words upon their lips and various degrees of faith. Moses, when called, said, I cannot speak and I cannot go. Remember that he wavered. in unbelief in many ways. Isaiah knew his unworthiness and said, I am a man of unclean lips and from a people of unclean lips. Elijah did speak out more boldly as we saw recently by saying in Ahab's court, there will be no more rain until I say so. Now, what is Gideon's response? And this is a particularly powerful passage. If you want to look back at chapter six, it says, Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the turban at Oprah. which belonged to Joash the Abizarite, while his son Gideon was being beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. Remember, they had to scurry around and hide their food. And the angel of the Lord said, The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor. Now, let's remember, this is the angel of the Lord. When you see this in the Old Testament, it is an appearance of the second person of the Trinity himself. As with Moses in the burning bush, the angel of the Lord says, I am the Lord, your God, and you shall tell the people that I am has sent you. And this is the angel of the Lord once again. So this is God speaking. We believe we would say most appropriately through Jesus Christ, who is the very word of God and comes powerfully at various times in the Old Testament and accompanied the people, for that matter, in the desert. as that very rock out of which the water flowed, the Bible says, was Christ. And so here comes, in other words, a pre-incarnate version of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says to Gideon, the Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor. And then Gideon says, see all these Midianites. Why has this happened to us? So the first thing essentially that Gideon says to the angel of the Lord is, Why? Why are you doing this? How can you send me, by implication, to do things that seemingly you have not done for a while now? Why has this all happened to us? Now, the angel, the Lord, has an answer that's not exactly to the point of the question. The Lord turned to him. Notice again. The angel of the Lord, then, is the Lord. And here we have God speaking again, saying, Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian, do not I send you. In other words, he does not give him an answer as to why he simply gives him a job to do. He tells us what to do. Whenever we wonder why God is doing something that is or ought to be a relief to us. We don't need to understand the reason for everything that is happening in our lives. He simply grants us strength in our weakness by the power of the Holy Spirit. And that's what he says. Go in this might of yours and save Israel. Am I not sending you? So therefore, we look at Hebrews 11. What more shall I say? Time would fail me to tell of Gideon, who, as it says later in the same passage, were made strong out of weakness. I can't help but think that that must at least refer to Gideon, or in part, who was made mighty in war and put foreign armies to flight. And so we have really a commentary verse in Hebrews 11, probably about Gideon as well as others. who were made strong in weakness were made mighty in war and put foreign armies to flight. God showed mercy to people in weakness and in sin. And notice here that though the people cried out to God, God really took the first step. The humility of the people was sometimes dubious. They seemed to be crying out to God just because they were in trouble. But nonetheless, God said, I'm going to deliver you anyway. Now, if we look at the headlines, we are often troubled about the ways of God in the world, about our lives, about our families and even about our church and worry can waste an awful lot of energy. Have you noticed it can drain you such that you might even feel that you can hardly function when you face those kind of questions in your life? Why does God permit this to happen? Why does God send something like this? To me, and the answer comes live by faith. Live in light of the fact that you don't know everything that you need to know, you might think you need to know. All you need to know is what God commands you to do, and all you need to do is do it in faith. And that's why Gideon is an example of one who was made strong out of weakness. When you feel weak, then Paul says you are, in fact, strong. Because then you look to God and not to yourself. And that was the whole point of this entire passage that we'll see in a minute. Now, Gideon does respond and he has a couple of jobs to do, because surprisingly enough, Gideon realized it was the angel of the Lord. He says, I have seen the Lord face to face. And then he realized by God's revelation that there were idols within his own household before he could go up that mountain. in obedience, he had to obey within his own house, and it says that his father had an altar to bail and an asherah pole beside it, both of which were disgusting and revolting testimonies to a false god or two. And God says, I know this is your your father, but I want you to go and cut the pole down and get rid of this idolatrous altar, so he took ten men and did what the Lord had told him. He went by night, and the next day the man of the town saw the altar and the Asherah cut down and broken down, and they said, Who has done this? And it turns out to be Gideon. The man of the town said to Joash, Bring out your son that he may die, for he has broken down the altar. But Joash said to all who stood against him, Will you contend for Baal? In other words, Bale's altar has been cut down. Don't you think that Bale would be angry enough to do something about it himself? It's a little bit like Elijah, remember, when he says, perhaps your God is on a trip, perhaps he's sleeping. And basically the same kind of semi humorous contest occurs when the father realizes that these things were vanities. He says, don't you think Bale would be able to fight for himself? Don't you think he would be mad enough to judge? himself and therefore Gideon was called Jerob Baal because ironically he was called let Baal contend against him because he broke down his altar. And so it is that we are reminded aren't we that revival begins in our own homes. As we saw last time with respect to the time of Joshua there may be idols in our tents there may be sacrificial false gods within our households. And what we're called to do is tear them down. Here we have Jesus Christ is going to be portrayed in the midst of Gideon and his household, despite Gideon's weakness and the weakness of his family, his fears, his doubts and his sin. On the backdrop of this repentance of sin, then Gideon was able to, in faith, do what God called him to do. And we'll see what he did as a result of that faith in the next chapter, which I've entitled Over the Mountain in Faith. Now, here we have a great mass of Midianites, a horde of Midianites and their allies, not just Midianites we find, but They look like grasshoppers or locusts out there in the field. And the immediate thing you're seeing is as the 32,000 troops gather from Israel, it says there were 22 plus 10. So we have 32,000 troops assembled against this massive number of troops. And if you look over at chapter eight, verse 10, it says Zeba and Zalumna were in Kakor with their army, about 15,000 men, all who were left of the army. of the people of the East, for there had fallen one hundred and twenty thousand men who drew the sword. This is afterwards. So in other words, you had one hundred and thirty five thousand men versus thirty two thousand, about five to one outnumbered here as they look at that valley from Mount Gilead. So here they are looking down and wondering how can we possibly in a five against one battle, win any kind of battle. Now, the reason why God is about to do what he is going to do, he says, you may say to yourself when you enter into the promised land, Deuteronomy said that your power and your strength that produced this wealth for me. But remember the Lord, your God, for it is he who produces the ability to produce wealth or have any strength at all. And so God says, This is five to one, five enemy soldiers against one multiplied. However, many times that is far too many Israelites. Now you hear the irony. If five to one, you can imagine there are some battles where you can win one against five. If you research history, you can find there are several clever armies and clever commanders. who were able to outwit their foes with those kind of odds. And so even though they were outnumbered, they might win this battle. And God had promised they would. They might say, you know what? We were really clever. We fooled them. What a wonderful battle we have won. And of course, shouting in the streets. Yes, we won. We celebrate our great strength. And God says this battle belongs to me and you are not. going to be able to proudly celebrate your own strength, the strength and the victory comes from the Lord. So there's a sifting, as we might call it, a sorting out of people. And the Lord says there are too many. And therefore, whoever wants to go home, go ahead. Now, that's amazing. I don't know who would say that to their army. I mean, if you're massing troops and going, all your people have to stay strong. We need every one of you to be strong. And so let's go. And the cheering and the cheerleading would continue. So everybody's all hyped up. And instead he says, look, you guys, if you don't want to fight, don't worry. In a sense, we don't need you. Just go home. Now, the startling fact is many of them went. Can you imagine? Yes, I'm a coward. I'm going. Let's all go. You know, I mean, they all just kind of ran away and they went home. And now we have the cowardly leaving and 10,000 are remaining. So about two thirds of them go home. And now we're down to one third. The ratio is about 13 to one, if you're counting. So now we are down to even fewer people. Ten thousand, though, that's a lot of people. Maybe they could raise a ruckus and win some kind of a of a battle but it says there are still too many verse four I'm going to test these people for you and anyone who might say to you go with you shall go anyone who shall not you shall not go so it brings them down doesn't. This is a famous scene. A little puzzling at first for one thing we're trying to figure out what this means to lap water that's the kind of a strange way to put it. When you lap the water with your tongue as a dog laps, you shall sit by himself. Likewise, everyone who kneels down to drink and the number of people who lapped putting their hands to their mouth. That's what that means. It means you take water in your hands and you lift it up to your mouth and you drink that way. And it says those who did that were very few, very few compared to the ten thousand. Maybe there were people who were foolish, not just cowardly. People who were at any moment liable to be jumped by these many troops or some kind of an advanced guard as they are drinking, as they are weak, as they're distracted by something else. And the theory, therefore, is that God was reminding us that there are a lot of foolish people around. And there are others who are truly watchful and eager and zealous, and who might they be? Maybe there will be 9,000 out of the 10,000 that might be left. Maybe 5,000. Maybe half of them would be watchful. Maybe 2,000. Maybe 1,000. And pretty soon you're going, how can there be any fewer people left to fight this battle? And there are 300 of them. All right. Let's see. Our typical attendance is about 150, roughly. A few people gone today. But just double the amount of people that we typically have here today. Just double it. OK? We are going to go out. against these hundreds of thousands of people, 135,000 to be precise. And how do you think you might do? In that day, there was a remnant and the remnant principle is powerful in the scripture. It means that God can do much with a little. He can take the weakness of men and show his strength. In that day, Isaiah says, the remnant of Israel will no longer lean on him who struck them, that is their enemies, but will lean on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. Same principle in Isaiah. How about Psalm 33? The king is not saved by a great army. A warrior is not delivered by his great strength. And so here is Joshua looking around. Twenty two thousand stream out and go home. And then all but three hundred are disqualified. One out of every hundred or so is fit for the battle. We realize God is able to use a small group of people, a small number of people, a remnant of people to serve him. We would even ask ourselves, how about us? How many might be cowardly amongst us? Those who fear and tremble and worry about the least setback. You think of Peter walking on the water, an example of that kind of fear. The gloom bearers, the naysayers who cannot, like Elisha, see the chariots of fire surrounding the camp. Those who might not read the scriptures or seldom pray or put worship as last place in their lives, you might say those are the cowardly. But how about the careless or the reckless or the foolish? who rush in without, as Jesus says, counting the cost before you build that tower. The hard-hearted, the quick to profess, who speak without thinking, who claim much and then do not follow through. Which one might you be? If we were left to our own selves, all of us would either be cowardly or careless. That's the way we once were. We were all twitching in fear, lest something happen to us. We'll see what happens when you're that way in a minute or those who just don't seem to care even though they profess loudly what they say they believe how many would be left left to ourselves absolutely none. But by the power of God and his Holy Spirit there were 300 men and God would use them against overwhelming odds and you remember perhaps the battle described as we read it a few minutes ago. eight hundred people. As the sun sets Gideon looks down upon the camp of those hundred and thirty five thousand Midianites and their allies. The name of the warhorses you know the smoke rising from the camp the hum of the masses all ready to wipe out those few measly Israelites. God decides to give him a comfort give him a little strength in the midst of that approaching trial, and he finds that two people himself and his servant go down to the camp and listen, and they sneak down. You can imagine them at nighttime sneaking down the mountain, sneaking into the camp. It seems a little risky to me, but there they go. Nobody's able to see them, I guess. They are successfully able to sneak up to one of the tents, and they hear somebody had a bad dream, and one of the Midianites of all people says, you know what? That means that we're going to lose this battle tomorrow. indicating these Midianites, despite their huge overwhelming numbers, were already afraid of judgment. They only worshipped false gods who had no power, who couldn't answer, whose altars and asherahs could be torn down with impunity and boldness. And it wouldn't make a single bit of difference because it turns out that the battle doesn't depend upon them or the opponent, it depends upon the Lord. And that's all Joshua needed. Courage and endurance in his faith. Now, he does nonetheless use strategy. He is faithful, but not foolish. He realizes that if they are afraid already, let's make them even more afraid. And you remember the story, right? No swords. No spears. We are going to fight this battle with trumpets and jars and torches. You ready? Trumpets, jars and torches and 300 men divided in three. That's a good strategy, isn't it? Put them all around the camp. Make these people know that they are surrounded by a whole 300 people. But it's not going to sound like 300 people in the hearts of those that harbor fear already of judgment, which Gideon already knew. He returns to the camp and says, Arise, the Lord has given the host of Midian into your hand, and then he takes those 300 men. And you remember the story. Gideon and his hundred, it says, they came and blew the trumpets. Now, trumpet, remember, is like a trumpet of victory and of judgment. Trumpets suddenly sound out. I mean, how many times do you hear a hundred trumpets in battle? You might hear one, perhaps. If there are a hundred trumpets, how many other thousands of people might be behind those trumpets? And then smashing the jars, a big noise. That's it. So the sound of judgment, a big noise, maybe sounding like how many chariots or how many horses might be coming down upon them in the camp. And then, of course, finally, light torches. So here you have the sign of judgment, the sign of battle and the sign of light coming suddenly upon a camp that they knew were already scared to death. despite their massive numbers. What happens? That little bit of niggling fear turns into sheer panic and they think, surely we are going to die. After, remember the other cry went out, a sword for the Lord and for Gideon. No sword on earth at all. There is no sword except God's sword. A sword for the Lord and for Gideon, and everybody suddenly ran away. And not only that, the army started fighting each other. The Midianites started cutting each other down. And so those who are so afraid already began to devour one another, you might say, to conquer one another. And the whole army fled. And there was a massive judgment, as you might see in the rest of chapter seven, the victory was the Lord's. I can't help but think of a famous verse in Proverbs that says the wicked flee when no one pursues. If someone is doing something evil, they're always wondering, I know the Bible says, be sure your sins will find you out. God knows. God knows what you are doing, though you think you may be hiding. And therefore, there's always this realization that there will come one day a judgment. That's why people who are not even Christians wonder, someday will I get what I deserve? Someday will that judgment come upon me from a God who has seen me all along? Thou, God, seest me. The wicked flee when no one pursues because they have guilty consciences and they become afraid of dreams and of threats. and of the Word of God, as we see even today. The righteous, however, Proverbs says, are as bold as a lion. Where are these Midianites today? There was triumph and victory over them. They were scattered and judged. The glory of God, the victory of Christ, and the power of the Spirit were evident in their midst. Remembering that, in fact, according to what Christ has done, the enemy has already been defeated. Christ has already taken captivity captive. He has already shown up the principalities and powers and declared them to be as nothing like dust on a scale. The terror in that day for God's enemies will be overwhelming, swift and final. Now, you wouldn't know it. by the braggadocio and the boasting of people in the world today. Noisy proclamation. The day of Christianity, they would think, is over. And where we see Christians worshiping, we will wipe them out. Whether it is in Iraq or in Syria or wherever it might be, and even in our own nation, we are seeing a beginning of that kind of intimidation in lesser forms. Why? Because there's a fear of judgment. They don't want to hear about the power of God, even about the righteousness of Christ, if it means that this is what our sin deserved, the wrath and curse of God and Christ proved it. He proved it because he will judge his enemies and he will rescue those who are covered by his blood, which was a propitiation or an atoning sacrifice for our sins. That's what it took. to wash away our sins. In other words, these enemies are not as strong as they seem. They fear prayer pretty clear. Get rid of all those places where Christians are praying. They are afraid of boldness in the face of persecution. They mock true Christianity and they say we will get rid of it entirely. But we know there is fear. And there will be judgment on that great day. Now, I must mention one more thing, and it's out of chapter 8, verse 22. I didn't read about it today, but I want you to know what happened to Gideon after this. It would be nice to leave Gideon in this position of power and victory. But here we have an example again of a post mountaintop experience. It must have been that Even though Gideon only had three hundred men with which to fight, he must have harbored a bit of pride. Look at that. Look what I did. Maybe it was just a little bit of my strength and cleverness. And so he says, on the one hand, I will not rule over you. As the men of Israel said, and that's good, but then he does take a little bit of spoil, the golden earrings, and they gave him to Gideon. Just a little bit of spoil, you know. Seventeen hundred shekels of gold. And he made an ephod of it and put it in the city and it became a kind of a shrine. A shrine to Gideon. After all this, after it is the sword of the Lord and of Gideon, that of Gideon part must have gone to his head. A private cultic sinner. Success had become too much for him. It's a disappointment when our heroes have faults and failures and of course we've seen that's true of every single one of these men of faith in the Bible and that's why we had to get to this third point. Because our focus as Gideon's focus might have been should have been probably was had to ultimately be in the Christ who told him to go and win the battle in his power and his strength. In other words. Gideon didn't even need the 300. And for that matter, God didn't even need Gideon, the one. He needed one other person. And that is Jesus Christ, the one who spoke to Gideon to begin with. You look at your own life. How many times of your has your faith failed? How many times have you given it a temptation? How many times have you lost resolve to serve the Lord? You also need to be forgiven of your sins through the greater Gideon, even Jesus Christ, who stayed upon the mountain of seeming defeat at the cross of Calvary and in turn turned that into victory, who did not make shipwreck of his faith, who went all the way to the cross, laid down his life in our place and now is our greater judge, our leader and our ruler. He alone can defeat Satan's kingdom. He alone can defeat sin in your life, and don't you dare depend upon anybody else. That's the message. Don't depend upon your experiences even. They may be but temporary mountaintops. Don't be swayed by your seeming defeats as if therefore God will not save you or deliver you because of how you have failed. No, He will deliver you because Christ has succeeded. And in that strength, you fight. In that strength, you endure in that strength. You give glory to him because you have come to the mountain of the Lord and he has made you into his own dwelling place. Shall we pray? Thank you, our Lord, through the sword of the spirit, the Lamb of God sits upon the throne and is now winning victory after victory in the power of the word of God, which shall not return to you void. It is the very sword of the spirit. and of the Lord. Teach us these glorious truths again today that we may rely upon you and win only in your strength over sin and the devil in Jesus name. Amen.