And we are in job, see, I did it right the first time, and then I did it, and I thought I was good. In judges, 7, 1 through 18, let me get this up. There we go. And as we're going through this, we notice I titled this The Original 300, because those of you who might have seen the movie, which was very much a hyperbolic of what actually happened in Thermopylae, But this is the original 300. And that's the direction I'm going on that. And instead of, this is Sparta, we might as well think of the Israelites saying, this is Israel, by kicking out the, I thought I'd throw something in there. So let's get into this. Who would like to read the first six verses, please? And then somebody else be prepared to go on for later. It's out of the CSD. OK. Jerobel, that is Gideon, and all the troops who were with him got up here early and camped beside the spring of Herod. The camp of Midian was north of there, below the hill of Morah in the valley. The Lord said to Gideon, You have too many troops within your hand, and maybe your night's over tonight. Or else Israel might elevate themselves over me and say, I saved myself. Now announce to the troops, whoever is fearful and trembling, may turn back and leave Mount Gilead. So 20,000 of the troops turned back, but 10,000 remained. Then the Lord said to Gideon, There are still too many troops. Take them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. If I save you, this one can go with you. He can go. But if I say about anyone, this one cannot go with you, he cannot go. So he brought the troops down to the water, and the Lord said to Gideon, separate everyone who lats water with his tongue like a dog. Do the same with everyone who kneels to drink. The number of those who lapped with their hands to their mouth was 300 men, and all the rest of the troops knelt to drink water. And the Lord said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that left will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand, and let all the other people go, every man unto his place. So the people took vittles in their hand, and their trumpets, and he sent all the rest of Israel, every man, unto his tent, and retained those three hundred men, and the host of Midian was beneath him in the valley. And it came to pass the same night that the Lord said unto him, Arise, get thee down unto the host, for I have delivered it into thine hand. But if thou fear to go down, go thou with Porah thy servant down to the host. And thou shalt hear what they say, and afterward shalt thine hands be strengthened to go down unto the host. Then went he down with Porah his servant outside of the armed men that were in the host. And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude. And their camels were without number as the sand by the seaside for multitude. Gideon arrived just as a man was telling a friend his dream. I had a dream, he was saying, a round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed. His friend responded, this can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, the Israelite. God has given the Midianites a whole camp into his hands. When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed down in worship. He returned to the camp of Israel and called out, get up. the Lord has given the Midianite camp into your hands. Dividing the 300 men into three companies, he placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them and torches inside. Watch me, he told them. Follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do. When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp, blow yours and shout for the Lord in forgiveness. All right. Thank you very much. So we haven't gotten quite to the fight yet. But we're really close. This is where we are on that. So where are we in the narrative? What happened last week? What brought us to this point? This is to help those who haven't been here, such as Juan. And of course, last week you were here, so you might not know. What has happened up here? Where are we in the narrative? What has happened so far? Yeah, I'm just kind of thinking about very early on in the establishment of the nation of Israel. It's very early on. It hasn't even been established yet, right? And it's just kind of still in the area of getting people out, getting the Israelites in. And it looks like we're at a place of where instead of worshiping God the way he's kind of presented or commanded, they've referred back to the customs of the people of the land. They're not establishing themselves as a nation. Okay. Well, God has chosen Gideon, and Gideon is, I think we ended last week with Gideon testing him. with the fleets twice. And that's where we are. And the thing is, was this unusual for Gideon to test the Lord? No, it didn't. I think this was the second or third time. OK. So what about us? Do we test the Lord? Do we second guess? wants us to do? Of course we do. Better acknowledge it. You're probably a little bit more arrogant than you need to be. That's right. All right. Got a question. At the very beginning, it says Jerubael did this. Then Jerubael, that is Gideon, and all the people who were with him Why does the author keep switching between Yerubayo and Gideon? What's so significant? So I did some study on Gideon's name, and in the Blue Letter Bible, it says, It says, defined as to cut, cue, chop, cut down, cue down, cue off, cut off, cut into, shave off. So cutting is a physical act, right? Like battle, right? And so I think, you know, why he goes back and forth is, is Gideon, God has chosen Gideon to lead them into battle. Okay. Is that what Gideon or Jerubal means? Sorry. Yeah. Okay. Okay. He got his name Jerubal back in chapter 6. Yeah. When he cuts down the altar. That's what made me think about, he cut down the idols of his time. That's kind of legitimate. I mean, to be honest with you. And what was the meaning behind Jerubael as stated in the Bible? What's it mean? Let Baal plead for himself. Yeah. Let Baal plead, let Baal contend. It's an honorific name. If you look through the different times it's used in the Bible, and I think three or four times in Judges, then you start hearing about Jerubael, in 1 Samuel, and then I think even in Chronicles. Every time it's talked about, it's talked about in an honorific type of way. You know, never is anything bad said about Jeroboam when it's said that name. It's Gideon, just a common name, when you might look at and see some foibles. But so can that be said of us, you know? Like when I was a child, I was a good child. I was, you know, I was. Yeah, my mom would say that. I think she has a lapse in memory sometimes, but I was a good child. But that wasn't me all the time. So could I be called good child? And then there's Jeff. I was thinking a little bit about, was it Cephas and Peter? It's kind of, that's like parallel occurrences here, you know? You were Cephas, now you've become a rock with this proclamation of Christ, I'm now gonna call you Peter. Same, same occurrence. I find it interesting that This is the beginning of preparing to go to battle. And he's called, he's called Jerobel or whatever. And earlier they called him that when he took down the image. And it kind of makes me think, God's saying, I'm going to have the victory. This is coming. the victory is coming just like it was when you tore down the image. Yeah. Like it's kind of letting him know. It's interesting the way the text lays it out, though, because he uses that name, Drew, who we'll hear, but then he stops using it the rest of the chapter. Right. Yeah. So it was like, is it saying, well, this same dude, and it's right after the fleece. So did Gideon have, through the Holy Spirit, have more of a thought process of we're gonna go get this done and have the right attitude after the fleece? And so then he's Jerubbah. I think he was more encouraged. Yeah, more encouraged, yeah. He felt, I think he started to feel that God was really giving him a move. So you're suggesting that the name Jerubbah comes up when Gideon is really questioning and being a little iffy on things. Versus? Opposite. Okay, you're saying opposite. Yeah, Jerubbah comes up when he's more strengthened by the Lord, that is his honorific name. OK. Yeah, but it's not the Lord that gave him that name, is it? No. It's the people. It's the people. I would dare say that they gave him that name as a predication, because if you look at the actual fight, So I would say, honestly, that that's why God had him get that name, because ultimately he struck fear in the people he was going to attack. And why he used so little people, because of the very confrontation of this, they didn't need it. And again, if you go into the further chapters, or the further book, Yeah, just imagine like it's kind of a weird thought but I'll only give me 10 seconds here so much like it's a height and introduction I was kind of imagining like Gideon's kind of coming down into the ring, you know, his name is being announced, and he's about to take on probably the greatest battle that God's calling him to, or God's gonna do it, but he's being introduced into the greatest accomplishment God's gonna call him to, you know. He's announced him with such excitement, you know, and then just kind of fall in that fall. Then the Lord said to Gideon, and he did. The Lord told Gideon, and he does. The Lord told Gideon, and he does. So it's just like, Gideon's kind of, he's doing the same right now, you know? He's looking good. Jerubo, and he's kind of, I don't know, seemed entertaining for a moment. He's introduced as Jerubo. Yeah. When then, early on down, when it's being described, what's God saying to, and who to, is Gideon. Oh, yeah And the whole point that it says a couple verses later is that they don't want it to be like them getting, taking credit for them doing it themselves. It's from the Lord, so using the name that he received for obeying and taking down the altar, that he was scared to do, he didn't want to do, but he went and did it and obeyed. And now that he's, you know, overcoming his fears to fight the Midianites. And then the Lord's saying, I'm going to be the one that takes down this, Yeah. People, instead of being you, Gideon, taking your own power. I mean, I'd also tie it back to the concession we're talking about today in early service. I mean, it's the concession of symbolism. The symbolic concession behind it also tells as much a story as the actual fight itself. Yeah. OK, we already said it. What do the people do following the fleece? Rally, yeah, and they went and they went to prep for the battle Again, we've seen this before the this is where they're located And what I'll do is I'll expand this out a little bit more and you can see that they went to the Valley the Jezreel Valley That's that's where the Midianites are and they were on basically if you look at the section right up in here. This is a ridgeline, a ridge of hilltops right here. The military crest of the hill, they're on the backside of this ridgeline. That's where they set up. The bad guys are over here. I still like how they have blue and red, like the military does. And the valley's on this side. The spring of Herod, if you look, it's on the front side, it's on the near side to where the Midianite camp is. So think of this, they're camped up on this side, there's a hilltop here, down, the spring is here, and then down here is where the camp is. So Exactly doing just like Yes, so Why did God say that Gideon had too many people even though they were fewer than a million? I'd say there's 32,000 Israelites here and still And it doesn't say, at least I haven't seen them unless somebody can tell me, how many of the Midianites, Amalekites, and people from the east. But we see down here that in which verse talks about when they looked down, they filled the whole valley. And there were tents. The tents filled the whole valley. And then the camels were without milk. So why did God say that it was, 32,000 was still too many against, I'm thinking at a minimum 100,000. I think there's a few potential reasons that God was testing Gideon's faith by reducing, having them reduce. And then, you know, I think, that God wanted the numbers to be small because of the impact it would have rather than, you know, even though they weren't in the Israelites' favor, but still, with 32,000, they would have been better off. Yes. And, you know, I've joked about it before. I think we might have said it. There would be no denying that this was done by God's hand. Put one SF guy in a room with 15 other guys, and the SF guy would come walking out. You could say that, look how good we are. We can kill that many people if the numbers weren't Yeah, I was gonna say too sometimes I think God has the flair for the dramatic in our lives personally and then also in scripture so that Not only does God be glory once it's complete, but it serves for our greater joy because of course I think that the Israelites would be joyful if 32,000 went against 100,000. But how much greater is their joy when only 300 go against 100,000? Yeah. Yeah. Well, the other thing is, you look at, as we're going through judges and we know that this is continuing to get worse and worse and worse. There's another example of how God is saving them, but also showing his greatness and his power. Yes. One of the things that I noticed, I don't know if it's in the other versions, so specifically with this word, but in Judges 6, 17, Gideon says to the Lord, if I have found grace in your sight, show me a sign. And then in verse 36, he said, if you will save Israel, show me another sign. And that's the police. And then in chapter seven, God says to Gideon, if you're afraid, I will show you a sign. And he let him go down and listen to the dream. So I feel like God is like, not completely sure that you trust me yet. So I'm going to tell you one more time. I feel like that's almost like compassion. God knows that he's probably still a little wobbly. That's the word I always use for myself, a little wobbly. And God is like, hey, you know what? Let me just reinforce this once more. I think this is also a microcosm of how God saves. And what I mean to say is, It is a picture. It is a parable. It is a retelling of how God always saves I think that there is never an instance in which God does not save this way and so what I mean to say is like in the gospel, for example, if you believe that 99% is Jesus Christ and 1% is you. It means you don't understand the gospel. And in the same way, if you think that he's saying to Gideon, if at any point you think that partially you're to blame for your victory, you don't understand my victory. Yeah. And I want to go there quickly because we're about to lose out of time. What did God tell them, or what did Gideon tell everybody, probably, from God? The 300, they had their provisions. What did they take for battle? What did they make sure they took for battle? Jars, trumpets, and flames? Yeah, torches. OK. A jar, a flame, and a trumpet. is not going to do me any good against arrows, swords, and spears. But that's where we go. The people did nothing for this victory. Amen. And going exactly what you were talking about. My flame, my clay, and my trumpet physically will do nothing for my victory. You haven't heard how bad I play the trumpet. It's all gonna be God. And we will see that the next time, and I won't be here, I'm gonna love to hear We've got where you guys did you come up with anything on the the lapping of water because every time I've always heard this thought they always make the distinguishing because that's not so but scripture doesn't say that That's a question in there What was the test the next test The method I Yeah, I thought I'd put something in there. What was the next test? OK, it was the lapping of the water. What was so important about it? It was just a way of culling down the herd. Because God, even before he even told him to do that, he said, have them go to the spring. And I will tell you which ones to pick. He didn't say until after they were drinking, then he said, pick those who laugh. And I know God knows everything. He knows who's going to laugh and who's not going to laugh. Does that mean that laughing is better than not laughing at all? Well, this is what I was always taught was if they are in order to like lap it up They're like literally like that their face in the water like they're not paying attention but if they were like picking it up and they were drinking it like this at least they're like up and Which makes about I don't want military men going into battle. Because we're not like, I'm with you. I've heard the exact same thing. But as we're sitting here working through this, I'm like, you're not taking weapons in. Who cares if you know what the military position is? I would say also you probably do that because it's unorthodox. If you think about it, in order to lap the water with your hands, you have to think about it very meticulously, traditionally, consensually. While you're going, put your face first, you're basically saying, screw it, I want to do it the way I was told to do it. So basically, I would say that the cardiology would be, God was asking you to be an unorthodox man. Or he could have just said I know that this many people are going to laugh and this many people are not going to laugh. Oh, that ruins sermons, Jeff. What was the traditional way of laughing water? Was it the one that most people did? I think it probably depended on what their dad taught them, or how thirsty you were. I tell you what, when I'm thirsty, I'm sticking my head in the water. I was just thinking, this is a great thought, but if they, in that culture, I don't know if it would be the same. Generally speaking, they would only use one hand for people to learn, and the other... be kind of germy. Yeah, the Arab is very... So if they're drinking out of both hands, maybe it was the people who were kind of like, not necessarily paying attention in the most clean, like kind of opposite of what I would think. I think geography helped too. But so maybe it would be the least likely ones to do well. I don't know. Jeff King, my boss, and I'm gonna close with this just because I'm the teacher and I can do that. Jeff King's thought is this was just the way that God used to call down the hurt. It doesn't matter. It could have been. If more people would have knelt down, then he would have chosen that. Maybe the 30 had bad knees. That could be. All right. Thank you.