Mighty Man of Valor:One Man Against the Odds

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And, moreover, if God says, 'Pull down the altar of Baal,' He will give strength to do it. And they said one to another, Who hath done this? And when they enquired and asked, they said, Gideon the son of Joash hath done this thing. Then the men of the city said unto Joash, Bring out thy son, that he may die: The action of faith always excites the flesh. Israel knew not where their strength was, they thought it in Baal.

Gideon had learned it to be in God. These are sifting times. In the Lord's day everything was in beautiful order apparently; but because He was setting aside men's traditions, all were against Him. How many suppose the strength of Christians to consist in the things they see around them. The soul taught of God knows it is only in Jehovah Jesus. Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal, saying, Let Baal plead against him, because he has thrown down his altar. It was of no use to argue the case, except to show the people the folly of pleading for Baal.

If the things set aside were Baal's, and Baal was a god, surely he would arise and take their part. It was of no use to debate. And do not let us suppose that all the arguments of all the good men in the world can make that which is evil good. The name "Jerubbaal" was no defence. On the contrary, it brought up the question whether there was power in Satan now that faith was in exercise. When mixed up with the world, Satan has no occasion to disturb us. Let him be alarmed, and up come Midianites, Amalekites, etc.

Here is Gideon with his own people against him, and the enemies of Israel gathered together and pitching in Jezreel. But he has peace with God, and the Lord is so to speak bound to appear on his side. How does he act? Had Gideon been serving Baal, he could not have blown the trumpet thus. But Baal is down, and the altar of God is set up in the ordered place. He sends messengers throughout all Manasseh, who also are gathered unto him, and to Ashur, Zebulun, and Naphtali; and these all are gathered around the man who is least in his father's house, the poorest of the tribe of Manasseh, but to whom the Lord has said, "Go in this thy might.

There seems still to have been a measure of distrust in Gideon's mind.

He asks a fresh and double sign that the Lord will save by his hand, as He had said, proving by the fleece, both wet and dry. The Lord grants his desire; and he is sent forth with the confirmed assurance of his divine call and mission, to "turn to flight the armies of the aliens.

Again let us remark, faithfulness begins not with the Midianites, it begins at home. This is a great principle, whether as to an individual soul, or as to the Church of God. Gideon must attack the evil inside his father's house, and in the midst of Israel, before he is used of the Lord to save Israel out of the hands of the Midianites.

He is set up as captain of a large army; and now he stands forth to confront the enemies of Israel, and of the Lord. This is God's way of acting. He never honours us when we are thinking that we are anything. Great blessing has often been preceded by our deep humbling, by humbling even sometimes in the eyes of others. We were brought low, and the Lord lifted us up. But Gideon has a still further lesson to learn one painfully our own. He has known the acceptance of his offering. The youngest of an idolatrous household, he has built an altar to the Lord, and begun to destroy idolatry.

But he has yet to be taught that there is not a bit more courage or prowess really in the men that had gathered after him than in himself. This is done, first of all, by means of an ancient ordinance of Moses. The Lord tells him, "Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and faint-hearted, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead. God's great design in His dealings, was to teach Israel to trust in Himself. He wants to find in His people a true heart. A true heart makes a strong hand.

Having confidence in the Captain of our salvation, and not in ourselves, we faint not at the sight of our enemies, but reckon with true-hearted Caleb, that "we are well able to overcome them. Do we not know what this means? We know that the Lord Jesus sent forth the proclamation, 'Let those who will follow me count the cost.

When there was nothing but Christ, and everything else was against them, many turned back, and walked no more with Him. Confidence in the flesh must be renounced; God will not use the flesh. The present is an age when people are coveting to know a little about everything. Were God to employ the learning of learned men, the influence of men of rank, and the like, the church would say, "We have saved ourselves. The use to be made of these things is to say of them with Paul, "What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.

God will not allow human learning, influence, moral character, or aught else, to come in as an item in our deliverance.

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He is very jealous of all man's substitutes for, and imitations of, the power of the Holy Ghost. In stripping ourselves of such things, we may seem to others to be throwing away our influence and our usefulness. But what is usefulness? The doing of God's will. And God is faith's sufficiency. To all appearance, Gideon was weakening his own hands. At the first proclamation, twenty-two thousand left him; but, in reality, instead of losing strength, he was gainer by their departure. These fearful and faint-hearted ones would have discouraged the rest had they remained amongst them "Let him go and return unto his house, lest his brother's heart faint as well as his heart.

There is a great deal of "philosophy and vain deceit" going about now. Were all the trappings of the flesh laid aside, we should discern how little real spiritual energy there is amongst us.

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Do you ask, "What shall I study" Study well these four words: There is such a thing as the trial of our faith; and, whilst we very often should be quite unable to test one another, God knows the best way of doing this as to each. So the people took victuals in their hand, and their trumpets: And the host of Midian was beneath him in the valley. God's ways are strange to sense.

Mighty Man of Valor: One Man Against the Odds

The infidel scoffs at them. These people were really not afraid as those who departed before to go to the battle; they were all of them soldiers girded for war. The test was this, whether in that thirsty day they would lap the water, putting the hand to the mouth, or bow down and drink at their ease. The apostle speaks of being "entangled with the affairs of this life" 2 Tim. There is a very great difference between being in the circumstances of this life, and being entangled with them.

When tested by the Lord, those who bowed down were not fit for His use, any more than though they were not the faint-hearted. They must go to their homes. Glory is for all who believe God's answer to the work of Christ; grace is followed by glory: Shall we let slip the opportunity of confessing Jesus because we are saved? In the experience of almost every believer there is a being brought down to the water - some turning-point, when he either goes onward in devotedness to the Lord, or otherwise sinks down into a more commonplace Christian.

Not one of us is too obscure to be tried whether he will seek God's honour or present things first. Gideon instructed that the battle is the Lord's, and that he must got rid of all encumbrances is next shown his enemies. It is a blessed thing to be shown our enemies, and to be told with Gideon that the Lord has delivered them into our hands. Our old man is "crucified" Rom. If we are walking by faith, as risen with Christ, Satan, the world, and the flesh are under our feet. And mark, further, how graciously the Lord anticipates the need of His servant, in adding: Nothing could be more alarming than to see the fearful odds that are against the people of faith - the world, the flesh, and the unceasing hostility of Satan!

Who would not be faint-hearted if we saw but this? God is pleased to let Gideon hear what is in the Midianites' hearts. So, too, is He pleased to lot us know very often what is in the hearts of our enemies. And as to the men of the world, there is not one in a hundred of them but that has the fullest conviction that Christians are right; yet, because they have numbers on their side, they try to persuade themselves to the contrary.

Almost everything he hears bids the intelligent Christian "be strong. And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea-side for multitude. And when Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his follow, 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, And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: Divine encouragement is never to the puffing up of the flesh.

Anything of pride and self-importance must have been sorely wounded. When God will show His favoured servant the things that are coming to pass, and that he shall smite the Midianites as one man, He makes him feel that in himself he is but as a "cake of barley bread. And is there not instruction for ourselves in this? Were Christians stripped of their worldliness, more really like the "cake of barley bread" the most homely thing possible , the world would stand more in fear of them.

We have clothed ourselves with its trappings, and desired its respectability, so that it thinks we are obliged to go to it for help. There is an unhealthy kind of zeal, often found amongst us, which makes a person ask himself, How shall I give a testimony? Let us quietly subside into simple, God-fearing, God-acknowledging Christianity; and, though outwardly as a cake of barley bread, the world would feel about us, as the Midianite speaks of Gideon to his fellow. Before he goes to battle, he worships in the full confidence of victory.

The worship of faith is always the worship of confidence. Were we more really, in our own eyes, the "cake of barley bread," there would be more abounding praise. He does not say "into my hand," but "into your hand. The Midianites are "as grasshoppers for multitude;" the Lord's "host" but a handful of men! God as we have before remarked in the history of this mighty man of valour reckons not according to what we are in ourselves, but according to that which He makes us.

And had He actually delivered the Midianites into the hand of Israel? Neither, as yet, is Satan actually under our feet, though faith counts him to be. Had Gideon said, "I will not believe before I get the spoil," that would have been unbelief. And he said unto them, Look on me, and do likewise: When I blow with a trumpet, I and all that are with me, then blow ye the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon. The weapons of their warfare were the most foolish things imaginable - trumpets, pitchers, and lamps in the pitchers!

Faith's weapons must be mighty through God alone. And 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 withal: And they stood every man in his place round about the camp and all the host ran, and cried, and fled. And the men of Israel gathered themselves together out of Naphtali, and out of Asher, and out of all Manassah, and pursued after the Midianites. These things shall yet be acted over again. Now, the weapons wherewith we have to fight are testimony by word of mouth and our own insignificance.

Our power is in giving testimony to Jesus, and never getting out of the place of being but "earthen vessels. The excellency of the power must be of God, and not of us. Impotent in ourselves for blessing and having found this out , but having proved the blessedness of simple dependence, upon God, we can, with Gideon, call upon others to have fellowship with us. But let us not be setting up ourselves. Everything depends upon the presence of the Holy Ghost, ungrieved, unhindered. Let this be told, and let us hide ourselves.

The men of Ephraim are seen at the close of Judges 7 slaying Oreb and Zeeb. They are allowed to come in for blessing in result. Now they turn and chide with Gideon for not having called them at the first. And they did chide with him sharply. This is just what the half-hearted Christian does. He is very angry at not being associated with those who are wholehearted. But whose is the fault?

Whenever there is any energy of the Spirit of God working in the Church, the language of the men of Ephraim is the language of such: What we have to do is, to go wherever the Lord leads; we cannot stop to make compacts and agreements. The effort to drag others along with us is in reality but a device of Satan to keep ourselves back. Note the Lord's word to Jeremiah "Let them return unto thee; but return not thou to them.

Are any desirous of going forward, let them not stop to carry along with them "the men of Ephraim. Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abi-ezer? God hath delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb: Let us mark this. Where the power of God is most working, there is always the deepest grace, and the consciousness that, all that we are we are by the grace of God. What a manifestation have we here of the mind that was in Christ. How graciously did the Lord speak of His poor, failing, faithless disciples; "Ye are they," said He, "that have continued with me in my temptations.

Gideon esteems others better than himself. Not any thing so hinders blessing individual or collective as a feeling of superiority to others. The exercised soul will judge itself, whilst it sees that which is done by another in, the light of grace. If honest in self-judgment, have we not at times detected in ourselves something of an inclination to overlook grace in other saints because they "followed not with us"? Grace is able to fasten on that in a brother that is pleasing to God, and seeks to bring it out, passing over, in so doing, there may be very much along with it of failure.

Jesus knew, and perfectly, the weakness and failure of His disciples, though He addressed them as He did. It is a blessing when we can sink ourselves, that others may come into prominence. What three little words could be more blessedly descriptive of the Christian than these I not "faint, and sitting down;" " not faint, and giving up;" but, "faint, yet pursuing. It is said, "Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might;" but to whom? To the one who has no strength in himself, who would give up his course if strength were not supplied to him.

One victory achieved, the conflict goes on afresh. Do we find ourselves fainting in spirit?

Still let us go on; for our God giveth strength to the weak. We like not this trial of faith. It is very painful, doubtless, to feel day after day our own weakness. We want to feel that the battle is over; but let us remember that now is our time of war. We are called on to fight "as good soldiers of Jesus Christ," and that in a daily round of conflicts. Today there has been sufficient grace and sufficient evil, and tomorrow there will be sufficient grace and sufficient evil.

What we need is to live day by day on God. He is faithful, and will supply strength according to the occasion and need. The Church will not be at rest till the Lord comes. But weakness ought to be no hindrance to our going forward - "faint, yet pursuing. The moment a person has learnt to renounce himself, he goes forward. Were felt weakness a reason for standing still, who so weak as Gideon? The next thing taught us in this history is, that the world is neither able nor willing to supply refreshment to the man of faith.

The world never gives, it may concede something to us if we concede something to it, but it never gives.

Mighty Man of Valor: One Man Against the Odds - Stephen John Goundry - Google Книги

That which is required by it is generally the sacrifice of faithfulness. And the princes of Succoth said, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in thine hand, that we should give bread unto thine army? If you profess to the world that you are "following after" resurrection glory, "pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" Phil. And Gideon said, Therefore when the Lord hath delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into mine hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers. And he went up thence to Penuel, and spake unto them likewise: And he spake also unto the men of Penuel, saying, When I come again in peace , I will break down this tower.

In the confidence of victory, Gideon was going forward though consciously faint ; and these princes of Succoth, and the men of Penuel, would not come to the help of the Lord against the mighty.