Judges 7:1-8 Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people that were with him, rose up early, and pitched beside the well of Harod… A striking story. Especially might it be a useful story for all preachers to-day who find themselves in some little tide of popularity. It is a sore story this on Church statistics, especially when the numbers swell, and we are apt to indulge in a great chorus of praise because of numerical success. How the Lord Almighty had to reduce thirty-two thousand stalwart men to three hundred in order to bring the band up to its effective strength! The Captain of our salvation has strange ways with Him, has He not? Sometimes past finding out. Now, these men utterly deceived Gideon, and we have to learn that lesson — that we may utterly deceive each other. Are our hearts right? When we count you upon our totals, does the Lord also count one, or are you to Him a mere fraction — a nothing? The Lord said, virtually, "Gideon, give these people a chance to go home, and see what you shall see. Say to those that are timid and of a fearful heart, Go back." And twenty-two thousand showed the breadth of their backs, executing strategical movements upon home! Are we going to be blown away like chaff, or can we stand it? Are we wheat after all? And even when there were not so many by twenty-two thousand with Gideon as at first, still they were not dense and compact enough for God's purposes. For God wants His army to be not like a great, big, overgrown cabbage that has run to blades and has no heart in it, but He wants His army to be dense — not extensive, but intensive — sound at the heart, solid as a cannon-ball. Notice, then, when we come to this second action of God's testing of these people how difficult it is to detect hypocrisy. Mark you, these other thousands ought to have gone off with the first batch; they ought to have gone at the first telling. But such an ingrained thing is formalism and hypocrisy that these people stood firm when they ought to have gone. There ought to have been no second sifting process needed. One was enough to lay bare the hearts of men to themselves if they had been simple and honest and sincere. You have the same thing to-day, precisely — people who come with you up to the point of real work, and then "Presto! Pass!" they are gone. In God's great name let me ask what are you doing but coming to church once a week? Now, I wish to say that your seat could be better occupied if that is all that is to come out of you. What was the test which God applied to them in this sore business? Well, I think it was just this. I am not going to say that these three hundred men were braver, bolder, grander men than those who had gone away. I am not going to say that these men were men of blood and iron — that they had no fear, no doubts, and no misgivings. No, I do not think that. I think that they were men who felt their hearts beat beneath their jerkins like any others. They had very likely the same doubts and the same misgivings as to the success of this revolt against Midian as the thousands had who had gone home; only they did not yield to them. They encouraged themselves in God; they encouraged themselves in Gideon. In all their weakness and helplessness they leaned all the harder upon Him who had called them to this fight, in which were involved death or victory. And that is all that God wants yet. God never asked any mortal man to do more than trust in Him. These three hundred men were only flesh and blood, and this was a desperate business. Twenty-two thousand of their countrymen had gone away from fear; but when these three hundred came to the ford it seemed that what was in their heart was not retreat, but fighting. Because when they came to that ford, a key position, an important place, they cannot lie down and give themselves up to the business of taking drink like the others. It was not drinking, but fighting that was in their heads and in their hearts; and they lapped as a dog lapped, so that they were free to see the oncoming of the host, and to spring to their places in an instant. Thus they drank, and God said, "These are the men." This thing called faith in God is a thing that tells. It tinges, it tinctures, it colours every word you speak, and everything you do. (J. McNeill.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people that were 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. |
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