Judges 7:15-25.  As you read this you probably think Gideon finally got it, and he did, sort of.  As we saw in yesterday’s blog he is listed in Hebrews as an example of faith, so he definitely has to get credit for that.  But when I read this it seemed a little sad to me that he had to see the enemies fear before he would believe.  After all of the signs, it still took hearing the dream for him to believe.  Now no doubt he stepped out in faith, way out.  Who would go up against a force that was too big to count (and clearly they could count pretty high since we know the Israelites started out with 30,000 troops) with only 300 men unless it was an act of faith.  So Gideon and his 300 men surround the enemy camp in the middle of the night and caused a great deal of confusion.  It’s kind of funny that they are holding torches in one hand and ram’s horns (the trumpets were made out of ram’s horns) in the other and were yelling, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon.”  The enemy had no idea and in the confusion started fighting with each other and running.  This victory so far has clearly been from God.

At this point Gideon seems to start losing sight of God though.  He calls back all of the troops which God sent home to join in pursuing the enemy.  Some of these men are identified as Abiezerites and men from the tribe of Manasseh (Judges 6:34-35).  Abiezer was actually a part of Manasseh so that part of the army that came to fight with Gideon originally was all from his tribe (See “The Twelve?” for more on the tribes of Israel).  He also called men from Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali.  These were three of the tribes to the north of Manasseh.  The invading troops had been camped between Manasseh and them.  Now with his original army reassembled  Gideon calls into the battle men from the tribe of Ephraim.  The battle which had been the Lord’s is now taken over by Gideon.  I guess all of that talk of a “sword for the Lord and Gideon” started to go to his head.  No more throwing skins on the ground looking for a sign, just do what I want.  He evidently forgot that he was just a loaf of bread (Judges 7:13-14) that God was using   Later in the story we will see that Gideon’s focus on himself more clearly.  It’s like that for us too.  We have trouble in our lives and we beg and plead with God.  “Please God help me with that girl or guy or my friend, or my parents, or my brother or sister”.  “God give me a sign”.   Then when things turn around we just cruise along and don’t bother asking.  We just do things our own way.

Lord I don’t like it when trouble comes into my life.  I know you told us to consider it joyful when we have troubles because troubles cause us to grow spiritually (James 1:2-3).  I would rather just stay in touch and faithful with out the trials.  But I know I don’t and won’t.  God help me remember to keep in touch during the times of quiet, when things are going good.  Thank you for loving me and being faithful when I can be such a bad friend.  I really do love you God.