Judges 7:15 (ESV)
As soon as Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its
interpretation, he worshiped. And he returned to the camp of Israel and said,
“Arise, for the Lord has given the host of Midian into your hand.”
Everyone loves underdog stories. We all want to see the
scrappy team from the small town win the state championship. People love to
root for the underdog. But nobody wants to be the underdog. When it gets down
to it, we would definitely prefer to be the top dog with no one to challenge
us.
Gideon didn’t want to be the underdog either. He was given
the job of rescuing God’s people, the Israelites, from the invading Midianites.
Israel was outnumbered badly. From a military point of view, their best course
of action would be surrender and hope they were treated well as prisoners.
Gideon knew that, but he still tried his best to muster the best fighting force
he could, a little over 32,000 men. He was as ready as he could be to face the
enemy. The opening whistle of the most important match in Gideon’s life was
about to sound.
But God had a lesson to teach Gideon.
You see, God had already promised to save the Israelites
and to help them defeat Midian. And God wanted them to trust his promise to the
win that victory for them. So, what did God do? He commanded Gideon to dismiss
almost his entire army. At the end of that day, Gideon was left with less than
one percent of his original force, only 300 men! You can’t even fill a large
gym with 300 men, but that was Israel’s entire army. This meager army was up
against an enemy so large that you couldn’t even count their camels, let alone
soldiers. Gideon was about to learn a lesson on trust.
Israel did win the battle that day. But they didn’t win
because of numbers, or strategy, or ferocity. They won because God was on their
side.
God wants us to know the same thing. God is on our side so
power, might, wisdom, or numbers don’t matter. If God is for us, who can be
against us? With our trust in God, we really have nothing to fear.
It is true that even Christians sometimes suffer during
their lives. Does this mean they didn’t trust in God enough? Or maybe God
doesn’t care about them? No.
We believe that God will protect us spiritually above all
else. He has already won the greatest victory possible for us. When Jesus
Christ died on the cross, he suffered for every person through all of time.
Jesus death paid the price for our sins. The battles against sin, death, and
the devil have all been won for us. “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave
him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us
all things?” (Romans 8:31-32)
God may not help our team win every championship. In fact,
we will face troubles in life, but that doesn’t really matter. What matters is
that we can trust God’s promise that He has won the final victory for us and is
waiting for us in heaven.
That inspires the same confidence in us as in Gideon to
call out, “Get up! The Lord has given this into our hands!” If God is for us,
who can be against us? He will for fight for us in life so that we might enjoy
an eternity with him.
Dear Lord, thank You for fighting the battles we couldn’t.
Thank You for watching over us and protecting us. Help us to remember Your
promises and to always put our trust in You. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
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