If you're not serving, is it because you're not available or don't have the ability? And you have to think through that.
All of us do. Another lesson is God doesn't need large numbers to accomplish His purposes. It is a mistake to think a church needs to be what they now call a mega church.
I used to think, because I've seen a mega church work well, I used to think that was the model, the ideal. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Judges.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. And now here's Pastor Rick with his study called Typical God Victory in Judges Chapter 7. Now God, He uses believers to prophesy, unbeknownst to them, once He actually spoke through a donkey.
So that kind of sets the bar pretty high. I mean, that's like the lesson to get to the point, and then I'll come and fill it in, when God cannot rule, He decides at times to overrule. And that's what we see here, and that's what we see when Abimelech had a vision from God, he was an unbeliever. When Joseph's fellow prisoners had their dreams that Joseph interpreted, when the Pharaoh had his dream that Joseph interpreted, God could have given the dreams to Joseph to tell them, but He did not. Joseph interpreted them. The witch at Endor in Saul's day, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams that Daniel interpreted. In the New Testament, Caiaphas prophesied being the high priest as his expedient for one to die for the nation. There was the wife of Pilate, had nothing to do with this man, I have had a dream, a vision about him.
So yeah, God, He overruled whenever He wants to overrule. He not only gives the unbelievers the dream, He gives the other one the interpretation, on the spot. Sometimes Daniel had to walk away, I'll be back, I'll get this, I had to pray about this one. I love the Lord how He does these things when I'm reading it in someone else's life. I'm not too happy when it's me because I don't know what's going to happen and I don't know how I'm going to do. But if I'm afraid of failing, I'm not going to do much if that's all I've got.
It's okay to be afraid to fail, it's not okay to just leave it like that. And so, you know, once God used a lying prophet, you know, 1 Kings chapter 13, where the man of God is told, you go preach my word and you come back this way and don't you stay with anybody or stop to eat or anything like that. Well, he's coming back and the other prophet hears he's in town who was bypassed, incidentally. God had to find a different prophet, so the lying prophet who was bypassed, he approaches the solid prophet and he says, no, no, God gave me a vision, he's lying, come eat, and he's eating. And then while he's eating, he cries out, the lying prophet cries out with a true prophecy, oh, you're going to die.
You should not have been here. And of course, the lying kills him, the true prophet. And you just shake your head and you say, let me not try to put God in a box, but let me operate within the confines that he has surrounded me with through his word.
Hopefully, that will keep me courageous and not so self-righteous and judgmental. I mean, there are times we have to judge. A person who's impenitent is judged by their actions and we just ratify it. Well, these events, God using these false, well, these unbelievers and backslidden prophet does not exonerate them or condone their lifestyle.
They're still guilty. It just means God can overrule when he is good and ready. The witch in Endor, again, one of the great ones where God just says, yeah, I'm going to break this party up.
And she didn't see that coming, so I love that. Anyway, if he's not permitted to rule in the heart, he'll take control when he needs. Gideon, as he's going through this whole thing, as he hears this, he now feels, of course, strong that God is with him. The reason why he had to be there in the first place is because he factored God out. He limited God and that, in fact, was factoring him out. We do it.
I do it. And I wouldn't believe anybody who says they never did it unless they never tried to do anything for the Lord. If you do anything for the Lord, you're going to come into contact with opposition. Ask the Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Did he face that? What did the Lord say? He said, my soul is troubled before he got to the garden.
But unless a grain of wheat dies, falls to the ground and dies, it brings forth no fruit. Verse 15, and so it was when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation that he worshiped, he returned to the camp of Israel and said, arise, for Yahweh has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand. Oh, man, how can you not love this? As soon as he realizes, this is the Lord.
They're taking away my army and leaving me with 300. I don't know what he's up to, but I'm going with it. I got it. He catches, he worships without, no hesitation. This is the Lord, and he worships God. He's like, thank you, he got to whisper.
Because at the center, he's here and he's done. But he worships the Lord, and his servant, Puah, is there with him. I guess when Gideon's writing this book, writing the story, he tells Puah, I'm going to put you in.
I'll put you in the story. So, again, once he had confirmation, he acted. Worship before war. One of the lessons. How can you miss that, right? Once you started analyzing, I don't mean to make it sound like you didn't see it.
I saw it. I'm not saying that. But I am saying, one of the lessons is, where there's worship, we can go forward with war. Successful workers and warriors first are sincere and solid worshippers. Now, if you say, well, I've seen people who weren't solid, and God used them. Yes, he used, in spite of them, don't you be that one. Would you like to be that one? Would you like to be the one that God used, even though he was going to go upside your head later, because he really couldn't use you? No. When Paul said there were some that preached Christ for selfish gain, but Christ is being preached nonetheless, would you like to be that one doing the selfish preaching? I don't think so.
That would be pretty bad. Verse 16, then he divided the 300 men into three companies, and he put a trumpet into every man's hand with empty pitchers and torches inside the pitchers. There's just so much here.
I'm looking forward to getting to when they actually do this stuff. Anyway, he divided them into three groups and three companies. Now, this saw a tactic that Abraham used against Ketelomer of the, you know, the confederation that came down from Mesopotamia and captured Lot. Abraham had his forces.
He divided them in three. Saul did it, Jabesh Gilead, and David did it against Absalom, and here we see, of course, war tactic. But they divided 300 men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man's hand with empty pitchers and torches inside the pitchers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edification of the body of Christ. That's how it translates into New Testament. An Old Testament is to deliver the people from the enemies invading the land, and the New Testament is to preach the gospel in season and out of season, but you've got to be equipped for the work of ministry. That's serving others, incidentally, in some form.
For the making strong the church, the body of Christ, whether it is the local assembly or the universal assembly, it is both. This was going to be a noisy night with these broken pots and loud horns. Just what men like. You know, drill the baffles out of that thing. Make it louder.
This is a boy's night out here. But anyhow, he gave them each man a trumpet to blow, a jar to break, a torch to burn, and a sword to swing. I mean, this is the kind of stuff that pastors want to preach on.
Problem is, writing it down is not enough. You've got to have the Spirit lead you to do it. But this message that we have through the shofar, it's a message to blast in the earthenware, that clay pot, a vessel to be spent, the light to shine and the sword to swing. New Testament verses, Jesus said, Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light. And what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. Blow it out the shofar.
Let it out. When he says in that section, Matthew 10, 27, What I tell you in the dark. We are in the dark until Jesus tells us something to get us out of the dark.
That's how it works. Before Christ, we know nothing about Christ. We know nothing about the gospel.
He's the one that tells us through his Holy Spirit, albeit, and the Word, and those he's given to the church and to the body of Christ, fellow disciples, these are the processes where we get light. This vessel, this clay pot, we're the clay pot, 2 Corinthians 4, 7. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
It's the very thing we started off with. God's saying you can't get credit for this victory. Your army's too big. We are the earthen vessels, but the power is through God. How does God get the power out of us? He breaks us. He spends us. He uses us.
He takes us into war with him. And as has been said, the more our pots are broken before him, the more his power is released through us. Matthew 5, 16, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. So when I let my light shine, it's to bring glory to my Father in heaven, not to me. And that's my torch, my flaming torch. Incidentally, these torches are going to be concealed for just a little bit until the command is given. Isn't that how the gospel is shared?
You don't just cast pearl before swine. You wait till the Lord says, get them boys, and then you turn to the gospel. Then there's Ephesians 6, 17. Take the helmet of salvation, because without that, there's nothing else. And then he says, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Explicitly said. Paul says, this is my weapon. There are many like it, but this one is mine. And God does the rest, as he did with Gideon. But there's more.
There's more to the story. Verse 17, and he said to them, look at me and do likewise. Watch, and when I come to the edge of the camp, you shall do as I do. So here's a typical leader, he's saying, men, this is how I want it done.
He doesn't lay out his method. I wrestled with this. Let's go forward, verse 18. When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you also blow the trumpets on every side of the whole camp and say, the sword of the Lord and Gideon, the sword of Yahweh and Gideon. Really it's, at this point, it is for the Lord.
But what is happening here? Gideon heard the interpretation of the dream by the enemy soldier, and the enemy soldier said, this is the sword of Gideon. And Gideon is going to lock onto this, and he's going to, that's going to be their battle cry. The sword of the Lord and Gideon. I mean, he's just going to, he locks onto these little nicknames and phrases.
I like it. Verse 19 though, there's more. So Gideon and the hundred men, remember, he divided his 300 men into three groups, and he says, so Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outpost of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just as they had posted the watch. And they blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands. Well, it's about 10 p.m., so it's dark out when his company arrives.
A hundred to the front, a hundred on this side, a hundred on that side, forming a U around the camp, leaving only an exit route to the north. And the centuries had just changed. So they're not even settled into their post yet when the mayhem breaks out.
Perfect timing. But here's what I struggled with. It's kind of awkward. How do you do this? How do you march with a torch, with a clay pot over it, and it doesn't go out, blow the horn? I mean, how do you work with this?
What are you doing with this? It's like a fish riding a bicycle. It's just so, it doesn't work well. And last time I went through it, I just left it alone. This time, you just, Lord, you've got to show me how this is.
I looked up pictures on the internet to see if I could see, maybe an artist figured it out. No, they didn't. Nothing.
So here's what I have. So they're not too far from the battlefield. And they've got their torches.
And they have large clay pots. And they put it over the torch. But it's tilted so the oxygen can get in there and it doesn't snuff it. I've got to conceal the flame. Now, I haven't tried this at home. But this is my, this is, it's right, because I'm saying it.
If any of you can do it as a project, it would be lovely to know how it turns out. So you put the pot over the torch, but you don't hold it straight up, because it might put it out. You kind of tilt it a little bit, but it's kind of big, so it's space for the air to get in. He specifies, in verse 20 it says, in their right hands. Look down at verse 20 real quick and I'll come back up and give you my explanation. Then there were three companies, then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers. They held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing. And they cried, the sword of Yahweh and of Gideon. Now, there it is, the sword is in their right hand.
So they're coming up, they're marching. They've got the shofar strapped over them and they have their sword on their left side. They're holding in their left hand the torch with the pot over it. At the command of Gideon, he blows his shofar, because this has to happen and, you know, synchronize, you don't have time to fumble around. So their right hand is free. They take their shofar, they blow it. They're holding the torch with the pot in their left hand. Then after they blow the shofar, they simply grab the clay pot off the torch by pulling the torch back and smashing into the ground the pot to make the noise. Now they've got the torch in their hand and their right hand is free to draw their sword. Voila, settled.
You know how many commentaries I had to go through to find out they had no idea what was happening? Do I look like I'm patting myself on the back? Yes, it's the voice of satisfaction. Did the Lord give it to me?
Of course, we have to do that because it's right. But I have a little weasel in me too. Fire swords and a leader, that's what it took.
Now maybe you can disprove my theory or my view and I would appreciate if you kept it to yourself. Verse 20 we just read where Gideon picks up the words of the Midianite century, again to be read at the bottom of verse 20, the sword of Yahweh and of Gideon. This is nothing more than the sword of Gideon and I love that. He said, that's my battle cry.
That's exactly what I'm going to hit him with. He's listening. And verse 21, and every man stood in his place all around the camp and the whole army ran and cried, cried out and fled. So as three divisions have given the illusion that this is a massive force with this noise and torches and everybody's sleeping and they're not ready for this and this panic sweeps over the camp of the Midianites, I mean it's 100,000 people, over 100,000 people.
It's contagious. It's a domino effect. They're all panicking. The commanders are not putting their troops in formation and forming a perimeter to fight whatever's coming. That's not what they're doing.
It's every man for himself. It's so dark out they can't even see who's who. So they start turning swords on each other. Verse 22, when the 300 blew the trumpets, the Lord set every man's sword against his companion throughout the whole camp and the army fled to Bethicacia toward Zerah as far as the border of Abel-Methilah by Tabath.
Now you can find those places if you rent a bicycle in Israel and get an award because no one else has found it. Anyway, they're sprawling over this giant now. They're trying to get home.
However many miles it's going to take them. And the Midianites are accidentally killing one another in the panic, in the confusion, the chaos. Verse 23, and the men of Israel gathered together from Naphtali, Asher, and all Manasseh and pursued the Midianites.
So now sun's coming up, words getting out, messengers are probably being dispatched. These who were now dismissed are being recalled to the battlefield. You would say, I would say, well why didn't God just leave them in the camp?
Well the genius of it is probably that these people were spread out now and as they're coming into the theater of battle, they're coming right at where they need to be to intercept the fleeing army. Because God is saying these people need to be killed so they don't come back next year. That's the deliverance.
When people aren't fit to live, God executes judgment like this. It's with the story of Noah's floods, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. So verse 24, then Gideon sent messengers throughout the mountains of Ephraim. Now Ephraim is being called, come down against the Midianites and seize from them the watering places as far as Bethbara and the Jordan. And all the men of Ephraim gathered together and seized the watering places as far as Bethbara and the Jordan. So Gideon says troops on the run are going to be parched, dehydrated, cut off the waters. That's where they're going to go. That's where we're going to find them. It's ingenious, it's wonderful. Zebulun is not mentioned, but Ephraim is.
I don't know if that's just, you know, why, but it is. Very strategic of Gideon to cut to the water routes. Verse 25, then they captured the two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeb they killed at the winepress of Zeb.
Not very creative. They pursued Midian and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeb to Gideon on the other side of the Jordan. They were mad.
You may come in my land like this. Now we've got the upper hand. In this chapter to Ephraim, the honor is given of capturing and slaying these two princes of the Midianite people. This was quite a decisive battle, so much so that it finds its way in the Psalms and Isaiah brings it up twice. And Isaiah is hundreds of years later.
So it's a remarkable victory for the people that started out with the farmer hiding in the winepress and he ends up a victorious general. How typical of God to exalt the lowly in time of need. One of the other lessons that comes out of this is when God wants to use somebody, it's not their ability he's after, it's their availability. And this is something that so many don't get. You have people that can do things, they just won't make themselves available. Granted, some cannot.
But many times the person is available, but they won't make themselves available. They won't stop doing, you know, I've got softball, sorry. Whatever.
I don't know, maybe somebody's done that and I'm not pissling you out and softball's better than soccer, so you have a better excuse. But anyway, just in jest trying to make sure we understand only you can be the judge of this really. God of course knows best.
If you're not serving, is it because you're not available or don't have the ability? And you have to think through that, all of us do. Another lesson is God doesn't need large numbers to accomplish his purposes. It is a mistake to think a church needs to be what they now call a megachurch. I used to think, because I've seen a megachurch work well, I used to think that was the model, the ideal. Well, that is if God blesses that church with that. But unfortunately, there are a lot of megachurches that really are just mega disasters. Texas, Joel Olston, you know, that's a megachurch and there's no gospel preached there. And it's a tragedy. So, especially gifted leaders, does God need them?
No, of course not. He wants leaders that are called and who respond to that call. They can be gifted and if they're not, he will gift them with what they need to have. And the leaders have to learn to be satisfied with the lot that they have been given, as we learned in the book of Joshua, and not walk around wondering why they do not have a bigger share.
So, if the leader is depending on or the following is depending on education or skill or experience, those things have their place, but they better be depending on God first and way up in front, not a close second. And so God abandons those who don't need him and he looks for the one who will depend on him and follow him. We're going to get some of that with Samson.
Samson got to a point where he thought he could play games with sacred things and he paid dearly for it. Thanks for tuning in to Cross-Reference Radio for this study in the book of Judges. Cross-Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. If you'd like more information about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. You'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick available there and we encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. By doing so, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross-Reference Radio. You can search for Cross-Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app or just follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. That's all the time we have for today. Join us next time to continue learning more from the book of Judges right here on Cross-Reference Radio.
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