There is truth to the saying that your greatest strength can also be your greatest weakness. In the areas you are most confident, pride and negligence often take hold. Pride, as Proverbs tells us, comes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.
For the Midianites, their strength of numbers became their weakness, as God put them to battle against themselves in the fright of night. For Gideon’s army, their weakness and reliance on God was their strength. While Israel’s blades may have joined the fray, it was clearly God’s strength that made perfect Israel’s weakness, and God’s strength that made Midian’s strength their weakness.
In one encampment, Midianites were so numerous that they and their camels were like locusts upon the land. In another encampment, Gideon and Israel numbered just 300 in number. In worldly terms, an uneven fight; even the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae eventually fell to the great Persian Army.
But this was no ordinary match up of armies. Gideon and his servant had snuck into the Midianite camp, and heard how God had given Midian into his hands from the mouth of one of its own soldiers (vv.13-14). Gideon rejoiced, he knew victory awaited (v.15).
Gideon told the Israelites what he had heard and that “the LORD has given the host of Midian into your hand” (v.15), divided the men into three groups, armed them with trumpets and empty jars with torches inside (v.16), and gave them instructions about how they would “attack” (vv.17-18). Hardly typical military weapons.
The little Israelite army surrounded the great Midian encampment in the middle of the night. They blew their trumpets and smashed the jars, revealing the torches of fire (vv.19-20). They cried out “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!” (v.20).
For the Midian force, it was as if the vanguard of an army had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, surrounding them, in the middle of the night. Terror ensued. As the Israelites stood around, all the army ran, cried out, and fled (v.21). So desperate to escape this force, they fought each other (v.22).
Except it was not worldly terror, but God making their strength of numbers their great weakness. “The LORD set every man’s sword against his comrade and against all the army” (v.22). In a sense, the Midianites defeated themselves. But they did so, because God ordained it so.
The remnants of the Midianite army fled the terror of the LORD come upon them (v.22). As they did so, the “the men of Israel were called out from Naphtali and from Asher and from all Manasseh, and they pursued after Midian” (v.23). The men who years before had failed in their own strength to defeat Midian were now able, because God reduced the Midian strength to the weakness of a fleeing horde, not an organised force.
To complete the victory, Gideon called on the tribe of Ephraim to race down from the hill country to the Jordan River, seize the fords and crossings, and capture any Midianite who tried to cross (v.24). The Ephraimites did so, sealing the victory, capturing and killing Oreb and Zeeb.
Oreb, meaning “raven”, and Zeeb, meaning “wolf”. Like the animals whose names they had taken, these oppressors of God’s People were hunted down and dispatched, facing the judgement of God’s hand through the arm of his people.
Trumpets and torches were the weapons of victory, but really it was faith in God that was the powerful weapon Gideon’s force held. Previously Israel had fought and lost in their own strength, and became weak. When they recognised their weakness and trusted in God, he made them strong. All they needed to do was shout “Boo!” and God did all the winning for them.
There is a lesson here for us. It is not the means of the world which grants victory, it is God. If we put our faith in God just as Gideon and his army did, God will save us. If we put our trust in worldly means, we will fail.
Gideon’s victory shows that it is God that wins through what the world derides as weakness. Jesus, dying a traitor’s death on the Cross, looked like a worldly failure. But it was God’s will that he suffered to bring us pardon from God’s judgement, and victory over sin and death.
Faith in Christ and holding to his Word is madness to this world, busy in their pursuit of sinful desires. But it is the breath of life, and sin is a banquet in the grave. The world may have the upper hand right now, but Jesus wins! Strength becomes weakness, weakness is made perfect in God’s strength.
How do we fight sin in our lives? In God’s strength, not ours. How do we endure the rejection of the world? In God’s strength, not ours. How do we proclaim Christ, his sacrifice for us and any who will believe? In God’s strength, not ours. He will make perfect our weakness, for his glory and honour.
