Well, good evening, brothers, again.
As we come to the study of God’s Word, there is a principle of Bible study that is absolutely indispensable—a principle we cannot take for granted, one we cannot live without.
That principle is total reliance upon God’s Holy Spirit.
I am going to ask you to turn, just for a moment please, before we pray and ask the Lord to guide us, to Matthew 11.
Matthew 11, beginning at verse 25.
“At that time Jesus said, I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants.
Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight.
All things have been handed over to Me by My Father;
and no one knows the Son except the Father;
nor does anyone know the Father except the Son,
and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.
Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls.
For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
As you have probably heard many times, those precious verses at the end of Matthew 11 are applied to the sinner who has never come to know the Lord: “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden.” And there is no question about it: God’s truth can be applied to everybody. It can be applied to the sinner who has never come to know the Lord.
But I think it is precious to realize that the context is not inviting sinners who have never come to know the Lord to come to know Him. The context is Bible study. The context is how to understand this Book.
Jesus looked up to heaven and He said, “I thank You, Father, that You have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and the prudent. You have revealed them unto little babes. It was good in Your sight. It was Your way. You took pleasure in that.”
And He said, “Nobody knows the Father, only the Son. Nobody knows the Son, only the Father.” Then He adds, “Whoever the Son wills to reveal Him.”
And it is to understand this Book that He says, “All you who are weary and heavy-laden, come to Me and learn of Me. I will be your Teacher.” That is what He is saying.
If you will come to Me, if you are weary of studying the Bible and not seeing anything, not hearing the voice of God, not having the Lord revealed, Jesus invites you to let Him be the Teacher. “Come unto Me, all ye that are weary and heavy-laden; I will give you rest. Learn from Me,” Jesus said. “My yoke is easy. My burden is light.”
He wants to be our Teacher. Now, we cannot work up some attitude of childlikeness. He has to work it in us, but He has promised He would. We could come as dry ground; He would rain His fresh water on us. We would come with our mouths opened wide; He would fill us. If we would come as little babes, He would reveal these things to us.
We are fools if God tells us the hiding place, and then we cannot find the treasure.
All these things—all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge—are hidden in Christ Jesus. We know the hiding place. Shame, shame on us if we do not go to that hiding place, in order that God might reveal His treasure.
We are talking these days about the presence of the Lord. Let me read, without comment, one verse on the presence of the Lord from the book of Acts. I told you I have been going through Acts, and how God has been cleansing my heart as I have gone through this book.
Acts 3:19:
“Repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away,
in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;
and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you.”
Is that not a glorious truth? Times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you.
Let us pray together.
Our Father, again this evening, we thank You so much for Your precious Holy Spirit, who lives right inside of us, who lives in our hearts—the life of God.
Thank You that it is Your pleasure to reveal the Son of God to us. We know that it is not possible to know the Father unless You will to reveal Him unto us.
Create in us, we pray, that attitude of childlikeness that receives from You. Deliver us from sophistication in all of its subtle forms.
Show us Yourself. Unscale our eyes. Take the veil away. You who dwell between the cherubim, shine forth.
We ask in the all-prevailing name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
I know Wayne was not here for the early part. Anybody else that was not here for any of the studies? We have a couple of brothers who were not here.
I will try to give just a little of the flow. Are you familiar with the Gideon story? That is what we are looking at. We are looking at the Gideon story.
Just bear with me as I pick up the flow, so these brothers can walk right in step with us as we enter into the heart of the Lord.
We are discussing the glorious truth expressed in Psalm 16:11:
“You will make known to me the path of life;
in Your presence is fullness of joy;
in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.”
Gideon discovered the truth that in the presence of the Lord is where the blessing is. Gideon had a great burden that God would bless His people, and God had to teach him what He knew so well: that the blessing is found in the presence of the Lord.
And the deeper you go into the presence of the Lord, the more the blessing will come and flow. Outside of the presence of the Lord is the opposite of fullness of joy. There is no joy outside of His presence.
At the time we are looking at in Judges 6, because of the sin of God’s people, God had sent an oppressor. They had been reduced to living in caves and dens like animals. Like rats, they had to be scavengers for their provision.
They were not saved to live like that. They were not redeemed from bondage to live in dark holes and damp caves. They were redeemed to enjoy the land, to enjoy the Lord in all of His fullness.
Gideon wanted so to be a blessing to the people, but he did not know what to do.
So Gideon came up with a plan to help his people. He began to beat the wheat against the rock at the winepress, in the foothills, in the lowland, so that the enemy could not see.
If he was on the highland, they would see all of the chaff—the clouds of chaff—and come in and confiscate it. So down in the lowland, he kept beating, but there was no wind to carry the chaff. The chaff would fall with the grain, and he would have to separate it.
He labored and labored from dawn until dusk in order to have provision for himself and his neighbors, and so on.
God looked down from heaven, and God saw Gideon and the beautiful heart that man had. God saw him in his service, beating his wheat against the rock, getting nowhere—just surviving.
The Angel of the Lord came down and talked to Gideon, and He said, “The Lord is with you.” Gideon said, “I know He is with me, but look at my people. Look at Your people.”
And the Angel of the Lord taught him what He knew so well, and that is that in His presence there is blessing. God began to draw Gideon into His presence.
The Lord said, “If you really want to be a blessing, I am not going to deal with them. I am going to deal with you, Gideon.” God began to deal with Gideon, not the people.
He said, “You must come into My presence.” Deeper and deeper God brought him into His presence, and the deeper Gideon got into the presence of the Lord, the more the enemy started to fall apart and the more the blessing started to come on the people.
Gideon was learning that as he went into the presence of God, then God would bless the people. That is what we have been looking at so far: Gideon being brought into the presence of the Lord.
Now, this morning, I shared with you how God began by taking Gideon into the truth of the preeminence of Christ. Remember the difference between preeminence and prominence. Preeminence is a one and only. Prominent is one among many.
You can have many prominent things in your life, but the Lord does not want to be prominent. The Lord wants to be preeminent.
Gideon was taken into the presence of the Lord, and by the mighty power of God, illustrated by the bull, he pulled down the Baal and all the competing lovers that were vying for the affection of God’s people, and established in the high place a picture of Himself, a symbol of Himself.
At the door of blessing is the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. He pictured all of that in the Gideon story.
Along with the truth that Jesus was the One and Only, God began to reteach Gideon the truth of Zechariah 4:6:
“Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the Lord.
And that is about where we left off. When we left off, I was trying to show you how God was teaching Gideon that truth. He knew it, but he did not know it. It is one of those things that you know, and God has to reteach you what you know.
He asked for that sign: “Lord, I will know if You put the dew on the fleece.” God did it. Then all of a sudden Gideon said, “I am not sure even then, because there is too much possibility that that is nature. I do not want it to be nature. I want it to be God.”
So he flipped over the sign. He said, “Lord, do not be angry, but do it another way, just so I can be sure. It is not by might nor by power, but by Your Spirit.”
God honored it, and now Gideon said, “Now I know.” Then God said, “Let us see if you know what you know.”
Then God began to reduce the troops. Not by might, not by power. God began to reduce the troops, and Gideon said, “Ho, ho, ho, wait a minute. I know it is by Your Spirit, but do not touch my troops.”
That is where we left off. God was teaching Gideon what he already knew. The first revelation of the Lord is the preeminence of Christ, and then, “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit.”
Now, this evening, I am going to ask you to turn back to—I almost said Gideon 6—to Judges 6. I want to back up a little and discuss the sign again, of the dew on the fleece and so on, and then we will move into our new material.
For the full blessing that Gideon desires for the people of God, he needs to go deeper into the presence of God. Once he has seen Him as preeminent, once he knows it is not by might or by power, that is a good starting point. But now God invites him into the deeper blessing.
Judges 6:36:
“Gideon said to God, ‘If Thou wilt deliver Israel through me, as Thou hast spoken,
behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor.
If there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground,
then I will know that Thou wilt deliver Israel through me, as Thou hast spoken.’
And it was so. When he arose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece,
he drained the dew from the fleece, a bowl full of water.
Then Gideon said to God, ‘Do not let Thine anger burn against me that I may speak once more.
Please let me make a test once more with the fleece.
Let it now be dry only on the fleece, and let there be dew on all the ground.’
And God did so that night; it was dry only on the fleece, and dew was on all the ground.”
Now remember, I told you the chief reason for the sign, and then the repetition of the sign, was to give Gideon the assurance that it was really God.
Gideon did not doubt God, but he had a lot of doubts about Gideon. Gideon doubted Gideon. He just wanted to make sure that it was not natural, that it was not physical, that it was not man.
There may be a lot more to it than I am going to say. A lot of commentators spend a lot of time on this fleece, and I do not know if you have meditated on this wonderful section of Scripture.
Was the fleece an emblem of the people of God? Was that God’s people, God’s flock, God’s sheep? Was it a fleece because they had been fleeced by the enemy?
Was there some symbolic meaning in the laying down of the fleece? Was he saying, “I am laying down my burden,” as he laid down the people of God?
Some say a fleece is the beauty of the lamb. In some way, does that represent our Lord Jesus Christ? Does that represent His beautiful flock?
Does the fleece represent one thing and the dry land another thing, and then the reverse of that? Is the land the Gentiles?
I read one commentator who said that Gideon was prophetic, and he saw to the end of the age. He saw Israel rejecting Christ, and when their fleece went dry, then God sent His dew on the whole land. Did Gideon see all of that? I do not know if he did or not.
Some have made a big deal out of some of these facts and said, “Now, you have got to pay attention to the wringing out of the fleece. That is what is important.”
Because in order to be redemptive, we have got to be willing to have God wring us out and become dry. Then the bowl is important, and the size of the water in the bowl, fullness in the bowl, is important, and all of that.
I incline, because of the balance of Scripture, to believe that Gideon did not just choose an arbitrary sign. I think he knew that the dew represented the blessing of the Lord all through the Scripture.
I think he is saying, “Lord, are You really going to bless Your people? Are You really going to send down Your dew?” I think that was his heart.
I ask all these questions not to answer them, because I cannot, but so that we do not miss the main thing.
You see, the chief concern Gideon had was, “I do not want to miss God’s will. Did He send me, or did He not send me? Did I hear Him right, or did I not hear Him right? Lord, I thought You said You were going to bless. Are You going to bless?”
I do not think necessarily that laying down the fleece was Gideon laying down his burden. That sounds spiritual. Maybe that will preach, but it is a little fanciful for me.
The bottom line is, I do not think there was any power in Gideon laying down the fleece, or choosing a fleece, or the threshing floor, or the full bowl, or something like that. The power is the Lord—always the Lord.
Before we leave this wonderful section, I want to settle on one misconception of the passage.
Many have looked at Gideon as a great sign-seeker, as somebody who was very subjective and always asking God—who was full of doubts and asking God to give signs.
A person who used physical signs in order to determine the will of God. In fact, through this story and because of it, there is an expression called “putting out a fleece.” Have you ever heard that expression? Have you ever done that, putting out a fleece?
I have met people who use that method to find God’s will all the time. They just put out a fleece.
I remember, in my early days, when the Lord was beginning to dawn some of His light on this thick head, I remember sitting in my bedroom with my head bowed, saying, “Lord, if You are real, blink the lights. Do something so I know that You are real.”
Someone says, “Lord, I am going to know Your will if You provide the funds. Then I will know. If You make my interview go well, then I will know. If I get the raise, then I know for sure.”
“If You bring a certain person into my life that has the same burden, then I will know for sure. Lord, just tell me. If the house sells, then I know it is God’s will. If the car sells, if I find the car within my budget, then I know this is God’s will.”
“So, Lord, let the phone ring, or let someone come, or let someone say a certain thing.”
Now, I am not trying to judge whether that is legitimate or not legitimate. God knows the heart. But what I want you to see clearly is that is not what Gideon did. I want you to see that. That is not what Gideon did.
I am not saying it is wrong to do that. That is a question all its own and needs to be answered somewhere else, at another time, by someone else. Go see your elders.
But the issue with Gideon is not, “How can I find God’s will?” That is not the issue with him. You know how I know that? Because Gideon knew God’s will. There is no question about it.
Go back to Judges 6:14:
“The Lord looked at him and said, ‘Go in this thy strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent thee?’
He said to Him, ‘O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.’
But the Lord said to him, ‘Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt defeat Midian as one man.’”
Gideon knew the will of God. Nothing could be clearer than that. Gideon’s fleece was not to find God’s will; it was to confirm God’s will. That is not the same thing. May God help you see the difference. It is not at all the same thing.
As I said before, Gideon is not doubting God. Gideon is doubting Gideon, and that, my brothers, is healthy.
Judges 6:17:
“Gideon said, ‘If now I have found favor in Thy sight, then show me a sign that it is Thou who speakest with me.’”
In other words, he is saying, “Lord, am I imagining this? Am I dreaming this? Is this a hallucination? Is it really You? I need a sign to know that it is really You.” He needed confirmation.
I call attention to this, as I said, not to judge anybody who might try the other way and use signs to find God’s will, but to illustrate a wonderful truth.
That wonderful truth is this: brothers, faith is walking in light. Faith is walking in light.
You hear so much about blind faith. There is no such thing as blind faith. That is not in the Bible. This idea that faith is a leap in the dark—bull feathers. It is not a leap in the dark. Faith is walking in light, walking in the light.
Gideon had a word from God. Now, he needed that word confirmed, but he had a word from the Lord.
God often confirms His will after He has made it known, before someone takes the next step. That is very healthy. We have got to be men of God that move from light to light, from revelation to revelation. God gives us a word.
God has never called us to believe in ignorance. That does not mean there is no mystery in a clear word. God might tell you to march around the city seven times, and you will have to scratch your head as you march because you say, “What are You doing, having me go in circles?”
You might not understand, but it is clear: walk around seven times. You might not know all that means, but it is a clear word.
He might say, “Get out of the boat and walk on the water.” There is mystery in that. You do not know what that means, but it is clear. You know what you are supposed to do.
God says, “Hamstring the horses.” Why would You incapacitate the fighting forces? It does not make sense, but it is a clear word. God speaks clearly, and He asks us to believe His Word.
Gideon’s request for a sign was that he would be sure that it was God, sure that it was the Lord. “I know what You said. I have heard what You said, but is that my imagination? Am I making that up? Is it just a feeling inside? Is it a dream? Is it a vision, or is it really You?”
If you have a word from God and you need that word confirmed, God will not be angry at you if you ask God for a sign. He wants you to know His will.
Ah, that is different than asking to find God’s will and dictating to the Lord a sign. It is healthy always to distrust yourself. It is sin to distrust Him, but it is not sin to distrust yourself.
Gideon’s fleece was not to find God’s will. Gideon’s fleece was to confirm God’s will.
I do not see any evidence in the whole record that Gideon ever doubted the Lord, but Gideon had an awful lot of doubts about Gideon. All the way he said, “Lord, is this me or is it You? I do not want it to be me.” I think that is what that is all about.
Well, enough. I have given you enough for my entire satisfaction on that issue. Let us move on.
That brings us to the next step in the development of this heart that will be a blessing. If Gideon is going to be an instrument of blessing, into the presence of the Lord Gideon must go.
He saw the Lord already, in grace, unveil Himself as the One and Only. He is starting to learn, “It is not by might or by power, but by My Spirit.”
Now God says, “Gideon, if you really want them blessed, come again into My presence. You must learn that this One who is everything, this One who is the One and Only, who is the entire list—the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega, and everything in between—there can be no blessing until He who lives within, as the preeminent One, is released.”
He has got to come out. He has got to be manifest. He is the One that blesses.
So God now begins to teach Gideon what it means to release the life of God, to manifest the light through broken vessels. That is what we are going to look at tonight.
Let me sort of reveal this truth to your heart as I think it broke on the heart of Gideon. I am going to read two passages and ask you to follow along, please.
The first is in Judges 6:34-35:
“So the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon;
and he blew a trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called together to follow him.
He sent messengers throughout Manasseh, and they also were called together to follow him;
and he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they came up to meet them.”
Now in Judges 7, beginning at verse 1:
“Then Jerubbaal, that is, Gideon, and all the people who were with him, rose early and camped beside the spring of Harod;
and the camp of Midian was on the north side of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley.
Then the Lord said to Gideon, ‘The people who are with thee are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands,
for Israel would become boastful, saying, “My own power has delivered me.”’
Now therefore come, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying,
‘Whoever is afraid and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount Gilead.’
So twenty-two thousand people returned, but ten thousand remained.
Then the Lord said to Gideon, ‘The people are still too many; bring them down to the water and I will test them for thee there.
Therefore it shall be that he of whom I say to thee, “This one shall go with thee,” he shall go with thee;
but every one of whom I say to thee, “This one shall not go with thee,” he shall not go.’
So he brought the people down to the water.
And the Lord said to Gideon, ‘Thou shalt separate everyone who laps the water with his tongue, as a dog laps,
as well as everyone who kneels to drink.’
Now the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men;
but all the rest of the people kneeled to drink water.
The Lord said to Gideon, ‘I will deliver you with the three hundred men who lapped,
and will give the Midianites into thine hands; so let all the other people go, each man to his home.’”
Now, in order to understand the truth of the manifestation of Christ, the release of the life of the preeminent One, God selects a remnant.
From this point on in our discussion, I will refer to the three hundred as the remnant. I told you the other day that that is the Old Testament word for the New Testament overcomer—the same idea. That is what these three hundred are all about.
Through the remnant, God will manifest Himself—His life.
Glance again at Judges 6:34-35. That passage has to do with those who were called.
Glance, please, at Judges 7:1-7, the second passage we read. That has to do with those who are chosen.
If ever a passage illustrated Matthew 22:14, this one does:
“Many are called, but few are chosen.”
Thirty-two thousand, we read, responded to the call. Out of that thirty-two thousand, three hundred were selected by the Lord, were chosen to be a remnant.
In order to understand the difference between the called and the chosen, let me focus for a moment on the three hundred, on the remnant.
Let me point out at the start that God was choosing a remnant, not a Delta Force.
You know, the way it reads sometimes, and the way some people understand it, you think that the Lord is selecting Navy SEALs, or Army Rangers, or Green Berets. He is not doing that.
Listen as I quote the New Testament. This is how God chooses. First Corinthians 1:26:
“Consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble;
but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise,
and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,
and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen,
the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are,
so that no man may boast before God.”
The reason He gives is the very reason He gave in the book of Judges: so that no flesh would boast in His glory.
I remember one time how the Lord used that passage in my life. I was reading First Corinthians, and I stopped as I came to these verses. “You,” it said, “consider your calling.” So I said, “All right, I will consider it,” and I stopped.
I took it one word at a time. God said, “Consider your calling. Not many wise.” I said, “All right,” and I prayed, and I said, “All right, Lord, You are right. I am not wise. Okay, move on.”
“Not many mighty.” I said, “All right. I know I do not have any strength, any gifts, anything. Not many mighty are called.”
“Not many noble.” I said, “All right, no problem with that. I have chosen the foolish things.” I said, “Come on, Lord. All right, I am foolish.”
“The weak things.” I stopped again. I said, “All right, look, I will take that. I am weak.”
“The base things.” He is getting tough. All right, base things.
“Things that are despised.” Give me a break.
Then I came to the next verse, and it says, “Things that are not.” I do not even exist. I mean, it is one thing to be cut out; it is another thing to be called “not.” That is who He chooses.
God is not trying to select, in the three hundred, the strongest and the bravest and those who are most in shape and those who are the best trained. That is not what He is doing.
At first, that is how I read it. I read Judges 7:3: “You are afraid? Go home. Cannot use you in My army.” Where would we be? Think about it. If God said, “Are you afraid? Go home. We cannot use you,” that is not Him. It is not His heart.
What is that all about? Judges 7:5-6: “How do you drink? Did you kneel to drink? Why, then they say you violated 2 Timothy 2:4. You are not a good soldier. You are not alert,” and so on.
God did not choose the strong and the mighty when He chose these three hundred. He chose the weak and the foolish. I think we need to look again.
Did He send home the strong or the weak? Did He retain the strong or the weak?
The Lord clearly tells us why He is reducing the troops. Look at Judges 7:2:
“The Lord said to Gideon, ‘The people who are with thee are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands,
for Israel would become boastful, saying, “My own power has delivered me.”’”
Here is an amazing thing, brothers. For seven years they had been under the chastening of the Lord, living like animals in the holes of the ground. Now they are going to come out and have a victory and think they did it.
It is amazing, the pride of man, to take credit for something like that.
Certainly reducing the troops to three hundred would have a humbling effect. I think it would be insanity to try to take glory after God had made that kind of a reduction.
Judges 7:3 tells us that it started off with thirty-two thousand men. It mentions how many enemy fighting forces there were: one hundred thirty-five thousand. Before God started reducing the troops, the odds were four to one against God’s people.
When the Lord sent home the fearful in verse 3, twenty-two thousand men left and ten thousand remained. The odds are now thirteen and a half to one, and they would still be proud if they had the victory.
So He reduced it again in verse 6 of Judges 7. Nine thousand seven hundred went home, and the odds are now four hundred fifty to one.
Certainly there is a humbling effect in reducing the troops down so that the odds are four hundred fifty to one.
It is a great illustration of 2 Chronicles 20:15:
“The battle is not yours, but God’s.”
Oh, exactly so. In fact, God did not even need the three hundred. I love that word from Jonathan in 1 Samuel 14:6:
“The Lord is not restrained to save by many or by few.”
He could have done it Himself, but He wanted this remnant. But it is not only the number that is going to give God His glory; it is the special people who make up that number—the difference between the called and the chosen.
In order to make this intensely practical, let me just give you two characteristics of the remnant illustrated in the story of Gideon.
The first characteristic I find is this: the true remnant are those who have volunteered. Now, everybody volunteered—all thirty-two thousand.
But these are the ones who volunteered to be God’s instruments, volunteered to trust the Lord, and let God do His work.
When the trumpet sounded, volunteers came running—thirty-two thousand of them.
But my question is, what did they volunteer for? You say they volunteered to do the job. They volunteered to go to war. They volunteered to fight. They volunteered to face the enemy. They volunteered to get the job done. They volunteered to serve.
The three hundred were also volunteers, but they did not volunteer to do the work. They volunteered to let God do the work. It is not the same thing at all.
Here is an amazing thing: when God is searching for a remnant, you do not find this in many churches—He sends the volunteers home.
That is an amazing thing. We get so happy when people volunteer. “Is there anybody that is going to help? Somebody raise your hand if you will help.” Then somebody volunteers: “I will do it. I will take the class. I will drive the bus. I will be an officer in the church. I will set up the chairs. I will teach the class. I will be a Sunday school superintendent. Sign me up.”
And we get all excited. We pray for volunteers. God sends them home.
Volunteers who volunteered to do the work were sent home, and separated from them were the volunteers who volunteered to let God do the work. That was the first division.
So the issue is never, “Do you volunteer?” We think that is spiritual when we volunteer: “Okay, I will do it.”
One robin does not a spring make, and one volunteer does not a remnant make.
It is not, “Have you volunteered?” Are you chosen? Are you selected? God selects those who are going to trust Him and be selected by faith.
The second characteristic of the true remnant is that not only are those selected who volunteer to believe the Lord and to let God do the work, but the remnant are those who are separated.
Separated from and separated unto. Not just from, but from and unto.
You say, “Well, who are they separated from?” Certainly they are separated from the non-volunteers. But they are also separated from the volunteers who come to do the job. They are separated from.
God works through separation.
When I read this, I thought, would it not be better? The three hundred were the same three hundred when they were in the big number as when they came out of the big number.
If you have got three hundred remnant hearts, would it not be better to have three hundred of them and thirty-one thousand seven hundred extras?
God said, “No.” Because when the three hundred are with the volunteers who want to just do the job, the three hundred are weak. The three hundred are in danger of not giving God the glory, of being proud.
It is not until the three hundred are separated that they become strong. That is where their strength is—in separation. Separation is a power. It is a strength.
It is a positive hindrance not to be separated and to be mixed with those who have only come, not to let God do the work, but to do the work.
He also separated the remnant unto—not only from the non-volunteers and from the volunteers who just came to do the job, but unto Himself.
Did you notice verse 3? “Whoever is afraid and trembling, let him go home.” You see, that is not new. That did not show up in Judges. That is in Deuteronomy, where God gives the conditions of war.
Listen to Deuteronomy 20:8:
“The officers shall speak further to the people and say,
‘Who is the man that is afraid and fainthearted?
Let him depart and return to his house,
so that he might not make his brothers’ hearts melt like his heart.’”
Fear is contagious. God said, “If you are going to be afraid, leave.”
Now, if you read the record carefully, you will notice that among the three hundred there were some who were afraid. Why did they not leave? God said, “Everybody afraid, go home.”
You say, “Who was afraid?” Look at Judges 7:10. God says to Gideon, “If you are afraid to go down.” Gideon was afraid, but he did not leave. There is something different about his fear.
Later on, turn to Judges 8:20. One of the three hundred was Jether, Gideon’s oldest son.
“The youth did not draw his sword, for he was afraid, because he was still a youth.”
There is a difference between the fear that the three hundred had and the fear that sent people home. Here is the difference.
“If you are afraid, go home.” Do you know why they went home? Because they came to fight the enemy.
The three hundred were afraid, but they came to trust the Lord. They were afraid, but they trusted Him. There is a difference.
These people did not come to trust the Lord. So when He said, “Anybody afraid, go home,” they said, “See you later, we are going home,” because they were not trusting in the Lord.
That ordeal by water, Judges 7:5-6, illustrates, I think, the same truth.
I have to confess to you, this is a tough one. I do not know how you approach this. I cannot make my own what the united voice of church history has agreed this means.
I read all of these commentators, and they all seem to agree. I read my Bible and I just say, “Where are they getting that? I do not get it.”
The general idea they say is that those who knelt down were not good soldiers because they were just self-indulgent. They were just trying to serve themselves, and they were not prepared.
They laid their weapons down, and the enemy could come up at any time and attack them. They just laid down, had their face in the water, and all they could see was a reflection of themselves. It was just self, and they were just trying to satisfy themselves.
Maybe. I just do not see it. I do not see where anybody laid a weapon down. I do not see where they were not alert. I do not know what that is all about.
I have an idea that, like the others, they were trusting the Lord, though fearful.
When I see dogs, I do not know what registers in your mind, but I think sort of like that Syrophoenician woman in the New Testament. Dogs are connected to faith there, and the dogs eat the crumbs under the table.
I think what He is saying is this: the remnant are those who trust the Lord though they are afraid, and who trust the Lord though they are despised.
I think that dog is just an illustration of a despised person. Maybe you have more light on that, and I will be welcome to it. I will certainly receive your light. But I think that is the picture God has given us here.
The remnant are those who are separated from and separated unto—separated from non-volunteers and those who have come only to do the work, but not trust the Lord; and separated unto the Lord even though they are trembling, separated unto the Lord even though they are despised.
It is a remnant of faith. When God is going to give a victory of faith, He is going to choose men of faith to do it.
How wonderfully God deals with Gideon. He takes him into this secret place, and now finally you have this little remnant. They have been separated unto the Lord and set aside—three hundred men who have volunteered to trust the Lord, to be God’s instruments.
It is almost as if Judges 7:9-15 is a grand parenthesis. You see, the climax of the story picks up in verse 16 and goes to the end. You almost want to leave this parenthesis out, but God has put it in. So let me just say a word about it.
That little parenthesis, Judges 7:9-15, begins with the words in verse 10: “If you are afraid to go down.”
“If you are afraid to go down, go down with Purah your servant into the camp.”
I do not want to just jump over this without making a comment, because in my experience this story contains one of the most precious principles in all the Word of God.
I would not say every time, but pretty nearly every time I speak, I am going to bring up this principle. It has meant so much to me. It is one of those principles that you find everywhere, and here it is again.
It is this: God always deals with us as and where we are in order to bring us to the place that He would have us, and to make us into what He would have us be.
I would not trade anything for that truth: that God deals with us where we are.
Did you notice that Gideon is constantly not trusting Gideon? “Give me a sign, Lord. Give me a sign. Give me a sign.” This time he did not ask for a sign. God said, “You need a sign.”
He did not ask for it this time. He did not say, “Lord, if it is really You, just wait here. Give me a sign.” He did not say, “Let the dew fall on the fleece. Let the dew fall on the ground.” There is no sign.
Because, though afraid, he is going to trust the Lord. Though despised, he is going to trust the Lord. He looks at those three hundred, and his whole heart is just beating like this. He is saying, “I do not know how it is going to happen, but we are going to trust the Lord.”
Then God comes to him. This is so precious. God knows he needs a sign, and God is going to give a sign.
Brothers, can I just preach a little? You do not need to ask God for signs. You certainly do not need to dictate a sign to God.
I promise you this—I promise you—if you need a sign, you will get it. Absolutely. God knows your heart. If your heart is set on doing the will of God, if you need a sign, you are going to get a sign.
I get tickled when I read this because this is the one sign that I think would not convince anybody of anything. What a sign it is. It is one of the most unconvincing signs I ever heard of.
Let me just sort of tell the story. He said, “If you are afraid, go down with Purah.” So they sneak down into the enemy camp.
He did not tell them when to go or what part to go. Just go down. Just as they arrived there and were hiding in the bushes, this guy comes out of the camp tent and begins to tell his fellow a dream that he had.
Here is the dream, verse 13:
“Behold, I had a dream; a loaf of barley bread was tumbling into the camp of Midian.
It came to the tent and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down so that the tent lay flat.”
That was the dream. I saw a barley cake—a cupcake.
We are not talking about a boulder rolling down the hill. We are not talking about an avalanche. We are not talking about a thunderstorm or some flash flood.
“I saw a cupcake, and it came rolling down the hill, hit the tent, knocked the tent over, and then it went through the whole camp and knocked down all the tents.”
Gideon said, “Yes!”
Would you put a lot of stock in the nightmare of a heathen? But that is the sign that he needed.
God saw his heart, and that is the sign that he needed. When he dictated to the Lord and said, “Lord, do this wonderful thing,” and God did this spectacular thing, he was not convinced.
But when this barley cake came down the hill—of course, I think it was the interpretation that gave him the most assurance.
His fellow said, in verse 14:
“This is nothing less than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel;
God has given Midian and all the camp into his hand.”
He is hiding in the bushes, and he hears that guy say, “That is the sword of Gideon, son of Joash.” He calls him by name. “God has given the Midianites into his hand.”
God knew that Gideon needed to see the enemy. They were afraid. They were defeated.
God knew that Gideon needed to see Gideon and that little remnant of three hundred. They are just a barley cake. That is all they are.
You know, barley was that humble food. That is what they fed the animals. That is coarse grain. Only the poorest of the poor ate barley.
Gideon said, “I am just a barley cake, and look what is going to happen.”
Gideon needed to see the Lord. When he saw just the logistics—that they came down and hid, and they did not know where to go, and they went to the right tent at the right time, just when he had his dream—it is marvelous. It is awesome.
So we read in verse 15, when Gideon heard the account of the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship.
What a glorious picture: this man worshiping the Lord. “Thank You, Lord.” He did not ask for that sign. God gave it to him because God is God, He is good, and He knew that he needed the sign.
He returned to the camp. He looked into the face of the three hundred, his little barley cake, and he said, “Arise, for the Lord has given the camp into our hands.”
Oh, glorious picture there. Christ could now be manifest through this separated group of volunteers.
We have no record of how Gideon came up with this next plan. I have no doubt that it was the Lord somehow, but we do not have a record of God talking to him.
But if ever you have a passage that illustrates 2 Corinthians 10:4, here it is:
“The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh,
but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.”
Did you ever see weapons like these? Let us read the text, verse 16:
“He divided the three hundred men into three companies,
and he put trumpets and empty pitchers into the hands of all of them, with torches inside the pitchers.
He said to them, ‘Look at me and do likewise.
And behold, when I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do.
When I and all who are with me blow the trumpet, then you also blow the trumpets all around the camp and say,
“For the Lord and for Gideon.”’
So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch,
when they had just posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and smashed the pitchers that were in their hands.
When 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 cried,
‘A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!’
Each stood in his place around the camp; and all the army ran, crying out as they fled.
When they blew three hundred trumpets, the Lord set the sword of one against another throughout the whole army;
and the army fled.”
You ever see weapons like these, brothers? Not a sword among them. Not a spear in all of the remnant. Not a sling among them. Not a dagger. Not even a shield.
Trumpets. Torches. Vessels.
Glorious picture, this. This is the key to victory.
“You serious, Gideon, about wanting to be a blessing? Come on into My presence. I have got something to teach you.”
“You want the dew of heaven to fall on your people? Come into My presence.”
It is not your gift that is going to bring down the dew. It is not your talents. It is not your eloquence. It is not your great experience.
“I am going to shine through broken vessels.”
At first it bothered me when I read verse 21: “The sword of the Lord and the sword of Gideon.” I said, “Forget Gideon. Why are You calling that? Why can it not just be the sword of the Lord? I mean, He should get all the glory. Why bring Gideon in?”
I will tell you why He did. Although it is the Lord who brings the victory, He uses instruments. He uses the remnant. He uses brothers and sisters. But He must shine through broken vessels.
The remnant, we learned before, was no more than three hundred broken vessels—a pack of dogs, a barley cake.
I am sure, on the level of earth, that God had arranged some strategy. You have to picture the Midianites and the Amalekites and the sons of the East in the valley. It is the middle watch. It is dark. It is the middle of the night.
All of a sudden, three groups of one hundred men break their pitchers. I do not know if they broke them with the trumpet or hit them against a rock or whatever, but they were holding pitchers and torches, and the pitcher was over the torch.
When they broke the pitcher—lights. One hundred lights there, one hundred lights there, and one hundred lights there. I am sure those guys said, “We are surrounded.”
When they heard those trumpets, they did not think there were three hundred men. They thought there were three hundred leaders of troops, that there was an army up there.
I read—I do not know if it is true. Anybody know anything about camels? The Bible says they had camels innumerable in the camp, and they tied the camels to the tents.
I heard—yes, you better believe it—I heard a camel is more easily spooked than a horse.
Can you imagine the chaos? When all of a sudden three hundred trumpets are blasting, and lights are shining, and these camels that are tied to the tents begin running this way and that way?
They did not know what was happening. They thought, “The enemy is on us.” It was upside down, and somebody bumped into them and took a sword. They began to kill each other.
When it was all over, out of one hundred thirty-five thousand, there were only fifteen thousand left.
They are on the mountain, and they are just standing there, blowing their trumpets, holding the light. You want to know how to win the victory? Oh, I tell you, this is one of those glorious stories in the Old Testament.
This is the sword of the Lord and the sword of Gideon. He brought confusion there the same way He recently brought it to Florida with hanging chads.
We are not left on our own to try to figure out what is pictured by the trumpets, the torches, and the vessels, because the apostle Paul in the New Testament, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, reflected back on this story.
Listen as I read 2 Corinthians 4:6:
“For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’
is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels,
so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves;
we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed;
perplexed, but not despairing;
persecuted, but not forsaken;
struck down, but not destroyed;
always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake,
so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
So death works in us, but life in you.”
That is what Paul says. We are the vessels, and we must be broken to release the life of Christ.
Such a glorious picture. Is that the path, brothers? The blessing? Are we serious? We have a burden for God’s people, and they are living in the caves and in the holes. We say, “I really want them blessed.”
Then God says, “All right, then I will break you.” We say, “Oh no, Lord, stop breaking me so that I can get on with the business of blessing now.”
God says, “No, no. That is the business of blessing them.”
For those who have gone with Gideon into the presence of the Lord and laid hold of some of these secrets, they have begun to see how God blesses.
Brothers, the brothers and sisters in Christ who happen to be living in caves, and those who do not know the Lord, those to whom the gospel is veiled, they do not need to see you. They do not need to see me. They do not need to see us.
They will not be blessed until they see Him. They must come into His presence, and His presence is brought to them as His presence is released from our life.
He must be touched. He must be seen. He must be experienced. He must be released. He must be manifest.
It is the Lord who must bring the blessing. Think of it: if He is not released, what do they touch?
Just a clay pot. They just touch a clay vessel. They touch us.
They touch cleverness. They touch scholarship. They touch your eloquence. They touch logic. They touch some material thing. They touch personality. And they are not blessed.
It does not matter whether you are a painted pot, or some kind of gilded pot, or a fancy pot, or a refined pot. It is a broken pot that brings the blessing. It is a broken vessel.
Every forward step you take in helplessness is a forward step in the knowledge of the Lord, in the knowledge of His Word, and in the blessing of God’s people.
Every forward step you take in weakness is a forward step in the knowledge of the Lord, in the knowledge of His Word and will, and in the blessing of His people.
Every forward step you take in brokenness is a forward step in the knowledge of the Lord, in the knowledge of His Word and will, and in the blessing of His people.
If you are serious, brother, about blessing the people of God, do not despise it when God engineers your life and brings you to a place of weakness and helplessness and brokenness.
He has got to release His life. He has got to let the light shine.
Gideon and the three hundred are close. In fact, the dew has begun to fall. They have known that God is preeminent. They have known it is not by might nor by power.
God has brought them to the place, and now they stand there as illustrated broken vessels, and they just hold forth the light of Christ. All of a sudden, the enemy begins to self-destruct.
This is an amazing victory. They begin to disintegrate. They have not done anything except let Christ shine. That is how God brings the blessing.
There is one more step we need to take. We are going to take it in the morning, Lord willing. You have seen the preeminent Christ. You have seen the release of His life.
Gideon says, “Good, now let us go down and help them out of their caves.” God said, “No, no, not yet. One more thing.”
He takes them into the glory of God. Brothers, pray that as we look at that clincher message, the Lord will minister unto our hearts, because the people of God, they are hurting. Hurting.
God is calling out a remnant—not a bunch of volunteers to do a lot of programs. He is calling out a remnant who volunteer to be His instruments, and who volunteer, though afraid, to trust Him, and though despised, to trust Him, and to be separated, to be broken.
He said, “I will bless. I will send the dew. I am going to answer the prayer of your life, Gideon.”
Then Gideon goes forward and sees this next vision that we will look at tomorrow.
Well, that is pretty good. Thank you for your attention. I am sorry I went so long, but not too sorry.
Father, thank You so much for Your precious Word. Thank You for the glorious revelation that the light must shine through broken vessels.
Thank You, Lord, for all of those measures and means You have to break us. We just pray that we would be willing, even though we are afraid, that we would be willing to trust You, even though we are despised, even though we are few.
So that You might bring Your blessing upon Your people. Work it, we pray, not at all because we deserve it, but because our Lord Jesus deserves it.
We pray it in His all-prevailing name. Amen.