Gideon's Three Hundred

Deep in the night. Three hundred men stand silent in the dark around an enormous enemy camp. Each one holds a trumpet in one hand and a clay jar in the other. Inside every jar, hidden, a flame is burning. They are waiting for a signal.

Gideon, the farmer God called a mighty warrior, has gathered an army. Early in the morning they camp beside the spring of Harod. Down in the valley to the north, by the hill of Moreh, the Midianites are spread out, along with the Amalekites and the peoples of the east, as thick as locusts, with more camels than anyone can count. Gideon has thirty-two thousand men. It doesn't seem enough. And then God says something astonishing.

“You have too many men for me to give Midian into your hands. Israel would boast, ‘We saved ourselves.’” So God tells Gideon to make an announcement. “Anyone who is afraid and trembling may go home.” Twenty-two thousand men turn and leave. Ten thousand remain. And still God says, “There are too many. Take them down to the water, and I'll sort them out for you there.”

At the stream, the men kneel to drink. Most get down on their knees and drink straight from the water. But three hundred scoop the water up in their hands and lap it from their hands, the way a dog laps. God says, “With the three hundred men who lapped, I will save you. Send the rest home.” Three hundred. Against an army like locusts. The rest leave their trumpets and supplies behind, and go.

That night God speaks again. “Get up and attack the camp, for I have given it into your hand. But if you're afraid to go down, take your servant Purah and sneak down to the edge of the camp. Listen to what they're saying. Then you'll have courage.” Gideon is afraid. So down he goes with Purah, creeping to the outposts in the dark. And just as they arrive, they hear two soldiers talking.

“I had a dream. A round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into our camp. It hit a tent so hard the tent collapsed and turned upside down.” And his friend whispers back, “That can only be the sword of Gideon, the Israelite. God has given Midian and the whole camp into his hand.”

When Gideon hears the dream and what it means, he bows down and worships, right there in the dark. Then he hurries back. “Get up! The Lord has given the Midianite camp into your hands!” He divides the three hundred into three groups and gives every man a trumpet and an empty jar with a torch inside. “Watch me. Do what I do. When I blow my trumpet, blow yours, all around the camp, and shout, For the Lord and for Gideon!” They reach the edge of the camp just as the guards are changing at the start of the middle watch. Gideon blows. Three hundred trumpets blast. Three hundred jars smash. Three hundred torches blaze in the darkness. “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!”

And every man stays exactly where he is, standing around the camp. They don't need to move. Inside, the Midianites wake to noise and fire on every side. They cry out and run. In the panic and confusion, the Lord turns them against each other, and the whole army flees. Men from the northern tribes are called out to chase them, and the men of Ephraim seize the river crossings and capture two Midianite commanders, Oreb and Zeeb. The army that had stripped Israel bare for seven years is broken.

The Bible gives a precise moment for the attack: the beginning of the middle watch, when the guards had just been changed. In Old Testament times the night was divided into three watches. The book of Exodus mentions the morning watch too. By the New Testament, under Roman custom, people spoke of four. So Gideon struck in the middle of the night, just as fresh guards were taking their posts, half awake and still finding their bearings. Into that confusion came sudden light and noise from every side.

Gideon's Three Hundred. You'll find it in Judges chapter 7. God made the army smaller so that nobody could say, we did it ourselves. He even gave a frightened leader a dream to overhear. So here's the question to carry with you. When you feel too small for what's in front of you, could that be the very place God wants to show his strength?