Triumph in Weakness
Searching for a True Savior: An Exposition of Judges

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Good morning church and happy Palm Sunday. It’s good to have you here with us this morning! Today, on Palm Sunday, is the day that we remember Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem at the beginning of Passion Week. We call it Passion Week from the Greek word, “pathos,” which means suffering. Passion week is the week of Christ’s suffering for our sins and being raised from the grave the following Sunday.

On this particular day, over 2000 years ago, Christ road down the Mount of Olives on the back of a donkey and He entered into the eastern gate of the city of Jerusalem, while the people greeted Him, waving cut palm branches and saying, “Hosanna, Hosanna, here comes the son of David. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”

According to Matthew’s gospel, this was a fulfillment of the prophet Zachariah, who wrote in Zechariah 9:9. Matthew quotes Zechariah in Matthew 21:5 (ESV) “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted ona a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’” Here comes our hero, but humble; unexpected. Not the triumphal entry you would expect. He comes,not on a white stallion with armor and an army behind him like a Roman Caesar. No, He comes humbly on a donkey, with His disciples and people throwing their cloaks before Him and waving palm branches. They shout “Hosanna,” which in Hebrew means “God’s salvation,” “God saves.” There were no powerful people; there were no political leaders or religious leaders there to greet Jesus as He entered Jerusalem. The “mayor” of Jerusalem did not come out and give Him the key to the city. Instead, He had religious leaders there, with their arms crossed, saying, ‘Why are you letting the people call you the Messiah? Why are you letting them call you the Son of David? Rebuke your disciples!’ Jesus says to the religious leaders, ‘If they don’t cry out, then the stones will cry out.’This is the day, Palm Sunday, that we remember Jesus’ triumphal entry.

Yesterday, we completed our food drive for the Hope Station. The Hope Station has a food pantry for the hungry in our county. Yesterday, we went around and collected 363 bags of food. We had put out 1500 bags, we picked up 363 filled bags and delivered them to the Hope Station. That’s over 3.5 tons of food. Give the Lord a hand for that yesterday! We do appreciate the people in our city and the neighborhoods that filled those bags and are helping us to feed the hungry yesterday. It’s a great thing that we’ve been doing; I think, for about fourteen years now, we have had a food drive for the Hope Station. Leading up to Easter, it is a way to focus ourselves on those that are hurting. I think it aligns with Jesus, Who came into this world humbly. He came in weakness, but He accomplished a great triumph.

You’re probably thinking today, ‘What kind of triumph is this? He began the week on a donkey. He’s crucified on a cross and He ends up in a tomb. What kind of a triumph is this?’

The Bible says that God’s power is made perfect in weakness. We’re going back, believe it or not, to the book of Judges today. I want you to notice how the Bible is really a story about God. It’s a story about us. We’re in the Bible. It’s a story of humanity and creation, but it’s really a story about God because in this book of Judges, we see the people. They have judges; they have “saviors” that rise up, that God raises up, but these “saviors” all fall short, but yet, they all point to the person of Jesus.

Today, we’re going to be talking about God’s triumph in weakness. Admitting our weaknesses is not something we enjoy doing. We hate asking for directions, right guys? Our wives or girlfriends ask us why don’t we just pull over and ask somebody, but we tell them that we got this. I got this. We hate admitting weakness; we don’t like to show weakness. It’s against our human nature. We value strength. We value influence, wealth, possessions and beauty. We don’t think very highly of weakness or humility. We don’t think much of being impoverished or downtrodden.

In fact, we want to be great. We want to be strong and we, admittedly, have trouble humbling ourselves and admitting our need for a Savior. We have trouble crying out and saying, ‘I need help,’ but that’s what God is listening for. He’s listening for the one who doesn’t say, ‘I’m full.’ The one who says, ‘I’m empty. I need help .’

Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to humble yourself before the Lord in weakness so that He can be your strength? Pastor Skip Heitzig says this, “We rarely think that bigness of size is a hindrance to the work of God. We see small things as a hindrance to God’s work. But when things are large, resources are abundant, and there’s lots of people, it’s often harder to trust God.” You may have started out small and you trusted God for everything. Then, you began to accumulate some things. You may have noticed how your soul shifts its trust to things rather than the Lord. This is a habit that we have to watch and guard against. That’s human nature to trust things that are not God.

In fact, you might be here today and you might be thinking, ‘But I’m little, I’m small.’ Good. That’s the person that God is calling today –the one who knows that. The one who will admit that. Pastor Gary Inrig says this, ”You cannot be too small for God to use but you can be too big.”

I don’t know if your mom has ever said this to you, but when I was having a day where I was acting “too big,” she’d say, “Gary Wayne, you’re a little bit too big for your britches today.” Has anybody ever said that to you? Here’s the other thing she’d say to me – “You’re just full of yourself today, aren’t you?” When I reflect back on those words from my mother, who knew how much wisdom she was putting forward for me and who knew how much correction I’ve realized after these many years following the Lord. Before He could use me, there had to be less of me and more of Him. Have you learned that yet? That’s really what we’re talking about today. There is triumph in the Lord’s strength when we admit our weakness.

We’re in the book of Judges, chapter seven today. I want us to take note of how God is teaching Gideon and teaching the people of Israel to trust Him. He gives them several lessons in how to trust Him. I believe that today we can learn these lessons on how we can trust the Lord by surrendering ourselves to Him in weakness so that we can rely on His strength.

We’re going to study one chapter today, break it up into three readings and then comment on it. We’ll be looking for three lessons on trusting God. Let’s begin at verse one of chapter seven. Judges 7:1-8 (ESV) 1 “Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod. And the camp of Midian was north of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley. 2 The LORD said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ 3 Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.’” Then 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained. 4 And the LORD said to Gideon, “The people are still too many. Take them down to the water, and I will test them for you there, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ shall go with you, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ shall not go.” 5 So he brought the people down to the water. And the LORD said to Gideon, “Every one who laps the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set by himself. Likewise, every one who kneels down to drink.” 6 And the number of those who lapped, putting their hands to their mouths, was 300 men, but all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water. 7 And the LORD said to Gideon, “With the 300 men who lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand, and let all the others go every man to his home.” 8 So the people took provisions provisions in their hands, and their trumpets. And he sent all the rest of Israel every man to his tent, but retained the 300 men. And the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.” This is God’s word. Amen.

THREE LESSONS ON TRUSTING GOD:

1. God’s power is revealed in weakness.

Notice in verse two that there were 32,000 men gathered to go against the Midianites. God says in verse two that there were too many of them. There’s too many of you for God to use you because you’ll claim the credit, you’ll boast in yourselves rather than giving glory to Me. God wants us to give Him the glory for what He does. So, there’s too many of them. God needs to shrink the size of their army.

Now, if we could keep reading (we don’t have time today to keep reading over into chapter eight, but we’ll get to it in coming weeks) in Judges 8:10 we realize that the Midianites numbered 135,000. If we look earlier in chapter seven, we have 32,000 Israelites. Now, to me, it already looks like an underdog situation, but God says, ‘No. You still have too many. First, He sends the ones that are scared home. If they’re afraid, send them home. Two thirds of them say, ‘I’m afraid,’ and they leave. 22,000 of the 32,000 say, ‘I’m out.’ I’m sure, as they were leaving, Gideon was wondering, Can I go? No, wait a minute. I’m in charge, but can I go home too?

They’re down in the valley. Let me show you a map. Some names and places are mentioned here. We like to look at maps because the Bible describes real people, in real places and real events. We can go there and look at these places even today. We have here the Sea of Galilee, this is northern Israel, this is the Mediterranean Sea. We see that the Midianites and the Jebusites are here in the Jezreel Valley on the hill of Moreh just west of the Jordan river. Then, we see Gideon’s men are at the spring of Harod, up in the mountains there, where they can look down into the valley. Now, the Jezreel Valley is the valley that the Bible also refers to as Armageddon. We have here a battle that’s about to take place in Armageddon. It’s a place where many, many battles have been fought. There’s one great battle that will be fought someday in the future, that the Book of Revelation speaks of.

Here they are. They’re gathered up there. There’s 135,000 enemies down in the valley and they are looking down.. God says that there’s too many men; there’s too many. He cuts it back to 10,000 and it’s still too many. There’s still too many.

God tests them. Here’s the test, so He will know which ones to send home. They go down to the water and He says for one group that gets down and laps from their hand like a dog, put them over to this side. The group that gets down like this and sticks their face in the water, put them over to this side. As it turned out, 300 got down and lapped water from their hands. 9700 got down and put their face in the water. God tells Gideon to send the 9700 home. He’s cut them down to 1% of their original force. To God, that seems right. He really doesn’t need any of them. He could just do it all with just Gideon, but let’s fight with these 300 men.

Some pastors that I’ve watched through the years asked this question –What was special about drinking out of your hand? Is there something spiritual about drinking out your hand, rather than sticking your face in the water? Was it because they kept their eyes up? Were they more circumspect, keeping their eyes up? Maybe so, but I think the big idea was that these other guys just stuck their face down the water. They weren’t paying attention. I think there’s a bigger idea here– it’s not so much how they drank. God. God is not doing a test to see how they drank water. He is giving Gideon a sign. He knows which men he can trust to do what he’s about to ask him to do because he’s about to use an unlikely group, a very weak army to go and overthrow an amazingly powerful army. This is not like some high school team going against an NFL Super Bowl winning team. This is more like your kindergarten class going against an NFL football team. That’s what I think God’s really wanting us to see here. He wants us to know something about Him.

The question that I’m asking when I read a story like this is, “What does this story tell me about God?” I already know about me. I already know about you, but I need God to reveal Himself to me and He reveals something to Gideon– My strength is made perfect. In other words, it’s revealed in your weakness. That’s something that He wants us to learn. If today you’re thinking, I’m too small. I’m too alone . I’m too broke. I’m too hurting, then you’re in the perfect place for God to use you because God wants you to hear this–My strength, My power is made perfect in your weakness. This is what God is trying to teach Gideon and the people of Israel. There’s too many of you. You’ll be tempted to take My glory. You’ll be tempted to take credit. Let’s get this number of men down to where everybody’s going to know that God did it. There’s no way you did this; that was God.

I want you to hear this–God is reducing some of your armies. There’s some people here today that God’s allowing your army to be reduced so that you’ll give Him the credit, ao you’ll stop depending on your credit card, your bank account, your wisdom, your job, your house, your car… Whatever you’re depending on. You’re putting your trust in.

Some years ago, our forebearers decided to put on money, “In God We Trust” because we’re so tempted to trust the money. Whatever you’re putting your trust in, if you’re a believer today, I want you to hear this–God wants to teach you a lesson that you can’t trust these things of the world, but you can trust Him. In your weakness, this is revealed to you and your strength that’s hidden from you because you’re taking the credit at this point in your life.

In First Corinthians, Paul writes this about boasting. He says, 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 (NIV) 26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong… 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

If you need to boast, believer, boast in the Lord. If somebody at work says to you, “Why are you so ‘up’ all of the time? It just seems like you always have a smile on your face. Everybody else is complaining, but you seem so full of joy. What is it about you? What’s your secret?” You might say, “Well, I’ve always been an optimist. I always try to look on the bright side.” In your heart, though, you know the secret. It’s not that you’re an optimist. It’s that you have Jesus. You’re boasting in your optimism rather than boasting in the Lord. That’s your opportunity. That’s the reason. When they ask you that question, that’s the point where you say, “Let me tell you my secret. It’s Jesus in me, the hope of glory. He’s the source of my joy. If you’re going to boast, if you need to boast, boast in the Lord.

The apostle Paul had this problem. He had this weakness. We don’t know what it was exactly. He called it a “thorn in the flesh,” but it hurt him and he prayed three times for God to take it away from Him. Then, God says this to Him: 2 Corinthians 12:9 (ESV) But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Paul says this back to the Lord, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” He stopped asking for God to take his “thorn in the flesh” away.

I don’t know what is going on in your life today. I don’t know how He has reduced the size of your army so that you would stop relying on the too many that you thought you could trust. God wants you to learn that His power is sufficient. His grace is sufficient. We only learn this in the “valley.” We don’t learn it on the “mountain top.” We don’t learn it in seasons of plenty, we learn it in seasons of lack and seasons of weakness, when we finally call on the Lord.

There were some disciples, one day, gathered around Jesus, whispering. He overheard them. They were saying, ‘Who do you think is gonna be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Is it gonna be you? Who’s going to be the “goat” in heaven? Who’s going to be the greatest of all time in heaven?’ They were having a conversation.

Today, if we have those kind of conversations, we remind ourselves of Muhammad Ali, the greatest boxer of all time or, maybe, we think of the “goat,” the quarterback Tom Brady. They are the greatest of all time.

The disciples asked Jesus, ‘Who do you say the “goat” in heaven is going to be? Who’s going to be the greatest of all time in heaven? ’ Jesus replies, I’ll show you” and he calls a child up from the crowd. He called one of them up; one of the littlest ones. He called the child up and he put his arms around the child and turned him around and had him face the disciples. Can you see this? The little child is timid and Jesus is rubbing the child’s shoulder. Jesus says to his disciples in Matthew 18:3, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Such is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

What’s He trying to teach us? What’s He trying to teach Gideon? There is too many for Me to do this because you’ll be tempted to take credit. Therefore, glory in your weakness so that His strength in you might be revealed.

The Bible often refers to us as pottery and He’s the clay, but if the essence of the Holy Spirit lives in the pottery, then we need it to be broken for the essence to spill out, for the light to leak out. So, it’s best to be a bunch of cracked pots. It’s better just to be a few cracked pots in here, where God’s essence leaks out. It isn’t the pot that is important, but whatever that is inside. That is His strength revealed. God wants us to trust Him.

You might be wondering, What are you talking about to “reduce the size of my army?” Well, what about your health? Your health is not what it used to be. You got news from the doctor. What if God wants His glory to shine forth from you through a season of physical weakness? What about your job? You got laid off this past week and you’re thinking, I don’t know what I’m going to do. God wants to show you His provision, that He’s the provider. Someone’s having trouble in their marriage and you thought that your spouse was your “savior.” You found out that it’s far from the truth. In fact, this person has been unfaithful to me. They’re not my “savior,” but there is a true Savior. His name is Jesus. When your army gets thinned out and you think you’re all alone, you’re not , because His strength will rise up and be revealed and made perfect in you. I was getting ready to retire. Now, I gotta work five more years. Well, praise the Lord! !You can still work. Sometimes, He reduces the size of our army so that we can learn to say, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Let’s keep reading. We will pick it up in verse nine. Judges 7:9-15 (ESV) 9 That same night thethe LORD said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand. 10 But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant. 11 And you shall hear what they say, and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.” Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outposts of the armed men who were in the camp. 12 And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the East lay along the valley like locusts in abundance, and their camels were without number, as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance. 13 When Gideon came, behold, a man was telling a dream to his comrade. And he said, “Behold, I dreamed a dream, and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat.” 14 And his comrade answered, “This is no other than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given into his hand Midian and all the camp.” 15 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.”

THREE LESSONS ON TRUSTING GOD:

2. God’s encouragement is found in Word and worship.

We have the second lesson that God is teaching Gideon–God’s encouragement is found in Word and worship. God had Gideon’s army down to the right number. Now, Gideon will know it’s God that does it. It won’t be Gideon. Verse 9 and 10 …“Arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand. 10 But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant.” But, if you’re afraid, I know something that will strengthen your hands. That’s like a Hebrew way of saying, ‘I know something that will encourage you.’ What do you mean? How does that encourage?

I remember one of the first sermons I preached, I stood off to the side like this, holding my Bible and my, and my bible was doing this (shaking). I don’t know what was wrong with it. But I’ve been at it 31 years, but those first few Sundays, my bible had a problem. It was my Bible. It was my hands; my hands needed to be strengthened.

Do you ever have this problem when you’re facing something difficult? My undergrad degree was in music. I was a classical guitar major and it was my senior recital. I had to play one hour of music to prove that I deserved a diploma. Before the recital, I was sitting backstage with my guitar teacher and my hands wouldn’t stop shaking. I couldn’t get them to stop. She’s looking at me and tells me, “You need to calm down.” The more I would try to calm down, the more my hands shook. Then, they started shooting perspiration off of the ends of my fingers. I was “drippy.” It is really hard to play the guitar with shaky, drippy hands.

That’s what Gideon has. It’s the night before; he’s been trimmed down to 300 people. There’s 135,000 men in the valley; they’re like locusts lying in the valley of Jezreel. He’s up on the mountain. He can see them down there. God says, ‘I have something that’ll strengthen your hands–sneak down into that camp. I need for you to be obedient to hear my Word. I want you to go down there. Take a witness. Take Purah, your servant.’ He gives him the name of the guy that he’ll go with. Go down there; I have something that’s going to strengthen your hands. Gideon has been learning lessons. He’s growing. We’ve been watching him grow. He’s growing in his faith.

Gideon goes down to the valley. Surprisingly enough , God puts His Word in the mouth of the Midianites. He puts His Word in the mouths of Gideon’s enemies. If God can make Balaam hear His word through a donkey, He can put it in the mouth of his enemies too.

God’s word. You have to listen for it, but there it is. There’s a dream and then there’s an interpretation of the dream, just in case you missed it so you can, you can picture these outposts. Here’s a camp of 135,000 men; most of them are asleep in the valley. But at these outposts, there are probably two guards at each one. They have a little campfire there at the outpost. Gideon sneaks down. He crawls down the mountain on his belly and he sneaks up. He’s peeking over a bush and he overhears them. They’re looking into the fire and one says, ‘I had a bad dream last night. I dreamed that a cake of barley bread rolled into the camp and flattened our tents.’

It reminds me of some other prophetic stories. I like the fact that it’s a cake of bread. It makes me think of Jesus, like a vision of Jesus rolling into that camp and demolishing everything, getting the victory.

The Midianite has this dream. The other guy says, ‘Could it be anybody else but Gideon the son of Joash that we’re getting ready to get our behinds handed to us?’ That was my paraphrase of that. Verse 15, “As soon as Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped.” I don’t know how that looks. The Bible doesn’t describe it. I think he was just lying there on the ground. ‘Lord Yahweh , you are great. You’re amazing that You would put Your word in the mouth of my enemy.’

Verse 15 says this: “…And he returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Arise, for the LORD has given the host of Midian into your hand.” It is so sure to Gideon now. He knows it’s going to happen. He hadn’t even gone down there to fight yet, but he already knows it’s going to happen because he has a Word from the Lord. He worships.

That’s why we gather. That’s why we’re here today. I don’t know why you think you came, but the problem that we have, as humans, is that we’re forgetful. We come together to remind each other that the power is the Lord’s. We need encouragement because we get fearful. We need His encouragement from His word. From worshiping, “we get our praise on” together. We hear each other’s voices. We sing; we worship and we hear the Word and it encourages us so that we can go back into the battle. We go back out, encouraged. We gather for power and we scatter for witness. This is what He’s calling us to, to be encouraged.

It says in Romans 15:4 (ESV) “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” The scriptures are written to encourage us. The word of God encourages us and then, so does worship.

The psalmist writes in Psalm 138:2-3 (NLT) 2 “I bow before your holy Temple as I worship. I praise your name for your unfailing love and faithfulness; for your promises are backed by all the honor of your name. 3 As soon as I pray, you answer me; you encourage me by giving me strength.” God’s Word and worship encourage us as believers; we need it in our lives.

I remember before I planted this church, I first had to quit my former job. I was a district manager of a large retail chain. I’d been with them for twelve years. I made very good money, but I felt God calling me to preach. He called me to preach. He called me to plant a church. I was afraid, but I knew God’s calling was on my life. It came down to the last few days of my job. My boss called a meeting of the district managers at the Raleigh Operations Center, as I was over Eastern North Carolina. I drove into Raleigh and I called him. I said, “You know, boss, this coming Friday is my last day. Do I need to come to the meeting?” He said to me, “I want you to come. I want you to be there.” So, I came to the meeting. It felt strange because everybody knew I was leaving. Some of the guys that were just “fake friends” weren’t talking to me because now I’m not important. I’m leaving Friday. Some of the guys that were my “real friends” told me that they were going to miss me. It felt like a long meeting, because my head wasn’t really in it. I was thinking, Boy, next week I’m starting seminary. It was weird being in this meeting.

At the end of the meeting, my boss says this, with his lower lip starting to quiver (my boss is like 6ft. 4inches. I’d never seen him show any emotion other than anger) “I’ve got something important to say. There’s a young man here that’s meant a lot to our company and a lot to me personally.” I’m thinking, who is he talking about? He tells his secretary to bring in these boxes and she puts them up on the table. Then he says this, “This is from us to you, Gary. We care about you. We’re gonna miss you.” He says to me, “Open the box.” There are books adequate for a library for a seminary student. On the cover, (I could show them to you in my office. I looked at one of them this morning just to remind me) it says “From Raleigh Operations. May God bless you.” This man was not a believer; my boss was not a believer. In fact, he used “particular language” when we would work together. He would often say, “Pardon my French.” He wasn’t speaking French; trust me. Now, he’s giving me this library of books.

I said to him, “How did you know what to buy?” There’s these Greek study books and things like that. This guy is not a believer and these are the very books off of the syllabus of the kind of books I was supposed to own. He said to me, “Well, I went down to that Christian bookstore down there (it used to be called The Baptist Bookstore. They changed the name to Lifeway). I went down to that Baptist Book Store. Isn’t that where you go?” I said, “Yes, sir. I’m going to the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.” He tells me, “I went down to that Baptist Bookstore and asked, and asked, ‘who’s in charge here?’ because that’s the way he was. A worker there asked him, “What are you looking for?” He told the worker, “I got a boy that’s going to seminary and he needs some books.” The worker replied, “We have a seminary student that works for us. He’s in the back.” My boss says to him, “Get him out here.” The seminary student comes out and my boss asks, “What would you have liked to have when you first started seminary?” And The student tells him a list of books. He goes and gets a cart and fills it up with books. He bought hundreds of dollars of books. He is not even a believer.

I was scared to death. I have a wife and three kids. I have a mortgage. I’ve saved some money, but I really didn’t have a plan. I just am feeling called; I needed that word. My boss wasn’t a believer. He walks me out to my car and helps me carry all of these books. He puts his arms around me. He says to me, “I love you, boy.” Because I called him “boss,” he called me, “boy.” Who is this man? That’s what I remember thinking .

Two years after I planned this church, I got a call on a Sunday night. It was my former boss. I hadn’t talked to him in two years. He says to me, “Hey, boy.” My back goes straight as I tell him, “Hey, boss,” which was just automatic. His voice breaks and he says, “I got saved today. Me and my wife were baptized tonight. I know you were praying for me all of those years. I know I was a “booger” to work for, but I knew you were loving me and you were telling me about Jesus all those years.” I thought it was going in one ear and out the other. I had no clue. God used that man to encourage me more than any believer in my life at that time . In fact, many of the believers during that time were saying to me, “You’re quitting that good job? What are you gonna do?” I needed that encouragement on a Sunday night. My wife and I needed that encouragement. Sometimes, God will give you a word from an unexpected place. He got one for Gideon from down there in the camp of the Midianites. Let’s keep reading: Judges 7:16-25 (ESV) 16 “And he divided the 300 men into three companies and put trumpets into the hands of all of them and empty jars, with torches inside the jars. 17 And he said to them, “Look at me, and do likewise. When I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do. 18 When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp and shout, ‘For theLORD and for Gideon.’” 19 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 set the watch. And they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. 20 Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held in their left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow. And they cried out, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!” 21 Every man stood in his place around the camp, and all the army ran. They cried out and fled. 22 When they blew the 300 trumpets, the LORD set every man’s sword against his comrade and against all the army. And the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath. 23 And the men men of Israel were called out from Naphtali and from Asher and from all Manasseh, and they pursued after Midian. 24 Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down against the Midianites and capture the waters against them, as far as Beth-barah, and also the Jordan.” So all the men of Ephraim were called out, and they captured the waters as far as Beth-barah, and also the Jordan. 25 And they captured the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the winepress of Zeeb. Then they pursued Midian, and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon across the Jordan.”

THREE LESSONS ON TRUSTING GOD:

3. God’s victory is won in obedient faith.

We see this third lesson that Gideon now gets with his men. Here’s the plan from God. Remember all of the torches, jars and trumpets that were left behind by the men who went home because they were afraid?They left all of their “stuff.” They have plenty of trumpets, plenty for all three hundred men.

Here’s our plan; we’re not taking spears, swords and armor in the battle. We’re taking trumpets, jars and torches. Now we know why God specially selected these three hundred men because they said, ‘OK, yeah.’ If I would have been there, I would have thought, that’s your plan, but they move ahead. Gideon says, ‘Now, watch me when we get there. I’m going to look because we’re already small. I’m going to split the men into three groups. I’m going to put one hundred of you on this side, one hundred of you on that side and I’ll be over here with the remaining one hundred men. Now, watch me. We’ll go in there, we’ll have the torches hidden under the jars, so they won’t see us as we approach. We’ll sneak up on them. Get in your positions. Wait for me. What we’ll do is we’ll break the jar and the light will shine, then we’ll blow them trumpets. That’s it.’ The men said, ‘Let’s go, man.’

What a story–unlikely people, unlikely plan, no armor, no spears, no swords, no chariots and no horses. What’s God doing? God wants to get the glory. He uses the weaknesses of this world to pull down the wisdom of man so that we understand that it’s Him and it’s not us.

Gideon and his men go down to the valley in obedient faith. Gideon says to them, ‘The Lord’s already given them into our hands. I overheard a dream. They know that they’re finished.’

Then, in this final section of scripture, the Lord’s not speaking anywhere here, but we can tell what the Lord’s up to by His action. He spoke a lot in the earlier part of chapter seven. But here, He acts. It’s in verse 22, “When they blew the 300 trumpets, the LORD set every man’s sword against his comrade and against all the army.” He sent in confusion. They woke up in the middle of the night in their underwear and they started running against each other. Then they look around, there’s light all around them with trumpets blowing and they start whacking each other. Then, we see all these place names. I don’t have time to pop another map up but they start running towards the east to get back home. They’re running southeast to get down past the Jordan river. But then, Gideon sends out messengers and he calls out those tribes from the north. He also calls one of the middle part of the geography tribes, the tribe of Ephram, which is the tribe of Joshua. He tells them to go and cut them off at the Jordan river. Don’t let them get away. They do just that- they capture, kill and behead two of their princes.

We see that God’s victory is won with unlikely people, using an unlikely plan with and unlikely result. That’s how God works. It’s our obedient faith in Jesus, Who has conquered sin, death, and the grave by dying as a criminal on a cross. That was God’s plan.

It says in 1 John 5:3-5 (CEV) 3 “We show our love for God by obeying his commandments, and they are not hard to follow. 4 Every child of God can defeat the world, and our faith is what gives us this victory. 5 No one can defeat the world without having faith in Jesus as the Son of God.” It’s not our wisdom. It’s not our strength. It’s our obedient faith in Christ that overcomes the world, that gives us the victory to trust in Christ.

This is the beginning of Passion Week. Today is triumphal entry, tomorrow is teaching and cleansing the temple, Tuesday is more teaching, Wednesday, He’s in Bethany with his friends. Thursday is a busy day for Jesus; He’s in the upper room with the Lord’s Supper. He’s in the garden of Gethsemane crying, ‘My God, is there any way that this cup can pass from Me?’ Friday, He’s in a trial and He’s beaten, whipped and crucified. Saturday, He’s in the tomb. But on Sunday, the victory comes. It wasn’t with trumpets, jars and torches. No. It was with bread and a cup, tears, a cross and a tomb. Unlikely implements. Unlikely plan. This man from Nazareth, this man who came in weakness and overcame sin, death and the grave was the son of God to the world.

Paul writes this. He says in 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” To the world, the message of the cross is foolishness; it makes no sense. But to those of us who are being saved, it is the power of God because we place our obedient faith in it.

Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 15:55-57 (ESV) 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is the third lesson that God teaches Gideon, that He teaches his people, the Israelites and that He is teaching us. Did you hear the three lessons? His power is revealed in our weakness, His encouragement is given through Word and worship and His victory comes through our obedient faith in the true Savior, Jesus. That’s the message that we can contemplate this week of passion as we remember what Jesus did. It’s also the message, from the beginning, through Judges and all the way to the end. This book is about God and how He’s revealed Himself to us through the person of Jesus.

Let’s pray. Lord, thank You for Your Word. I pray, first of all, for that person that’s here today that’s never given their life to You . It begins by admitting your weakness, by admitting that you’re a sinner. By saying, ‘I need a Savior.’ By admitting that you’re broken, that you’ve tried living your life your own way and you’re tired. You need help and you need a Savior. Until you cry out, He doesn’t move. He knocks at the door but He won’t break the door down. He waits for you to call for Him. You can do it right now. Would you pray with me? “Dear Lord Jesus, I’m a sinner. I repent of my sin. I turn from it. I turn to You. I need help. I believe that You died on the cross for me. I believe You were raised from the grave and that You live today. Come and live in me. I want You to be my Lord and my Savior. I give my life to You. I want to be a child of God.” If you’re praying that prayer, believing, He will save you and He will adopt you into the family of God and forgive you of all your sins. He’s the true Savior. Others are here today; you believe in Jesus and you’ve received Him. You’re a believer and through time, He’s blessed you so that now you have blessing in your life and you’ve forgotten to give Him the glory. You’ve started trusting the blessings rather than the “Blesser.” You trust your bank account, your family, your house, your car, your job… you trust those things. What would you do if they were taken from you? If your army was thinned? Others are here today and that’s already happening to you. Your army has been thinned. You’ve gone through a loss or you’re going through a loss right now. You are thinking, Where are you, God? He’s saying, “My power is revealed in your weakness.” He is ready to give you encouragement today if you’ll receive it. Just say, “Lord, I trust You. I trust You. I know all things are well because of You and all things will be well because of You, Jesus.” It’s in Your name we pray. Amen.