Recently when I was praying for the church God reminded me about Gideon.

It’s a great story which can be found in Judges 6 and 7. In brief, the Israelites were constantly being invaded by the Midianites and Gideon was terrified and thought God had abandoned them. Then God told him he wanted him to defeat the Midianites. Gideon protested that he came from the weakest clan and was the least in his family. Eventually he gave in and assembled an army of 32 thousand men. God said that was too many and gave him tests to whittle it down to 300!! This sounds crazy, but God’s instructions often do. Gideon obeyed and God gave him an extremely unusual – and again crazy – strategy, and the Midianites were defeated.

The reason God so drastically reduced the army is given in Judges 7:2. If they had kept the large army they would boast they had won in their own strength, which echoes Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 4:7. “We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us.” And again in 2 Corinthians 12:9 “My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness.” This brought to mind a song we used to sing – “Rejoice, Rejoice Christ is in you” (Songs of Fellowship 461). The whole song is worth reading, but the lines which stand out for me are –

“Where things impossible by faith are made possible” and
“He turns our weaknesses into His opportunities so that the glory goes to Him“

Chris