God has a plan for every area of our lives. He knows how to handle what comes. His plan always works! Things trouble and oppose us from different avenues. God has a plan for victory to confront the adversary.
Judges 7: 1 Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people that were with him, rose up early, and pitched beside the well of Harod: so that the host of the Midianites were on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley. 2 And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me. 3 Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand. 4 And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there: and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go. 5 So he brought down the people unto the water: and the Lord said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink. 6 And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water. 7 And the Lord said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place.
Wouldn’t it be something if everyday’s adversaries and trials would just surrender before we ever got out of bed. That would be so nice. There is a way for all of them to surrender. We must surrender to the Master. Let God issue the plan and then obey the orders of our Commander and Chief. The battle will be won. The surrender is not to the enemy but to the Captain of our Salvation. He’s Commander for believer. We are not on the battlefield by ourselves. We’re not alone because the Captain–Commander–is there with us.
Often in Gideon’s day the kings and generals were held back. They sent orders by messenger to the regimen on the front line. In God we have a Trinity. The Father is God on the hill of Zion. He issues the commands and the Holy Spirit delivers the message. Jesus comes on the white horse to the battlefield. There is nothing and no one who can withstand the child of God who is following God. “Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war with the cross of Jesus going on before!”
The Midianites far outnumbered Israel. She had nowhere to go, nowhere to run. We can’t run from the devil either. What do you do with your troubles and trials? You can’t drive 500 miles and get away from them. They’ll be there when you get out of the car and certainly be there when you get back home. Adversaries even arrive in the mail. We don’t shout “Praise the Lord” when the light bill comes. God has a battle plan. For the victory of any nation there is an overall strategy plan of the Commander and Chief. The tactical plan is how to war each battle so the overall strategy can be met. Logistics then get supplies and weapons for the boots on the ground. This train of action cannot be broken. We took out the factories that made weapons for Hitler and stopped him. We have a Commander who knows how to do it all.
God had a plan for Gideon. The Midianites were already in his hand but he wanted Israel to fight. If we’re willing to fight the good fight of faith–not with fists or our own schemes–God has a plan. We need to follow it. God had some strange plans for Israel. First, he said any who were fearful could go home and 22,000 men did. Without God’s help we are no match for the adversary. There is no way to win trusting self or others. It must be trust in the Lord. God wanted the people to surrender only to him. Goliath looked at David’s size but David said he came in the name of the Lord. He faced Goliath in faith. That’s the only way we can. God has won every battle for us through our surrender to the Master.
They had way too many and after this still too many. There had to be a further reduction in forces. Too many people and they’d not give credit to God. The victory is in Jesus and not giving credit to God is a sin. Our first prayer should not be “Lord, make me battle free.” He could do it. Our prayer should be “God, whatever is coming my way, help me surrender to you and follow your instructions. Reduce me to the size you need.” Only then do we see God’s size.
Ten thousand remained and still too many in God’s eyes. What is God’s number? 3 in 1! We don’t need two or three gods. The Greeks and Romans had multiple gods. We need only one, the true God. He is enough for all the adversaries. Our one God far outnumbers all of them. God told Gideon to have the people go to the water and drink. Some would get down on their knees and put their head down like an animal and drink. Some would stoop down, scoop water up into their hands but keep their eyes on their surroundings. These would be the chosen ones. Why? Only they conducted themselves in proper soldier-like manner. God wants us to be a Christian the way he says. Why? Is he mean? No. It’s for our own good. The devil knows the careless and improper as well as he knows those who truly follow God. All of them were thirsty. The desire of some for water overtook them. The others knew where the water was. Do you? You can smell it. They got hands full and kept looking for the enemy. Only 300 of them got water this way and they were the ones to face the Midianites. They put safety first and had a heart to win.
We have to have the heart to win. The tactics were what they did with the pitchers and such, another message. Strategy and logistics reduced the number so they could see God work and he could use them. The battle was just about won. The Midianites were already in trouble. We can face everyday in victory or defeat. Let God be our God. Follow his plan no matter how strange it seems. Then, we’ll make it through.
Adwolfe Freewill Baptist Church 