The Sword of Gideon

The Sword of Gideon

Profiles in Judges, part 5 (Gideon)

There are three ways that Judges 7 has been historically interpreted and applied:

• The The text shows us God is omnipotent, all powerful and unafraid.
• The This is the most common approach to the text. In this approach we emphasize the Lord’s joy in using weak people, small armies and insignificant groups to accomplish big things for His Kingdom.
• The (The forming of Gideons International, see story at the end of the notes)

Judges 7-8: The Battle:

1.

• The Lord starts Gideon off with budget cuts!
• Gideon starts at a loss (advantage 4-1 in Medians favor.) God knows if the odds are anything other than impossible, Israel will brag. So God has to stack the deck so high in Midian’s favor that when Israel wins they know it was only possible because of the Lord.
• The purpose in choosing men who lap water like dogs is that most people don’t drink that way. So it’s a good way to chop the numbers down quick. (That’s it. It’s that deep. It’s not a military reason.)

2.

• Judges 7:13, Barely bread (cheap bread) crushes the “tent” of Midian. “Tents” in the Bible often refer to nations. In this case the nation will be taken down by old bread.
• Judges 7:14, the man listening declares that this can only be the “sword of Gideon.” That’s humor, since Gideon doesn’t have a sword.
• There are several miracles here: The dream in the mind of the enemy, the interpretation from another enemy, Gideon showed up at just the right time, Gideon stood at just the right spot to overhear the conversation but not be spotted.

3.

• Judges 7:16, he arms the men with trumpets, jars and torches, but not swords.
• Judges 7:22, the enemy turned on one another.
• Because Gideon split his army up in the ark, the enemy assumed each trumped was an entire company, and thus thought they were surrounded!
• During the Civil War, at the Battle of Yorktown, Confederate troops dug in to defend a small southern town. The North sent 60,000 troops. Gen. John Bankhead Mcgruder scattered his artillery and soon the North saw endless streams of Confederate troops marching through the forest. What they didn’t realize was that Mcgruder was simply marching his small army in circles.

4.

• The officials at Succoth refuse to help supply the army until Gideon can prove he is victorious. (Judges 8:6)
• Gideon responds by saying that when he does get victory, he will “flail” their “flesh with thorns of the wilderness and with briers.” (Judges 8:7)
• Neutrality in warfare is unacceptable.

Great Missions Points From This Story:

Just like Gideon…

1. We send out our

2. They don’t carry = Carry

We partner with International Mission Board to send missionaries:

–Support: 3,595 missionaries. (422 new missionaries past year)

–2021: Saw 144,322 new believers / Baptized over 85k!

–Started: 18,380 New Churches around world.

–Trained: 127,155 Pastors.

–Engage 47 unique people groups.

3. Spread out

4. It is the duty of those to

In 2021, you gave: 74,176.31 to missions.

5. They are

Gideons International:

In 1898, John Nicholson and Samuel Hill were both traveling businessmen when they met in the lobby of the Central Hotel in Boscobel, Wis. There was just one vacancy with two beds, and in keeping with the times, the men decided to split it.

They discovered both men were passionate about their faith. By the end of the evening, the men made plans to create an evangelical association for Christian businessmen.

A year later, those men set up a meeting at a YMCA in Janesville, Wis., but were disheartened when only one other person showed up. That man was William Knights, and what he lacked in numbers he made up for in ideas. He suggested the group call themselves “The Gideons,” based on a story in the Old Testament, of a man leading a band of untrained men to battlefield victory.

It took ten years for the group to amass numbers, and most of the members were travelers just like its founders. The Gideons decided since they were already traveling the country, the best way to spread the good word was to put copies of the Bible in the hotel rooms they frequented. The first Gideon’s Bible was placed in a nightstand at the Superior Hotel in Superior, Mont. in 1908.

More than 100 years later, the group has ballooned to more than 300,000 members and along the way added “International” to its name. Throughout its run, Gideons International has managed to place more 1.8 billion Bibles in hotels in 196 countries. On average, the group says it distributes more than two copies of the Bible per second, and often holds a ceremony with new hoteliers, bequeathing the building with its first book.