The 300 - Judges 7

After the second night that Gideon received a sign from the Lord with the dry fleece, he’s finally convinced that he is the one chosen by God to deliver Israel from the oppression of the Midianites. Before asking for the sign, Gideon had called for troops from the other northern tribes and about 32,000 men had responded to his call, which is a fair amount, but that’s nothing compared to the 135,000 Midianites that they were facing. That 135,000 number comes from the next chapter, Judges 8 which we will get to next time. Even with those odds of like 4:1, even that God told Gideon that 32,000 were too many people “lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me.” This must have been very daunting to Gideon because even with the 32,000, going against 135,000 would have required a great amount of faith for any military leader. God tells Gideon that the 32,000 were too many men and to excuse any man who “is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early,” and about 22,000 men left.

Only 10,000 men remained and Gideon probably was shaking in his boots at that point, to only have 10,000 men to take against 135,000. And it’s important to note that TB explains that not only did the Midianites outnumber the Hebrews 10:1 at that point, but that they were also great fighters compared to Israel. Israel was agrarian at the time and the Midianites survived by being raiders, they rode camels, they were warriors. Professional fighters, and the Hebrews were farmers, so it was very daunting odds. Probably similar to Barak and Sisera from chapter 5. Even with only 10,000 men remaining, God tells Gideon again that this is too many men, even though they were all brave enough to not go home when they had the chance, so now God is going to sort the men himself. He tells Gideon to take the men down to the water and have them drink, and those who stick their faces straight into the water would be dismissed and those who used their hands to get the water and drink from their hands would be chosen to stay and fight. Without knowing the criteria for what was chosen and what wasn’t, I think that I would use my hands to get water and not stick my face in the stream but who knows, and apparently that wasn’t the most popular option because of the 10,000 that started, only 300 used their hands to drink the water, so the other 9,700 were sent home. That leaves 300 men to fight against 135,000 ferocious Midianite warriors.

I don’t know, I’m going to have to go back here for a second and think if that number is really accurate. Like I get that the miracle is the miracle regardless of the numbers and I truly believe that with God on his side Gideon could have defeated the entire Midianite army by himself, but just the sheer numbers, like it seems like there has to be a translation error here or something. Because even looking at the situation, could that area have sustained 135,000 Midianite soldiers who mainly subsisted on looting? With their wives and children? Like it just doesn’t make sense, but I guess that’s the point. It doesn’t matter what the actual numbers were, the only point is that God delivered victory to his promised people despite them being outnumbered 450:1, IT DOES NOT MATTER what the actual numbers were, if this was accurate or mistranslated. The only thing that matters is that God provided miraculous victory because He promised to do so, the question is, do I believe that or not? Do the numbers actually matter to me or am I trying to logic and reason my way through this lesson? Good questions, either I believe it or I don’t because the numbers don’t matter.

The departing 9,700 troops leave their “victuals” with the remaining 300 which are the food and provisions and they leave their “trumpets” or in the other translations, “shofars” and head “unto his tent.” I initially thought that that meant that they went home but I don’t actually think that’s what happened because of what happens later. Maybe I’m reading this wrong. I’m reading it like this is the initial recruitment but maybe this is just right before the main battle and Gideon is putting together his troop formations. Maybe this isn’t “this is who is going to fight and everyone else go home,” maybe it’s “we’re going to battle tomorrow, this is who’s going, everyone else wait here.” Maybe it’s a combination of both.

There are only 300 man ready to go to battle with Gideon and God tells Gideon that night something very interesting, but also in line with Gideon’s constant asking for signs. God tells Gideon, “Arise, get thee down unto the host; for I have delivered it into thine hand. But if thou fear to go down, go thou with thy servant Phurah thy servant down to the hose: and thou shalt hear what they say; and afterward shall thine hands be strengthened to go down unto the host.” Basically, to go battle tonight, but if you’re afraid, then go spy on the enemy and what you’ll hear will give you courage.” I thought that this was so interesting because God knows Gideon, He knows that he’s not confident, that he asks for signs constantly, so God goes to him with a sign. I took this to be a demonstration of God meeting us where we are at, in all our weakness and everything, providing just enough for us to move forward. I think I expect perfection before God moves but repeatedly in the scriptures, God shows that he only requires willingness and effort and then He will provide what we need, in our weakness, to move to the next level.

It's a good thing that God provided that added “sign” because Gideon takes it and goes down to spy on the enemy and he sees “the Midianites and the Alamekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number as the sand of the sea side for multitude. And Gideon only has 300 men against this massive swarm of people. TB notes that this group of people camped here wouldn’t have just been the Midianite soldiers, but because they were a band of marauders, it would have included their women and children as well, which makes the innumerable hosts less intimidating because it probably would have been more women and children than soldiers just by statistics, but still absolutely insane. It’s also likely that the soldiers were used to attacking a fixated people where the men went off to raid and the women and children stayed back in safety. They probably were not used to being attacked on their own turf probably because there was no force big enough to overpower them. But it’s also likely that having their families around them would have made the Midianite soldiers react differently to being attacked where they camped because of their instinctual need to protect their families first instead of go on the offensive with an attacking force.

While spying on the enemy camp, Gideon hears two soldiers talking and one says that he had a dream where a “cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and over turned it, that the tent lay along.” Basically, the soldier had a dream that a loaf of bread dropped into the Midianite camp, went into a tent and flattened it. The other soldier interprets the dream to mean “this is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: for into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host.” I was surprised at hearing this interpretation because at this point, I didn’t even think that the Midianites would have known what Israel was up to, but that was naiveté on my part. Surely the Midianites would have had spies watching what was going on in their areas of operation, and TB makes a good point that as far as the Midianites would have known, the Israelite army was gathering in another area with 32,000 soldiers, and that’s probably all they knew at that point. He also speculates that this soldier’s dream would have been spread all throughout the Midianite camp, but I don’t see any scriptural evidence for that. It was probably just a dream that this one random soldier had that God arranged for him to speak about to his comrade at the exactly place and time that Gideon would have been near enough to hear it. It’s wild to think of all the intricacies of that plan that God had to arrange to make it happen, and we think He can’t or won’t do that for us. It is interesting though that the other soldier’s interpretation of the dream had to do with exactly what Israel’s plan was.

Hearing that conversation was all Gideon needed to gather his courage and gathers and divides the remaining 300 soldiers into groups, situates them around the camp with shofars in the right hand and torches in the left hand. Around 10pm, when all the camp of the Midianites would have been asleep except for the few guards, the 300 men blew their trumpets and lit their torches and “cried, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon.” TB describes the scene beautifully, saying “I can’t even imagine the racket and the confusion it caused. Can you picture being in a deep slumber from a hard day when suddenly this shattering din of 300 shofars interrupts the quiet desert night and startles you awake, and you look out of your tent and in the pitch black darkness you see hundreds of torches that obviously belong to the enemy surround you? And that the last you knew 32,000 Israelite soldiers had arrived for the battle? You see up to this point Gideon’s 300 men hadn’t even drawn their swords ( in fact both hands were busy, one holding a torch the other a shofar); they simply scared their enemy into a panic. Verse 21 says that every man (Israelite) stood his place. And from there they watched as men grabbed up their wives and children and started running for their lives. The camels would have stampeded. Some of the soldiers began lashing out in the dark at any silhouette that moved, killing countless numbers of their own, certain that hordes of Israelite fighters had descended upon them.”

This is similar to what God has done several times already, causing confusion and panic in the enemy and they simply run away. Verse 22 says that The LORD is the one who caused the Midianites to turn against each other “even throughout all the host.” The confusion caused “friendly fire” except with swords and they killed each other instead of the enemy, just another way the Lord accomplishes it. Incredible. All these Midianites, soldiers, women, and children fled from before the Israelites taking a few different routes back “unto Tabbath” back across the Jordan river. Even though he sent 22,000 soldiers away, he now called for them back to defeat the fleeing Midianites, somewhere around where the river crossed. And not only did those tribes come back but now Ephraim is getting involved too. Let’s remember that these 22,000 men who are coming back were initially released from service because they were too scared to fight, and looking at the formidable Midianite army, it’s easy to understand why. But they were too sacred, but now that the battle was won, they are eager to get involved again and I love the way TB describes this return, saying “everybody loves to join in a rout and take some credit and vengeful enjoyment from it; so Hebrews from several of the tribes started pouring out of the woodwork.” As the Midianites retreated, these outlying tribes pursued them and slew two of the Midianite princes Oreb and Zeeb, and brought their heads “to Gideon on the other side Jordan.”