Title: God's Elite Army/Judges 7:1-8
Contents God's elite army/Judges 7:1-8
1. Gideon and the people encamped against Midian: v. 1
Right in front of the Israelites, the Midianites who had crossed the Jordan River united with the Amalekites and the men of the East and were encamping to plunder (Judges 6:23). However, the Israelites did not even have the courage to respond and were engulfed in a sense of helplessness that they had no choice but to face it. But God gave Gideon the faith that he could overcome the problems he was facing. Because of the faith of one Gideon, 32,000 people went to war to fight as hard as they could once. And under Gideon's command, they encamped in faith by the spring of Harod, against those who tried to plunder them.
People who could not even respond to the problems they faced in Judges 6 are now facing the problems with faith. God gives us the faith to face problems. To a life who is always caught up in a sense of defeat and is in desperation that there is nothing he can do about this problem, God gives faith to face the problem and go out.
2. God establishes people who fully trust in God's power: verses 2-3
First, God establishes us as people who fully trust in His power.
Through Gideon, God said to the people of Israel who had the courage to do their best and were encamping against the enemy, “I cannot give you victory because too many people are encamped. So let those who are afraid go home.” These words were absurd to Gideon at a time when one man was sad in war. Twenty-two thousand of the fearful returned home, and ten thousand remained. However, God did another filtering process, leaving only 300 people out of 10,000 and letting them all go away.
The reason that a small number of people went to war was to give the people of Israel the experience of winning by the power of God. If 32,000 people went out to fight, they would have been proud to think that they won the battle with their unity, tactics, strength, courage, and wisdom. God gives us an opportunity to experience that we are beings who live by the power of God by allowing us to win the battle that cannot be won from a human point of view. This is because we can live with a living faith in the living God no matter what circumstances we encounter in the future.
When we have things to believe in our lives, God waits for us to run out of power. This is because God wants us to completely throw away the thought of living on our own, and experience the victory of faith only through God's power.
Second, He wants us to cast out the fear that surrounds us.
You cannot completely overcome fear in life. But if we allow fear to germinate within us, it will not only become engulfed in fear, but will spread it to those around us. Therefore, we must drive out fear by proclaiming the name of God so that it does not take place in our lives. If your heart is full of fear, you cannot experience the power of God and you cannot be used by God. You may not be able to completely overcome your fear. But we must always overcome our fears with faith in God.
3. God's Elite Pregnancy: Verse 8
Verses 4 to 7 are the words given to filter the remaining 10,000 people through the first filtering process. He had Gideon take the Israelites who had encamped for a battle with the Midianites to the waters and watch how they drank water. Here the waters are around the spring of Harod, where they are encamped.
It seems strange that they choose someone to go to war on trivial things like how they drink water at the waters where they are encamped. However, the important thing here is that God is paying attention to our attitudes in our daily life, which seem so trivial. This is because the attitudes and attitudes of our hearts are contained in the small actions we take in our daily lives.
In order to become a person who experiences the power of God, it is necessary to examine the small actions in daily life. What seems trivial is our inner attitude, our attitude toward life, and our attitude toward God.
Through the selection process, all of the 32,000 people returned, leaving only 300 remaining. Among those who returned, there must have been some who thought inwardly that it was well. However, they were eliminated from God's elite army. They missed the golden opportunity to experience God's work and missed the opportunity to be used by God. Only 300 people became God's elite troops and had the experience of winning the battles with the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the people of the East through the power of God.
◎ What is the sense of defeat that I am missing?
◎ What are the things I still look forward to and rely on in my life? Do you get away from all that and rely entirely on God? Even if there is still fear among us, let us pray that we may experience the goodness of God working and claiming in our lives by proclaiming the name of His power.
◎ Among the actions I am doing in my daily life, what is the Holy Spirit telling me to change? Let's pray that our daily life will be conducted with the attitude and attitude of our hearts toward God so that we can become a life used by God's work.