Title: Soldiers of God / Judges 7:9-18
Content's soldiers
Judges 7:9-18, Matthew 5:13-16
As you read the Book of Judges, you will see that five processes appear repeatedly. First, a new promise with God, secondly disobeying God, thirdly by God's discipline, fourth by repentance and supplication, and fifthly by God's forgiveness and resolution. The people that God established to solve the problems in this process were judges (士師/Judges). Judges were also translated as 'judges' (判官) in the joint translation. These were the servants of God who saved their people from the oppression of the Gentiles when they were in the form of a tribal state. They also served as rulers politically and militarily, and as judges who resolved the people's problems. And they even played the role of religious leaders who delivered the word of God. There are usually 13 judges in the Book of Judges. Famous judges who did great things among them were Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson. Among them, today we read the story of Gideon.
Today's text of Judges is set in the days when Israel was living oppressed by a Gentile nation called 'Midian'. At that time, there was a young man named 'Gideon' in the Manasseh family, and he was a strong merchant (Judges 6:12). However, no matter how strong and courageous they were, they could not do anything by themselves in front of the mighty Midianites. Gideon is now hiding in a cave, threshing wheat. Because if you thresh openly, you will lose everything. It was resentful and embarrassing. I couldn't understand and couldn't understand why the pain continued to overlap and the difficulties to overlap. When the ancient ancestors escaped from Egypt, God brought them out miraculously and miraculously. Where is that God now? Where is the God who parted the Red Sea and destroyed the walls of Jericho? Why don't you look back on this shameful and miserable reality of ours today! Gideon spent every day with these thoughts as if in prayer, but he was hiding and robbing the grain because the reality was reality.
You saw his earnest faith. So one day he sent an angel and said,
Take the strength that you have and go and rescue Israel from the hand of Midian.
I personally send you Judges 6:14 New Standard Version
Gideon took a step back, saying that he was not a person who could carry out such a mission. However, through several processes, they become obedient to God. When he decided to undertake God's work, 32,000 soldiers with the same purpose gathered. However, God told them to return these numbers because they were many. It was a wonderful statement, but I obey it. In the end, only 300 people remain. God's will to make people depend only on God was hidden. Their appearance shows us what kind of spiritual battle we Christians must fight and win against the world today.
1. Barley Bread Soldiers
The nickname of Gideon's army is the barley bread soldier. While Gideon was preparing for war with Midian, he went out on a spying out into Midian's camp. Then I heard the two soldiers of Midian talking like this.
I had a dream,
In a dream a loaf of barley loaves rolled into the camp of Midian and came to a tent.
He struck it and knocked it down, and immediately fell over. Judges 7:14
When Gideon heard about the dream of the barley loaf, he believed that God had given Midian into his hand. And according to his belief, he went out that night and won a great victory. How did 300 Gideon warriors defeat the 135,000 Midianite army (Judges 8:10)? God sometimes works that way. He gives a powerful message that it's what I do, not what you do. It shows that it is not a number, but a belief. That is the barley cake message.
If you are with us, you can win even with something as small as barley bread. If God is with us, little David will defeat the giant Goliath. If God is with us, we can overcome 135,000 with 300 people. The meaning of Gideon's 300 soldiers is that you are the bread of barley, but you will be victorious by faith. It has such a message.
Barley rice cake is a symbol of insignificance. Even insignificant barley loaves can create great works when they are held in God's hands. In the field of Bethsaida, the bread that a little boy offered to Jesus was barley bread. However, when this insignificant barley loaf was taken into the Lord's hands, it caused an amazing work of art that five thousand people ate and there were twelve baskets left.
You are using barley rice cakes. Or make it into barley bread and use it. Because you want to be glorified. When Abraham was used, he made the sacrificing of Isaac to become the barley loaves of total obedience. When Moses was used, he made him into barley bread through the 40 years in the wilderness. When he used Joseph, he used it after turning it into barley bread through his slavery in Egypt. When he lifted up Paul, he broke it in Damascus, and through the three years of the Arabian desert, he made it into barley bread. The twelve disciples were barley loaves. None of them were in any position of importance at that time. However, the twelve barley loaves rolled out and shook Jerusalem, eventually shaking the great empire of Rome, changing the history of the entire world today. This is the truth of the paradox of God, who lifts up the weak to shame the strong, and strengthens them when they are weak.
Dear brothers and sisters, please stand on the truth of this paradox of God. When I am bread, God exalts me; when I confess my lack and when I become bread, God makes my lack power; when I kneel and confess my weakness, He lifts me up like barley and makes me strong. When I become bread of bread, God gives me strength. I believe that if I entrust it, God will make my shortcomings abundant. This is the meaning of barley bread.
2. Military of Light
Another nickname for Gideon's army is the army of light. Gideon's warriors hid their torches in a jar and headed towards the enemy camp. And at the same time to the sound of Gideon's trumpet, he broke the jar and raised the torch high. In Midian's pitch-black camp, the sound of jars shattered and lights shone in all directions, and a loud shout resounded. 'For the Lord! For Gideon!' The Midianite armies were devastated and fled in all directions, fighting each other and losing a great defeat. Gideon's warriors were victorious with the light. Their weapon was light. The light of the torch blasted out as the jar broke. The light comes out of the cracked jar, and the fragrance vibrates in the cracked alabaster jar.
A Christian is a person who has accepted Jesus as their Savior. These are the people who have the treasure of faith in the earthen vessel. However, sometimes the earthen vessel is so hard that the light of the treasure of faith in it cannot come out. The wall of your own ego is too hard. That is why there are many people who are unable to bow their knees to God in humility. In fact, there is no lack of faith in it. Clearly there is faith. But it does not come out as light. Because the walls of the ego are too hard.
Only when the walls of the self are broken can one truly become a devoted person. You can truly kneel before God and become a person of prayer. Only when the walls of self are broken can we truly open our mouths wide and sing joyfully. The wall of self must be broken, Lord! you can shout The wall of the ego--that's the jar.
Dear brothers and sisters, please take a look at yourself at this time. Do I have no jars to break? Doesn't my hard shell hide the glory of God? My self, like a pottery vessel, is sometimes pride, sometimes knowledge, and sometimes experience. Sometimes it's a long-trusted economy, sometimes it's face. Because of such hard shells and earthen vessels, the faith hidden in them is strengthened and cannot come out into the light. Let's become Christians who surprise the world with the sound of the jar breaking before God and light up the world with the light pouring out of it. The sound of the old man breaking, the sound of the false self being broken, the sound of selfishness breaking, the sound of pride breaking. I hope that you will become saints of faith in which the sound of change, the sound of faith---- and the hidden light of faith is revealed by the breaking of the shell.
You are the light of the world... Let your light shine before men
Let them see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:14-16
3. The trumpet's military
Another nickname for Gideon's warriors was the soldier of the trumpet. With a torch in one hand and a trumpet in the other, they headed towards the enemy camp. In the middle of the night, when the Midianites were in a deep sleep, the 300 warriors put the trumpet of God in their mouth and blew with all their might. Imagine the sound of 300 trumpets sounding. Originally, the number of trumpeters was said to be one per thousand. The 300 trumpets were the sound of an army of 300,000. Even a great army of thirteen thousand Midianites lost their will to fight and ran away at the sound of this trumpet in the middle of the night.
A few weeks ago I preached about saints and trumpets. The trumpet to be heard--the Word, the trumpet to be raised--prayer, the trumpet to blow--the Gospel. Here, Gideon's trumpet is the one to be blown. It is the trumpet of the gospel. It's very difficult to blow a trumpet. No one can burn. You just have to open your face to make a sound. You still have to blow. What if the pitch isn't quite right? Even if it is not a pleasant sound or a beautiful sound, we must blow the trumpet to the world. The more you blow, the clearer the sound will be, and the more you blow, the more beautiful the sound will be.
We must blow the trumpet. The strength of the saints to overcome the world is not the same weapon as the world, but the trumpet of God. The power that overcomes the sins of the world and awakens my soul is not the trumpet of knowledge. It is the trumpet of the word. So the trumpet was blown. I have to make a sound. I hope that you will become saints who awaken my soul with the trumpet and the world with the trumpet.
I believe that God, who heard Gideon like barley bread and made him a mighty warrior in Israel, will hear the saints, light up the torches high and blow the trumpet loudly to accomplish the great work of the gospel. These are the words of the Lord to us Christians living today. I bless you in the name of the Lord that you will become victorious saints by grace in a world like the wilderness by following these words today.