Bible in a Year… Day 44 (Judges 7-11)

Back in Judges today. Notes follow:

Judges 7:1-8 (NIV)
¹Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. ²The LORD said to Gideon, “You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her, ³announce now to the people, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’ ” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.

⁴But the LORD said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will sift them for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”

⁵So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the LORD told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel down to drink.” ⁶Three hundred men lapped with their hands to their mouths. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.

⁷The LORD said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go, each to his own place.” ⁸So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites to their tents but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others.

Judges 7:16-22 (NIV)
¹⁶Dividing the three hundred men into three companies, he placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them, with torches inside.

¹⁷“Watch me,” he told them. “Follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do. ¹⁸When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp blow yours and shout, ‘For the LORD and for Gideon.’ ”

¹⁹Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guard. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands. ²⁰The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars. Grasping the torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpets they were to blow, they shouted, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!” ²¹While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out as they fled.

²²When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the LORD caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords.

Isn’t this a cool passage? God uses only three hundred men to defeat an entire army… without them even drawing a sword.

I wonder what Gideon’s men thought when he told them the plan. I wonder what kind of faith it must have taken them to trust God enough to go into battle without any sort of real armaments. I wonder what the men thought when they saw God conquer the Midianites in such an abnormal manner.

Most of all, though? I wonder how they could do anything other than walk with God for the rest of their days after witnessing such a miraculous victory (which we soon find happens).

Isn’t that our nature though? To see God work miraculously… to have a mountaintop spiritual experience… then immediately turn our backs on God once again?

I don’t know about you, but I long for consistency in my walk with Christ, yet find it difficult to obtain. I know there would be no mountaintops without valleys, but often I think I’d trade all of them for the ability to walk consistently with God.

What about you? What do you do that helps your walk with Christ be more consistent?