Judges 6:33-7:15 The Fleece Incident & God's Battle Plan
Channel: Mike Attwood
Date: 2022-04-01

No matter how big the enemy is, the Bible reminds us that the Lord is greater.  It seems like the enemies of God are overwhelming, but if God is with us who can be against us?  If we want to know the fulness of the Spirit we must deal with anything that might hinder His using of us.  Is there anything hindering our usefulness?

Gideon needs some assurance; he's a farmer, not a military commander.  He feels inadequate for the task.  Yet we see, in addition to man's unbelief, God's patience and faithfulness.

In chapter 5 Deborah expressed her disappointment that peopple were not presenting themselves for the battle.  In chapter 7 people are offering themselves to battle, but the Lord is saying, Go home.  If you are even a little bit scared then go home.  God wants to eliminate any chance of human boasting.

The Lord frequently insists that His people must be reduced to utter helplessness so they must recognise that their deliverance can only be chalked up to the Lord's power and mercy.

The odds are 4-to-1 against Isra'el, but God says the odds are too much in Gideon's favour.

First the fearful element is removed.  22,000 left, ten thousand remained.  Why were the fearful removed?  Because Fear is contangeous.  Those 22 thousand had no expectation of victory.  They were conditioned to expect small things.  Unbelief led to fear.  God has not given us the spirit of fear.

Now the odds are 14-to-1.  People are mesmerised by statistics and quantities, but numbers are no guarantees of God's blessing.

The Lord says, "The people are yet too many".  In our day the mega-church mentality is all around us, but God chooses the foolish and weak things of this world to confound the wise and mighty.

Now the odds are 450-to-1 against Isra'el.

God finally delivers a message out of the mouths of the enemy to bolster his servants' courage.  A Midianite private in the Midianite army is God's messenger.  A dream that equates Gideon to a very weak thing, indeed, but one by whom will come the destruction of the enemies of God's people.

When the Hall is full and music is blaring, it's easy to get complacent, but when we are down to 12 people we say, "Lord you need to do something, or this is ended".  We want to raise the roof with singing praise to the Lord, of course, but sometimes we need to see our weakness in order to remember that He wants us to cry out to Him.