God’s Power in Ordinary People.

God’s power was demonstrated through Gideon and a small group of men. Learn how in the fourth of the series about Gideon by Brian Stapley.

Picturing Gideon

How do you picture Gideon?  I don’t think he was built like a weightlifter. Didn’t have the voice of a prime-time news anchor. No big smile and pearly white teeth made for t.v. commercials.

We sometimes think that a real servant of Jesus is only someone who is dynamic, confident and fearless. I don’t think we need to look and act like that to be used by God. Christ takes people with fears and doubts and puts his power into them.

He takes disciples who were so afraid and in doubt that they scattered when Jesus was taken to the cross. Then he changes them so much that people describe them as “men who have turned the world upside down.” (Acts 17:6) Judges 7:13 says that Gideon

“tumbled into the camp of Midian … and turned it upside down.” 

Outnumbered 450 to1.

Judges 7:8 – “So the people took provisions in their hands, and their trumpets. And (Gideon) sent all the rest of Israel every man to his tent, but retained the 300 men. And the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.”

Gideon Goes to the Midianite Camp

Gideon goes down to the Midianite camp with one supporter, a man named Purah. He had been “with” … 32,000 men. Then he was “with” … 10,000. Lately he has been “with”… 300. This time he is “with” … Purah … one man.

Imagine – a man whose people were going to be like the sands of the desert for number, goes down with one other little grain of sand to take stock of an enemy whose camels are as numberless as the sand of the desert! God is not pushing Gideon to be self-confident but confident in God.

Judges 7:12 – “And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the East lay along the valley like locusts in abundance, and their camels were without number, as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance.”

The enemy came on camels as numberless as a plague of locusts.  Though we may think of camels as odd but harmless, trained attackers on camel-back were completely superior to Gideon’s amateurs on foot. It was go-karts versus NASCAR. Thomas the Tank Engine versus the Japanese Super Train. BB guns versus bazookas.

Sword of Gideon

7:13-14 “When Gideon came, behold, a man was telling a dream to his comrade. And he said, “Behold, I dreamed a dream, and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat.” And his comrade answered, “This is no other than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given into his hand Midian and all the camp.”

Gideon, the man who threshed barley, is the “barley cake” who comes “tumbling down” the slope to defeat Midian. Barley-cake Gideon is rising to the occasion. He has never been more kneaded. A positive roll model – O.K. – I’ll stop.

“Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held in their left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow. And they cried out, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” (Judges 7:19-21)

Jesus in Gideon’s Story

Now is a good time to see Jesus in Gideon’s story. There is a clay jar verse in the New Testament: “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.  But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” (2 Corinthians 4:6-7)

We are like Gideon: Strength out of weakness, clay pot people containing something important inside, and lights bursting out of darkness. Ordinary people with an amazing God who blazes through their lives so the world can see “the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

How has God’s power been used through you? Share with us. Contact us at HopeStreamRadio,  or comment below.