Gideon is dependent on God, and dedicated to His cause. Are we? This should be true of us whether a work has been committed to our trust, a responsibility laid on our shoulders or a path set before us. God uses such believers. What reduction in Gideon’s band! 22,000 return home; they are fearful. 9,700 lose sight of the objective before them in the action of drinking; they could easily have been caught off guard and are dismissed. This can be applied to ourselves. The fearful 22,000: those happy to benefit from an assembly, but having little exercise to maintain it in times of difficulty? The 9,700 who fail the test: the unwatchful; cf. Matt. 26. 41. Would we have stood the test? Only 300 did – ‘meet for the Master’s use, prepared for every good work’, 2 Tim. 2. 21. The Lord’s work is pre-eminent, not just prominent, in their thinking. The Lord wants only those who are fully committed – He knew they were few. The principle is clear: ‘not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit’, Zech. 4. 6 JND.
Gideon leads them positively. He personally gives to them the necessary equipment, trumpets, pitchers and torches, ‘He put a trumpet in every man’s hand’, v. 16. He makes sure that when the time comes to blow the trumpets, each has one to blow. Likewise, if we expect younger believers to stand for the Lord, we must equip them. We can hardly expect them to maintain assembly truths if we have never taught them, 2 Tim. 2. 2.
Gideon gives them an example to follow. It is not ‘Do as I say’, but ‘As I do, shall ye do’; ‘Look on me and do likewise’, v. 17. Is this our aim as we live amongst others, especially younger believers and our own children? They were to do exactly as he did; cf. Acts 20. 35, RV.
Gideon knits them together as one man, with every man in his place, v. 21. All blow at the same time, and all shout the same thing. The result: the note is clear, the message unmistakable, vv. 19-25. Again, let us apply it; Paul writes to a local assembly ‘that ye all speak the same thing, that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and the same judgment’, 1 Cor. 1. 10.
