Judges 7:9-11 (NIV) During that night the Lord said to Gideon, “Get up, go down against the camp, because I am going to give it into your hands. If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah and listen to what they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp.” So he and Purah his servant went down to the outposts of the camp.

Gideon’s story in the Word of God is quite remarkable. The amazing story starts with the unnerving and unbelievable encounter that He had with God. The Angel of the Lord (who is God manifest in visible form) appeared to Gideon while he was hiding in a winepress threshing wheat. He was hiding because the Midianites were oppressing the Israelites to the point where they were destroying all of their crops. The Lord revealed to Gideon that He had chosen him to deliver the Israelites from the hand of the Midianites. After his encounter with the Lord, Gideon sent messengers throughout the surrounding towns, summoning the men to follow him. He was able to round up 32,000 fighting men, which was a very small army compared to the 135,000 Midianites that had come to fight against the people of God. But God, being the God of the impossible and the improbable, had Gideon reduce the number of the fighting men to just three hundred of them to fight against the horde of Midianites. We can only imagine what Gideon was thinking. He obeyed the Lord and reduced the size of the army, but he must have felt very shaky about it.

God does things in ways that we cannot fathom and many times, it produces fear in us. While God knows exactly what He is doing, we only know and see what’s in front of us. Three hundred against 135,000 just doesn’t compute in our brains. It’s bad math. Gideon must have been afraid, but God accounted for that as well. He could have rebuked Gideon for being afraid because after all, He had appeared to him in person. Gideon saw the Lord! But he was still afraid and the Lord understood his fear. God has compassion on us, knowing that we are made of but dust (Psalm 103:13-14). That’s the God that we serve. He is a loving and caring God who is always looking out for us and who understands our fears. He sent Gideon down into the enemy camp to hear about a dream that He had caused one of the Midianites to have about the Lord giving the Midianites into Gideon’s and his tiny army’s hands. It gave Gideon the courage that he needed to follow through with God’s plan for victory. We are so blessed to have God as our God. There is no one like Him. He is the awesome, almighty and sovereign God over all the universe, while still stooping down to minister to us because He understands us. Blessed be His name!

Pastor Joey Vazquez