What is meaning of judges chapter 7?

Answer 1

Firstly, a little background: The children of Israel had done evil so God allowed the Midianites to rule over them for 7 years as in Ch.6:1. The Israelites suffered greatly and in v.7 they cried out to God for deliverance.

God called/chose Gideon and commissioned him to be a mighty deliverer through God's enabling power. In v.34 the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon.

Now to your question in chapter 7. God said to Gideon if the Israelites win this battle against the enemy, they will claim all the glory for themselves and not give Me, God, the glory, therefore to show My power, this battle will be won with only a minority of soldiers not a massive army of tens of thousands. God told Gideon to tell his soldiers if they were fearful and afraid that they could leave and go home and 22,000 of them immediately left with now only 10,000 remaining. Again, God said there were still too many soldiers so He told Gideon to take his 10,000 soldiers to water and God said "everyone who laps from the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set apart by himself: also, everyone who gets down on his knees to drink. In v. 6 it states ..."the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth was 300 men". All the others got down on their knees to drink water. This was God's way of determining who was chosen to be in the army.

People who put their faces in the water and lapped like a dog could not be as alert as those who stayed on their feet and brought the water up to their mouths with their hands. Whatever the exact explanation, the test was designed to reveal those who were more alert.

In v. 7 God said to Gideon, "By the 300 men who lapped I will save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other men go home"

V.12 states the Midianites and Amalekites were as numerous as locusts (tens of thousands of soldiers) and countless numbers of camels. In v. 16 Gideon divided the 300 men into groups and gave them each a Trumpet and an empty jar and placed a torch inside each jar. In v.19 Gideon and his men came up to the edges of the enemy camp and blew their trumpets and broke their jars, held the torches in their left hands and trumpets in their right hand for blowing and they all yelled out "The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon". By yelling these words out, they were declaring victory in the name of the Lord and also by Gideon.

The whole enemy army cried out and fled in terror. Because it was night time, the torches shining all around the enemy camp made it appear as though there was a huge army surrounding them and the loud noises of the trumpets and yelling terrified the enemy who thought they were going to be all slaughtered. V.22 says the enemy soldiers were so confused they used their swords against each other and fled. Gideon's army followed in hot pursuit along with other nations who joined in along the way.

Later on in Ch.8 v22 the men of Israel asked Gideon to rule over them because of his deliverance from the hand the Midianites, however Gideon replied to them that he would not, but ..."the Lord shall rule over you".

There was victory that day and the victory was won by God's power and might.