The Story of Gideon and 300 Brave Men, Part 3 (Judges 7)

In part one of this Bible Story we talked about how Gideon blew a trumpet to call his people together to fight against the Medianites. Over 30,000 men came. That souns like a big army, but they were far outnumbered by the Midianites. In fact, the Bible says the Medianites were “like grasshoppers for multitude” and “their camels were without number.” Who will win? Of course we know Gideon and his army will win because God was on their side, but the way it happened is really amazing. God told Gideon he had too many people in his army. If they won the battle the people would think they won by their own power and not by God’s power. So Gideon told everyone that was afraid to go back home. Now there must have been a lot of people really shaking in their boots because 22,000 of them left, and only 10,000 stayed. God told Gideon he still had too many men in his army, and he sent them down to the river to get a drink of water. Most of the men got on their knees and put their mouth into the water to get a drink, but 300 of them put their hands into the water forming a cup and scooped water up to their mouth. Believe it or not God defeated the Midianites using only Gideon and these 300 brave and alert men. They surrounded the enemy at night. At the right moment they lifted their lamps high, they blew their trumpets, and shouted “the sword of the Lord and of Gideon.” The Midianites were so afraid and confused in the dark that they started trampling on each other and killing each other to get away. So, did God keep his promise to be with Gideon in defeating their enemy? Yes, he did! And will God be with us in our hard times if we ask him? Yes, he will!