
We've all heard about the story of the 300 Greeks who stood up to the Persians, but have you heard about the story of the 300 Israelites standing up to the Midianites? There is one huge gaping difference between these two stories, the glory of the victory.
I won't retell the story of the Greeks, you can easily find it on Wikipedia and the full story of the Israelites and their battle is found HERE.
What I want to do is show how God works when the glory is given to him; the very purpose we are made. The Greeks did hold off the Persians for awhile, but were soon destroyed; and the glory goes to the Greeks. Being that Greeks run deep in my ancestry it is hard to just dismiss the pride I desire to show in such stories, but I must. Gideon's story is much different.
Gideon starts off his march with 33,000 troops, but God has something to tell him as he goes to battle in Judges 7:2:
The LORD said to Gideon, "The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, 'My own hand has saved me.'
Anyone else see what he is saying? You are too well prepared and will be tempted to say that the victory is yours if you triumph. God performs a few litmus tests and fleeces out the army leaving Gideon with only 300 men left to fight the battle. Why didn't Gideon give up? God is taking away your great army Gideon, just give up! The reason Gideon didn't give up was because he was listening and obeying God. God said he would give him victory (Judges 6:16) and (Judges 7:17), then he'll be victorious. And guess what, Gideon's army lives through this impossible defeat. God basically confuses the armies and they fight each other causing Gideon's army to win the battle.
So take the glory and die like the Greeks or be a real man and give it to the one who created you and died for your sins and see what he wants to do.
It is all about God's glory, not ours. God will use us in this physical world to do great things for his glory (great and small in the eyes of man) and we must remember to lay at his feet our successes and failures. Remember Gideon's story next time you walk into a trial that seems completely impossible. As Jesus once said about man in Mathew 19:26:
But Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
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