The Lord said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying, ‘My own power has delivered me.’ Now therefore come, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is afraid and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount Gilead.’” So 22,000 people returned, but 10,000 remained.
— Judges 7:2-3
Then the Lord said to Gideon, “The people are still too many; bring them down to the water and I will test them for you there. Therefore it shall be that he of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go with you; but everyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.” So he brought the people down to the water. And the Lord said to Gideon, “You shall separate everyone who laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps, as well as everyone who kneels to drink.” Now the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was 300 men; but all the rest of the people kneeled to drink water. The Lord said to Gideon, “I will deliver you with the 300 men who lapped and will give the Midianites into your hands; so let all the other people go, each man to his home.”
— Judges 7:4-7
When they blew 300 trumpets, the Lord set the sword of one against another even throughout the whole army; and the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the edge of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath.
— Judges 7:22
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
— Ephesians 2:1-9
I have often heard the story of Gideon preached in such a way as to lift up the men in the first passage I referenced who were not afraid. Then after the Lord whittled that group of 10,000 down to only 300 men, I have heard those men lifted up as the ones that God chose BECAUSE they had drunk the water in such a way as to demonstrate that they were choosable.
Let it be known that if you have heard or interpreted that story in such a way, you have missed the point altogether - not only of the story but of the true gospel. The Lord here as in every OT story is keeping his promise in Genesis 3:15 that the seed of the woman would one day deliver the winning blow to Satan and his seed. This particular story highlights God rescuing more His chosen right out of the mire of their idolatry by His own power and for His own glory and he specifically said that Israel would not become "boastful".
Yet, most evangelicals do with it just as the men of Israel did after the victory… They want just a little glory for man… just a little...perhaps their free will in not being afraid and then in drinking the water in a certain way was to be credited. For here is what they said to Gideon after the victory had been won:
Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, both you and your son, also your son’s son, for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian.” But Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you; the Lord shall rule over you.”
— Judges 8:22-23
Man just wants a little credit. After all, didn't HE CHOOSE to OBEY? (Had they forgotten WHO appeared to Gideon while he was threshing wheat dead in traspasses and sins?) What a man that Gideon! Where did that boastful attitude and where does that boastful attitude lead?
Yet Gideon said to them, “I would request of you, that each of you give me an earring from his spoil.” (For they had gold earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.) They said, “We will surely give them.” So they spread out a garment, and every one of them threw an earring there from his spoil. The weight of the gold earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels of gold, besides the crescent ornaments and the pendants and the purple robes which were on the kings of Midian, and besides the neck bands that were on their camels’ necks. Gideon made it into an ephod, and placed it in his city, Ophrah, and all Israel played the harlot with it there, so that it became a snare to Gideon and his household.
— Judges 8:24-27
Now Gideon had seventy sons who were his direct descendants, for he had many wives. His concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech.
— Judges 8:30-31
Then it came about, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the sons of Israel again played the harlot with the Baals, and made Baal-berith their god. Thus the sons of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side; nor did they show kindness to the household of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in accord with all the good that he had done to Israel.
— Judges 8:33-35
If my concern for America today is related to an earthly kingdom and I am looking for a man, a movement, an earthly deliverer to save us (if even in the name of God and Christianity), I am missing the point of the true gospel demonstrated in Genesis and all through the Old Testament. I am ignorant of the salvation of God being all of God, all of grace, and all for his glory - that no man may boast (not even the 300).
Gideon and his deliverance points us to the Savior, the ultimate deliverer who came to save His people from their sins. The judgment we are experiencing today is because we again have forgotten God who saved us from our sins and our idolatry and immorality and have thought subtly that our own American free-will brought about the blessings we enjoyed and ultimately worshipped.
Let us turn again to our God to deliver us from our sin...OUR SIN! American Christians have played the harlot with the riches we have been given just as Israel did with the Ephod. We boast in our religious pride while blind to our idols. Our religion is “Your Best Life Now”. Turn us O Lord to the true deliverer of the Israel of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world, and the only one who is ever worthy of power, riches, wisdom, might, honor, glory and blessing!
