Judges 7 reminds us the LORD was always the one who won the battles the Israelites fought against their enemies. As we read the account Gideon gathers an army to go agains Midian, but the LORD tells Gideon he has too many men–32,000 to be exact. When they defeat Midian, they will take the credit for the victory. The LORD shrinks the army by having Gideon tell everyone who was afraid to go home. 22,000 men went home. Now, with 10,000 men, Gideon was ready to face Midian, but the LORD told him the army was still too big. He had Gideon divide the group by the way they drank water from a stream. It turned out 9,700 of them did it one way, while 300 did it another. The LORD chose the 300 and sent the 9,700 home. Now, with only 300 soldiers, everyone would know any victory won over the mighty Midianites would be the LORD’s. That’s precisely what happened. God used the 300, and He defeated the Midianites. What a powerful reminder to us, that whatever the LORD is in doesn’t require large numbers of “troops” to be successful. We’re also reminded to rely on the LORD and not on ourselves. How easy we forget both of those powerful truths.
Judges 8-9 show us once again how quickly the people of Israel could turn back from following the LORD. Even though, the LORD was the obvious victor over the Midianites, the people immediately turned away from Him. They worshiped the Baals. They worshiped a golden ephod Gideon made from the spoils of the battle with the Midianites. They battled against each other, especially after Gideon died. Gideon’s son by one of his concubines, Abimelech convince the people to make him king. He killed 70 of Gideon’s sons, his step-brothers, to ensure the people would continue to follow him. Jotham, the youngest son of Gideon, escaped and told a parable that made clear to everyone, they had backed the wrong leader, in choosing Abimelech. Eventually, Abimelech killed many of those who turned against him, and a woman in one of the cities besieged by Abimelech threw an upper millstone from a tower. It struck Abimelech and would have killed him, but he had his armor bearer kill him first, so a woman wouldn’t get the credit for killing him. In the end the people of Israel were in disarray, and following false gods once again. This picture repeated itself over and over again through the period of the judges. The details changed, but the picture remained the same: God delivered the people from suffering and slavery. The people rejoiced, and perhaps momentarily followed Him. Then they rejected Him again, and God turned them over to their enemies once again. The people cried out, and God would once again deliver them. Hopefully, we can learn from these cycles of rejecting God, being enslaved, crying out to God, and being redeemed, that the best part of the cycle is being redeemed by God, and remember our redemption in Jesus. Then we can live in victory over sin instead of permitting it to enslave us.
As we return to John 14, we return to Jesus’ conversation with the disciples on the night before He was crucified. John 14 makes it so clear to us that this life is not all there is, and those who follow Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life, will experience the next life with Him. Jesus makes several promises to the disciples during this talk with them. The most powerful of the promises is we will do greater things than He did, because He was returning to His heavenly Father. The thought of doing greater things than healing the sick, casting demons out of people, and raising the dead is hard to imagine. But the scope of the technology in our time, makes Jesus’ words so easy to fulfill. As we rely on Him, we can take His good news of salvation virtually anywhere in the world. We can feed thousands of people with the resource we have. We can preach to tens of thousands of people at one time. The key is putting Jesus first. As we do that, we can and will do the greater things He promised we will do in His name!