Faint Yet Pursuing
Judges 8:4
Judges chapter 8 is not nearly as well remembered as chapters 6 or 7.
I must confess, as I have only been a few days into Judges for the daily Bible reading that there is quite a bit that I honestly did not remember.
We remember some of the highest highs and lowest lows of the book, but there is so much information I fear we simply gloss over.
So it is with chapter 8.
Our text describes the pursuit of the fleeing armies of the Midianites, Amalekites, and Arabians.
We learn back in chapter six that Israel had for the fourth time in the days since Joshua turned away from God.
They turned from worshipping the true God of Israel to the false idols like Baal and Ashtaroth.
God would send other nations to defeat and oppress Israel, in order to turn their hearts back to Him.
Here it is the Midianites.
Midian is far south in the Arabian peninsula, east of the gulf of Aqaba.
The Midianites have allied themselves with some nomadic peoples, I think maybe to use them as cavalry.
These are the cursed Amalekites and the “children of the east”, which I think are Arabian tribes descended from Ishamel.
These came sweeping in during the spring before harvest.
They destroyed or took the crops and livestock.
The Israelites were forced to hide themselves in whatever cave or stronghold that evaded the eyes of the enemy.
For seven years they lived in fear.
Finally, they called out to God for relief.
God chose Gideon to be the man to lead the people to victory.
He is the last person you would expect God to choose.
When we meet him, he is threshing grain in a valley.
That is normally done on a hilltop, but he is afraid of being spotted.
When the Angel of the Lord appears to him – and if you read carefully I believe that is the Preincarnate Christ – Gideon needs a sign to confirm the message was true.
The Angel caused the food Gideon brought to burst into flames and be consumed in fire, which satisfied Gideon for the time.
The first things Gideon was told to do was to throw down his father’s shrines to Baal and Ashtaroth.
Gideon does so, but under the cover of darkness.
He sounds the trumpet for the men of Israel to gather for war.
After doing so, he has to be reassured by God once again.
He asked God to make a fleece that was laid on the ground be wet while the ground was dry.
God obliged him.
But then he asked for yet another sign, this time the opposite, that the fleece be dry and the ground wet.
God obliged him again.
That is three times God has to convince Gideon that, yes, God had chosen him, and, yes, God would give the victory.
32,000 men answer his call to arms.
We learn in Judges 8:10 that the Midianite army had 135,000.
God says it is too many, that they would lift themselves up in pride with the victory and not praise God for it.
Gideon orders that any man is scared should return to their home.
This was actually commanded in Deuteronomy 20:8
Deu 20:8 And the officers shall speak further unto the people, and they shall say, What man is there that is fearful and fainthearted? let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren’s heart faint as well as his heart.
22,000 men were honest enough to admit it, and they all went home.
10,000 are left to face 135,000.
Then God has the audacity to still say it is too many!
He tells Gideon to take his army down to the creek and watch for how the men drink water.
300 of them, the Bible says, lapped water like a dog.
I just learned this, but the Hebrew word is yalok, which is the sound of a dog lapping water.
That is called an onomatopoeia – when a word mimics the sound it describes.
The rest got to their knees and guzzled water.
Now, I was always taught that the difference was that the 300 scooped up water in their hands and drank it, meaning they maintained readiness in case the enemy came, and that the others lay out and stuck their faces directly down in the water, exposing themselves to sudden attacks.
That may be the case, but I found something else that makes sense.
I have found that B.H. Carroll often has unique insight in situations like these.
Many preachers and writers have little understanding of warfare, let alone of everyday life.
But Carroll in his youth served as a Texas Ranger, patrolling the frontier, and as a private in the Confederate army in the western theatre of the war.
He knew firsthand more about fighting than almost any other preacher I can think of.
He says this, and this is important for our text:
God looked at the 10,000 and said, “There are still too many. Now bring the 10,000 down to the creek and let me see them drink water,” and every one but 300 when they got there laid down their equipments and kneeled down and deliberately took a drink. But the 300 waded in and lapped up the water as they marched through, and never stopped walking. God said that the 300 that lapped the water like a dog were his crowd. Why? They had before them, after the battle, a march that would try the souls of men. Gideon will never let up pursuing them, across the Jordan and way out into Midian, and soldiers that have to lay aside their equipments and lie down and grunt, they never will overtake a fleeing enemy, and he needed people that wouldn’t lose time. I once heard an infidel say that that was the sorriest test he ever heard of. I always thought it a remarkable test. It was precisely the kind of a test that was made by an old Indian fighter. He said, “I am going to pursue the Indians into the mountains; whoever cannot load your gun as you go must drop out; you must be able to load your gun as you go.”
That makes a lot of sense to me, because as we will see it does factor into what happens in chapter 8 and our text.
Before we get there, I do want to note that Gideon needs more convincing.
God tells him to sneak into the enemy camp.
There he hears a man talking about a dream and learns that the Midianites are scared of Gideon and a battle to come.
They probably had seen all those men moving around and thought they all stayed, not knowing only 300 remained.
This fourth encouragement for Gideon give him the courage to continue on.
The story of Gideon’s 300 men is famous.
They surrounded the enemy camp at night.
Each man had a trumpet – a shofar – and a clay pot that held a lit oil lamp.
When the Midianites changed their guards around midnight.
On the signal, the 300 men blew their trumpets, broke their pots to reveal the lit lamps, and yelled the battle cry, “The sword of the Lordand of Gideon!”
The guards panic, the camp panics, and in the confusion, they turn on themselves.
The 300 men begin a pursuit southward.
Gideon sends messengers ahead into Ephraim and tells them to rally their men.
The men of Ephraim block the way south, capture two captains, and force the Midianites to go east over the Jordan.
Gideon and his 300 are hot on their tails.
Here is were our text occurs:
Jdg 8:4 And Gideon came to Jordan, and passed over, he, and the three hundred men that were with him, faint, yet pursuing them.
The place they crossed is maybe 30 miles south of where the battle began, but Gideon and his men will not stop.
The Midianites flee southeast.
Gideon asks the towns of Succoth and Penuel for aid, but they refuse.
He and his 300 men press on in pursuit, hungry and tired
The Midianites rally what is left of their army at a place called Karkor.
Only 15,000 remain of their original 135,000.
And Gideon and his men were still coming.
The trail continues to the southeast.
Finally, the Gideon captures to Midianite kings and the remnant of the army disintegrated.
I see different estimates on how long the pursuit of the Midianite army was.
One map I saw looked like it was about 75 miles to me, the same distance as Wichita Falls is from Decatur.
I saw some people estimate it at around 150 miles, depending on the exact route the chase may have taken.
That relentless pursuit across so many miles, stopping to battle and skirmish along the way, would require men of strong spirit and body.
The kind of men who could be weary yet continue in their pursuit until its conclusion
Folks, this life get hard sometimes in the pursuit of following God’s will.
Sometimes the victories we seek are hard fought.
It is easy to become “weary in well doing”,
Paul wrote in Galatians 6:9 and II Thessalonians 3:13 that we should not be so, but sometimes our spirit and body grow tired in the fight.
I want to give you a few points of encouragement this morning for when you grow faint in the midst of the battle.
I. Remember your faithfulness in the small things.
Most of my sermons I spend a third to half of the time just going over the text and its setting.
I did so today because I think there is something important in the choosing of the 300 men that links to their ability to continuing fighting.
Those 300 men were chosen by God because of a common characteristic that was displayed in how they drank water.
These were the men that remain alert and upright, weapons at the ready.
They remained vigilant and active as they refreshed themselves.
They were ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice.
That rare characteristic is what helped drive them on in the day of battle.
You might ask, “You mean to tell me that how they drank water showed how they will fight?”
Absolutely!
You can tell much about a person in the small things.
A person who is not honest or diligent in small matters will not be in major matters.
Remember the Parable of the Talents, where the master tells his servants:
“Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. “
If you want to be faithful in the hardest times of life, be faithful in the smallest.
Be like David, who did not fear Goliath because he had already had experience with lesser beasts like bears and lions.
II. Remember God’s promises
Do you realize that what we see here, a few men putting a much larger force to flight, was promised in the Bible?
God already said it could and it would happen for the Israelites against their enemies.
We find it in Leviticus 26:
Lev 26:7 And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
Lev 26:8 And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
We find it again in Joshua 23:
Jos 23:10 One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the LORD your God, he it is that fighteth for you, as he hath promised you.
We talk often about things that give us comfort when we are weary and tired.
We have comfort foods we turn to (Blue Bell)
We have movies, music, or books in which we turn to find solace.
How often do we neglect the ultimate source of comfort in the promises of God?
Do you find yourself being amazed that God did exactly what He said He would do?
When you are weary, grab on to the sure promises of the Word.
Remember that Christ will never forsake you, remember that He gives us the grace and strength to meet whatever obstacle we face.
You say, “Well I don’t feel like they help me at the time.”
Neither does Tylenol – it takes time to settle in and work – it is not a magic placebo that makes all the bad things go away.
But so often you will find it is the very rock we find refuge and safety in during the storms of life.
III. Remember that victory comes to those who remain faithful.
You know, I doubt these 300 men were the biggest or best fighters.
It is not like God was weaning the military down until any left was on a level with Chuck Norris.
What these men were faithful.
They would not quit.
They fell and they rose up again.
They saw the battle through until its end.
I am convinced that this is the type of person that God blesses and God uses.
God is not looking for a flash in the pan, a firework that fizzles out after a short glow.
No, He is looking for steadfast faithfulness in Him.
Not the biggest, baddest, strongest, wittiest, smartest, or cutest.
If you want to see God’s hand of victory, just be faithful.
Gal 6:9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
CONCLUSION
- When you let up, the enemy will strike.
- The devil waits until you a tired and overwhelmed for his fiercest attacks.
- Keep him on the run.
- When your strength fails, trust in the One whose strength never fails
- 2Co_12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness…..
- You do not have to pursue salvation
- You can rest assured that the victory of salvation is already yours.
- Christ came to seek and to save – that includes you.
- Stop chasing it, accept His free gift.