TOO MANY MEN
Judges 6:23-24
But the LORD said to him, "Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die." 24 So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The LORD Is Peace.
I love to pheasant hunt, but I don't enjoy big groups pushing birds from big fields or patches of brush. I always enjoyed times when it was my dad, my friend Bob and myself hunting pheasants together. I think we were also far more successful as a small group.
It would seem that when a job must be done, you can never have too many men. Why wouldn't we want all the help we can to get the job done. A few years back, when we built our new bunkhouse, we had a great number of people show up to help... I was overwhelmed. If we had gotten any more people show up, it would have too many... it was exactly what we needed.
Back in Gideon's day God directed him to chase the enemies away from the Israelites. The number of the enemies of Israel were said to be uncountable in Judges 6. At this time God called Gideon to lead His people to drive the enemies out of the land. Gideon got 32,000 men together... God said "too many". So 22,000 we're allowed to go home, leaving 10,000. God again said, "too many". Then another 9,700 were sent home leaving a force of only 300 men to fight an army that was basically so big it couldn't be counted. What happened? God, through Gideon's tiny army drove, the enormous army out of the area and destroyed them.
Did an all powerful God need Gideon and his 300 men to defeat the enemy? No. So why did God call Gideon and the whittled down army to do the job? I believe that God did this to show each of us that nothing is to hard for us, nothing to big to overcome, when we have God on our side. When our hearts rely on the provision of a loving all-powerful God, nothing is impossible.
God called Gideon, the least of all the people in Manasseh, a place where nothing good or powerful ever came out of before, and a tiny army of 300 to prove to us that there is nothing too hard for us to overcome, when we bring God into battle with us.
In the midst of conflict God also reassured Jeremiah that He is more powerful than anything that we might come up against.
Jeremiah 32:26-27
Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, 27 "Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?
What size attack is coming against you today? Do you feel like you could never stand against the onslaught of the enemy? On our own, we cannot defeat the mighty armies that come against us at times... But through a total reliance on God,
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me"(Philippians 4:13)
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