Judges 7:1-25 Bible Study Notes

Bible Study Notes - Judges 7:1-25

What best qualifies a person for God’s service?  How does the Lord choose His instruments?  Can fear disqualify you?  How important is humility in preparing for God’s service?  Do you need a large number of people to accompany you?  In this chapter, Gideon hears the call of God to defeat the Midianites and remove the utter shame that they had visited upon the Israelites.  At revelry, Gideon begins the day with 33,000 men.  Before the Israelites attack, God reduces Gideon’s troops to a meager 300 men.  Startlingly, the Israelites are victorious.  How do we explain their success with such limited resources?

Consider the following ideas and questions as you study this biblical passage.

• In the first verse, note the geographical location of Israel in relationship to the Midianites.
• In the second verse, the Lord tells Gideon that he has too many men to win against Midian.  The Lord wants Israel to realize that He will make them victorious.  He does not want them to fight out of their own strength.
• As a result, Gideon tells all of his men who are afraid that they may leave.  Incredulously, twenty-two thousand (22,000) of them leave!  Note the extreme amount of fear that continues to plague Israel.
• With ten thousand men left, Gideon experiences a further reduction in his troop levels.  The Lord sends Gideon to an adjacent body of water where He will sift the remaining troops.
• Let’s discuss in detail the sifting test.  Of the ten thousand (10,000), three hundred (300) lap the water with their hands to their mouths.  The other nine thousand and seven hundred get down in their knees to drink.  What is the significance of this test?  What really separates these men as it relates to character and their ability to fight?  What does the lapping symbolize?
• The Lord, in verses seven and eight, chooses the three hundred who lap as His instruments to defeat Midian.  What qualifies them?
• Note the practicality in the preparation as the Lord leads Gideon and his servant, Purah, to go into the Midianite camp on a reconnaissance mission.  He tells Gideon, “If you are afraid to attack, go and listen to what they are saying. Afterwards, you will be encouraged to attack the camp.”  Note that the presence of Almighty God yields encouragement and empowerment.  Let’s imagine what Gideon and his servant overhear.
• The twelfth verse describes the numbers of the Midianites and Amalekites as “thick as locusts.”  “Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore.”  Conceivably, their sheer numbers led them to be arrogant as it relates to the Israelites.
• What is the significance of the round loaf of barley bread that tumbles into the Midianite camp, in the thirteenth verse?  It is physically impossible.
• The respondent in the fourteenth verse correctly interprets the dream that the thirteenth verse details.  How does the man know that God has given Midian into the hands of Israel?
• How do you explain Gideon’s reaction to overhearing the dream?
• Gideon divides the three hundred men into three companies and gives each man a trumpet and an empty jar with a torch inside of it.
• Gideon and his men arrived at the Midianite camp just after midnight, when the sentry guards had just changed.  With their trumpets, jars, torches and voices, the Israelites cause utter confusion among so many people who had probably fallen asleep.  The twenty-first verse indicates that mayhem probably ensued.
• Actually, the next verse reveals that the men of the camp turn on  each other with their own swords.
• In the twenty-third verse, Israelites from Naphtali, Asher and Manasseh pursued the fleeing Midianites.
• Word then went to the Ephraimites to join the fight.
• Eventually, the fighting Israelites utterly defeat the Midianites by killing their leaders, Oreb and Zeeb.  In fact, they decapitate them and bring their heads to Gideon who was by the Jordan.
• Is there any pleasant symbolism of God’s faithfulness as we find Gideon standing near the Jordan, the river that represents God’s deliverance of Israel into the Promised Land?  Considering God’s judgment of  Israel in Judges 6:1, it is amazing that He returns them to the Jordan after Israel returns obediently to the Lord.