This article is based on Pastor Adrian Rogers' message, Four Principles of Victory.
Judges 6 tells how the nation of Israel—who by the providence of God had been delivered from bondage in Egypt and had been given so much—forgot God. Therefore, they were judged by God.
Our nation suffers shame of its own. America began as a Christian nation. But we have forgotten the Christian values of our beginning. We have forgotten God, and all of God’s principles. Everyone does what is right in his own eyes.
But in Judges 6, God raised up an unlikely hero, Gideon, to fight for His people. As our nation begins to fall into the same trap, we must recognize the four key principles of victory in Gideon’s life, so that we may be used like him.
Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years, and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains.
When people or nations forget God, they lose their point of reference. They have no fixed standard of right and wrong; they go from authority to relativism, conviction to opinion.
“In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6).
Gideon was out one day, threshing wheat—but he was doing it in a winepress, in order to hide it from Midianite raiders.
The Angel of the LORD appeared to him.
And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him, and said to him, “The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor!” Gideon said to Him, “O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.” Then the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” (Judges 6:12-14).
Before this, Gideon had his eyes on the Midianites: he was intimidated, afraid. Now he sees the Angel of the LORD and gets a message from the Almighty.
After this encounter, Gideon built an altar and named it “The-LORD-Is-Peace.” God gave this man peace by changing him into a man who had his eyes upon God.
Here are four life principles to glean from the story of Gideon in the Bible.
Before we face any foe, we must first face the Father. The one who fears God can stand before any man.
In order to have Christian victory, you have got to have your eyes on God. This was where Israel failed. This is the lesson Gideon learned.
We can repent, as Gideon did. The same God who gave victory to Israel in Gideon’s day is the God who wants to give victory in our day.
Any of us could recite a litany of trouble and woe and heartache. There is plenty of it to be seen in the world.
But don’t fix your eyes there. Put your eyes upon God. Do the problems look big when compared to God?
As the poet said:
Every morning, lean thine arms awhile
Upon the windowsill of heaven,
And gaze upon thy Lord.
Then, with the vision in thy heart,
Turn strong to meet thy day.
— Thomas Blake
God called Gideon “a man of valor.” Gideon’s reaction was essentially, “Who, me?” (See Judges 6:15.) God answered his doubt with this: “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man” (Judges 6:16b).
Gideon obeyed. He gathered an army for the Lord: 32,000 men. Some time later, he and these men were encamped near the Midianites, preparing for a battle. But the Lord had more preparing to do among them.
And the LORD said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ Now therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.’ ” And twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained (Judges 7:2-3).
God cannot use you if you are afraid. Fear suits you for failure; faith suits you for triumph. Fear and faith cannot dwell in the same heart.
God wants people of vision and valor, and He will show them Christian victory.
Perhaps you could witness, but you are afraid. Some of you could teach, testify, sing for the Lord, but you don’t because you are afraid. You do not tithe because you think you will not have enough money. If you are a Christian, God has called you and God has equipped you, but you may be like that servant in Matthew 25—you may have buried your talent in the ground. And when his master asked why, he said, “I was afraid.” Fear and sin are inseparably linked.
Third is the biblical principle of vigilance—because if you are not careful, the principle of valor can keep you from being wise and discreet.
So he brought the people down to the water. And the LORD said to Gideon, “Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set apart by himself; likewise everyone who gets down on his knees to drink.” And the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men; but all the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink water. Then the LORD said to Gideon, “By the three hundred men who lapped I will save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go, every man to his place” (Judges 7:5-7).
God is still thinning the ranks. He put them to a test.
When they were thirsty, 9,700 of them got down on their hands and knees, bellies in the mud, noses in the water, and sucked up the water. Talk about being vulnerable to the enemy! You cannot see anything like that, and there are the Midianites over on the next hill—a terrible position.
But 300 got down on their knees, scooped the water in their hand, and brought it to their mouth while they watched.
The Bible is so balanced. On the one hand, God is looking for brave men of valor. But He is also looking for wise men.
The Bible says that we are to be in no way terrified of the devil; but we are also to “be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
God cannot use the cowards, nor the careless.
The truth of the matter is this: while they were drinking, those men did not know they were being tested.
You may not know when you are being tested, either. God watches us in the small things. What you are in secret, what you are in the little things, is the proof of how God can use you. “He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much” (Luke 16:10).
What is vitality? Inner life and strength.
One night, the Lord told Gideon to take his servant, sneak to the edge of the Midianite camp, and listen. “Now the Midianites and Amalekites, all the people of the East, were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude” (Judges 7:12).
God was getting His man ready.
And when Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said, “I have had a dream: To my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian; it came to a tent and struck it so that it fell and overturned, and the tent collapsed.” Then his companion answered and said, “This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel! Into his hand God has delivered Midian and the whole camp.” And so it was, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, that he worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel, and said, “Arise, for the LORD has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand” (Judges 7:13-15).
Barley bread was the cheapest, coarsest bread, the most inferior—as Gideon acknowledged himself to be. Gideon told this to God. (See Judges 6:15.) But God said to Gideon, “You are a man of valor.”
Here is the key: “The Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon” (Judges 6:34a). It could be literally translated that the LORD clothed Himself with Gideon.
This is why Gideon worshiped when he heard the Midianite’s dream. He realized that this fear in the enemies’ camp was not because of Gideon, but because of the God of Gideon.
How would you like for God to wear you like a suit of clothes, to work through you?
For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called (1 Corinthians 1:26).
God’s plan is to take ordinary, obedient people, do extraordinary things through them, and be glorified Himself—because He is the one who truly gains the victory.
Israel is not alone in history. Even today, it is evident that our nations are all too prone to forgetting God.
The story of Gideon, and the leadership lessons the Lord taught him, are a lesson to us as well.
Christians, stop praying for victory and begin praying from victory, which we already have in Christ. Have confidence—but not confidence in yourself.
God uses common people, like seemingly insignificant Gideon. He uses people who have cleansed themselves of their idols, of anything in their hearts that is dearer to them than God. God uses people who are courageous, and wise, and who have confidence in the God they serve.
Can God use you?
These are basic biblical principles for Christians. And as we are Christians living in America, these also become our civic responsibilities, part of our Christian citizenship—to preach repentance and the Gospel to our nation, so that God may deliver us as He delivered Israel.
You may think, Well, if God appeared to me like He did to Gideon, perhaps I could do what Gideon did. But you have far more light than Gideon ever hoped to have: God’s Word, and Christ, and the Holy Spirit within you.
God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son (Hebrews 1:1-2a).
We are fighting spiritual battles, and we can only do it by God’s principles taught in Scripture.
Judges 6:1-22,34, 7:2-7,12-15, 17:6; 1 Peter 5:8; Luke 16:10; 1 Corinthians 1:26; Hebrews 1:1-2
Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation (Psalm 24:3-5).
And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD (Joshua 24:15).
