Judges 7:19-23 – Let’s pursue wisdom

The strategy that Gideon used shows us that in any battle, divine wisdom has the capacity to prevail over might. Victory is not always about might. This tells us that in our own spiritual battle God can grant us the wisdom that can outwit any might. We have seen this clearly demonstrated through what Christ has accomplished for us at Calvary. The cross is foolishness to the world but it is God’s wisdom. We all know that in God there is not even a bit of foolishness. Yet for the sake of argument, Paul in Corinthians tells us that even if God does have foolishness, the least of it would be greater even than the greatest wisdom of man. Of course, we know that this is hyperbolic language. It was Paul’s way of saying that in God there is only wisdom. No man can ever manoeuvre God. Coming back to Gideon’s battle, he only had 300 men coming against a huge force of the Midianites. Humanly speaking, it was foolishness to think that they could overcome such a huge force. In fact, they would be dead meat to the enemy. But with divine wisdom, there was a great difference. God granted him an ingenious plan that worked perfectly.

Gideon had divided his people into three groups, with him attaching to one of the groups. The 100 men led by Gideon then came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch (the middle watch is estimated to be the time between 12 midnight and 4 in the morning). So, they would be at the outskirt of the camp of the Midianites slightly past midnight which must be quite dark then. Gideon and the 100 men blew the trumpets and so also all the other two groups. Verse 20 tells us that “…all the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers, they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing, and cried, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” When that took place, each of the Israelites remained standing in their position around the camp, while the Midianites panicked. They were falsely led to believe that they were being attacked by huge companies of soldiers from all directions. And in the thick of darkness, they could not distinguish between their own people. Not being able to recognize their fellow men, many killed their fellow Midianites. Thus, the enemy’s camp was routed.  Gideon was able to rally the earlier disbanded Israelites from Naphtali and Asher and all Manasseh and summoned them to join in the pursuit of the Midianites.  

With divine wisdom, we can scale great heights with God. We can live an overcoming life. Wisdom will dare us to do things that we have never done before so that we can accomplish things that we never would. And truly as Proverbs 9:10 says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” So, pursue the wisdom of God.