"The primary matter in the Gideon narrative is not the deliverance itself, but rather something more personal, namely, Gideon's struggle to believe God's promise. . . .
"Judges 6:33-7:18 is arranged in the following concentric pattern:
"AThe Spirit-endowed Gideon mobilizedfour tribes against the Midianites, though lacking confidencein God's promise (6:33-35).
BGideon sought a signfrom God with the fleece to confirm the promisethat the Lord would give Midian into his hand (6:36-40).
CWith the fearfulIsraelites having departed, God directed Gideon to go downto the water for the further reduction of his force (7:1-8).
C'With fearstill in Gideon himself, God directed Gideon to go downto the enemy camp to overhear the enemy (7:9-11).
B'God provided a signto Gideon with the dream of the Midianite to confirm the promisethat the Lord would give Midian into his hand (7:12-14).
A'The worshiping Gideon mobilizedhis force of 300 for a surprise attack against the Midianites, fully confidentin God's promise (7:15-18).
"The reduction of Gideon's army is a familiar story often told from the perspective of emphasizing God's ability to deliver whether by many or by few. While this is true, such an explanation falls short of doing justice in this context. The context is dealing with a struggle within Gideon himself."153
Some time later Israel's enemies from the East again crossed the Jordan and massed their forces in the Valley of Jezreel near Gideon's home (v. 33). They numbered 135,000, or 135 units, depending on the meaning of elephhere (8:10). "Thousand"seems preferable (cf. 7:12). This foray appears to have been the Midianites' annual invasion.
Gideon wished to reconfirm the Lord's promise to be with him and to lead him in victory against the enemy. Perhaps considerable time had elapsed between Gideon's call (vv. 11-32) and this new threat of attack.
The Spirit of the Lord came upon (lit. clothed) Gideon in a special way strengthening and defending him for his great task (v. 34; cf. Gen 28:20; Isa. 59:17). He then sent out a call for several of the other tribes to join him and his family to fight the Midianites (vv. 34-35).
The Lord graciously answered Gideon's request for additional signs that God was with him. Gideon did not need to request these signs; God had already promised to help him (vv. 14, 16) and had given him a sign (v. 21). Notwithstanding, Gideon's faith needed some added support, and God provided this without reproof (cf. James 1:5).
"The remarkable thing is that God responds to his tests. He is more anxious to deliver Israel than to quibble with this man's semipagan notions of deity."154
"Gideon's fleece is not a sign of faith. It is the opposite. It is not a search for God's will. It is a desperate grasp for security by one who knows clearly what that will is but who is reluctant to do it."155
Perhaps Gideon used a woolen fleece because it was handy. He asked God to cause the dew to settle on the fleece that night but not on the surrounding ground. In the morning he discovered that is what God had done. Gideon may have concluded that he had asked the wrong thing since wool attracts dew. In any case he asked God to let the dew fall on the ground but not on the fleece the next night. God did this too. Thus this double demonstration that God was indeed with him and would grant him victory as He had promised strengthened Gideon's faith.
"But Gideon's fleece was not about discovering the will of God, and his actions are not to be taken as a normative paradigm for discovering the will of God. It was about stubborn resistance to what one knows clearly to be God's will."156
Some students of this story have seen a deeper meaning in these signs than is immediately apparent.
"Dew in the Scriptures is a symbol of the beneficent power of God, which quickens, revives, and invigorates the objects of nature, when they have been parched by the burning heat of the sun's rays. The first sign was to be a pledge to him of the visible, tangible blessing of the Lord upon His people, the proof that He would grant them power over their mighty foes by whom Israel was then oppressed. The woollen fleece represented the nation of Israel in its condition at this time, when God had given power to the foe that was devastating its land, and had withdrawn His blessing from Israel. The moistening of the fleece with the dew of heaven whilst the land all round continued dry, was a sign that the Lord God would once more give strength to His people from on high, and withdraw it from the nations of the earth. Hence the second sign acquires the more general signification, that the Lord manifested himself even in the weakness and forsaken condition of his people, while the nations were flourishing all around' (O. v. Gerl.) . . . ."157
Did God intend the dew, the fleece, and the ground to represent these things? Whether He did or not it is clear that these two miraculous demonstrations of God's presence and power strengthened Gideon's faith. Gideon was now ready to lead the Israelites against their foes.
Note four things that God used to prepare Gideon in this chapter. First, Gideon met the preincarnate Christ. Second, he committed himself to following Yahweh. Third, he obeyed the Lord by taking a public stand for Him relying on His promises. Fourth, the Holy Spirit gave Gideon supernatural power. When the people God calls to Himself respond positively by committing themselves to Him and standing up for Him, He strengthens their faith so He can use them in greater ways. His ability can overcome the inability of His servants if they rely on His promises even though their faith may be weak.
"All the judges except Abimelech countered a foreign threat, but only in the case of Gideon is there an extensive personal interaction between the judge and the Lord. This observation suggests that the narrative provides more than simply a victory account for future generations of Israel's defeat of Midian. While it is true that Samson offered up a few quick prayers, only in the case of Gideon is there a focus on the judge's faith and his coming to grips with the Lord's call on his life."158
Presumably God willingly gave Gideon the signs of the fleece because He knew the command He would give him to reduce his army would stretch his faith to its limit. The Israelite soldiers numbered only 32,000 (or 32 units, v. 3) while the Midianites and their allies fielded about 135,000 warriors (or 135 units, 8:10).
God revealed His purpose in reducing Israel's army clearly. He wanted everyone to recognize that the victory was His work rather than Israel's (v. 2).
"Judges 7:2 is one of the most important verses in the Bible for understanding God's principles of spiritual warfare. God is not interested in simply giving His people victory. He is concerned with teaching us trust. In fact, if our victories make us self-reliant, they are ultimately more disastrous than defeat."159
In the law Moses had said that the Israelites should not force the fearful to go into battle (Deut. 20:8). God reminded Gideon to give any who were afraid the opportunity to go home, which he did (v. 3). However the large number that deserted him, more than two out of three, must have shocked Gideon. Then God said that even the remaining 10,000 soldiers (or 10 units) were too many (v. 4).
The normal way to drink from a stream was to get down on one's hands and knees and put his mouth to the water. This is what most of the soldiers did. A smaller number simply remained standing or kneeled, reached down, dipped one hand into the water, and brought the water to their lips. God told Gideon that he should send the majority home and that He would deliver Israel with the 300 men who remained. That made the ratio of Midianite and Israelite soldiers 450 to one (assuming elephmeans "thousand"here). It is not clear whether God's test and choice were arbitrary having no other significance than that most people drank in one way and fewer in the other. Possibly God designed the test to distinguish the more alert soldiers from the less alert.160Getting down on all fours leaves one more vulnerable than if one remains upright while drinking. Another possibility is that God intended to identify the least likely to succeed, those who had so little self-confidence that they kept an eye out for the enemy while they drank.161
"I suggest that the lapping by the 300 like dogs symbolizes a lapping of the enemy's blood."162
The text does not enable us to understand God's motive certainly. Simple obedience is what He required.
Note that before God told Gideon to let the larger group of soldiers go home He gave him a promise that He would deliver Israel with the 300 remaining warriors. This promise undoubtedly encouraged Gideon's faith.
God then commanded Gideon to prepare for battle that very night (v. 9). He offered the judge a further sign that He would be victorious, and Gideon immediately seized it. God did not rebuke Gideon's normal fear of going into battle against such overwhelming odds. Instead He strengthened his faith.
"Gideon is no fearless all-pro linebacker, no General Patton and John Wayne rolled into one huge ball of true grit.
"We sometimes dupe ourselves into thinking that a real servant of Christ is only someone who is dynamic, assured, confident, brash, fearless, witty, adventuresome, or glamorous--with one or two appearances on a Christian television network. Don't think you are unusable because you don't have that air about you. Christ takes uncertain and fearful folk, strengthens their hands in the oddest ways, and makes them able to stand for him in school or home or work."163
"Gideon's request with the fleece reflected war in his heart: he was fearful and lacked faith. Interestingly the reduction of Gideon's army in the structure of the text falls precisely between his unfounded request for a fleece and God's exposure of his fear. Therefore the reduction of the army was not so much intended to glorify God (by demonstrating His ability to deliver with only 300) as it was to put Gideon in a position where his fear would be exposed. The very thing Gideon had hoped to achieve by the fleece demonstration--some kind of self-assurance that things would turn out well--was the very carpet' that God pulled out from beneath him. Gideon sought to gain some security by his self-conceived sign with the fleece, and though God acquiesced to that request, He immediately countered by putting Gideon in an even more vulnerable position. If Gideon struggled to trust God with 32,000 Israelites against a Midianite force of 135,000 (see 8:10), how would he react when he had only a force of 300? In this light the words of God in 7:10 take on great significance."164
On the outskirts of the Midianite camp Gideon and his servant heard two enemy soldiers conversing. One soldier was relating a dream he had had to his friend. The writer probably included the reference to the apparently innumerable Midianite enemy (v. 12) to emphasize the greatness of the victory God gave His people.
"Dreams were considered of great importance in ancient times, especially if the dreamer was a man of rank or authority, for the gods were conceived to make known their will or desires by this means. Every dream was believed to be capable of interpretation, though this was, of course, the point where difficulties arose."165
Yahweh obviously sent this dream.
The Midianite soldier derived his interpretation of his friend's dream from the symbolism in the dream. Barley bread was the food of the poor and would have been the staple of the Israelites under the conditions they had to endure during Midian's oppression. The tent was the home of all the Midianite, Amalekite, and Arabian Bedouins. The soldiers had obviously heard of Gideon and his plans to engage them in battle. They therefore concluded that the unlikely destruction of the tent by a mere loaf of barley bread signified Gideon's destruction of their forces.
"What Gideon sought to gain by the sign of the fleece was brought to nil. So he had to go back to the choice to believe God's promise simply because God had spoken. . . . The irony is stunning: hearing the promise directly from the Lord did not convince Gideon, but hearing it from the Midianite soldier did."166
Upon hearing this interpretation Gideon received courage to believe that God would indeed grant him victory (v. 15).
"No character in the book receives more divine assurance than Gideon and no one displays more doubt. Gideon is, significantly, the only judge to whom God speaks directly, though this privilege does not allay his faintheartedness."167
Gideon's strategy was so effective that the Lord must have revealed it to him, though the text does not state this. Almost equally amazing is that fact that Gideon's 300 followers obeyed his bizarre instructions. This too had to have been from the Lord. The three companies of Israelites may not have completely encircled the enemy. Nevertheless the presence of three widely separated groups of soldiers gave the Midianites the impression that a very large number of Israelites was out there in the dark. The trumpets were rams horns that the Israelite soldiers tied around their necks. The empty pitchers concealed and protected the torches until the soldiers broke them. The light from the torches combined with the noise of the breaking pitchers, the blowing of trumpets that made each soldier sound like a company commander, and the shouting of the soldiers. All this led the sleepy Midianites to conclude that a vast host of Israelite warriors surrounded them.
"Gideon had moved from fear to faith, and that is precisely the point of the section 6:33-7:18. . . .
"The textual patterning of the Gideon narrative is carefully composed to highlight not the deliverance from Midian but the change that transpired in Gideon's heart, and it is precisely there that the greatest theological lesson in these chapters is found. The fear in Gideon's heart held him back from being able to trust the promise God had given about his delivering Israel from the Midianites. To overcome this deficiency in Gideon's life, God uniquely worked to expose the problem of fear in his life and to bring him to a point of worship and faith. Then and only then was Gideon ready to lead Israel in battle. . . . Furthermore all the struggles in the book result from a lack of faith. This struggle is most fully spelled out in the Gideon narrative, which accords with this event (his religious struggle) being put in the very center of the book.
". . . the narrator leaves the reader with a penetrating message: God must bring His servant to a moment when all human confidence is stripped away, he sits silently in humble adoration of his God as the One who is totally sufficient against all odds to accomplish His divine will. Then and only then is he ready to move forward to taste God's victory, though that victory is no more secure or certain than before."168
