Judges 7

(Judges 7) – Victory over Midian

God is jealous for His glory, and doesn’t share it with anyone.

That may seem like the practice of an egomaniac, but because God’s glory is the satisfaction of the human soul, to be jealous for His own glory is to be zealous for man’s joy.

When man fights for their own glory, it leads to a path of self-destruction. It will never bring true and lasting joy.

This goal of divine glorification is the motivation for sending 31,700 Israelite soldiers home right before a battle with Midian.

God wanted for the victory to be so obviously from Him that no human could take credit for it. No one could boast in God’s presence and truthfully make the declaration that they’d saved themselves.

Pride is a dangerous thing to play with, and God knows what terrible things can happen when a person thinks they have the ability to replace God.

So he gives Gideon 300 men, enough for them to know that it was only by divine deliverance that they experienced victory.

Gospel threads are all throughout the Bible. The story of redemption is consistent from Genesis to Revelation. And Judges is no different.

In a much larger sense, God has accomplished a victory on our behalf that can only be explained by His effort and power.

Jesus Christ came into the world in humility and died in like manner. The cross would never have otherwise been looked at as a tool for salvation.

But God takes unlikely people and unlikely circumstances and turns them into gloriously wonderful things.