Saturday - Judges 7 - Too Much Talent

God told Gideon that he had too many men to win (Judges 7:2). So, God used some wonderful criteria in whittling the numbers down. First, Gideon was instructed to send home everyone who would admit that they were frightened by the prospects of a battle ahead of them. He lost a whopping 2/3s of his pitiful army. By the way, that loss was particularly significant since Gideon was already way outnumbered. Gideon started with about 32,000 soldiers... compared to well over 100,000 Midianite enemies. After this initial thinning of Israel's assembled army, Gideon was outnumbered more than 10 to 1. Then, by means of a strange water drinking test, God cut the number of Jewish troops down even further; all the way down to 300.

His men went to war with trumpets, pitchers and lamps in their hands. When Gideon's men sounded their trumpets, broke their pitchers, shined their lights and shouted their victory cheer, the Midianites awakened in confusion and fled in fear. Many of them died in the ensuing chaos as they turned their swords on each other. Others were taken by additional Jewish soldiers who joined in the fray after the initial "trick" of God and Gideon.