Links for today’s readings:
Read: Judges 7 Listen: (4:39) Read: Titus 2 Listen: (2:01)
Scripture Focus: Judges 7.19-22
19 Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guard. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands. 20 The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars. Grasping the torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpets they were to blow, they shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” 21 While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out as they fled. 22 When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the Lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords.
Reflection: Swords for the Lord?
By John Tillman
The Spartans had 300 defenders. The Alamo had less than 300. Gideon had 300 fighters. The similarities, however, end there. The differences are very important.
“This is Sparta!” became a catchphrase and meme following the film 300. The film depicted the Spartan’s battle at Thermopylae as a catalytic event inspiring Greece to resist the Persian invasion.
“Remember the Alamo!” echoes in Texans’ hearts. Depictions include the 1960 film starring John Wayne and 2004’s starring Dennis Quaid and Billy Bob Thornton. The Alamo is portrayed as a heroic battle that delayed and significantly reduced Santa Anna’s forces, contributing to his defeat.
The glory of Sparta and the Alamo goes to the defenders for being so few and so brave and for sacrificing so much. Now…just imagine if they had won! We already have films and songs celebrating them. If they’d won, they’d be practically godlike.
God had no intention of making Gideon or his fighters into glorious heroes. He had the exact opposite purpose. God sent home 31,700 fighters so that it would be impossible for 300 to claim victory by their own strength.
Israel’s war cry was “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon,” however, Gideon’s fighters weren’t holding swords when they said it. Each had a trumpet in one hand and a torch in the other. The people holding swords were the enemy. The Midianites had just changed guards, so two shifts of sword-wielding soldiers saw the torches and heard the trumpets and shouts.
The “swords for the Lord” that routed the Midianites were the ones in their own hands. God threw them into confusion so that they fought and killed each other while Gideon and his men watched and chased down those who fled.
There are many times when believers are called to bravery in the face of violence. We are often called to take our stand against innumerable or unconquerable foes saying, “We must obey God rather than human beings!” (Acts 5.29) But, like Gideon’s forces, we rarely (if ever) draw the sword. The sword is for the Lord, not for us.
Christians win battles by shining the light of truth, sounding the trumpet of the gospel, and praising the God who calls all to his mercy and grace.
Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
You, O Lord, shall give strength to your people; the Lord shall give his people that blessing of peace. — Psalm 29.11
– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle
Read more: In the Face of the Impossible
Every hero and heroine of the Bible does more than he would have thought it possible to do, from Gideon, to Esther, to Mary.”
Read more: Of Pride and The Sword
In scripture the sword is not inanimate. The sword is hungry, with an appetite to devour individuals, races, nations, kings, and empires.