Gideon and the Bad Dream

Judges Chapter 7

"God uses unexpected means. If I wanted to upset a tent, I certainly would not try to overturn it by a barley cake! If I had to cannonade an encampment, I should not bombard it with biscuits!" - Charles Spurgeon

Think about the ways you might try to win a war. . .big guns, bombs, planes, soldiers, tanks, etc.  Now think about the opposite, if you were going to lose a war in epic-ridiculous fashion, how would you do it?  Say you were invading Normandy, you might ride in on the backs of narwhals or uniturtles, launching cats with the t-shirt cannons they have at football games.  Or you could drop wiffle-balls from a hot air balloon.  Whatever ridiculous means you choose could not possibly be crazier than what God does to the Midianites.  

Gideon just sent 9,700 soldiers back to their tents.  In the moment he was obedient, but a few hours later, he had to be wondering if he was insane.  Gideon is a little bit of a scaredy-cat, and this time God doesn't even wait a day to boost his confidence.  He tells Gideon to take his best servant, sneak into the Midianite camp and listen.  

"That same night the Lord said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand.  But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant.  And you shall hear what they say, and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.”  Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outposts of the armed men who were in the camp. And the Midianites and the Amalekites and lall the people of the East lay along the valley like locusts in abundance, and their camels were without number, as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance."  

When we think of spying, we think of men dressed in black, sneaking stealthily into a high security area.  But more likely, Gideon and Purah, after a debate about who would be the head and who would be the tail, put on a camel costume to sneak into the camp.  Seriously, the camp sounds like a zoo, and while they had to be careful, sneaking in didn't seem to be much trouble or scare the skittish Gideon very much. 

One more thought on the spying mission; it really does strike me that there is no hesitation on Gideon's part to sneak into the enemy camp.  I think part of it may be due to the close ethnic proximity the people had to the Midianites.  The Jews were supposed to keep separate and not marry foreigners, but that didn't happen.  Kinda like Auburn and Alabama fans, they hated each other and fought a lot, but an outsider looking at them probably couldn't tell the difference.  Also, they had to have spoken common languages, or more likely be bilingual.  Gideon and Purah did understand what the enemy guards were saying after all.  

When Gideon came, behold, a man was telling a dream to his comrade. And he said, “Behold, I dreamed a dream, and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat.”  

"What's so great about a barley cake?  To be honest, nothing.  Being a barley cake kinda sucks." http://meredithnicoleroberts.blogspot.com/?m=1

Remember when you chose your ridiculous weapon for war?  How many of you chose pita bread or rice cakes?  This would probably be on the same level of fearsomeness.  

The barley cake wasn't some 7-layer cake in the shape of the Millineum Falcon (sorry, we watch a lot of cake boss), it was probably more like a glorified ritz cracker. 

Why on earth would someone have a nightmare about a ritz cracker or a barley cake?  Barley was the grain for the poor and sometimes the animals.  It was inexpensive, but it probably didn't taste very good (ever had Kashi?).  If you're a hungry soldier in a vast army with camels as many as grains of sand on the seashore eating nothing but gross barley cakes every day, you might have nightmares about it too.  

A couple of other thoughts: God is in control of everything and he can use anything to accomplish his purposes.  God is winning a war with a barley cake. . .an imaginary barley cake!!  God also can perform Jedi mind tricks, planting dreams (see Jacob's ladder), hardening hearts (see Pharaoh).  Think about it, God has control over the entire universe, he made us and made our minds.  Is it so far-fetched to think that he still might use our minds for his good plans?

Paul says we have the "mind of Christ," literally, when we believe, we receive the Holy Spirit, the spirit of God, which influences our thoughts and actions.  1 Corinthians 2:16. Humans are a sinful, quick to forget God and go our own way and we are doomed left on our own.  But "it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure".  Philippians 2:13.  God is literally at work in the hearts and minds of believers, just as he was at work in the Midianite soldiers.  Seriously, you thought George Lucas invented Jedi mind control?  Nope, that was God.  

"And his comrade answered, 'This is no other than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given into his hand Midian and all the camp"'. 

God plants the dream, and he also plants a little paranoia in the other soldier.  If your friend had a weird dream about a ritz cracker, what would you tell them?  "Don't worry, it's just a dream!".  You wouldn't scream: "AAAaAaaHHHH!  The ritz cracker is nuclear North Korea and America is the tent!!  Life as we know it will end today!!".  But that's pretty much what the soldier thinks; the barley cake is Gideon's sword and we're all going to die!  He is right of course, as we will soon see.

"As soon as Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped".  

Right on!  The point of this war is to remind people how awesome God is.  Presbyterians say that our humans exist so that we can worship God; that when we worship, we are doing what we were created to do.  When something amazing happens, be like Gideon and thank God for it!  Sing, dance, pray, write him a thank you note, post it on Facebook. . ."the Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with joy".  

"And he returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Arise, for the Lord has given the host of Midian into your hand.”  And he divided the 300 men into three companies and put trumpets into the hands of all of them and empty jars, with torches inside the jars. And he said to them, “Look at me, and do likewise. When I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do. When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp and shout, 'For the Lord and for Gideon.’ ” 

So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set the watch. And they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands.  Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held in their left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow. And they cried out, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!”  Every man stood in his place around the camp, and all the army ran. They cried out and fled.  When they blew the 300 trumpets, the Lord set severy man’s sword against his comrade and against all the army. And the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath."

"For the Lord and for Gideon," the army shouts.  They might well have cried, "Let the wild rumpus begin!".  Gideon's army is creating a killer illusion, using sound and light to scare the fiddle-faddle out of the Midianite army.  Essentially they create a burning, trumpeting earthquake!  

The trumpet, to Miles Davis's disappointment, is not a brass instrument with finger presses.  It is a shofar, a ram's horn, and gives a huge sound like in Star Wars (the Ewoks had shofars) or Lord of the rings (Boromir).  Blowing the 300 shofars at once would have made a tremendous ruckus, reverberating around the valley.  Awesome!!  

What's up with the torches in jars?  They weren't glass mason jars, they were some sort of clay pot, and keeping the torches inside hid the light and reduced the flame.  Pretty genius idea, they couldn't stand there and pass around a lighter until all 300 torches were lit, that would take forever.  I figure they just dropped the jars at the right time, creating a massive BOOM and a resulting fireball as oxygen hit the torches and the flame exploded.  Voila, flaming earthquake!  No one in Gideon's army had eyebrows, but aside from that setback this was a genius plan.  

Being a barley cake kinda sucks, but being a jar of clay is amazing.  Look at what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians:

"For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”a made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." 2 Corintians 4:6-7

When I was little, my dad brought back a terra cotta oil lamp from the holy land.  It was a cute little thing, kind of like it you rubbed it a wee genie would pop out and grant your wishes.  I think it's a combination of this lamp and the song "this little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine," that gave me the image I had of Paul's verse; a little pot with a couple cracks in it from which light glowed.  The light I pictures is little, cute, and soothing, like a night light.  After readingGideon's story, I'm certain I was wrong.

We are fragile clay jars, but we have a fireball inside us, the knowledge of Jesus.  We are on first name basis with the creator of the universe, the one who created light.  Jesus is brilliant, blinding, and beautiful - all of heaven is illuminated by the light that comes from him.  Revelation 21:23. Likewise God the Father is radiant and radioactive (luminactive if I can create a new word).  After Moses spent time with God, he glowed so bright he had to put a bag over his head so the Israelites wouldn't go blind when they looked at him.

Seriously though, we are nobodies.  We are scared Gideons, we are dog-lappers, we are earthenware jars - when we fall, we burst into a thousand pieces.  But we have the torch of Christ in us.  We know the glory of God because we Have seen it in Jesus's death and resurrection.  This all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.  God can win a war with three hundred men; jars, torches, trumpets, and not a single sword!  He can win a war with an imaginary barley cake.  He can make light out of darkness, and He has placed the light of the world inside of us, and he will make us explode so Jesus shines!

Old Testament stories are so vitally important because they give us a picture of who God is and we are.  What we see and think are so often the exact opposite of what we find in scripture. . .the kingdom of heaven is a kingdom of opposites where the weak are strong, the poor are rich, the unloved are loved; where a God who can do absolutely anything chooses loving us as his greatest ambition. "How deep the Father's love for us, how vast beyond all measure; that he should give his only son to make a wretch his treasure". 

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

"Oh for a little heavenly eye salve to touch our eyes that we may perceive the Presence of the Lord in all things! Then shall we see the mountain to be full of horses of fire and chariots of fire round about the Prophets of the Lord. The stars in their courses are fighting for the cause of God! Our allies are everywhere. God will summon them at the right moment." Spurgeon


Gideon and Midian - Part 1

Gideon and the Fleece - Part 2

Gideon and the 300 Fools - Part 3