It'd been a long day and longer evening. The meeting that night had been arduous. The cool, gray, misty conditions only added to the craving for some restful slumber. As my exhausted Sr. Pastor arrived home that evening he draped his top coat over the corner of his bedroom door, slipped into his pj's and crawled into bed. Later the night he was awakened by a loud noise. As he peered around the darkened room without the aid of his glasses, he saw the back of an intruder leaving his bedroom in a top coat. He leaped from his bed to attack the intruder. BANG! The cut, so prominently displayed on his forehead the next day, was from hitting the corner of his bedroom door. He had attempted to tackle his own coat hanging right where he'd left it. The loud noise? Turned out to be a clasp of thunder.
Ever awakened from a deep sleep startled or not known where you were? Takes a minute to get oriented. That's the scene in the valley of Jezreel as Gideon and his 300 men broke their clay jars that concealed their lit torches, blew their trumpets and began shouting their victory cheer. Awakened by the sounds of battle echoing across the hills, 120,000 enemy troops slew each other while the remaining 15,000 fled in fear. The interesting thing, Gideon and his measley 300 men never had to raise a sword. All they did was to shine their lights, blow their intruments and shout praise and glory to God.
God isn't without humor in all this. When the Angel of the Lord came to find Gideon, Gideon was cowering in a wine press terrified of his enemies. The Angel of the Lord addressed Gideon at that moment as "mighty warrior." Now that's funny! The rest of us would have called him what he was, "chicken." But that's the point of the story. God takes inept men and puts them up against insurmountable odds and then hands them the victory.
Gideon's victory came not from his abilities, ingenuity, resources, determination or anything else. It came from the hand of God that was unleashed when Gideon and his friends obeyed God and praised God. Wouldn't it be great if all you had to do when you faced an overwhelming, impossible problem was follow God's lead and sing praise in shouts of adoration. Makes me want to break out my guitar right now.
God, I know my obedience to you is the key to personal victory. I don't understand why I don't surrender more of my earthly battles to you. Trusting you and giving you praise in the heat of battle isn't easy. Keep a song of praise on my lips as I go through this day. I give you my life and praise you for the victory.
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