Ready for Battle

Today I am reading about Gideon and his battle against the Midianites. Quick summary from Judges 6-7: The Israelites had continued to do evil in the Lord's sight so He gave them over to the Midianite's for 7 years during which they were cruelly oppressed. An angel came down to Gideon as he was threshing wheat and told him that the Lord was with him and he was to save Israel from Midian's hand. Gideon of course was dumbfounded as his clan was the weakest in Manasseh and he was the least in his family. (Sounds kind of similar to David.) Gideon goes on to defeat the huge Midianite army with only 300 men! He originally came with 32,000 men, but the Lord weeded out 31,700 in order to prove to the Israelites that it was God and God alone that won the battle. 

I love this verse-"The Lord answered, 'I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.'" Judges 6:16

God did not sent Gideon out to do a job by himself. He went with him! Defeating the Israelites was a seemingly impossible task, but God caused Gideon and his tiny army to triumph, and they did not even go into the battle with swords. They walked into the enemy's camp with trumpets and jars. It reminds me of the story of Joshua and the fall of Jericho. Joshua and his men were supposed to march around the walls of the city once per day for 6 days, then on the 7th day they were to blow their trumpets and shout. At this point, the wall collapsed. The Israelites did not even touch the wall. 

I don't know about you, but I would much rather be on God's team than on the enemy's team. There are too many events in history that speak of God's power and the enemy's defeat. When God calls us He also equips us.