Gideons Battle with Trumpets and Lamps

Gideon's Battle With Trumpets and Lamps
Judges 7:8-25

In our stories of Gideon so far, we learned how the angel of the LORD appeared to him, how Gideon put out a fleece, and how the LORD gave him 300 men to go to battle.

And it happened that the LORD told Gideon "Arise, go down to the Midianites for I have delivered them into your hand. But if you are afraid to go down, go with your servant Phurah, and you shall hear what they say, and after that you shall be strengthened to go down to the enemy." And so Gideon and his servant Phurah, went down to the outside of the armed men that were with the Midianites. There were so many Midianites and Amalekites they could not be numbered...they were like the sand by the sea side.

When Gideon had come down, they heard a man who was telling a dream to his friend, about how a cake of barley bread fell into the Midianites, and fell into a tent so that the tent fell over. The man's friend told him that this was nothing else except the sword of Gideon because God had delivered Midian into Gideon's hand.

And so it was that when Gideon heard the dream and the explanation of the dream, he worshipped, and returned to the men of Israel and said "Arise, for the LORD has delivered into your hand the Midianites."

And he divided the 300 men into 3 companies, and he gave each man a trumpet and a pitcher with a lamp inside the pitcher. And he said to them "Look at me and do the same thing..when I come to the outside of the camp do what I do. When I blow with a trumpet, I and all that are with me, then you blow the trumpets also on every side of the camp and say "The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon."

So Gideon and the 100 men that were with him came to the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch of the night. They blew the trumpets, and broke the pitchers that were in their hands. And the three companies blew their trumpets, and broke the pitchers (with the lamp inside), and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands and they cried "The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon!"

And every man stood in his place around the camp; and all the Midianites ran and cried and fled. And the 300 men blew the trumpets, and the LORD set every man's sword (of the Midianites and the Amalekites) against each other and they all fled away. And the men of Israel gathered themselves together and pursued after the Midianites.

And Gideon sent messengers through all mount Ephraim saying "Come down against the Midianites... and all the men gathered themselves together and took two princes of the Midianites..one named Oreb and one named Ze'eb; and they killed Oreb upon the rock called Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the winepress of Ze'eb.. and they brought proof that they had killed the princes to Gideon on the other side of the Jordan River.

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Memory Verse: Judges 7:18 "When I blow with a trumpet, I and all that are with me, then blow ye the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say, The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon."

Questions:
1 What did the LORD tell Gideon to do if he was afraid to go down the the Midianites
2 When the man told his friend a dream, what did his friend say the meaning of the dream was?
3 What did Gideon give each of his 300 men?
4 Where did all of Gideon's men position themselves?
5 What did they do with the trumpet, the pitcher and the lamp?
6. What did God do to the Midianites and the Amalekites?

Answers:
1 He told Gideon to take his servant Phurah, and go down to the Midianites.
2 He said the dream was nothing else except the sword of Gideon because God had delivered Midian into Gideon's hand.
3 Around the outside of the camp of the enemy
4 They blew the trumpet, broke the pitcher with the lamp inside, and held the lamp in their left hands
5 the LORD set every man's sword against the other

Vicki C. Gross/February'05