Gideon and His Small Army

165. Why did God let the bad Midianites do bad things to His people? Because God’s people had disobeyed Him.
Was this kind of like God was spanking them? Yes.
Will God spank His people today when they don’t obey Him? Yes.

166. What were some of the bad things that the Midianites did to God’s people? They stole or destroyed their crops and their animals (sheep, oxen, cattle, etc).

167. What did God’s people do when they saw they were in trouble? They cried to the Lord.
Did the Lord hear them? Yes.
Will the Lord hear His people today when they cry to Him? Yes.

168. How did God help His people? He sent Gideon to defeat the Midianites.

169. Gideon wanted to make sure that the Lord was sending him. What kind of sign did he ask the Lord to show him? Tell about the test of the fleece in Judges 6:36-40.

170. Even at the first, the Midianites had about four times as many soldiers as God’s people, but God still said that His people had too many soldiers.
Why did God say this? If God’s people had won they would have said that they had done it themselves and would have forgotten God.

171. Many of Gideon’s soldiers went home and did not want to fight. Why? Because they were afraid.
Should we be afraid of our enemies? No.
Why not? Because if we are fighting God’s battle, He is on our side.

172. Some men of Gideon’s soldiers were sent home. Why? Because they did not lap water like a dog.
Why did the men who lapped water get to go to battle? They were very alert.

173. How many soldiers were left after this? Only three hundred.

174. What weapons did these men use? Trumpets, and lights hidden inside big pitchers.

175. How did they use these odd weapons to fight? When Gideon gave the signal they broke the pitchers so that the lights would shine. Then they blew on their trumpets and shouted, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon.”

176. What did the Midianites think when they saw all those lights and heard all that noise? They thought they were surrounded by millions of God’s people.

177. What did the Midianites do? They ran and, in the dark, they began to kill each other thinking they were killing God’s people.

178. Who won the battle that night? God’s people. Who really won the battle for them? God.

179. Will God win our battles for us today? Yes. What must we do? Trust God and obey Him.