cavalry commander in the American Civil Wars and the Indian Wars. Today he is remembered for the
disastrous military engagement known as the Battle of the Little Bighorn on the 25th of June 1876,
where he died along with 260 soldiers, all of them, the whole company was wiped out,
included Custer, his two brothers, a nephew, so a bunch of his family members were killed there as
well. This is a man who had quite humble origins. He was born into a poor and obscure family somewhere
in the Midwest. Throughout his life, Custer was known as someone to test the boundaries
and the rules consistently. In his four years as a West Point cadet, he amassed a record.
This day, it's a record to this day. It's a record of 726 demerit points.
The worst conduct recorded in the history of the academy. And during his rocky tenure at the academy,
Custer came close to expulsion on every single year he was there due to the excessive amounts of his
demerits. There were 34 cadets in his year at West Point and at graduation, he ranked number 34.
This is a man who had origins, both humble origins, both in life and in his career.
During the American Civil War, he was regarded by soldiers as a great leader, always willing to do
the toughest jobs. His reputation spread at the age of 23. He became the youngest major general in
American military history. And it was during his rise to fame as a leader that he fell in love with
publicity of himself, about himself. For those who knew him, those who served under him or with him,
particularly in his latter years, he became known for his vanity and his desire for personal glory.
Some historians even suggest that it's because of his pride and his vanity and his desire for personal
glory that 260 men died with him at the little bighorn. All too often, this is the case, is it not,
where success leads to pride, leads to boasting, it leads to conceit, it leads to downfall.
Boasting, encouraging others, and in fact, even our own hearts, to give us glory,
is opposed to, and even saps life out of true faith. Conceit, being hungry for honour and glory,
is the cousin of boasting. So there's three things I want us to see today in this text. I want to see,
first of all, the strength in weakness. I want to see, secondly, triumphant weakness. And thirdly,
how to finish with triumphant weakness. So firstly, strength in weakness. Judges 6, as we saw last week,
Gideon is chosen by God to save Israel from the Midianites, who have been oppressing them for seven
years. At the beginning of chapter 7, we now get battle time, and two armies are facing each other off.
Before he goes into battle, God wants to teach Gideon and the rest of his people,
who actually deserves glory for the salvation that they're about to receive.
And it starts with advice that Gideon gets in verse 2, and you won't find this advice in any
military manual. Now, this is the verse that interprets the rest of chapter 7 and into chapter 8.
God's people will either praise God for their victory, or they will praise, they will boast in
themselves. Gideon will either give the honour to his Lord, or he will seek it for himself.
Human nature is such that if there is the tiniest opportunity for us to boast in our own work,
we will. Notice that God says in verse 2, that any such boasting is against me.
As soon as we begin to believe that we deserve the credit for rescuing or for delivering ourselves,
what we do in that moment is we take glory from God for delivering us, a glory that he deserves
alone. And as soon as we rob glory from God, it's called idolatry.
And we set ourselves up as alternative saviors. And this has to be the greatest spiritual danger
there is, that we should believe that we can save ourselves or have saved ourselves in any way.
And Christianity is so clear on this. Salvation is by God's gracious action.
We don't earn it with our own actions at all. And so what God does here is he reduces the number of
soldiers because he knows that the men are too many. There's too many for Israel to see clearly
where the praise and the glory is going to go for the victory that's about to come.
And so God decreases their numbers in two ways. Firstly, Gideon says that anyone here
anyone here at all who's too scared to fight, you can go home. And that shaves his army by two thirds.
22,000 go home.
You know, imagine being the first person. That's me, guys. I'm out of here.
Imagine being the one, you know, walking home to your family, to your community, and they're thinking,
what, it's over already? Nah, it's not over yet. I was just too scared. So I've just come home.
And imagine being there when the rest who do fight the battle come home.
Like, you know, pin a yellow ribbon on them all.
These guys publicly admit that they have no heart for the battle.
But 10,000 who were either too scared to go home or too scared to stay.
The 10,000 stayed anyway.
And in verse 4, that's still too many.
And so the second group were sent home after, well, for obscure reasons.
The way that they drank water.
Now, the text does not say why God picked the drinking test.
It isn't about the quality of the fighting men.
The first test potentially was, if you're too scared, go home because you're useless to us anyway.
But the second test was not about the quality of the fighting men.
And they separate out 9,700 who knelt down and put their mouths to the water to drink.
The 300 who cut the water into their hands, these are the ones chosen for the battle.
And if you're one of the 300, you have to go, oh my goodness.
We start the day with 32,000 men.
And now we've got 300, a reduction of over 99% of our numbers.
And the reduction in numbers, as verse 2 says, is that they will not boast about the victory.
Gideon and the army with him should look back and say, oh, this is clear.
This victory is clearly God's, not mine.
My only part in this was to trust and obey.
The glory is God's.
The privilege is mine.
God has allowed me, allowed us to be part of what he's doing.
It's our privilege, but the glory is his.
And the rest of Israel, including the 31,700 who went home, should praise God.
We weren't even there.
God rescued us without us even doing anything.
Praise God.
We see this principle of salvation right through the book of Judges,
and we see it in the rest of the Bible.
God's power is most clearly displayed through weakness.
In 2 Corinthians 12, the apostle Paul has been privileged with a vision of heaven.
And yet he suffers from what he calls a thorn in the flesh,
a messenger of Satan that was sent to torment me.
And Paul pleads with God several times to take it away, but God doesn't do it.
And he doesn't do it.
And Paul says, this is the reason why he didn't do it.
In order to keep me from becoming conceited because of the vision of greatness and splendor that I saw.
In other words, God is keeping Paul from being hungry for his own honor,
hungry for his own glory, boasting about his own strength, his own experiences.
And so therefore he has this thorn.
And Paul learns here in 2 Corinthians what God wants Gideon to learn,
what he wants his 300 to learn, what he wants Israel to learn,
what he wants us to learn.
It's in 2 Corinthians 12 verse 9.
God's power is most clearly displayed in our weakness, our frailty.
And Paul went on to write this,
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly because of my weaknesses,
so that Christ's power may rest on me.
That is why for Christ's sake I delight in weaknesses,
in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.
For when I am weak, then I am strong.
God does not work despite our weaknesses, but because of our weaknesses.
He says that his saving power does not work when we are strong or when we think we're strong,
but rather when we are weak and when we know that we are weak.
So let me just push that point a little bit further and tease out some principles.
This is so important because we exist in a culture which is hungry for power.
It's a success-driven culture that is hungry for power.
Firstly, this principle is the basis of salvation in the Christian faith.
We cannot be saved if we think that we are good and we are able.
God's saving power only works on us when we admit that we are not worthy.
We have got no goodness in ourselves.
It also explains how repentance works in the Christian life.
It is only as we repent and express sorrow over sin and failures before God
that his love and his grace become so much more precious to us,
so much more real for us.
If someone says to you, or says to me,
Hey Steve, I've paid a debt for you.
I don't know how overjoyed I should be in that moment
until I understand which debt it is and how big it is.
You see, jumping up at a cafe and paying for my coffee
and coming back and say I've just paid for everything,
well, that's fantastic.
That does not compare to the hugs from me
and the kisses you'll receive from me
if you've just paid out my entire mortgage.
There's a different level of gratitude at that point.
Always grateful for you to buy me a coffee,
but the bigger we understand our debt to be,
the greater the joy in its payment will be.
It is only as we see our weakness and our frailty
and our failure and our sin
that the strength of knowing God's grace and his love comes to us.
Jesus made the same point, Luke 7 verse 47,
where someone who thinks there is little in them that needs forgiving
will in fact love little.
And this is the principle on display here in Judges 7.
Gideon and Israel with him were going to be tempted
to put their confidence in their fighting men,
but God removes virtually all of them
so that they will trust in God in new ways.
As they prepare to fight the Midianite army
and look around at the 300,
just a few extra than what's sitting in this room,
they should feel weak.
They should feel extremely weak.
In the same way we should feel weak
when we look at the mission field that God has given us
and the many number of people that are yet to know Christ.
They will only go into battle if they know
that while they are weak,
so is the strongest army against their God.
So secondly, triumphant weakness.
It's at this point,
as Gideon is grappling with his weakness,
that God gives Gideon assurance of victory.
It's such wonderful thoughtfulness at this point
that the sovereign God here says to Gideon in verse 10,
if you are afraid to attack,
which I'd imagined you would be in this moment,
go down to the camp with your servant,
servant Pera,
and listen to what they are saying,
and afterwards you'll be encouraged to attack the camp.
So he heads down to the camp
and the first sight of this camp
must have been terrifying.
Verse 12,
the Midianites,
the Amalekites,
and all their mates from the eastern peoples
have settled in the valley
and thick as locusts,
their camels could no more be counted
than the sand on the seashore.
He's like,
well, that's good.
We've got 300.
And it's of no coincidence at all
that he sets up,
you know,
in the darkness beside the tent of a Midianite
who's just woken up from a nightmare.
A loaf of bread
has just rolled through the camp
and flattened the tents.
Nightmare stuff.
Like,
can you just imagine it?
No kid of mine
has ever run into my bedroom
crying with tears.
I've just been attacked
by a loaf of bread.
I mean,
this guy's
just so scared
of a loaf of bread
on a rampage
and he's woken his mate up
and his mate wakes up
and goes,
oh my goodness,
that must be Gideon.
Gideon.
The loaf of bread
must be Gideon.
What?
How did you make that connection?
Should be his next question.
the Midianites
would have been
no more concerned
of 32,000 men
than they would be
of a loaf of bread.
These are the 32,000 men
who they've oppressed
beautifully for seven years.
Why would they be scared of them?
unless God has put fear
in their hearts.
God's working on them as well.
It reveals something
very significant.
Underneath
underneath
the armor
of this vast army
are trembling hearts
fearful hearts
weak hearts
and Gideon
has heard
the assurance
of God
through the
oddest of channels
and now we see
Gideon
in his
finest moment.
This is him
in his finest moment
in all three chapters
of Judges.
He's on his knees
in worship.
This is
his
Gethsemane moment.
He's now
surrendered
to the will of God.
He goes back
to his men
with this message
in verse 15.
Get up.
The Lord
has given
the Midianite camp
into your hands.
Notice two things
about that statement.
Notice he doesn't say
my hand
God promised him
I'm going to give
the Midianite army
into your hand
and now he says
it's not my hand
it's your hands.
He wants
his men
these 300
to have
the same confidence
that he has
in this God.
And secondly
that confidence
is in the fact
that God
has given
them into his hands.
It's past tense.
The battle
has been won
even though
the fight
has yet to begin.
the plan
is executed.
The chosen
weapons
are
torches
in
jars
of clay
and horns.
That's it.
Jar of clay
throw a torch
in there
put a light
in the jar
of clay
and a horn
to make a racket.
they surrounded
the camp
and the 300
blew their horns
they smashed
their jars
of clay
the lamps
illuminated
and the
Midians
ran
out
crying out
in fear
and it says
in verse 22
that the Lord
caused
there to be
such a panic
in the darkness
that they
were killing
each other.
How many
men
did the 300
kill?
Not a single
one.
Not a single
one.
None of them
could return
home and say
hey did you
see me
you know
with my sword
and how
skilled I was
with it.
None of them
could go home
and cry about
what they've done
but only
what they had
watched God
do in that
moment
with this
vast army.
This is God's
battle
and he alone
claimed the
victory.
Gideon is
mentioned
in Hebrews
chapter 11
verses 32
to 34
as a man
of faith.
That's what he's
known for
as a man
of faith
and this
is the most
impressive
thing about
Gideon.
When Gideon
rises from
his knees
after hearing
the dream
that the
enemy
of his
enemy
hasn't
he hasn't
seen
God do
anything at
this point.
He hasn't
seen a
Midianite
die.
He has
however seen
the awesome
power of
God
and he
isn't afraid
anymore
in that
moment.
and he
is set
free
to attempt
the
impossible
relying
on the
promise
of God
alone.
As
Hebrews
11 says
of Gideon
weakness
was turned
to strength
who became
powerful in
battle
and routed
foreign
armies.
His
weakness
was turned
to strength
by faith
in the
sovereign
saving
God.
Now this
whole
passage in
Judges 7
has so
many arms
into the
New Testament
but it
does recall
to me
one
to mind
one passage
that's in
fact encouraging
Christians
to not
lose heart
when they
see their
weakness
to
Corinthians
4
for what
we preach
is not
ourselves
but Jesus
Christ
as Lord
and
ourselves
as your
servants
for Jesus
sake
for God
who said
let light
shine out of
darkness
made his
light shine
in our
hearts
to give
us the
light of
the knowledge
of God's
glory
displayed in
the face
of Christ
God's
but we
have this
treasure
in
jars
of clay
to show
that this
all
surpassing
power
is from
God
and not
of
ourselves
now I
don't know
whether
Paul had
Judges 7
in mind
when he
wrote
that
but
it
resonates
with it
these
verses
are about
the fight
that the
Christian
is involved
in
one that
we will
lose
heart
if we
rely upon
our own
power
and our
own
strength
and our
own
enabling
instead of
God's
enabling
and God
uses the
same
strategy
here
strength
in
weakness
we
are
according
to 2
Corinthians
the
breakable
jar
clays
with
something
precious
on the
inside
it's
the
light
that
shines
in
the
darkness
that
expels
the
darkness
it's
the
light
of
the
knowledge
of
God's
glory
displayed
in
the
face
of
Christ
the
magnificence
of
God's
glory
is
displayed
in
the
face
of
Christ
and
that
glory
is
displayed
in
all
its
brilliance
when
Jesus
is
on
the
cross
in
all
his
weakness
there's
nothing
impressive
about
the
Lord
Jesus
as
Isaiah
tells
us
he
came
into
this
world
in
obscurity
he
was
rejected
and
maligned
by
virtually
everyone
accused
of
wrongdoing
died
the
death
of
a
hardened
criminal
he
who
as
we
seen
often
around
Christmas
time
he
who
hung
the
starry
skies
surrendered
his
hands
to
cruel
nails
he
who
wore
the
crown
as
creator
and ruler
of all
allowed
a
crude
crown
of
thorns
to be
twisted
and
placed
on
his
head
mocked
with
the
words
you
who
saved
others
save
yourself
in
other
words
display
your
strength
and
save
yourself
and
the
great
irony
is
that
if
he
had
chosen
strength
over
weakness
in
that
moment
we
would
be
the
ones
who
would
be
crushed
placed
in a
tomb
but on
the
third
day
rose
triumphant
and he
now
has
the
name
as
Philippians
2
says
it
is
above
every
name
every
name
and
everyone
will
one
day
surrender
to
this
lamb
who
sits
on
the
throne
of
the
universe
as
2
corinthians
13
3
and 4
say
jesus
was
crucified
in
weakness
but he
lives
by the
power
of
god
now
strength
in
weakness
is the
gospel
the
son
of
god
who
laid
aside
all
of
his
glory
surrendered
himself
to
death
for
our
sakes
displays
the
magnificent
glory
of god
to
this
world
the
great
encouragement
of these
verses
in 2
corinthians
4
is that
this
god
uses
weakness
he
uses
weary
people
he
uses
ordinary
jars
of clay
to
display
to
this
world
the
light
of the
glory
of god
in the
face
of christ
our
weakness
is not
a
hindrance
weakness
is the
way of
the
gospel
and
2
corinthians
calls
christians
in the
midst
of
a
world
where
they're
seeing
the
gospel
rejected
do
not
lose
heart
do
not
lose
heart
in the
vision
in the
mission
let us
press
on in
the
task
of
proclaiming
christ
as
lord
out
of
hearts
of
love
and
lives
of
service
while
looking
to
god
to
push
out
darkness
with
the
light
of
the
glory
of
the
gospel
of
the
lord
jesus
in
the
hearts
of
so
many
losing
heart
is
where
we
forget
the
gospel
where
we
forget
that
we
are
weak
and
unimpressive
and
the
real
treasure
is
the
gospel
of
the
lord
jesus
christ
losing
heart
is
starting
to
think
more
of
ourselves
and
less
of
the
gospel
starting
to claim
victory
for
ourselves
starting
to be
impressed
with
ourselves
and
so
thirdly
finishing
in
triumphant
weakness
it's
calling
us
to
finish
our
course
in
triumphant
weakness
and
it's
tragic
to
see
how
gideon
finished
there
is
something
really
unusual
in
this
judges
cycle
with
gideon
in
the
previous
cycles
if you
remember
the
only
details
that are
given
after
the
battle
after
the
victory
is
the
length
of
peace
that
there
was
under
the
judge's
rule
and
then
the
judge
dies
and
then
we
see
it
all
happens
again
new
cycle
starts
not
this
time
what
we
see
this
time
is
that
the
people
start
to
back
slide
under
the
judge's
rule
not
after
it
this
is
while
the
judge
is
still
alive
and
we
start
to
see
some
deep
flaws
in
gideon's
rule
and
the
writer
here
dedicates
two
chapters
to
it
in
chapter
eight
we
see
gideon's
need
for
respect
and
honour
and
his
violent
bitter
rage
when
he
fails
to be
given
the
honour
that
he
thinks
he
deserves
success
against
the
midianites
was
the
worst
thing
for
gideon
there
is
a
terrible
spiritual
danger
receiving
any
blessing
success
can
easily
cause
us
to
forget
god's
good
grace
because
our
hearts
are
so
desperate
to
believe
that
we
can
save
ourselves
failure
causes
us
to
evaluate
our
hearts
and
our
priorities
success
just
affirms
what we
already
thought
was
true
of
ourselves
that
we
can
fulfill
and
we
can
control
ourselves
and
in
chapter
eight
gideon
has
forgotten
who
called
him
who
equipped
him
who
reassured
him
and won
the
battle
for
him
and
gideon's
ego
is
stroked
when
israel
asked
him
to
be
their
king
in
verse
22
rule
over
us
you
your
son
and
your
grandson
because
you
have
saved
us
from
the
hand
of
midian
and
the
very
next
verse
is
the
last
time
gideon
remembers
the
gracious
actions
of
god
on
his
behalf
it's
the
last
time
he
mentions
god
but
gideon
told
them
i
will
not
rule
over
you
nor
will
your
son
my
son
rule
over
you
the
lord
will
rule
over
you
now
ironically
and
tragically
he
almost
immediately
contradicts
himself
when
he
starts
acting
like
a
king
he
asks
for
financial
reward
for
delivering
them
in
verse
24
in
the
very
next
verse
and
he
becomes
a
very
rich
man
through
it
he
takes
the
riches
he
makes
an
ephod
like
the
ones
worn
by
the
high
priest
and
in
doing
so
what
he
does
is
he
creates
an
alternative
option
for
worship
for
Israel
he
creates
a new
option
for
worship
creates
a new
center
for
worship
Gideon
has
used
God
in
this
moment
to
consolidate
his
own
position
instead
of
using
his
position
to
be
served
and
to
be
used
of
God
in
order
that
he
might
serve
and
be
used
of
God
the
judge
is
meant
to
turn
people
from
false
worship
to
true
worship
and
here
Gideon
leads
them
in
a
totally
different
direction
he
even
calls
his
illegitimate
son
Abilamech
which
means
my
father
is
the
king
what
Gideon
has
rejected
out
of
his
mouth
he
harbors
in
his
heart
he
knew
a
true
he
knew
the
truth
intellectually
but
it
had
not
gripped
his
heart
he
had
a
mental
grasp
of
the
doctrine
of
God's
grace
and
his
rule
and
he
could
give
the
right
answer
at
the
right
time
but
his
heart
hadn't
been
broken
it
is
so
essential
that
we
keep
remembering
the
gospel
and
allowing
it
to
humble
our
hearts
that
the
normal
pattern
of
our
Christian
walk
is
one
of
constant
repentance
that
is
why
we
have
this
cultural
value
at
St.
Paul's
called
humble
authenticity
it
states
that
as a
church
here
at
St.
Paul's
we
seek
to
declare
war
on
the
daily
tendency
towards
self-sufficiency
and the
desire to
live
independently
of
God
the
promise
of
James
4
6
is
that
he
gives
grace
to
the
humble
we
are
convinced
that
no
effective
growth
in
ministry
or
mission
happens
without
the
cultivation
humility
in
the
heart
and
the
weakening
of
pride
in
the
life
we
therefore
seek
our
words
and
our
actions
to
be
what
we
believe
and
teach
from
God's
word
we
are
committed
to
being
vulnerable
with
our
imperfections
in
such
a
way
that
candor
is
encouraged
rather
than
concealment
how
wonderful
it
is
for
us
to
gather
week
after
week
in
corporate
worship
and
be
reminded
of
our
imperfections
and our
frailty
and
Jesus
purity
and
strength
that's
one of
the
goals
of
corporate
worship
is
the
breaking
of
our
hearts
as
we
look
to
the
magnificence
and
strength
of
God
in
Christ
how
wonderful
it
is
to
look
again
today
to
the
one
to
the
one
each
of
the
judges
is
just
a
mere
shadow
of
Gideon
is
just
a
mere
shadow
of
let
us
not
forget
the
God
who
saves
us
how
wonderful
it
is
to
see
again
how
he
used
his
position
he
had
every
single
right
to
demand
service
as
the
king
of
kings
his
father
is
the
king
and
yet
in
Luke
4
verses
5
and
8
Jesus
resisted
the
temptation
to
rule
in
power
over
the
nations
because
he
came
not
to
be
served
but
to
serve
and
to
give
his
life
as
a
ransom
for
many
he
has
ransomed
us
from
our
self
honoring
reactions
to
success
and
our
self
hating
responses
to
failure
he
used
his
position
as
the
son
of
God
to
give
us
freedom
from
needing
respect
or
being
crushed
by
lack
of
it
we
must
keep
looking
keep
looking
to
the
author
and
the
perfecter
of
Gideon's
faith
and
our
faith
if we
are to
finish
with
triumphant
weakness
in
spiritual
matters
we
are all
weak
and
we
are all
inadequate
and
we
need
to
face
it
and
corporate
worship
helps
us
do
that
week
in
and
week
out
sin
has
disabled
us
right
across
the
board
we
need
to
understand
our
limitations
and
let
this
awareness
work
in
us
humility
and
self
distrust
and
in
this
we
may
learn
to
depend
on
Jesus
our
Savior
our
Lord
and
practice
that
dependence
as
one of
the
habits
of
our
hearts
every
single
day
and
therefore
discover
what
the
apostle
Paul
discovered
when
I
am
weak
then
I
am
strong
God
of
you