God\'s Power Revealed in Our Weakness

God’s power revealed in man’s weakness.
Read Judges 6:36-7:25
“The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying, ‘My own power has delivered me.”

There was irony in the angel’s words. Because of his fear of the Midianites, Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress. Usually, the task of separating the wheat from the chaff would be done on the tops of the hills, where the breeze would quickly separate the chaff. However, here we find Gideon hiding in the shelter of a vat where he would remain hidden from the marauding armies of the Midianites. Thus, the angel's words are ironic when he refers to Gideon as “a valiant warrior.”  For those who knew Gideon, he was anything but courageous. Even though God directly commanded him to go and deliver Israel from the hands of Midian, he doubted and sought a way out. Contrary to popular opinion, “setting out of the fleece”  is not an act by Gideon to discern God’s will. It was done as an act of fear and doubt rather than faith and surrendering God’s will. Fearful-yes, valiant-not by a hair’s breadth. But God does not look at the person; he looks at what he can accomplish through the person, so he condescends to give Gideon the proof he needs.
When Gideon called the men of Israel to arms, 32,000 men responded. But this would hardly alleviate Gideon’s fears. In 8:10, we discover that 135,000 Midianites were coming to battle. Gideon’s army would be outnumbered over 4 to 1. However, even with those odds, God does the unthinkable. He tells Gideon the army is too big and to release any who are afraid and trembling. Two-thirds of the army ran for home. Now he is outnumbered 13 to 1. Still, God informs Gideon that his army is too large. He commands Gideon to send home all who get a drink by dipping their hand into the water and bringing it up to their mouth to drink, not the usual way people get a drink from a stream. As a result, only 300 are left for Gideon to take into battle. He is now going into battle being outnumbered 450-1. To make the task even more impossible, instead of entering into the battle with swords and shields, they take torches, trumpets, and pitchers—hardly the weapons of warfare.  
With the unsuspecting army asleep in the darkest part of the night, the sudden appearance of torches, the trumpet sounding for battle, and the crash of the breaking of the pitchers threw the Midianites into confusion and fear. Unable to see at night and assuming that a large army was attacking, the Midian army fled in fear and turned against one another, so they were struck down by “friendly fire.”  By the end of the day, only 15,000 men from the army of 135,000 remained.
We read the story and see fear in Gideon. We read the story of God orchestrating the events in such a way that he was the cause of the victory, not the military strength of Israel. But the battle was more than a battle with the Midianites. In the end, they were powerless. The real battle was the fear of Israel and their failure to see the power of God.  
Fear easily replaces faith when we turn our eyes from God and focus on the problems and adversity confronting us. This is not just a problem for Israel; it is a problem we all face. God demonstrated to Gideon, and he equally indicates to us, that victory is not achieved through our strength but through our weakness. It is in our weakness that God’s power is revealed. God does not look at our strength; He sees the opportunity to demonstrate his power. This is the lesson for us. When we see circumstances pressing upon us, instead of looking at the size of the problems or the weaknesses we possess, we look to the God of the universe, who has the power to overcome every circumstance that seems insurmountable to us.