Judges 7:16 - Meaning and Application

Here is the alarm Gideon gave to the Midianite camp in the dead of night. The goal was clear, those who had long terrorized Israel were to be routed and ruined by fear. The same kind of attack had been made before by Abraham, when he rescued Lot with 318 men. Gideon had 300, and both men divided their forces, attacked by night, and won against great odds (Genesis 14:14-15). Gideon was not only a son of Abraham, as the Midianites also were through Keturah, but also an heir to Abraham’s faith.

Gideon divided his small army into three groups (Judges 7:16). He took command of one group himself (Judges 7:19), since large armies were often arranged in a right wing, a left wing, and a center. He also told all his men to follow his example (Judges 7:17). He likely explained the plan before they moved, because it was so unusual they would not have known what to do at once. By going first, he gave them the cue, like an officer training soldiers with a command or drumbeat. In this, Gideon pictures the Lord Jesus Christ, the captain of our salvation, who has left us an example and calls his followers to do as he does.

Gideon also attacked at night, when the Midianites felt safe and least expected danger. In the dark, fear is stronger, especially in the middle of the night, a little after midnight, when the middle watch began and the alarm would wake them from sleep. Scripture speaks of “terror by night” as something especially frightening (Psalm 91:5), and of fear in the night (Song of Songs 3:8). Gideon wanted not just to defeat this huge army, but to shame and terrify it.

He equipped each man with a trumpet in his right hand and an earthen jar with a torch inside it in his left. He himself thought it no disgrace to lead them in this strange way. He treated the huge enemy force almost as if he were going against children instead of soldiers. Because his army was so small, they could move with greater secrecy and speed, and they were not noticed until they were close. He timed the alarm for when the guards had just taken their posts (Judges 7:19), so the watchmen, being awake, could quickly spread the panic through the camp.

Gideon used three things to throw the Midianites into confusion. First, he made a great noise. Each man blew his trumpet as loudly as he could and smashed his jar at the same time. The crash would have been loud and sudden, and it also pictured what would soon happen among the Midianites, they would turn on one another. Second, he created a great blaze. The torches had been hidden inside the jars like a candle under a basket, but once the jars were broken, the lights would burst out all at once and flash through the camp. Third, he raised a great shout. The cry was, “For the Lord, and for Gideon,” or, as the fuller form appears in Judges 7:20, “The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.” Gideon was using his name, which already frightened the Midianites, but he put the name of the Lord first, because without Jehovah, his own name meant nothing.

This would strengthen Gideon’s men, since they had both the Lord and Gideon to fight for them and to fight for them. It would also terrify the enemy, who had heard of Jehovah’s great name and now feared Gideon’s. The Lord’s sword was the real power behind Gideon’s sword, yet Gideon still had to act. Human workers are tools, and God is the main agent, but people, even the best of them, always serve under God’s rule. This army was defeated by fear, and fear is especially the Lord’s sword. The men had no swords in their hands, only the cry of “the sword,” yet they won. In the same way, the enemies of the church are overthrown by a sword that comes from the mouth (Revelation 19:21).

This event also points ahead in two ways. It pictures the downfall of the devil’s kingdom through the preaching of the everlasting gospel, like the sounding of a trumpet and the shining of a light from earthen vessels, as ministers are called in whom that light is placed (2 Corinthians 4:6-7). God often chooses weak and unlikely means to shame human pride, just as he used a barley cake to overthrow the tents of Midian, so that the power would clearly be his alone. The gospel is a sword, but it is not held in the hand. It is spoken from the mouth, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon, of God and Jesus Christ.

It also points to the terrors of the last day. Bishop Hall applies it this way: if pitchers, trumpets, and firebrands could so terrify proud Midian and Amalek, who can stand when the archangel’s trumpet sounds, the elements are set on fire, the heavens pass away with a great noise, and the Lord himself comes down with a shout? The scene of Gideon’s victory is a small picture of a far greater judgment.

The result was wonderful. The Midianites were shouted out of their lives, just as the walls of Jericho had been shouted down. Gideon then saw the very wonders his ancestors had told him about, which he had once almost stopped hoping to see. His men obeyed his orders, stood in place around the camp (Judges 7:21), blew their trumpets to stir the enemy into fighting one another, and held up their torches to light the way to their own ruin.

They did not rush into the Midianite camp as if they were eager for blood or plunder. Instead, they waited calmly to see the Lord’s deliverance, a rescue that came entirely from God’s own work. Notice how the plan took effect.

First, the Midianites were struck with fear. Their whole army was alarmed at once. The panic spread through every part of the camp, and they ran, shouted, and fled (Judges 7:21). This fear was partly natural. We can imagine that they had not heard how much Gideon’s army had been reduced. They may have assumed it had grown larger and larger since the last report. So, knowing how much they had angered Israel and how openly Israel was resisting them, they would have thought a very large army was coming against them, announced by trumpets and torches.

But this fear was also sent by God. He stirred it up to show how his promise would have been fulfilled if they had not lost it through their sin: “One of you will chase a thousand.” See how powerful imagination can be. At times it brings joy, and at other times it fills people with terror.

Second, they turned their swords against one another. “The Lord set every man’s sword against his fellow” (Judges 7:22). In the confusion, they saw the trumpeters and torch-bearers standing still outside the camp. So they assumed the main force of Israel had already entered and was among them. Then each man attacked the first person he met, even if he was a friend, thinking he was an enemy. One mistake of this kind would quickly lead to many more, because the man who struck the blow would also be seen as an enemy and killed at once.

It is wise to keep such control over our own spirits that we are never frightened into panic. We cannot tell what harm we may bring on ourselves when fear takes over. Notice too how God often uses the enemies of his church to destroy one another. It is a pity when the church’s friends are ever made so confused.

Third, they fled for their lives. When daylight came, they may have realized they had been fighting one another. Then they would have seen that this terrible mistake had weakened them so badly that they could no longer stand against Israel. So they made the best escape they could toward their own land, while the 300 men, so far as the passage shows, held their ground. “The wicked flee when no one pursues” (Proverbs 28:1). “Terrors frighten him on every side and drive him from his feet” (Job 18:11).