A Large-to-Little Group: God's Backward Way to Victory {Rachael Adams}

Bigger is better, says the world. But God often takes groups from large to little. Why is that? On this episode of the Live Like It's True podcast, Rachael Adams and I are discussing the interesting story of when God thinned out Gideon's army by about 99%, then sent him to war.

We'll explore what God was after, and how it turned out.

Rachael Adams is a wife and mom, author and speaker, and host of The Love Offering Podcast. Check out her new devotional, "A Little Goes a Long Way."

Guest: Rachael Adams

Bible Passage: Gideon Defeats the Midianites - Judges 7

Get your Freebie: The Live Like It's True Workbook

Mentioned Resources

• A Little Goes a Long Way by Rachael Adams
• The Love Offering Podcast
• Shannon's appearance on The Love Offering
• Teach Equip (Formerly called 'Women Teaching Women')

Rachael Adams

Writer and podcaster, Rachael Adams, started her ministry to help women realize their God-given purpose and significance. She is host of The Love Offering Podcast that features real stories of women who are living out their faith. Rachel and her husband, Bryan, run a family business and farm in Kentucky with their two children, Will and Kate, and their two doodle dogs.

A Little Goes a Long Way

In her book, A Little Goes a Long Way: 52 Days to a Significant Life, Rachael offers biblical truths about God's ability to unlock eternal influence when we consistently pursue and obey Him. Her desire is that other women find fulfillment, satisfaction, and purpose—not based on their circumstances but based on God's promises. Some of the reflective truths she offers include the following:

• a little work
• a little conversation
• a little effort
• a little gratitude
• a little forgiveness

Connect with Rachael:

Website: RachaelKAdams.com

Podcast: The Love Offering

Facebook: @rachaeladamsauthor

Instagram: @rachaeladamsauthor

Shaped by God's Promises: Lessons from Sarah on Fear and Faith 
     {buy now}

Comparison Girl for Teens
     {buy now}

Get our free "Pray God's Promises" prayer guide.

Go to Shannonpopkin.com/PROMISES/ for more information on my neww Bible study, Shaped by God’s Promises: Lessons from Sarah on Fear and Faith. 

Visit ResoundMedia.cc for the Live Leadership Podcast, along with other Gospel centered resources.

Transcript

Shannon: 1:36

Rachel Adams welcome to Live Like it's True. Thank you so much for having me. It's a joy to be with you. I'm so excited for this conversation. You hosted me on your podcast, the Love Operating, at least a couple of years ago and that's kind of how I met you and then we got to know each other a little bit through a retreat together and so. But I'm really excited about having this conversation. It's kind of in celebration of your book that has just come out. A little goes a long way. Tell me about that.

Rachael: 2:05

Yeah, that released in October and I feel like it really is the story of my life. I've given God my little offering and said Lord, do what you would want with it. And each and every day I do that Like Lord make much of my little. And he really has, and I feel like he does that with everybody. You know we each are significant, inherently significant, and he's created us to do good works, and I pray that everybody realizes how important everything that they do is, and so that's the heart of the book. I love that.

Shannon: 2:35

It's a devotional. So you're looking at a multitude of different little Bible stories right and all of them start with a little yeah.

Rachael: 2:43

Yeah, 52.

Shannon: 2:45

The chapter titles. I'll just read a few of them A Little Beginning, a Little Love, a Little Vessel, A Little Invitation I just love that. And then at the end you have A Little About the Author, and so it's all packaged in littleness, which is so sweet. Your goal is helping women realize their God-given purpose and significance, so this book is really an outpouring of what you've been doing for a while. Also, you and your husband, brian, run a family business and a farm in Kentucky. You've got two kids, will and Kate, and two doodle dogs. Now what are doodle dogs?

Rachael: 3:19

One is a golden doodle and the other is a labradoodle. Ok, got it. So we have a hobby farm. Eventually we have goals to do more with it, but right now my kids are in middle school and so they are super involved in lots of activities. And then we've got the business and we've got the podcast and the writing. You've got a lot going on, lots of goals, but just not enough time to do it all.

Shannon: 3:37

Yes, big dreams and little assignments, so we hope that you listeners will grab a copy of this book. A Little Goes a Long Way 52 Days to a Significant Life. Well, we're going to just talk about one of the stories that Rachel covered A Little Group, and it's the story of Gideon. Rachel, can you just go back a chapter and tell us who is Gideon and where does this fit into the overarching?

Rachael: 4:01

story of the Bible. Yeah, so Gideon is in the Old Testament and he is first introduced in Judges, chapter 6. And we first are introduced to him as a farmer and he is sent to deliver Israel from Midian and he is an Israelite. And we first meet him as he's just threshing wheat and that's what he's doing. He's just doing a common, ordinary, everyday job which we can all relate to, right, and we find him in a wine press and he's actually kind of hidden underneath because he's actually afraid of the Midianites.

Rachael: 4:37

In that moment I think many of us are familiar with the fleece putting out his fleece and kind of testing the Lord. And he continues to do that because he's kind of unsure. And so that's kind of where we enter this story. They say he is the least in his family, he is the weakest in Manasseh, but God chooses him anyway and an angel appears to him and because that's his response to the Lord, he says what I just mentioned. He says my clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I'm the least in my family. But the Lord responds to him. He says I will be with you and we will strike down the Midianites together. So that's his task. And then that's when Gideon says, well, give me a sign. And then he continues to put out his fleece over and, over and over again, and so then that's when we then approach our story that we're going to be talking about today in Judges 7.

Shannon: 5:23

Right. So Gideon is not this huge war hero. We should not picture him that way. He's not a significant person in his family, in his country in any way. He's seen as the little guy, and I think a lot of us feel that way. We feel like we're the little person in the room, we're not really somebody who you would choose first to do some great big thing for God. I don't feel like I should be doing something super significant for God. I'm just little me. Do you feel that way sometimes?

Rachael: 5:54

I always feel that way. I don't feel overly special the most gifted person in the room, the most talented person in the room, very much the underdog. But I think that actually, if you look throughout the Bible, that's who God typically does choose. You even look at Jesus and his disciples. It's very common, ordinary, everyday people and that's who God chooses to do his very best work.

Shannon: 6:19

We live in, this celebrity culture I mean even the church has adopted, I think, with the rise of social media, platforming people putting them in pedestals, gathering followers around them and making them great. And God, I think, just he doesn't really have a lot of use for that. He just uses whomever he will to do his great big plans and purposes, but in this story, he's going to do something that is very surprising, especially when you're talking military. Now, I don't have a military background, do you, rachel? I do not.

Rachael: 6:47

No.

Shannon: 6:48

So I mean, we're two girls talking about military stuff that we know nothing about, but we do know something about God, and he is going to be revealed in this story. So can you just read for us verses one through five of Judges, chapter seven.

Rachael: 7:02

We're reading in the NIV translation Early in the morning, Drew Baal, that is, Gideon and all of his men, camped at the spring of Herod. The camp of Midian was north of them, in the valley near the hill of Moorah. The Lord said to Gideon you have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands, In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her. Announce now to the people anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead. So 22,000 men left while 10,000 remained.

Shannon: 7:32

Yes, so like you have too many men. That is like things that we don't ever say right, walking into battle you have too many men. The context is for seven years these Midianites have been terrorizing God's people. They want every single man available.

Shannon: 7:51

Israel is much smaller than this area of the Midianite army and so, by the way, I got to back up and say this whole story we're going to talk about takes place in it seems like the time of a 24-hour day, because we're starting early in the morning and the men are camped at this spring and they're looking down on this valley where this other army is camped out, like I just want you to picture them kind of looking down. It's morning and God is like all right, you got too many men, 22,000 men leaving. I mean, I just picture how that would have felt to those who were left People packing up left and right and they're leaving because they're afraid. You know it looks like confidence is low, morale is down, they're thinking they might die and, as we know, fear is contagious. So this could be a good strategy, but it's not logical, though God is going against logic here by appealing to like.

Shannon: 8:48

All right, if you're afraid, you can just go. And what's the reason, though, that he gives in verse?

Rachael: 8:52

2? So that in order that they may not boast against me in their own strength. So basically he's saying that there will be no doubt that the victory is from God, that God will get the credit, that it won't be because that they had all the men at all, the strength, Like they won't be out of their own self-sufficiency, right yeah.

Shannon: 9:11

And sometimes I think we do trust in numbers, don't we? Mm-hmm? Yeah, it's just more likely that some outcome we're hoping for will happen. Like I'm thinking even a big church, a big city you know, you feel more protected in a big city sometimes or a big country, or a big military, like all of those things feel a little more like the odds are in our favor when there's more people.

Shannon: 9:34

Ooh, and God often uses the little, he often reduces, he shaves away and using fear to get rid of the big. So we can look at the little. I love that part where it says so that Israel would not boast against God. I have NIV too, but it reads a little different. It says or Israel would boast against me, my own strength has saved me. Like Israel's gonna say if all 32,000 go into battle and they win, god's afraid that Israel's gonna say my own strength saved me, they're gonna boast in themselves. But I think that's interesting that the text reads that Israel would boast against me. Mm-hmm, if you're boasting in yourself, you're really setting yourself up against God, like that's interesting, right.

Rachael: 10:17

It is interesting I'm just thinking about pride Like pride has always been man's downfall and pride comes before the fall, and like we have to guard ourselves against that, to stay humble, and so, in many ways, like these men, like they just couldn't take the credit for the victory and. God wanted to ensure that.

Shannon: 10:35

Well, and I mean, we have to keep in mind that at this point in the story, they don't know they're gonna win. You know they want to win. We know the end of the story, don't we? They do not know, and you know, 20,000 men have just left and they're standing there and they were the ones who weren't afraid. There's fear here, but there's also potential for boasting.

Shannon: 10:55

I love in 2 Corinthians, where God gives Paul this thorn, this weakness, you know, and he says it's so that you won't boast. He doesn't want Paul to be a boaster and Paul, I mean, had some things to boast about. You know, he had some strengths. You and I both have strengths. We're communicators, we have things to contribute to the kingdom and I mean listener, whoever you are, you've got strengths too, you've. Everybody has the option of boasting in something, but God doesn't want us doing that. He gave Paul this thorn, this weakness, to keep him from boasting or conceit, and God wanted Paul to know that his grace was sufficient. So God wants us to remember that he is sufficient. We shouldn't be sufficient in ourselves, all right. So we've got 22,000 men who have packed up and laughed, and then God does something, I think even more surprising. So could you read verses four through eight.

Rachael: 12:33

So the Lord said to Gideon there are still too many men. Take them down to the water and I will sift them for you there. If I say that one shall go with you, he shall go. But if I say this one shall not go with you, he shall not go. So Gideon took them in down to the water. There the Lord told him, separate those who lapped the water with their tongue, like a dog, from those who kneel down to drink. Three hundred men lapped with their hands through their mouths. All the rest got down on their knees to drink. The Lord said to Gideon With the three hundred men that lapped, I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go, each to his own place. So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites to their tents but kept the three hundred who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others.

Shannon: 13:19

We've got another reduction here. Now we've brought them down to three hundred, and how does God separate them?

Rachael: 13:26

Such a strange way, by the way, that they drank the water Like if they were lapping it up or if they were getting it in with their hands, right.

Shannon: 13:35

Yeah, do you have any insight on that?

Rachael: 13:37

I don't Do you.

Shannon: 13:38

Well, I asked my husband about it this morning. I didn't, and so he said that he's like I think it's because if your face is down in the water you're a soldier. So he was in the military, so he thinks more like a soldier than I do. So if your face is in the water you're defenseless. You know, you don't, you can't see who's coming. But if you're lapping like a dog, you know, you're a little more wary, you're a little more you know aware of who might be coming toward you. So I mean, maybe it is they're segmenting them out by skill level.

Shannon: 14:04

However, this still is not logical, rachel. This is still not like oh, this is a good military tactic to send all but three hundred. You know, thirty two thousand didn't seem like enough. Well, how about three hundred? God is saying, though there are still too many men, take them down to the water and I will thin them out for you there, like just what you wanted, gideon. I'm going to thin out your army, but I love that. He says I will thin them out, and then later he says I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home, I will. God says I will. Earlier in the text he says I cannot deliver Midian into your hands or you. There would be boasting, but here's what I will do I will thin them out and I will save you. What's surprising about God?

Rachael: 14:47

here, even going back to in Judges six. He's like I will be with you and I'm going to help you in this whole process. And when Gideon was thrushing the wheat sifting that same metaphor of like sifting the wheat, I'm thrushing through these people too, you know, that same metaphor is carrying through and he's with Gideon in this whole process. Like going through sifting these men who's got the faith, who's going to be strong enough to carry out through this battle, and he's with him through this entire time, like I'm going to help you, I will save you. Like that whole language is all throughout this story.

Shannon: 15:23

Yeah, and I mean the overarching story is God is giving his people this land that he has promised them. He promises, he keeps his promises and he invites us to live like those promises are going to come true. And yet there's a great threat here. There's this army who wants to kill them. They're in a position where any minute they could be killed. And God says I'm going to save you, I'm going to not only give you this land, but I will save you.

Shannon: 15:47

And when we look at this spiritual metaphor for us, you know everything that the Israelites went through is sort of like a metaphor for us spiritually. You know, God promises himself to us. He says he's going to bring us to his promised land in heaven and there will be battles that we have to face, and he will save us not only eternally, but he'll save us in every battle that we have to face. There's a very Now. I have to be careful there, rachel. I gotta back up, because God never promises that we will live in complete safety and that we will win every battle. The Israelites didn't.

Shannon: 16:21

But just because we're trusting God doesn't mean we won't go through hard things. I always want to be careful to give a clear parallel with Scripture. But if we're talking about being saved from our sins, like that's the overarching salvation story, there's great danger in saying that we're the ones who can do it. Let's just picture this battle, the Midianites like that's sin and it's just so vast and it's so powerful. But we're saying I'm powerful too, I'm gonna fight this battle, I'm gonna win this battle over sin, I'm going to save myself. There's just great danger in saying that I can save myself. We can't. Have you ever felt inadequate to save yourself from your own desire for sin?

Rachael: 17:04

Always, I always felt inadequate and I need to every single day. I've just even just been studying the Lord's prayer, the daily bread we need daily bread and even how the very next verse is about forgive, as you've been forgiven. I need to forgive every single day, and we can't do any of this outside of the Lord. I'm just even thinking about we're gonna have to go through battles.

Rachael: 17:26

The Lord, yes, he is with us, but we're still going to have to do the work. Like he's gonna ask us to go through hard things and I think that sometimes, as Christians, we think, you know, in this world we're gonna have still have trouble and just because we're a Christian, that and have a relationship with the Lord, that we're gonna be saved from that. And we won't. There still is battles for us to have to go through and I think that that is just a good reminder, even in this story too. Like there is still work for us to do. Yeah, tasks that he's gonna ask us to battle through and trust in, even when it's illogical. I don't know how many times I've heard you say that We've got to trust him, even when it does not make sense.

Rachael: 18:03

We do know the end of so many of these stories, like, even as we're talking about, I'm like catching myself, you know, like. But wait, we don't know that yet.

Shannon: 18:10

Yeah, they don't know that.

Rachael: 18:11

They don't know that and it's like, wait a minute, how scared must they have been? Yeah, but it's illogical, you're right, it's like that doesn't make sense. But they had to continue to walk it out and trust the Lord.

Shannon: 18:21

Yeah, here he's thinning out the army. I think he thins out the things that we might put our confidence in, you know, whether that be our bank account or our workplace potential, or you know, he just he thins it out. He's like, no, because, look, there's great potential in you, boasting, are you thinking you can save yourself from these things? And I just need for your confidence to be in me.

Shannon: 18:44

I remember a time when my husband things weren't going well at work. This goes back about 20 years and it was a really negative experience for him and I think God was thinning out our confidence in his work potential. He's gone on to do really well in work, but in that particular situation it was not going well and the options seemed very, very limited and they were narrowing and I was so worried because he was kind of spiraling into like this fear and depression. Here we are, I've got two toddlers and I'm looking at what are we going to do Like he's spiraling. I was worried he was going to lose the job. So I'm on the internet doing job searches for him. This is back when you used monstercom, so I'm doing monstercom searches. I couldn't even tell you what he did. I'm trying to search for jobs.

Shannon: 19:34

It was just very, very low point. But you know what, rachel? You know what we did during that time is we started fasting and praying. So, like once a week, wednesdays, we would fast and we would pray, and that evening we would put the kids, we'd let them watch a video for an hour and we would go in the office and close the door and get on our knees and pray, because it seemed very bleak. It seemed as though he was going to potentially lose his job. We were very, very low. I think God uses those times to help us transfer our confidence to the Lord, when everything comes easily, when, in all likelihood, we will get what we want and not have to go through a battle right A fear.

Shannon: 20:14

Those aren't the times that we put our hope in God, and those are the times that we tend to boast, and so God thins out our confidence in other things that we can put our confidence in him.

Rachael: 20:24

Shayna, that is really good. That really ministered to me and I think you're exactly right. I'm even just thinking like my son just broke his collarbone this summer. I'm even just thinking, in his life's his right hand and he was not able to do anything that he's typically able to do. And just really a humbling experience, and he's having to ask for so much more help.

Rachael: 20:43

And I think when you're stripped away of all of those things that you're normally able to boast in, you know even just physically, emotionally and spiritually but there was such beauty in that season as well. But I think you're right, when it strips of everything else in your life, it does make you then so much grateful for everything else that you have and has your focus on him. And now, as we're able to enter back into football season and enter into those things, we're so much more grateful. And then now we're so much more careful to give God the glory for the things that we are able to do and to be grateful for his arm and to be grateful to be able to do the things that we normally take for granted right.

Shannon: 21:23

And putting your confidence in the right place. My son played football too, rachel, and oh my goodness, sometimes we would face a team Like if it was a really big team. You know they had a stacked bench. I was just trembling because then our kids were getting more weary and we were getting hurt, and I mean every time they would blow the whistle and then, you know, the kids would go down on a knee. I was really not the mom over there cheering for her points. I was the mom praying like please don't let him get hurt. It was a terrifying experience for me. Now we actually had a really big team, but um and Kate would be like mom, I'm strong, you know, and I'm like I know, but it was just.

Shannon: 22:01

It was hard, and I think God, even with our kids, he wants us to be trained and to look to him, to not be boasting in ourselves, to learn to put our confidence in the Lord. My son right now is in in a summer before another year of college and he just got back from working at a camp and he's got like five weeks left and it's just hard to find a job and I mean his options are narrowing. So I told him this story this morning. I was like let's look at the story of Gideon. God thinned the army, he thinned the options, he thinned their confidence. He wanted to so that they would not boast in themselves. But he's getting ready to do something really amazing.

Shannon: 22:42

And that could be in your case too. You know God wants for you to know that he has been the victor, he has gone before you, he has made a way and you know that's what we're seeing here in this story. God is thinning the army. Let all the others go home. God said so. Gideon sent the rest of them home and kept 300. And then this this is interesting it says these 300 took over the provisions and the trumpets of the others. That's going to be part of our story. These trumpets, I mean can you just kind of imagine the mass chaos here, rachel, of 22,000 people packing up to go home in a day?

Rachael: 23:18

22,000 people barely live in my little Kentucky county.

Shannon: 23:22

There you go. I mean this must have been a chaotic moment. I'm just picturing like at the end of camp when everybody's packing up there, rolling up their sleeping bags. I mean it's just mass chaos. This must have been chaotic. And then the 300 who are left go on this field trip down to the water. They come back. Okay, we're the ones who lapped like a dog, so we get to stay. All right. What is next? And passing off those trumpets? Oh, you're staying here, you can have my trumpet. What is coming here? There's just a lot of intrigue here in our story. We've got a good storyteller here. So the next versus. I love this part. This is probably my favorite part of the story. Let me just read this part Now. The camp of Midian lay below him in the valley, so Midian is down below where Gideon's army is only 300 in the valley.

Shannon: 24:37

So here are, 24 hours have gone by and that night the Lord said to Gideon get up, go down against the camp because I am going to give it into your hands. And then God says, if you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Pura, like if you're afraid you got to be kidding me, like of course.

Rachael: 24:57

I'm afraid.

Shannon: 24:58

Yeah, if you're afraid, though, go down to the camp and listen to what they're saying. Afterward you will be encouraged to attack the camp. So he and Pura, his servant, went down to the outposts of the camp. The Midianites, the Amalekites and all the other Eastern people had settled in that valley thick as locusts. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore. Gideon arrived just as a man was telling a friend his dream. I had a dream he was saying A round loaf of barley came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent with such force that the tent was overturned and collapsed. His friend responded this can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash the Israelite. God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands, into Gideon's hands. Why is this surprising? What God is asking Gideon to do here?

Rachael: 25:52

Well, he's asking him to pretty much go down into enemy territory pretty much alone. Yeah, like even without his 300 men. I mean he's dwindling down the odds even more. Really, yeah, this was risky, very risky, but he trusted the Lord, even despite his fear. Yeah, yeah, and even though you are afraid, and even knowing like the Midianites were as thick as locusts, like there's that many people, just I can just picture that, like just the way that they described that as many as the sand on the seashore, and you know they used that language. I was thinking back to, even like Abraham, how there's gonna be generations as many as the stars in the sky and the grains of sand on the seashore, that that's gonna be his inheritance, and so I think that that was just beautiful, that imagery, such a divine setup that he was going to overhear this conversation about this dream.

Shannon: 26:43

Right, yeah. So he's telling him go down, which you know. Go, take this risk and listen in, because he wants him to be encouraged. It says afterward you will be encouraged to attack the camp. So you're gonna have great courage after this experience. But I can imagine sneaking down. I mean, it's middle of the night, right, and they're sneaking down just him and his buddy, and looking at the, like you said, thickest locusts, like that was not encouraging. That must have been terrifying to see this huge army. And you're exactly right, rachel, god promised Abraham that his children would be like the stars of the sky and the sand of the seashore, but it's not yet. They're not that big yet. You know, they're still gaining in numbers and at this point there's only 300 back at camp and so must have been terrorizing. But okay, you pointed out the timing. Kid stories always have good timing, don't they? Yeah, absolutely. What does that show us about God, this timing and this dream and this?

Rachael: 27:44

eavesdropping. Like he's a God of perfect timing, isn't he? This always amazes me that God will use even people that aren't believers. We see that all throughout scripture, too, that he will use King to work according to his purposes and plans, and even those that don't even know that he is using for his purposes and plans.

Shannon: 28:05

God has used a dream of someone who doesn't know him to encourage believers. Right, pharaoh had the dream that Joseph interpreted he didn't know. Also, there's the time when Sarah was in Gizaan and Pharaoh had a dream and Daniel the dream, king Nebuchadnezzar. What I think is interesting about dreams is dreams are the times that we are most incapacitated, like we have no control over what we're dreaming. Yeah, so he's saying I had a dream. We don't control our dreams. We do have some oversight over our days. We don't have oversight over our nights. This is something that was completely out of his control. He dreamed something. Do you tell people your dreams, rachel, when you have a good dream?

Rachael: 28:46

You know what's funny I do, and especially my nightmares. Yes God, this is scary. I won't share those today.

Shannon: 28:52

But my kids? It drives them crazy because I always have to tell them my dreams. It's just like I can't, I can't not. Do you remember yours? But I do yeah, which means I think that I get good REM sleep. Right Is when you have dreams and yeah. So, this guy must have had good REM sleep and he has this dream, which is a very interesting dream what happens again in?

Rachael: 29:11

the dream. So he's dreaming about bread, which I love bread.

Shannon: 29:14

So I dream about bread too.

Rachael: 29:18

Hey. So yeah, it's about a round loaf of barley bread that came tumbling into the median camp and it struck the tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed. But my commentary, so it basically is talking about how barley grain was only half the value of wheat and the bread made from it was considered inferior. So in the same way, israel's tiny band of men was considered inferior to the vast forces of median. So basically it was talking about how God made the underdog Israelites seem invincible. So it was like comparing the barley to Israel.

Shannon: 29:51

And even the size here. I mean, you don't ever worry that a loaf of bread is gonna take out your house, you know, or your tent, true? And it would be like I had a dream that a bird came and flew at my house and the house crumbled. Like that's just ridiculous, it's like it would never happen. And I think it's giving us a picture of, like this army of median. They should never be afraid of Israel and yet they are. The irony is I mean, this is ludicrous Our loaf of bread would take out a huge tent. That would never happen. We should never expect that. That's why it stands out as a dream. But nor should we ever expect that this little army would take out the big army of median. But that's exactly what this soldier is saying he's like. This cannot not be nothing but the sort of Gideon you know. God has given them the camp, god has given this whole camp into Gideon's hands. So picture Gideon and his friends listening. One friend listening in on this conversation. Why would this be reassuring?

Rachael: 30:52

to him Because he knew that God had gone before him and that God was preparing even the median army. It was almost like him putting out the fleece. It was like that assurance. It was that sign like, okay, god, I'm hearing you correctly.

Rachael: 31:07

It was that confirmation like Lord, I know that you are with me now and I've heard you correctly and I can follow through with what you've called me to do. It's like the confirmation that we all need, you know when we pray for something, and it's like I need to read it in my Bible, I need to hear it in a worship song, I need to hear it from a friend, I need to see it in a neon sign. You know I'm that way. Oh, are you that way too?

Shannon: 31:30

I am and Gideon is too. I love that Like. What I love in this story is the contrast between the first part and the second part. And the first part, like God is thinning his army, like I mean, that almost sounds mean. It sounds like Gideon, I'm gonna teach you here to trust me. But in the second part, he's reassuring Gideon. He's like you know, if you're afraid, you know, go down, you're gonna overhear something and it's really gonna encourage you. So and give him that confidence he needs. And I think, listeners, god gives us the courage that we need. You know, he gives us the confidence and he might give it to us from somebody who has no idea how they're encouraging us. They're just telling their friend about a dream when we're encouraged. Or there's just a song on the radio, or there's a conversation that have you ever had that? Where somebody tells you you have no idea how, what you said, how meaningful that was to me.

Rachael: 32:20

Oh my goodness, so many times. It happens so frequently, and it almost always happens when I'm most discouraged. I will get a text message or a phone call or an email when somebody will say hey, I just wanted you to know that I read your devotional, or I listened to your podcast, or I heard you speak and it encouraged me in such a mighty way, or I've read your devotional three times, and when are you gonna write something else?

Shannon: 32:46

You know that's so sweet.

Rachael: 32:48

The enemy can just attack your mind. So much you know. And it's in those moments when you're like, does any of this matter, should I keep going? And then just all of a sudden you get one of those my gosh, you're doing such a good job. Or even like little things, not even in the writing or podcasting or speaking world. When you're just feeling like my hair looks terrible or I feel bad about your way you look physically or whatever, and somebody's like should you speak today? And you're like you, it just seems like the compliments and kind words come at just the right time.

Shannon: 33:20

I love it when I'm speaking from a platform and someone afterward will say you know, when you said this it so encouraged me and I'm thinking I didn't even know. I said that I certainly didn't put it together that way, but God used those words to encourage you, like that's what he does. So whenever we need that encouragement, we need that just reassurance. He gives it to us in a thousand different ways, like you said, whether it's a song on the radio, especially through his word here. Gideon had God speaking directly to him telling him go down to this camp and listen in and you're gonna be encouraged. But we have God directly speaking to us through the story of Gideon, like we can open our Bible and turn to the story and be encouraged, be reassured through this story that God wants our confidence to be in him and he's gonna give us the confidence we need to do whatever it is he's asking us to.

Shannon: 34:16

And he is asking quite a bit of Gideon. He's the smallest, he's the weakest, he does not feel he's not a mighty warrior. And here is this other army talking about him, saying it must be the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, and that must have felt pretty amazing, like what in the world that they would be talking about me that way. I don't think it turned into boasting, though, for Gideon, because, like, let's look at what we're gonna see next. Could you read verse 15 of?

Rachael: 34:44

our story. When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped God. He returned to the camp of Israel and called out get up, the Lord has given the Midianite camp into your hands. So I see what you're doing there, shane. And he worshiped God. He did it in boasting himself. He's like thank you, lord, you've done this. Yeah, he gave God all the credit.

Shannon: 35:04

Yeah, it's appropriate right, mm-hmm, like how inappropriate it would have been for him to go back to camp and say, look, I'm the big man. They're talking about me down there. I must be a mighty warrior. Like, oh no, that's really inappropriate. And I think sometimes God does thin down our confidence in ourselves, but then he gives us all the reassurance that we need. Right, he gives us every ounce of confidence in himself. So then the end of the story is they win.

Rachael: 35:34

I do think it's so interesting. They place the trumpets and empty jars in the hands of them, with torches inside. So there's no swords that win the battle Trumpets and empty jars. I think like it goes back to this illogical way. And then basically God just turns the Midianites against themselves, like they really didn't have to fight the battle If God turned the Midianites against themselves with their swords, and so I think that's so funny. It's like going into battle with a trumpet and an empty jar. I love that, like Jericho, you know, like just marching around.

Shannon: 36:09

Like, okay, very like Jericho. Yeah, there is some strategy there, like putting the light in the jar, so they snuck up, you know, and then they smash the jars and then they could see the light, hear the noise, be very disoriented. They came at the time of the changing of the guards, so then you're picturing like some of the guard coming back and they're feeling attacked, and then they all started attacking each other, but the Israelites didn't have to do anything. God fought their battle for them and he fights our battles for us too. This story has such rich theological truths embedded in it. What are some of the false narratives of the world that this story corrects?

Rachael: 36:43

I think the main thing is that we need to do it all on our own. So often we think, especially in our culture today, that we need to be independent, that we need to be self-sufficient, that we need to be very strong, and so what this is telling us is it's actually okay to be weak, it's actually okay to be dependent on Lord. That's actually a good thing to be dependent on Lord, because he's the one that makes us strong, and so that's the main thing that I see in this story, like lean into the Lord, trust in his timing. Everything that may be happening to you may feel illogical, but he's doing all this so that we can boast in him and not boast in ourselves, and that's a good thing.

Shannon: 37:23

Yeah, the first false narrative is that it's all up to us. We have to save ourselves, we have to be strong. But then I think also bigger is better. I see that kind of taking root in the church right now Bigger is better, bigger church, bigger following Like you can't really accomplish much good things for God if your church is only 50 people, right, or your Bible study group is dwindling, but that's just not true. I have experienced some of the greatest fruitfulness in small groups, little groups of people.

Rachael: 37:54

Have you too. Absolutely, there's intimacy in small groups. I think there's authenticity, there's more vulnerability, there's a closeness. You think about even Jesus. Yes, he spoke to multitudes and thousands, but he always came back to a group of disciples, 12 disciples. That was a close group and that's how the early church started, and then it spread, and I think that there's such beauty in that, and I even think about the early church. He would send them out two by two, like there's strength in those numbers, and so we do need each other. There is power in a group. We don't need to be, don't be alone, right, you're right. Don't isolate. It's not about the size of the group, it's about the one who is within the group, which is the Lord.

Shannon: 38:40

Yes, that's true. Yeah, I think sometimes I live this false narrative thinking, well, it's more significant if it's bigger, so like if I get to speak for a very large audience, so that's significant work, but a smaller audience not so much. That's just not God's way. Like that's giving into the false narratives of the world. This year I'm starting a ministry it's called Women Teaching Women a friend and IR co-leading it and we're going to be investing in 12 women who want to learn to teach the Bible. It's going to be in my home. We're just a little group of women from the Grand Rapids area and I'm going to give a lot of time and energy to that.

Shannon: 39:14

You know it's not something that I think will build a resume or whatever. Like that's not going to get me some publishing deal. But I think these little ways that we serve they're very significant. Seeing only big things as significant, that's just giving into the world's way of looking at it. God wanted for Gideon to march in with a group of 300. Because God wanted them to boast in him and he wanted them to see the significant part of their work is what God was doing, not what they could manage on their own.

Rachael: 39:42

And I'm even just thinking about Jesus meeting with one woman beside the will. That was important to him. You know, he think he had 33 years on Earth, that was it. Three years of official ministry, and he chose to spend his time that way, when he could have gathered with multitudes of people. Yes, he taught in synagogues. He taught big groups of people sometimes, but he also had moments where he was alone, praying in solitude.

Shannon: 40:07

So we're not saying like the large groups are insignificant, because look at the feeding of the 5,000. Or when Jesus the sermon on the Mount, there were thousands of people there, so those weren't insignificant by any stretch. But that's not the only way God works. And so whatever God has called you to, whether it's big or small, really the point is that our confidence would be in him, like I love that you said. Even in that small group, it's the one who's among us, god. That's what makes it significant. It's the little group or the big group, but if he is in it, that's the significance. So how can we live like the story is true? How can we hold on to the story and refresh our minds with it?

Rachael: 40:47

I think to see ourselves in the story is Gideon was common. He was just going about his business. He was working, he was threshing his wheat. That's when the angel appeared, and that's often how God meets us too. We're just going about our business.

Rachael: 41:02

The Holy Spirit kind of pricks our heart and speaks to us and gives us a task, and so often we think well, if I'm scared, or if I feel inadequate or feel like I'm not called to this or don't have what it takes to do this, then maybe I'm not supposed to do what he's calling me to do, or if he's dwindling down the resources, or maybe I've heard God wrong. But I think what we learned from his story is may actually be exactly what he's telling you to do. Exactly, trust him in it, continue to walk it out and, as you pointed out so beautifully, he will give you and will pray that he gives you just the little encouragement that you need along the way to continue on in the battle, because it may feel like a battle, but that there will be victory Maybe not here on earth, but for sure in eternity, one day with him.

Shannon: 41:50

Absolutely. Yeah. I think one way that I live like it's not true is when I boast. There are ways that I want to make it known that I did this thing, and that is just not living the true story, because God is the one. I am so small and I am so weak, and yet God wants to use little people like me to do big things. And so living like it's true is boasting in God, not in ourselves, not saying my own strength has saved me, but recognizing God is the one who saves us and God is the one who marches us into battle, knowing that he will take care of us.

Shannon: 42:24

I think also, too, living like it's true is knowing that God will give me the encouragement that I need. You know I just love that. God said to him afterward you will be encouraged to attack the camp. You know he knew Gideon needed that encouragement. So if you need encouragement, living like it's true is knowing God's going to give it to you. You just keep listening, right? If you are so discouraged, if you feel so outnumbered, if you feel like whatever you're battling, it's just going to overtake you, whether it's a battle against sin or against some shortage or whatever it is, god's going to give you the encouragement that you need.

Rachael: 42:56

Yeah, he will be with you, and I love what you said. We have to give him the credit and we have to give him the glory, and I think too I'm just reminded of the fleece we want to be in his will, we want to hear his voice, and I think he will give us those reminders and those signs, and that would be my prayer for each of us today too that we would hear correctly what he wants us to do and continue to walk in obedience to what he's leading each and every one of us to do.

Shannon: 43:23

Yeah, even if he's asking you to do something that seems so illogical, like something that's like so backward, like maybe go smaller instead of bigger then your resources, or do something that is so illogical, like, yeah, that could be God asking you to do that.

Rachael: 43:40

There's a man in Acts. He goes and leaves this kind of really big position and he goes along the road to read to this man and he starts to explain the Bible story to him. Yeah, it's Philip, thank you, thank you. And it doesn't really make sense why he would be doing this. But then he reads and explains this Bible story to this Ethiopian man that then that goes and takes the gospel to this whole other nation. And so you think, wow, I'd be leaving this bigger platform, so to speak, and it seems like you're lowering yourself. But yet it actually was part of a bigger story that God had in mind. And so, from our earthly perspective, so much of what we're doing doesn't make sense for it from God's perspective. One day we will see how God has used it all. We just can't always see it from our perspective.

Shannon: 44:27

Yeah, so I mean just like as a wrap up thought, picture this army after this victory, these 300 men. They haven't even had to do anything with their swords, they just smashed their jar, held up their torch, blew their trumpet and God gave them the victory. And they're like there was only 300 of us, and then all of those 37,000 who left looking on, like, look at, God gave us the victory.

Rachael: 44:50

I wasn't even there.

Shannon: 44:51

Right, I mean God is victorious and he wants our boasting to be in him. Little groups of people can do mighty things through the mighty work of God. Thank you so much, rachel. A little goes a long way is Rachel's devotional 52 days to a significant life, and it's packed with stories like these. Our Bible is full of examples of little stories, little people, little amounts and big outcomes, and we want in on it, don't we, rachel, like we want to just use our little lives to be part of this big story, don't we Absolutely yeah, but to give him the glory, absolutely.

Rachael: 45:29

Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you so much.