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Judges 7 Bible study: The sword of the LORD and of Gideon
The LORD gave his own reason for cutting Gideon's army to three hundred: "lest Israel brag against me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me’" (7:2). The three hundred held torches and trumpets, and the swords that struck that night were the ones the LORD "set… against his fellow" (7:20, 7:22).
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“The LORD said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel brag against me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’”
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“Before Israel shouts "The sword of the LORD and of Gideon!", a man in Midian's camp calls the dream "the sword of Gideon".”
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What's really going on
Too many, and why
Gideon and "all the people who were with him" camp "beside the spring of Harod", with Midian's camp to the north "by the hill of Moreh, in the valley" (7:1). Then the LORD tells Gideon, "The people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand" (7:2). The chapter gives his reason in the same verse: "lest Israel brag against me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me’" (7:2) (tap brag). First the fearful are sent home: "So twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained" (7:3). "There are still too many people" (7:4), the LORD says, and at the water he chooses "the three hundred men who lapped" (7:7). Then he says who will do the saving: "I will save you by the three hundred men who lapped, and deliver the Midianites into your hand" (7:7) (tap saved). Against them, Midian and its allies "lay along in the valley like locusts for multitude" (7:12).
Where it leads to Jesus
That no flesh should boast
Judges 7:2leads to1 Corinthians 1:29
The LORD cuts Gideon's army "lest Israel brag against me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me’" (7:2), and says, "I will save you by the three hundred men who lapped" (7:7). Paul writes, "God chose the weak things of the world that he might put to shame the things that are strong" (1 Corinthians 1:27), "that no flesh should boast before God" (1 Corinthians 1:29). "Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30), so that "He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:31). Paul doesn't cite Judges 7, so setting them side by side is a reading, resting on the point both passages state: God saves in a way that leaves no one boasting before him. Some see Gideon's three hundred as one time God did what Paul describes, and "Christ crucified" (1 Corinthians 1:23), whom Paul calls "the power of God" (1 Corinthians 1:24), as the fullest. Others read Paul within his own letter, about the Corinthians' calling (1 Corinthians 1:26), and Judges 7 within its own story, and don't look from one to the other.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Judges 7
That was a taste
The rest of Judges 7 is waiting in Favor
- If you are afraid
- What was in their hands
- "My own hand"
- The day of Midian, remembered
- 9 questions as you read
- 9 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
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The Hebrew word behind it
פָּאַרpa'arsay pa-AR
Brown-Driver-Briggs, for the form used here: "glorify oneself = boast". Strong's: "figuratively, to boast". The LORD says the people are too many "lest Israel brag against me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me’" (7:2). In Hebrew it is yitpa'er alai, brag against me. This is the only time Judges uses the verb. Isaiah uses it with the same "against" of a tool: "Should an ax brag against him who chops with it?" (Isaiah 10:15). The same verb is in "You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified" (Isaiah 49:3).
For your group
Judges 7 Bible study questions
- 1The LORD cut the army "lest Israel brag against me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me’" (7:2). Where in your life are you most likely to say that, even quietly?
- 2Gideon "worshiped" when he heard the dream, before a trumpet was blown (7:15). What would it look like for you to thank God for something before you see it happen?
- 3The three hundred "each stood in his place around the camp" (7:21), and the LORD did the rest (7:22). What is your place to stand in this week, and what are you leaving to God?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Judges 7 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home