Contemplative Bible Reading

Judges 7:21-22a (New Living Translation)

21 Each man stood at his position around the camp and watched as all the Midianites rushed around in a panic, shouting as they ran to escape. 22 When the 300 Israelites blew their rams’ horns, the Lord caused the warriors in the camp to fight against each other with their swords.

This is part of the (hi)story of Gideon and a small army of 300 men defeating a huge army of Midianites. This is the account of holding torches in jars to keep them dark. Then, in a great startling moment, the 300 broke the jars, exposed the torches, and blew horns. Each horn represented a group of 50-or-so men coming at you in the middle of the night.

It was a great ruse. The Midianites were deceived. In a panic, they killed each other.

That was the story taught in Sunday School to eager boys who wanted to read that John Wayne was active in the Bible and all that action and adventure. Pow. Bam. Zoom. Crunch. And all that. Tactics were key to the victory.

Nope. As it says, “the Lord caused the warriors in the camp to fight against each other with their swords.” The Lord did this. The surprise, the horn blasts, the immediate torches, surrounding the camp on all sides, all that stuff explains this event to the tactician and student of military history. That, however, is not what caused the Midianites to kill one another. The Lord caused it. The Lord did it.

This was a miracle that saved the Lord’s people from yet another invading army, from yet another earthly foe. God did it. End of explanation. And the people at the time, including what was left of the fleeing Midianite army, knew what happened.

Let’s give God the credit. Same today: let’s give God the credit.