Many explanations have been offered. The main point is that the fleece
is to be made different from the soil around it. It is to be a proof of
God's power to endow with characteristics not derived from, and
resulting in qualities unlike, the surroundings.
Gideon had no thought of any significance beyond that. But we may
allowably let the Scripture usage of the symbol of dew influence our
reading into the symbol a deeper meaning than it bore to him.
God makes the fleece wet with dew, while all the threshing-floor is
dry. Dew is the symbol of divine grace, of the silently formed moisture
which, coming from no apparent source, freshens by night the wilted
plants, and hangs in myriad drops, that twinkle into green and gold as
the early sunshine strikes them, on the humblest twig. That grace is
plainly not a natural product nor to be accounted for by environment.
The dew of the Spirit, which God and God only, can give, can freshen
our worn and drooping souls, can give joy in sorrow, can keep us from
being touched by surrounding evils, and from being parched by
surrounding drought, can silently 'distil' its supplies of strength
according to our need into our else dry hearts.
The wet fleece on the dry ground was not only a revelation of God's
power, but may be taken as a pattern of what God's soldiers must ever
be. A prophet long after Gideon said: 'The remnant of Jacob shall be in
the midst of many peoples as dew from the Lord,' bringing to others the
grace which they have received that they may diffuse it, and turning
the dry and thirsty land where no water is into fertility, and the
'parched ground' into a 'pool.'
We have said that the main point of Gideon's petition was that the
fleece should be made unlike the threshing-floor, and that that
unlikeness, which could obviously not be naturally brought about, was
to be to him the sure token that God was at work to produce it. The
strongest demonstration that the Church can give the world of its
really being God's Church is its unlikeness to the world. If it is wet
with divine dew when all the threshing-floor is dry, and if, when all
the floor is drenched with poisonous miasma, it is dry from the
diffused and clinging malaria, the world will take knowledge of it, and
some souls be set to ask how this unlikeness comes. When Haman has to
say: 'There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among
the peoples ... and their laws are diverse from those of every people,'
he may meditate murder, but 'many from among the people of the land'
will join their ranks. Gideon may or may not have thought of the fleece
as a symbol of his little host, but we may learn from it the old
lesson, 'Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the
renewing of your minds.'
'FIT, THOUGH FEW'
'Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people that were with him,
rose up early, and pitched beside the well of Harod: so that the host
of the Midianites were on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh,
in the valley. 2. And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are
with thee are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands,
lest Israel vaunt themselves against Me, saying, Mine own hand hath
saved me. 3. Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people,
saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart
early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and
two thousand; and there remained ten thousand. 4. And the Lord said
unto Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the
water, and I will try them for thee there: and it shall be, that of
whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with
thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee. This shall not go with thee,
the same shall not go. 5. So he brought down the people unto the water:
and the Lord said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with
his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise
every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink. 6. And the number
of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three
hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees
to drink water. 7. And the Lord said unto Gideon, By the three hundred
men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine
hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place. 8. So
the people took victuals in their hand, and their trumpets: and he sent
all the rest of Israel every man unto his tent, and retained those
three hundred men. And the host of Midian was beneath him in the
valley.'--JUDGES vii 1-8.
Gideon is the noblest of the judges. Courage, constancy, and caution
are strongly marked in his character. The youngest son of an obscure
family in a small tribe, he humbly shrinks from the task imposed on
him,--not from cowardice or indolence, but from conscious weakness. Men
who are worthy to do such work as his are never forward to begin it,
nor backward in it when they are sure that it is God's will. He began
his war against Midian by warring against Baal, whose worship had
brought the oppressor. If any thorough deliverance from the misery
which departure from God has wrought is to be effected, we must destroy
the idols before we attack the spoilers. Cast out sin, and you cast out
sorrow. So he first earns his new name of Jerubbaal ('Let Baal plead'),
and is known as Baal's antagonist, before he blows the trumpet of
revolt. The name is an omen of victory. The hand that had smitten the
idol, and had not been withered, would smite Midian. Therefore that new
name is used in this chapter, which tells of the preparations for the
fight and its triumphant issue. From his home among the hills, he had
sent the fiery cross to the three northern tribes, who had been the
mainstay of Deborah's victory, and who now rallied around Gideon to the
number of thirty-two thousand. The narrative shows us the two armies
confronting each other on the opposite slopes of the valley of Jezreel,
where it begins to dip steeply towards the Jordan. Gideon and his men
are on the south side of the valley, above the fountain of Harod, or
'Trembling,' apparently so called from the confessed terror which
thinned his army. The word 'is afraid,' in verse 3, comes from the same
root. On the other side of the glen, not far from the site of the
Philistine camp on the day of Saul's last defeat, lay the
far-stretching camp of the invaders, outnumbering Israel by four to
one. For seven years these Midianite marauders had paralysed Israel,
and year by year had swarmed up this valley from the eastern desert,
and thence by the great plain had penetrated into every corner of the
land, as far south as Gaza, devouring like locusts. It is the same easy
route by which, to this day, the Bedouin find their way into Palestine,
whenever the weak Turkish Government is a little weaker or more corrupt
than usual. Apparently, the Midianites were on their homeward march,
laden with spoil, and very contemptuous of the small force across the
valley, who, on their part, had not shaken off their terror of the
fierce nomads who had used them as they pleased for seven years.
I. Note, as the first lesson taught here, the divinely appointed
disproportion between means and end, and its purpose. Many an Israelite
would look across to the long lines of black tents, and think, 'We are
too few for our task'; but to God's eye they were too many, and the
first necessity was to weed them out. The numbers must be so reduced
that the victory shall be unmistakably God's, not theirs. The same sort
of procedure, and for the same reason, runs through all God's dealings.
It is illustrated in a hundred Scripture instances, and is stated most
plainly by Paul in his triumphant eloquence. He revels in telling how
foolish, weak, base things, that are _no_ things in the world's
estimate, have been chosen to cover with shame wise, strong, honoured
things, which seem to be somewhat; and he gives the same reason as our
lesson does, 'that no flesh should glory in His presence.' Eleven poor
men on one side, and all the world on the other, made fearful odds. The
more unevenly matched are the respective forces, the more plainly does
the victory of the weaker demand for its explanation the intervention
of God. The old sneer, that 'Providence is always on the side of the
strongest battalions,' is an audacious misreading of history, and is
the very opposite of the truth. It is the weak battalions which win in
the long run, for the history of every good cause is the same. First,
it kindles a fire in the hearts of two or three nobodies, who are
burned in earlier times, and laughed at as fools, fanatics,
impracticable dreamers, in later ages, but whose convictions grow till,
one day, the world wakes up to find that everybody believes them, and
then it 'builds the tombs of the prophets.'
Why should God desire that there shall be no mistake as to who wins the
battle? The answer may very easily be so given as to make what is
really a token of His love become an unlovely and repellent trait in
His character. It is not eagerness for praise that moves Him, but
longing that men may have the blessedness of recognising His hand
fighting for them. It is for Israel's sake that He is so solicitous to
deliver them from the delusion of their having won the victory. It is
because He loves us and would fain have us made restful, confident, and
strong, in the assurance of His fighting for us, that He takes pains so
to order the history of His Church in the world, that it is one long
attestation of the omnipotence of weakness when His power flows through
it. To say 'Mine own hand hath saved me,' is to lose unspeakable peace
and blessing; to say 'Not I, but the grace of God in me,' is to be
serene and of good cheer in the face of outnumbering foes, and sure of
victory in all conflicts. Therefore God is careful to save us from
self-gratulation and self-confidence.
One lesson we may learn from this thinning of the ranks; namely, that
we need not be anxious to count heads, when we are sure that we are
doing His work, nor even be afraid of being in a minority. Minorities
are generally right when they are the apostles of new thoughts, though
the minorities which cleave to some old fossil are ordinarily wrong.
The prophet and his man were alone and ringed around with enemies, when
he said, 'They that be with us are more than they that be with them';
and yet he was right, for the mountain was full of horses and chariots
of fire. Let us be sure that we are on God's side, and then let us not
mind how few are in the ranks with us, nor be afraid, though the
far-extended front of the enemy threatens to curl around our flanks and
enclose us. The three hundred heroes had God with them, and that was
enough.
II. Note the self-applied test of courage which swept away so much
chaff. According to Deuteronomy xx. 8, the standing enactment was that
such a proclamation as that in verse 3 should precede every battle.
Much difficulty has been raised about the mention of Mount Gilead here,
as the only Mount Gilead otherwise mentioned in Scripture lay to the
east of Jordan. But perhaps the simplest solution is the true one,-that
there was another hilly region so named on the western side. The map of
the Palestine Exploration Fund attaches the name to the northern slopes
of the western end of Gilboa, where Gideon was now encamped, and that
is probably right. Be that as it may, the effect of the proclamation
was startling. Two-thirds of the army melted away. No doubt, many who
had flocked to Gideon's standard felt their valour oozing out at their
finger ends, when they came close to the enemy, and saw their long
array across the valley. It must have required some courage to confess
being afraid, but the cowards were numerous enough to keep each other
in countenance. Two out of three were panic-struck. I wonder if the
proportion would be less in Christ's army to-day, if professing
Christians were as frank as Gideon's men?
Why were the 'fearful' dismissed? Because fear is contagious; and, in
undisciplined armies like Gideon's, panic, once started, spreads
swiftly, and becomes frenzied confusion. The same thing is true in the
work of the Church to-day. Who that has had much to do with guiding its
operations has not groaned over the dead weight of the timid and
sluggish souls, who always see difficulties and never the way to get
over them? And who that has had to lead a company of Christian men has
not often been ready to wish that he could sound out Gideon's
proclamation, and bid the 'fearful and afraid' take away the chilling
encumbrance of their presence, and leave him with thinned ranks of
trusty men? Cowardice, dressed up as cautious prudence, weakens the
efficiency of every regiment in Christ's army.
Another reason for getting rid of the fearful is that fear is the
opposite of faith, and that therefore, where it is uppermost, the door
by which God's power can enter to strengthen is closed. Not that faith
must be free of all admixture of fear, but that it must subdue fear, if
a man is to be God's warrior, fighting in His strength. Many a tremor
would rock the hearts of the ten thousand who remained, but they so
controlled their terror that it did not overcome their faith. We do not
need, for our efficiency in Christ's service, complete exemption from
fear, but we do need to make the psalmist's resolve ours: 'I will
trust, and not be afraid.' Terror shuts the door against the entrance
of the grace which makes us conquerors, and so fulfils its own
forebodings; faith opens the door, and so fulfils its own confidences.
III. Note the final test. God required but few men, but He required
that these should be fit. The first test had sifted out the brave and
willing. The liquor was none the less, though so much froth had been
blown off. As Thomas Fuller says, there were 'fewer persons, but not
fewer men,' after the poltroons had disappeared. The second test, 'a
purgatory of water,' as the same wise and witty author calls it, was
still more stringent. The dwindled ranks were led down from their camp
on the slopes to the fountain and brook which lay in the valley near
the Midianites' camp. Gideon alone seems to have known that a test was
to be applied there; but he did not know what it was to be till they
reached the spring, and the soldiers did not know that they were
determining their fate when they drank. The two ways of drinking
clearly indicated a difference in the men. Those who glued their lips
to the stream and swilled till they were full, were plainly more
self-indulgent, less engrossed with their work, less patient of fatigue
and thirst, than those who caught up enough in their curved palms to
moisten their lips without stopping in their stride or breaking rank.
The former test was self-applied, and consciously so. This is no less
self-applied, though unconsciously. God shuts out no man from His army,
but men shut themselves out; sometimes knowingly, by avowed
disinclination for the warfare, sometimes unknowingly, by
self-indulgent habits, which proclaim their unfitness.
The great lesson taught here is that self-restraint in the use of the
world's goods is essential to all true Christian warfare. There are two
ways of looking at and partaking of these. We may either 'drink for
strength' or 'for drunkenness.' Life is to some men first a place for
strenuous endeavour, and only secondly a place of refreshment. Such
think of duty first and of water afterwards. To them, all the innocent
joys and pleasures of the natural life are as brooks by the way, of
which Christ's soldier should drink, mainly that he may be
re-invigorated for conflict. There are others whose conception of life
is a scene of enjoyment, for which work is unfortunately a necessary
but disagreeable preliminary. One does not often see such a character
in its pure perfection of sensualism; but plenty of approximations to
it are visible, and ugly sights they are. The roots of it are in us
all; and it cannot be too strongly insisted on that, unless it be
subdued, we cannot enlist in Christ's army, and shall never be counted
worthy to be His instruments. Such self-restraint is especially needful
to be earnestly inculcated on young men and women, to whom life is
opening as if it were a garden of delight, whose passions are strong,
whose sense is keen, whose experience is slender, and to whom all
earth's joys appeal more strongly than they do to those who have drunk
of the cup, and know how bitter is its sediment. It is especially
needful to be pealed into the ears of a generation like ours, in which
senseless luxury, the result of wealth which has increased faster than
the power of rightly using it, has attained such enormous proportions,
and is threatening, in commercial communities especially, to drown all
noble aspirations, and Spartan simplicity, and Christian self-devotion,
in its muddy flood. Surely never was Gideon's test more wanted for the
army of the Lord of hosts than it is to-day.
Such self-restraint gives double sweetness to enjoyments, which, when
partaken of more freely, pall on the jaded palate. 'The full soul
loatheth a honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is
sweet.' The senses are kept fine-edged, and the rare holidays are
sweeter because they are rare. The most refined prudence of the mere
sensualist would prescribe the same regimen as the Christian moralist
does. But from how different a motive! Christ calls for self-restraint
that we may be fit organs for His power, and bids us endure hardness
that we may be good soldiers of His. If we know anything of the true
sweetness of His fellowship and service, it will not be hard to drink
sparingly of earthly fountains, when we have the river of His pleasures
to drink from; nor will it be painful sacrifice to cast away imitation
jewels, in order to clasp in our hands the true riches of His love and
imparted life.