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The DEEP

Rules? What Rules?

God's way.

Judges 7:19–23

So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outpost of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just as they had posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands. Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers—they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing—and they cried, “The sword of the LORD and of Gideon!” And every man stood in his place all around the camp; and the whole army ran and cried out and fled. When the three hundred blew the trumpets, the LORD set every man’s sword against his companion throughout the whole camp; and the army fled to Beth Acacia, toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel Meholah, by Tabbath.

And the men of Israel gathered together from Naphtali, Asher, and all Manasseh, and pursued the Midianites.

One might assume that this victory was achieved despite the tiny Israelite army, but that’s not it. It was achieved because of the army’s small size. Consider this.

A recent car bombing in Moscow made the news because it killed the daughter of a high Russian official. The Russian government immediately condemned the bombing as an action by the Ukrainians. They had to spin it that way; the alternative is too painful to contemplate.

It could just be that the Russian people have grown tired of Putin’s imperialism. Maybe one of the mothers whose son came home in a box decided it was time for a little payback. Or maybe one of the oligarchs who had his yacht seized thinks that new leadership would be more lucrative.

Or it could have been anyone. Russia isn’t littered with security cameras the way the US is. The government may not have any good leads on who did it. That’s much worse than a hit from the Ukrainians. If the Russian people have started killing each other, their end is nigh.

That’s what happened to the Midianites. There were way too many of them for the Israelite army to kill. They had to be tricked into killing themselves.

If an army of thousands of Israelites had attacked, the Midianites would have been able to see their enemy and would have fought them. Instead, all they could see was each other and, since they knew they were being attacked, they fought the ones they could see. In the dark, they couldn’t tell who was who.

The LORD used “friendly fire” to defeat the Midianites.


The rules of warfare aren’t really rules; they’re just traditions or “best practices.” Like most human rules, God seems to make a point of not following them. That’s by design.

The point is humility. The LORD winnowing down Gideon’s army to only 300 men was to make it so they couldn’t take credit for the victory. But that was just part of the larger agenda of humbling them.

Remember, the Midianite oppression was to humble Israel. God’s deliverance mustn’t puff them back up.


These Monday—Friday DEEPs are written by Mike Slay. The Weekend DEEPs are written by Matt Richardson. To subscribe to all the DEEPs click here:

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The weekly study guides, which include the Monday–Friday devotionals plus related questions for discussion or meditation, are available for download here:

https://www.ailbe.org/resources/itemlist/category/91-deep-studies

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV stands for the English Standard Version. © Copyright 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved. NIV stands for The Holy Bible, New International Version®. © Copyright 1973 by International Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved. KJV stands for the King James Version.

Mike Slay

As a mathematician, inventor, and ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church in America, Mike Slay brings an analytical, conversational, and even whimsical approach to the daily study of God's Word.

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