Judges 7:1

Judges ‘FIT, THOUGH FEW’Jdg 7:1 - Jdg 7:8 . 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 Jdg 7:3 , 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.

Jdg 7:1 . Gideon rose up early — As one whose heart was upon his business, and who was afraid of losing time. Being now sure God was with him, he is impatient of any delay. And pitched by the well of Harod — That his army might not be distressed for want of water; and he gained the higher ground, which possibly might be some advantage to him, for the Midianites were beneath him in the valley. Our faith in God’s promises must not slacken, but rather quicken our endeavours. When we are sure God goes before us in any undertaking, we must be the more active, and exert ourselves the more to accomplish it.

Verse 1. - Jerubbaal . The mention of this name seems intended to keep before our minds that it is emphatically the servant of the Lord who is going forth to victory. The well of Harod , i.e. of trembling , so called, no doubt, from the incident recorded in ver. 3, that every one who was afraid (Hebrew, hated ) departed from Mount Gilead. The well of Harod is not mentioned elsewhere, though two of David's mighty men are called Harodites ( 2 Samuel 23:25 ); but it is thought to be identical with "the fountain which is in Jezreel" ( 1 Samuel 29:1 ), on the slope of Mount Gilboa, and now called Ain Jahlood , the spring of Goliah. On the north side , etc. Gideon and his Abi-ezrites were naturally on the south side of the plain, on the hill, apparently Mount Gilboa, which there shuts in the plain. The Midianitc host was encamped to the north of him (so it is in the Hebrew), in the valley, i.e. the plain of Jezreel ( Judges 6:33 , note). By the hill of Moreh . Nowhere else mentioned; probably only a hillock, of which there are many in that part of the plain. Judges 7:1