“When Little Is Big Enough” is a sermon teaching us that even though you may be a single individual, you can do great things for God if you follow God faithfully.

Let’s go to Judges chapter seven, Judges chapter seven, and as we get into the passage this evening, we’re going to stay here. We’re not moving anywhere else. So, if you are prepared to move somewhere else, we’re not going to do that. But we’re going to stay here this evening and look at most of the chapter, not all the chapter, but Judges chapter seven.

When God Is in It

A hymnwriter wrote the words, “For little is much when God is in it, labor not for wealth or fame, and there’s a crown, and you can win it, if you go in Jesus’ name.” That’s a very big idea – little is much as when God is in it. Another hymnwriter says, “My God is so big He’s strong and so mighty.” And some of you may be thinking, “Yep, I remember the hand motions. “My God is so big, so strong, and so mighty, there’s nothing my God cannot do for you; then the mountains are His, the valleys are His, the stars are His handiwork too.” And now you’re thinking, “Wow, he really went all the way back there.” Yeah, I did.

You know, some of these songs, even though we sing them and we sing them when we’re children, we teach our children these songs. They have some pretty powerful truths, and they also can teach us a lot about having a lot with a little.

So, even though we may think we may feel little in our own eyes, with God, everything can be magnified greatly. When you consider the great commission, it seems daunting to understand there are seven billion people in the world, and how can you and I reach them?

I mean, if it’s just up to us, and there’s some people out there today who think that only their church is the only church that people can be saved in, well, if that’s the case, and if we’re looking at our church size, and let’s say it’s the biggest church in America, which is probably a couple thousand, if that was the case, then I think we’re woefully short in trying to fulfill the Great Commission.

But I want us to think about some things here as we reflect. For those of you who’ve been here for years or a few months, as you know, we are a smaller church, and we’ve been that way for a good while. We’ve been here for 42 years, Lord willing, coming up in August. But our little church here, in the last 42 years, has trained, developed, and been a part of people’s lives who are now elsewhere in the world teaching, serving, preaching, flying in planes all throughout the country and the world, working at hospitals, accountants, being youth pastors, pastors, missionaries, evangelists, all over this world. Some of it came from people coming to this small, little church here in Delray Beach, Florida. That’s not just this church; there are other churches that may be even smaller than us, and there are churches that are bigger than us. But God can use something small to do something big.

The camp ministry alone, we’ve had in the 42 summers we’re coming up to this year. In those 42 years, we’ve had thousands of children coming to the summer camp, and a lot of them have come to trust Jesus Christ as their Savior. They’re all doing various different things in the world today, and we’re a small place. I mean, we don’t have a huge auditorium out here, or a second level, or a third level, or multiple services every week, like some other places do. Even though we’re a small place, God’s doing big things. He can continue to do big things as long as we don’t get discouraged by that fact.

Call for Battle

Tonight, I want us to think about this battle, and I want us to think about, and I want to encourage us that though we may think we’re small or though you and I think we’re little in the eyes of God, we can do great things when God is for us. But you’re just one person. How is it that God tells us to reach the world, and we’re just one person at a time? Well, He tells us that because it’s multiple people doing the same mission and goal, because there are various different people you and I run into on a day-to-day basis. So, let’s take a look at Judges chapter seven, and as we open the Bible, we’re opening the mind of God. So, let’s see what He’s thinking here in Judges chapter seven. Let’s come down to verse number seven to begin with.

Judges 7:7: “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.”

I submit to you this evening, as we look at this passage of scripture, that little is big enough in the sight of God. I want to look at that through this battle tonight.

First of all, we see in the first five verses here the call for battle. Who is Gideon? Gideon was a man who destroyed the idol of Baal. He did this early in the morning, and the people tried, to the those who they were under bondage with, tried to kill Gideon because of this deed. But God sought to preserve Gideon, who was trying to get the nation to turn back to God. These Midianites and Amalekites didn’t like the fact that Gideon was coming along and getting rid of their gods.

And so, when we get to chapter seven, verse one, we have this other name for Gideon, and it’s Jerubbaal, because he’s the one who went after Baal. The explanation of his name is found starting in the 29th verse in chapter 6. But they named him because he got rid of the altars of Baal.

Judges 7:1: “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.”

Judges 7:2: “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.”

So, the battle’s prepared, but you know what God says? Normally, you would think, and now logically we think this, you need as many people in the battle as you can. God comes along and tells Gideon, “Hey, there are too many people.”

Okay, at this point, there are about 32,000 men in this army. The Midianites, we would find out in chapter 8 verse 10, had 135,000. Let’s picture this: 32,000 versus 135,000. Now, which army would be bigger? The 135,000.

And God says to Gideon and the 32,000, you’re too big. Now, logistically, does that make sense? No, it does not, and so what does God want to do? Well, let’s look. Verse number three. The reason why he didn’t want it that large is that he wanted to make sure that they saw that God was in control and that God was going to give victory. Saying that my own hand has saved me, He didn’t want Israel to say, “Hey, look what we did, we got rid of this whole big army, and we did it ourselves. We don’t need God.”

Choosing Battle-Ready Men God’s Way

Verse three:

Judges 7:3: “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.”

So, you have 32,000 people, okay. Those who are afraid to go to battle, those who are fearful, you just go home. We don’t need you. And so, out of 32,000, 22,000 go home. That’s quite a big decrease, wouldn’t you think? So, that occurs and that takes place, but we’re still at 10,000 men. Verse four says this:

Judges 7:4: “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.”

“And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many;” – Well, wait, wait, wait. So, 135,000 plus people for the Midianites, 10,000 for the nation of Israel. Now, you’re saying that there are still too many. Well, let’s see. Verse four continues “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.”

Basically, God is essentially telling Gideon, “Who’s going to go, they’re going to go with you, and I’ll let you know those who are not going to go, they’re not going to go. Verse five:

Judges 7:5: “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.”

Okay, this is interesting. What He wants is, He wants people who are literally going to go down, and they’re going to pick up some water, put it up into their hand, and then, literally lick it up like a dog – now, I don’t know if you’ve tried that lately. I haven’t. Why in the world would God want to do that? Well, we can speculate a few things, but let’s continue on here.

Verse five says this, “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.” So, you have two different people. You have the people who take the water in themselves and they lap it right here, and then the other one, are the people have to go all the way down to their hands and knees, and either do it the same way, or some of them probably put their face right into the water. So, you have two sets of people, the ones who did the lapping this way. Verse six:

Judges 7:6: “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.”

Why would God want that? Here’s what a couple of people have speculated on that. Number one, they couldn’t forget the foe, so that they were resolved to subordinate bodily appetite to the spirit, and dared not relax their girded loins. So, basically, what they’re saying is here, instead of going all the way down being compromised, they’re saying, well, they’re going to have their hands up here. So, if they have to be ready to defend themselves, they just drop the water and go. They’re now reliant upon trying to get all the liquid in themselves. They’re just ready to go one right after another. They’re ready for battle.

Another option states this way: the great lesson taught here is that self-restraint in the use of the world’s goods is essential to all true Christian warfare. So, the thought is that they’re ready and alert at all fronts if they drink this way. If someone came, they would just drop the water and deal with the situation at hand. If they’re not paying attention, they could be overtaken. Lappeth means to lick or to lap. You can kind of sense that God is just trying to say, “Hey, the people who are like this. This is who I want. These are the people who are ready to go, are ready to go at a moment’s notice than those who have to go through more.

But think about it. If you’re standing this way, and you’re drinking water like this, is it easier to get into your combat position from here, or if you’re all the way down here, which one would be easier? Which one can you defend yourself better? With the upright position, right? Because if you’re down here, the enemy comes, let’s say they’re behind you, do you have enough time to turn around and get up? No. You’re still on a knee or two, and that’s it.

Preparing the Army

So, here’s what God says. God was preparing the army to go against the enemy, but how? Be it with what seems to be unconventional methods? So, now let’s see how He prepares these men for battle. Verse seven:

Judges 7:7: “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.”

So, we went from 32,000 men ready to go to battle to 300. Now, that’s quite a big deficit, wouldn’t you think?

Let’s put this into more reality. Now, if you know your world history, what’s probably the biggest historical example of a small army defeating a larger army? Yeah, Spartans. They had this really tiny army, and they defeated this huge army. I forget which country it was they did it to, but they had this success with the smallest army.

But this was already done even before that time frame, and so you think that’s not good, 300 against 135,000 plus people, the Midianites. So, you think God would give them enough ammunition to defend themselves, right? Well, let’s look at verse eight:

Judges 7:8: “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 7:9: “And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said unto him, Arise, get thee down unto the host; for I have delivered it into thine hand.”

Judges 7:10: “But if thou fear to go down, go thou with Phurah thy servant down to the host:”

Victuals, the idea of this food, this meat, this provision, is so that they have just enough food to hold them over. And they have a trumpet, a shofar. Okay, I got food that’s good, good to be nourished, and I have a trumpet. Now, what is a trumpet going to do against a sword? Is a trumpet going to destroy a sword? No, it isn’t. Trumpets make really loud noises, but what else? You think God might have more prepared for them? Well, let’s look at verse number 11:

Judges 7:11: “And thou shalt hear what they say; and afterward shall thine hands be strengthened to go down unto the host. Then went he down with Phurah his servant unto the outside of the armed men that were in the host.”

Judges 7:12: “And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea side for multitude.”

The Bible lays out here that there’s a huge army, and at least 135,000 of them were Midianites. We also have the Amalekites, and we also have the children of the east. That’s a pretty big army. Gideon comes along here happily, towing 300 men. So, what are they going to do?

God’s Battle Plan and Victory

Verse 13:

Judges 7:13: “And when Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along.”

Judges 7:14: “And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: for into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host.”

Okay, so we still haven’t gotten to how these men are going to defend themselves yet, what exactly they’re going to do. Well, let’s keep going:

Judges 7:15: “And it was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation thereof, that he worshipped, and returned into the host of Israel, and said, Arise; for the LORD hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian.”

So, now, we see. Yeah, God’s going to deliver Midian. He’s going to use the sword of Gideon to do that. If you have ever heard of the newspaper The Sword of the Lord, this is where their verse comes from. We’re coming up to it pretty soon. That’s where they get the name Sword of the Lord. But still, there’s no battle plan yet. Well, it’s coming. Verse 16, here’s the battle plan:

Judges 7:16: “And he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers.”

Okay, so, 300, you’re already small. Now we’re going to divide them into three groups of 100. You’re thinking in your mind, logistically, this does not make sense. Okay, you’ve got 300 men – one, two, three groups of 100 going against a whole huge army. And so, what are their weapons? Well, I’m glad you asked, “and he put a trumpet in every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers.”

Do you see any other weapons in there? No. Do you see swords? Do you see every man having a sword? No. What do they have? They literally have a shofar, a trumpet, two pitchers that could break easily when they clashed together, and oil in them. Why? So, you could light a fire because when they were combined together, it would heat up and then send a fire through; that’s all they had. I don’t know about you, but if that were you going out, that’s all you had, would you be starting to question a couple of things yourself? Now, I understand, yes, and I’m not minimizing this. Yes, God is in control. God knows exactly His plan, His right plan. This was the right plan to do.

What was His purpose? All the way back in the chapter, at the beginning of the chapter, was so that they could see that God delivered them and not that they did it on their own. He’s literally going with the bare bones of anything to make sure that this victory is celebrated because God delivered them. So, here it comes. Here comes the big strategy. They get a shofar, they get a trumpet, you get empty pitchers with lamps within these pitchers. They would cause them to light up the place when they were broken because of the oil in them. The pitchers would break easily. So, here’s the idea, verse 17:

Judges 7:17: “And he said unto them, Look on me, and do likewise: and, behold, when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so shall ye do.”

And what’s that going to be?

Judges 7:18: “When I blow with a trumpet, I and all that are with me, then blow ye the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say, The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon.”

Okay, that’s it. So, they’re going to spread out three groups, watch Gideon, when it’s time, they’re going to blow the trumpet, and shout “the sword of the Lord and of Gideon.” Verse 19:

Judges 7:19: “So Gideon, and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch; and they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers that were in their hands.”

“In the beginning of the middle watch.” That idea here is simply that this was probably around 11:00, midnight, or so. It’s the middle of the watch. Usually, they’re about 3 hours apiece, so like from 9 to 12, or from 7 to 11, 11 to 3, 3 to 7, that’s kind of the idea. It’s working right in the middle of the night, this watch would be going on, so these guys would be sleeping. These guys would be resting. They probably wouldn’t be awake or fully awake when this would take place. Verse 19 again:

Judges 7:19: “So Gideon, and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch; and they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers that were in their hands.”

They just had a shift change, and they blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands. As soon as they switch out the new watch, boom, the pitchers are broken, the trumpets are sounding. Verse 20:

Judges 7:20: “And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon.”

They literally surround the camp – a group here, a group over there, a group over there. They’re all blowing with the trumpet, they’ve broken the pitcher so the oil is going down into the camp, and they have their lamps ready to light it up; that way, it can go into the camp and burn it, and that’s all they had. Verse 21:

Judges 7:21: “And they stood every man in his place round about the camp: and all the host ran, and cried, and fled.”

They haven’t even touched the 300 men, haven’t even gone after the hundreds of thousands of men that are in this enemy camp. And so, what’s going on? This is what happened, verse 22:

Judges 7:22: “And the three hundred blew the trumpets, and the LORD set every man’s sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host: and the host fled to Bethshittah in Zererath, and to the border of Abelmeholah, unto Tabbath.”

So, what happened? Simple. The trumpets blew, the pitchers were broken, the oil went down, and they had the lamps ready to light them up. And because they were woken and spoken to in the middle of the night, they went and killed each other. That’s what happened. They didn’t even have to do a single offensive maneuver. The only thing that they really did, this isn’t on your screen here, but verse 25:

Judges 7:25: “And they took two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeeb; and they slew Oreb upon the rock Oreb, and Zeeb they slew at the winepress of Zeeb, and pursued Midian, and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side Jordan.”

The Midianites, because of God, turned against each other, and they took each other out. This huge army, instead of fighting the Israeli army, fights and destroys each other. Why? Because God did it.

God made something little do something big. All He simply did was have these 300 men, 100 on each side, to go sound trumpets, break pitchers, shout “the sword of the Lord of Gideon,” and God did the rest of it. Gideon was the only one with a sword, and he got two of the leaders. That was it.

When God Is In It

So, what does this apply to you and me? Well, let’s conclude that a little was big enough because God was on their side. The application for tonight is simple. Even though you may be a single individual in the grand scheme of life, you can do great things for God if you follow God faithfully and let Him have control of your life. We may feel small amongst a bunch of people in this world. We may feel like a small church in the midst of all the other churches in Palm Beach County and the United States, but little is much when God is in it.

God has done great things in this church, and He will continue to do great things as long as His people stay faithful to Him and follow Him. That’s the application here. We would call that surrendering and denying ourselves to be ready for Him. God can use this little church to reach out to the city and the county, if we’re singularly focused on reaching the Gospel to people we see in our daily lives, either by a track by talking or by giving the Gospel to those who are searching. That’s the application: God can do something big with people like us.

We’re not famous. I mean, maybe Jacob over here, he’s a famous guy, okay. But we’re not famous. People don’t know us in other parts of the world. I’m pretty certain even if you go to Martin County and you mention my name, people say like “Chris who,” or “Tom who,” or “Anna who.” They don’t know anybody outside of this church. I mean, unless we know churches up there, which we probably do. I just don’t remember them. A lot of people don’t know Mrs. Shaw. She’s really well known around this area, but even then, if you take her name to say, Alabama, you say, “I know Darlene Shaw,” they’ll say, “Who’s that?” They don’t know. That was weird, saying your name without “Mrs.” in front of it.

But God can do much with just ordinary people like you and me as long as we’re committed to Him, we’re faithful to Him, and we surrender our lives to Him. Little is much. Little is big enough when we let God take control.

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Father, we come to you in prayer. We thank you for the day given to us. Father, we thank you for the opportunity that we have to be here this evening, and I do pray now as we begin to conclude the services this evening and conclude this day in your house. Father, I pray that you’d encourage us this evening.

The invitation for tonight is pretty simple. Help us to be encouraged. Help us to be lifted up. As we hear the music play in just a few short moments, we would just pray for those whom we know who need encouragement this evening, that we can pray for those who need to hear your Word this evening.

We can pray for those whom we know just need to be lifted up. Even though they may think that things aren’t going well right now, maybe it’s health-wise, maybe it’s family issues, maybe it’s financial struggles, or whatever the case is, we would just pray for that person or persons tonight when this invitation begins. And that we can encourage them, and help us to be an encouragement to them this evening, knowing that what they’re doing is not in vain, as long as they are faithful and committed to you.

Father bless and move in this invitation time, we pray in Jesus’ name.

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