A nail or tent-pin, only a wooden peg, in the hands of a woman with a hammer helps to make the enemy’s defeat more decisive.[27] Three hundred young men with pitchers and trumpets completely rout the three armies of three nations, and bring another deliverance.[28] Another time a piece of a millstone shoved over the wall by a woman turns the tide of battle favorably.[29] And as contemptible a thing as the jawbone of an ass in the hands of one strong man is used to slay a thousand men.[30]

Call for Volunteers.

It is of one of these, one of the most striking of these, that we are to talk together awhile; the graphic story of Gideon and his band of three hundred young fellows.  Things were in bad shape in the nation; about as bad in every way as they could be.  This time it was the Midianites who overran the land, and held the leaderless people in most abject slavery.  With them were joined two other nations, the Amalekites and the Children of the East.  When the crops were almost ready to harvest, these raiders swooped in in great numbers and destroyed all the crops and drove away all the stock.

They harried the Israelites so that life was made very miserable for them.  They were forced to flee from their farms and take refuge in caves and dens and the fastnesses among the hills.  Then, as usual, when they got into bad shape the people remembered God, and cried for help, and, as usual with Him, He at once forgave them and planned another great deliverance.

First of all Gideon the leader is chosen out, and put through a bit of schooling.  That is a fascinating story of great helpfulness.  Then this trained young leader gathers his band of helpers.  And we want to mark keenly how these three hundred men were sifted out of the thousands for service.  They were sifted out.  They sifted themselves out.  In that army of thousands were just three hundred who had the needed qualifications for the bit of service God wanted done.

Look over the gathered thousands:  which are the chosen three hundred?  No man knew.  They didn’t know themselves until the tests came.  They chose themselves out by the way they stood the three tests applied.  Even so is God ever sifting out men for service.  The more difficult the service, the higher the grade of leadership needed, the severer the test.  The testing both reveals the qualities, and in part makes them.

The first quality these men had was willingness. They were all volunteers.  When the call came they rallied to the leader’s side.  Gideon sent runners, criers, out throughout that whole section.  They went first to his own family clan, then to his tribe, then to three neighboring tribes.  They said that God had called upon Gideon to lead a movement against the Midianites and their allies and he wanted every man to come and help.  The messengers went swiftly through the whole territory of these neighboring tribes, arousing the men to action and calling for volunteers.