In the New Testament, the apostle Paul wrote that he could do all things through Christ who strengthens him.It’s a big claim, when you think about it.
I doubt he could pick a lock or do an oil change on your car. But he most certainly could do anything that God commanded him to do. And so can you. You can do all things through Christ – all things he commands you to do.
And you can know that by thinking about God’s dealings with Gideon in Judges 6.
These notes accompany a sermon on YouTube delivered at Bromborough Evangelical Church in September 2025. You can find more in the series in our sermon index.
Know your weakness (1-8)
Remember that God actually chose Gideon in the man’s weakness: God knew how feeble Gideon was. And yet he chose him because Gideon was weak. Which is pretty strange at first, when you remember the size of the task: Read Judges 6:14.
So, clothed with the Spirit of God, Gideon rallied the troops. Somehow he mustered 32,000 men from the north of the country, just west and south of Galilee. 32,000 men sounds like quite an army. But the enemy was huge. Read Judges 7:12.
It’s not an even fight. It’s like a school football team playing Liverpool Football Club. But God had a problem with the size of the army. Read Judges 7:2.
Now Deuteronomy 20:8 has a law that allows anyone afraid to be excused from going to battle. So read Judges 7:3. So now we’re down to a school 5-a-side team facing Liverpool! But God also had a problem with the 10,000. Read Judges 7:4.
You might have heard sermons about how God was somehow trying to find the SAS of the army – the very best men. But he wasn’t. This is about weakness, not strength. God was whittling the army down to a size so small that they would have no earthly chance of beating Midian. We’re down to the smallest player in the school team, still facing Liverpool FC. It’s ridiculous. There’s no hope.
But the command of Judges 6:14 still stands, and God doesn’t give impossible commands.
For Gideon and his 300 men, supernatural help from God was their only option. Their weakness was on display; and so was their need. As you get older, there comes a day when you realise you need reading glasses, or a walking stick, or lifts when you used to be the one offering lifts. Realising your weakness is the first step to asking for and receiving help. Pride keeps us from the help we need.
But this is true of you spiritually as much as physically. Spiritually, you’re a sinner, unable to free yourself from sin. You can’t not sin; naturally, you’re a sinner bound for hell. But realising that is the first step to asking for help. God will bring you to a point where you realise it, as he did with Gideon. If you think you’re spiritually ok without God’s help, you’re doomed to hell without him. But God came into the world to seek you out: He said, “I came to seek and to save” – which is good news for you.
Christians and churches need to be very careful about any sense of “maturity” – unless you also have a growing sense of weakness and need of help.
Anything less is idolatry. So know your weakness, and:
Know God’s strength (9-14)
For Gideon and his 300 men, God’s command still stands. Read Judges 7:9.
But God chose this man knowing him to be weak, so he immediately gives Gideon a sign to encourage him. Read Judges 7:10-11. Of course he went. Gideon was not a strong man. What does Gideon discover? Read Judges 7:13-14.
It’s obvious to Gideon that both the dream and its interpretation are supernatural, brought about by God’s intervention. In other words, God was preparing the way, clearing the road, ready for Gideon and his men to step forward in success – God’s success.
The same principle is at work for every single Christian. Read Ephesians 2:8-10.
For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift – not from works, so that no one can boast. [It has to be this way, because you are too weak to save yourself. But God is gracious to forgive!]
For we are his workmanship, [No-one is a Christian by birth, or background, or culture. Jesus died to take the punishment that you should experience for your sin. It’s his work that counts, not yours. It’s for you to turn to him and seek forgiveness.]
created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. [he creates you in himself for good works. And just like with Gideon, God prepares the way in advance for you. You feel weak and helpless, not remembering that God is with you and God is before you, preparing the way!]
Now unlike Gideon you don’t need to go anywhere and listen in to conversations to know that God is at work. You’ve got the Bible. You’ve got the historical fact of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead: There’s a place you go to when you die, a place he returned from. That’s a universe-defining moment. Even more, you’ve got a couple of thousand years’ worth of Christian testimony, of lives changed by God who lives and works through his people.
You can see God’s strength – raising the dead, building his church.
So know your weakness – you can’t save yourself from God’s judgment. And know God’s strength: He is powerful to save, and ready to save everyone who will come to him.
And then, as you seek to serve him and know him better, you realise that his strength goes ahead of you, preparing your way to obedience. Doesn’t that give you a little extra spring in your step? Will you think about your service for Jesus with a little more optimism, expectancy, or hope? That’s what it looks like to hang onto God’s promise, “But I will be with you” (Judges 6:16)
So then you need to step forward:
Worship the Lord (15-23)
Look at Gideon’s immediate response: Read all of Judges 7:15.
Earlier this year we looked at “gathered worship” and “scattered worship”:
- Gathered worship is what we do when we come here. We sing, pray, read the Bible, have it explained, we baptise new believers and take the Lord’s Table together.
- Scattered worship is what you do for the rest of the week, going about your life for Christ wherever you are. So you worship in work, at home, in college. Your daily life is also worship, because you live for God in the everything you do.
So you speak the truth with kindness and don’t enter into gossip. You’re generous and hospitable, caring for the weak, the poor, the widow, the orphan, the vulnerable immigrant.
To step forward and do good because of your faith in Christ honours the Lord’s words, and trusts in his living help. That’s why it’s an act of worship.
So Gideon steps forward and plans the work he’s been given in v16-18. There’s no point complaining about short-staffing. Do what you must with what you have. You + God is always a majority anyway.
Gideon’s plan is actually clever. Read Judges 7:19. Picture the scene. It’s dark throughout the camp. At the change of watch, armed men are walking about. And while that was in progress, read Judges 7:20-21. Gideon’s men were stationary. They didn’t engage with the enemy other than making a lot of noise.
For those in the camp, all they could see was armed men walking past, torches surrounding the camp, and the sound of hundreds shouting, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!”
Even so, the scale of what happened next is amazing. Read Judges 7:23. God had already prepared the way through dreams, and now the Midianite soldiers were in a fatal panic. They lashed out, only to kill each other. Without a shadow of doubt, this is the Lord’s victory, not Gideon’s. No big army, no great weapons.
Gideon and his men called for help from neighbouring tribes. They chased the remnant of the Midianites as they fled from the land of Zebulun and Naphtali near Galilee, off to the south east towards the river Jordan. God’s power is on full display in the weakness of his servants. As you step forward in faith, you are worshipping him. Knowing that you’re too weak to do all he commands, but then stepping forward in your weakness and in his strength – that is worship.
So we don’t give ourselves any glory in anything we do as a church. Not in systems or processes, nor publicity, Life Groups, style, music, biblical soundness, etc etc. You, me, all of us together, must step forward to do as we’re commanded by God. We might we weak, or few in number, but you’re to worship the Lord every day of the week as you step forward in obedient faith.
Let me bang the drum, and show you how this works for you as a child of God, united to Jesus:
Come to Jesus
Judges has this repeated cycle of people sinning, suffering for their sin, crying out to God, and then receiving salvation through a rescuer sent by God. But that’s a pattern that repeats throughout the Bible: Moses, Joshua, Judges, Kings like David, Jehoshaphat, or Hezekiah.
And that pattern is spelled out by the prophet Isaiah to speak of how God himself would come to save his people: Read Isaiah 9:1-7. Just as God delivered his people from Midianites in the land near Galilee in Gideon’s day, so he would do it again: This time, God himself would come as Prince of Peace!
As you come to the New Testament, it’s made crystal clear that that ultimate saviour is Jesus: Read Matthew 4:13-17. You can see right there the nature of the salvation that Jesus brings: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near!”
- Can’t you work your way into the kingdom of heaven? No, you must know your own weakness. Repent, turn from your sin, turn to God.
- Can he save you? Yes, Jesus is God come as human to save you. He is risen from the dead, alive and reigning in heaven right now, one day to return to the earth in judgment. He called you here, and he calls you to himself – for life, joy, peace.
The thing is this: The enemy of Gideon’s day wasn’t really the Midianites – they were just a symptom.
Their real enemy was their own sin that kept them from God. That’s why God first sent them a prophet (start of chapter 6), so point out their sin problem.
And your problem is the same. Whatever else is going on in your life, whatever pains or enemies of your joy, the core of your problem is your sin. And that is what Jesus came to rescue you from.
Repent of your sin. Seek his forgiveness. Then you have union with Christ; you’re alive in him forever. And he will be with you always (you’re in union always). He works to fulfil his own commands in you as you step forward in faith, like weak Gideon did.
To his people, Jesus is clear: “you can do nothing without me” (John 15:5). But the Apostle Paul could say, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13).
Come to Jesus and live for him, with him, serving him in his strength every day.
Worship him daily in the obedience of faith: Telling others about him, loving others, obeying his commands with joy.
Know your weakness. Know God’s strength. Worship the Lord every day in the obedience of faith.
Come to Jesus every day in active dependence. You are weak; but he is strong.