God with Gideon

“The LORD said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many… lest Israel vaunt themselves against Me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me… By the three hundred men… will I save you” (Judges 7:2,7).  “The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD” (Proverbs 21:31).  “When they [Paul and Barnabas] were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that GOD had done with them” (Acts 14:27). 

Are we inclined to boast of deeds

That magnify the work of man,

As if our Lord and Savior needs

Our help to carry out His plan? 

The Lord could see this inclination

In thirty thousand who would boast

That they had wrought their own salvation

Against a great unnumbered host. 

Against the host of Midian,

Whose armies numbered like the sand,

Three hundred men with Gideon

With God Almighty took their stand. 

Their triumph then was of the Lord

Who stood against their enemy.

They did not triumph by their sword;

The Lord gave them the victory. 

The horse had surely been prepared

Against the day of battle then,

But God to Gideon declared

He’d save him with three hundred men. 

We see this in the Church’s past

When Paul and Barnabas rehearsed

What GOD HAD DONE with them at last,

Thus giving glory to Him first.

Lord, as we think upon this story

Of Gideon which You have shown,

We likewise long to give You glory

As we have made Your Gospel known. 

With Paul and Barnabas as well,

O Lord, we learn this lesson too,

And with them we delight to tell   

That all the glory goes to You! 

O Lord, the glory that we trace,

As we consider why You died,

Astonishes our hearts with grace

And banishes the thought of pride!