Here in this chapter is a message on fear and courage. God chose the most cowardly, the perpetually afraid. God wants to take away the fear in our hearts, just as we see in Gideon as the judge who cuts down the idols – the idols of fear. While God allowed Gideon to do as he pleased, it was God who chose the troops, not Gideon. It is clear from Gideon’s questions that fear resides within, his questions come from a place of fear. God is showing us by this story, we cannot run away. God is God, God shows it really happened. God will make you also overcome your war if you do the same thing. You do not need many people. First of all, begin with yourself. Millions of soldiers are coming to war, but God will win only because of one thing – He said so. If only we know it and do it, to put the light and break the pitcher that is ourselves before the Holy God.
So the 300 men took the people’s provisions and their trumpets into their hands. And Gideon sent all the other men of Israel, each to his tent, but retained the 300 men; and the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.
Judges 7: 8
As Gideon brought the troops to the battle line, all he had were torches and pitchers, an unconventional weapon of choice. The provisions – the torch and the pitchers, and the trumpets are symbols of the life of a believer. Similar to a pitcher, we are, but empty people made out of the earth. The choice of Gideon’s war equipment as instructed by God is loaded with symbolism. The trumpets, the empty pitchers, and the torches illustrate God’s plan for salvation; both in Gideon’s war, and in our spiritual walk.
The shofar, made from a ram’s horn, is a symbol of power, honor, and strength of God’s anointed one – the Messiah.
“Those who contend with the Lord will be shattered;
Against them He will thunder in the heavens,
The Lord will judge the ends of the earth;
And He will give strength to His king,
And will exalt the horn of His anointed.”
1 Samuel 2:10
In many ways, the ram’s horn illustrates God’s plan for salvation through Yeshua our Saviour. To make a shofar, the horn is cut off from a ram; an innocent animal. Sometimes, the ram is killed to retrieve the horn to make the shofar. First appearing in Genesis 22:13, the ram caught in the thickets by its horns, like our Saviour with His crown of thorns, the ram’s horns paint a picture of Yeshua. Just as the soldiers declared: “For God and for Gideon!” we call into remembrance the sacrifice of the Lamb whenever we blow the shofar, proclaiming: “This is for God and for Yeshua!”
There are multiple wordplays in Hebrew regarding the blowing of the shofar. These wordplays show the relevance to the other seemingly weird choice of equipment for war. In Hebrew, the word for horn is ‘keren’ which can be used to mean a beam of light, or to shine. Such as how the face of Moses shone when coming down from Mt Sinai as described in the Book of Exodus, and the Hannah’s song of praise concluding with the ‘horn of the Lord’s anointed’ in 1 Samuel. Here the choice of torches starts to make sense, but there’s more. The Hebrew word for blowing terurah (תרועה), as in the blowing of trumpets, shares common roots with the Hebrew word for broknness – re’a’ah (רעע) .With the wordplay, the blowing of the trumpet suggests humility in us when we blow it. Together, the story here with hollow pitchers and the torches, bears semblance to the words of the Apostle Paul in the New Testament.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you.
2 Corinthians 4: 7 – 12
As treasures in jars of clay, it is God who commands light to shine out of darkness, who have shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the God in the face of Yeshua. But we have this treasures in earthen vessels, that the glory may be of God and not of us. The spiritual treasure, put this glory in a vessel clay, is a vulnerable vessel. If you’re looking for a miracle for God to destroy your enemy, if you don’t break this pitcher, nothing will come. No revelation, no breakthrough, unless the pitcher is broken. Often we come with our knowledge and think that we can accomplish many things. But only God can do it. God prepared all these stories for the victory but not before we are broken, not before His light shines in us. Not before the trumpet – the sign of the Lamb is in us. God gives us the victory only because of this reason. We are coming, blowing the shofar.