Watch Me

 DEVOTION

JUDGES

WATCH ME

Judges 7:17-25

17 "Watch me," he told them. "Follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do. 18 When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp blow yours and shout, 'For the LORD and for Gideon.'" 19 Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guard. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands. 20 The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars. Grasping the torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpets they were to blow, they shouted, "A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!" 21 While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out as they fled. 22 When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the LORD caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords. The army fled to Beth Shittah toward Zererah as far as the border of Abel Meholah near Tabbath. 23 Israelites from Naphtali, Asher and all Manasseh were called out, and they pursued the Midianites. 24 Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim, saying, "Come down against the Midianites and seize the waters of the Jordan ahead of them as far as Beth Barah." So all the men of Ephraim were called out and they took the waters of the Jordan as far as Beth Barah. 25 They also captured two of the Midianite leaders, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb. They pursued the Midianites and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, who was by the Jordan.

NIV

We see this man, Gideon, hiding threshing wheat in a winepress so the Midianites would not see the grain and steal it, like they had been all along, now telling the fighting men with him, “Watch me”. The man who said to the angel of the LORD that his clan was the smallest and he was the least in his family, now is this, “Mighty Warrior” telling his men to “follow my lead”. When we consider that the Midianite army was as think as locusts and the number of their camels was like the grains of sand on the seashore, and Gideon had only three hundred men, but then he also had the hand of God, who gave him the wisdom and leadership needed to have the victory. It was the hand of God that was at the center of everything that happened that night. The middle watch is from 10pm to 2am, which would mean the whole of the Midianite army would be asleep in their tents. When three hundred shofars were blown all around their camp and torches burning in the darkest of night, they awakened, fought among themselves and then fled. When the LORD is with us, there is nothing that can stand up against us. Our foes will flee; in fact, we have the power of the Word of God when the enemy of our souls tries to oppose us with some temptation, or creates an illusion to lure us into his way of thinking, accepting the concepts of this world as reality. All we have to say is, “Get behind me!” and it will be like three hundred shofars and touches that cause that enemy of our souls to fight among himself, being bewildered in the middle of his darkness, and he will flee from us. In fact, because we are in Christ, we have already won the victory, and in the heavenly realms where there is no time, the devil has already been thrown into the lake of burning sulfur. He loses, he has lost, he has no power in the here and now, other than what Jesus allows him to have. However, that power is over the world, which we are no longer of, although we live in it. We do not live in accordance with the world under the influence of the destroyer of souls. We live in the realm of God, citizens of His kingdom, under His influence, His grace, and we have the Holy Spirit who leads us into all truth, which is only God’s Holy Word. Any words spoken under the influence of this world are all lies, for its leader is the father of lies. Gideon told his men to “watch me, follow my lead”. Jesus has told us to “Watch me,” “Follow my lead,” or “Follow me”. Let us keep our eyes upon Jesus as we hear him tells us, “Watch me”.