The men of Israel were gathered together out of Naphtali, and out of Asher, and out of all Manasseh, and pursued after Midian.
Now, the thing that God was concerned in is that people would glory in the work of God and take glory to themselves for the work of God. God wants to work. But when God works he wants the glory for the work that He has done. He doesn't want people praising the instrument; He wants people praising Him. And if God would deliver the Midianites into the hands of Gideon's army with thirty-two thousand men, they would go around taking glory for the victory instead of giving glory to the Lord.Now it was interesting when we were in Israel prior to nineteen seventy-three, the Israelis were extremely proud of the nineteen sixty-seven war. They were very proud of their victory over the Syrians, the Egyptians and the Jordanians. Everywhere you went you would hear the Israelis boasting of their tremendous fighting power. And we would often times say, "Well don't you think that God was with you?" And they would smirk and they would tell of the fighting power of the Israeli soldiers and they were really glorying themselves in that victory.In the Yom Kippur war there came a different attitude. They came within a hair's breadth of being defeated in nineteen seventy-three in the Yom Kippur War. They were close to defeat. They were very smug, they felt that the barlev line down the Suez Canal could not be taken. It fell within twenty-four hours. They thought that their fortifications on the Golan Heights were impenetrable. They crossed within the first twenty-four hours. And Israel was at the brink of defeat in the Yom Kippur War and it was only a series of miracles that the nation was spared. And so after the Yom Kippur War there wasn't so much talk anymore about the Israeli army and it's powers and so forth but there was more talk about God after the Yom Kippur War. Now after the next war when they wipe out Russia there's only gonna be talk of God because they'll know that that's the only way it could've happened.God often times makes things so ludicrous that it's very obvious that only God could have done it. And so God declares that the time of the army Russian defeated He said, "And I will be sanctified before the nations of the world and they will know that I am the God of Israel." Now, we are trembling before Russia, we're really afraid to say to Russia, "Get out of Afghanistan or we're gonna send our troops over there and drive you out." We're afraid to say that. We are afraid of a confrontation with Russia because we know the tremendous military might of Russia today. We know the nuclear warheads, we know of the rockets, we know of all their sophisticated weaponry and we're fearful of a confrontation with Russia. The world is trembling before this tremendous military power. And when Israel utterly wipes them out you'll know that there's only one reason for it and that's God.So God often in the history of Israel made the odds totally ludicrous because these are a proud people and if God would deliver the Midianites into the hand of Gideon with thirty-two thousand they would go around bragging on their tremendous fighting ability. We were outnumbered five to one by men we wiped them. So God said, "Gideon you've got too many. If I deliver the Midianites into their hands, they're gonna vaunt themselves, they're gonna be puffed up and proud of what they have done." And they'll say, "We with our own power, our own hand have saved ourself."