Yahweh said to Gideon, The people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, My own hand has saved me.
"The number of the Midianites and their allies was about 135,000 men  (Judges 8:10)."[2]  And the reduction which God accomplished in Gideon's forces would have appeared to be absolute madness by any general not endowed with Gideon's faith.