And he said to him, Ah Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my thousand is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.
God has just told Gideon to go and save Israel. Gideon answers by measuring the job against his family record: his clan is the weakest, and he is the least in it. Does a man's sense of his own nothingness rule him out of God's service, or is it the very thing that makes him useful?
Gideon is not exaggerating. One writer lays out the details side by side.
He himself was even weaker than his people. He had no confidence in front of the enemy, for he was "beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites" (v. 11). He had no resources among his relatives, for his family was the poorest in Manasseh. He had no power in himself, for he was the least in his father's house (v. 15). That was the man God visited and chose as His servant — a man who knew how utterly weak he was... When it comes to the work of God in this world, we meet a first great principle: God never asks what man can offer Him.
Writers do not treat this confession as a setback. They call it a qualification, and it moves the question away from Gideon altogether.
Here we get another very important qualification — a sense of his own nothingness... And all the Lord's servants must learn this lesson sooner or later. There is nothing in themselves, in their position, or in their circumstances that God can use. In a word, all our resources and all our strength lie outside of ourselves, in Him. Our sufficiency is of God. It is then no longer a question of what the Midianites are, but of what God is, for we go to meet them in His strength.
God lets Gideon feel his poverty at the very moment He sends him. The reason concerns who gets the credit for the victory.
When God is about to use a man, He makes that man keenly aware that he is nothing in himself. If He delivers by Gideon's hand, He must have the glory, not Gideon. The strength must be His, not Gideon's. Strong in the Lord, we are weakest in ourselves. Can we not nearly always trace our failures back to self-confidence?
Not every writer treats the reply as pure humility. Gideon asks what he has to save Israel with, and that question points him the wrong way.
Unbelief turns the eye in on self, or out on our surroundings. It leads us to compare the resources we can see with the work God is calling us to... God's word left no room for Gideon's "how?" It made it very plain that the might he was to deliver Israel with was not in himself or in his father's house, but in the God of Israel. It mattered little whether his family was rich or poor, whether he was small or great. It was God who was about to use him.
Another writer puts it more sharply still — a low view of yourself can be as much a hindrance as a high one.
But Gideon, like Moses and many another servant of God, has to come right to the end of himself. He must be done with his humility as well as his pride... He speaks of the poverty of his family, and of how small he is in his father's house. But what have these to do with the living God?
God never disputes the facts Gideon lists. He answers with two things: a commission and a promise of His presence.
First, we have God's commission, wrapped up in those weighty words, "Do not I send you?" Second, we have the assurance of God's presence, set out in these encouraging words, "But I will be with you."
Once those two are in place, the size of Gideon's clan stops counting. The same pattern shows up later in Israel's history.
Gideon's family might be the poorest in Manasseh, and he himself the least in his father's house. But what did Gideon's poverty or his weakness matter, if the Lord, who is rich and mighty, was for him and with him? So, in a later day, Jonathan and his armour-bearer could face a huge army in the might of the Lord. As Jonathan said, "nothing can hinder the LORD from saving by many or by few" (1 Samuel 14:6).
- Least is true. Gideon's account of himself is honest at every level: hiding from the enemy, poorest clan, smallest man in the house.
- Least is the qualification. Writers call his sense of his own nothingness a qualification for service, not a disqualification.
- Least protects the glory. God makes a man feel he is nothing, so that God gets the glory for the rescue and the man does not.
- Least can still be unbelief. His "how?" turned his eye inward. One writer says he had to finish with his humility as well as his pride.
- Least plus God is enough. God's reply is a commission and a promise: "Do not I send you?" and "But I will be with you." Poverty stops counting when the Lord who is rich and mighty is the one sending.
And Jehovah said to him, I will certainly be with thee; and thou shalt smite Midian as one man.
Gideon has just answered God's call by pointing to his poor clan and his own low place in it. The reply never argues with him: it promises God's own presence, and a whole army falling as if it were one man.
Gideon asked what he was supposed to fight with. God's answer names no weapon. It names His presence, and the victory follows from that. (Older translations read "Surely I will be with you"; the ESV has "But I will be with you.")
As with David in another fight of faith, there was no sword in Gideon's hand, nothing at all to go against the Midianites with. But what does that matter? "If God is for us, who can be against us?" He does not go out unarmed. "Surely I will be with you [and as a consequence of that], you shall strike the Midianites as one man."
The call stands whether Gideon feels ready or not.
The Lord allows Gideon no excuse. He has called Gideon and Gideon must obey. But He encourages Gideon by His Word.
The promise comes only after Gideon sees himself as nothing. That emptiness is not a delay in the story. It is the preparation.
He was now in the place where God's power could come upon and use him. The same was true of the apostle Paul. The thorn in the flesh searched his heart. It brought him face to face with his own complete powerlessness, and with his lack of any natural fitness for the Lord's service. Only then could the Lord say to him, "My grace is sufficient for you." Every servant of the Lord must learn this lesson sooner or later. There is nothing in ourselves, in our position, or in our circumstances that God can use. In a word, all our resources and strength lie outside ourselves, in Himself.
Commentators differ on how to read Gideon's protest. Dennett hears humility that fitted him for service. Ridout hears "humble pride" — a fault, though one word from God was enough to remove it.
Believing that all power belongs to God is not the same as seeing that power move on your behalf. Without the second, the first can crush a person.
There is a great difference between owning that all power belongs to God, and seeing that power act on our behalf. Often the first conviction only makes us feel our own powerlessness more. And unless we can rest on God acting for us and through us, that feeling will produce despondency. Gideon cannot see how a link can be formed between God and man, so that a man carries out God's power and will. So he pleads how small and unfit he is. To form this link in his soul, the Lord gives him a promise.
God's promise does not reduce the number of Midianites. It changes how faith counts them.
See with what grace God rebukes this bit of humble pride in Gideon. It clearly was not deep-seated: one word was enough to displace it. "Surely I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man." After all, the enemy is, for faith, but a single one. He is a whole army when he oppresses and terrifies. But the moment faith asserts itself, there is only one man, as when David met the giant.
If all the strength is God's, the size or ability of the person He sends stops mattering. That truth kills two opposite errors at once.
The humbler the instrument, the more we see the power of God. What difference does it make to the Almighty God whether His instrument is left-handed or right-handed — a man or a woman — a dwarf or a giant? The instrument is nothing. God is all in all... Let us remember these things, so that we may walk humbly and lean always and only on the mighty arm of the living God. This keeps the soul well balanced. It is free from self-confidence and the excitement of the flesh on one side, and from gloom and depression on the other. If we can do nothing, self-confidence is the height of presumption. If God can do everything, despondency is the height of folly.
- Emptied. Gideon's sense of being the least is not an obstacle God has to work around. It is the place where God's power can rest on a man, as it rested on Paul.
- Promised. God answers that emptiness with no argument and no weapon. He answers with Himself, and one word forms the link between His power and a weak man.
- Consequence. The victory hangs on the first half of the sentence. Because He is with Gideon, and only because of that, Midian falls.
- Shrunken. The moment faith stirs, a terrifying army counts as one man. David saw the same thing when he faced the giant.
- Balanced. We can do nothing, so self-confidence is presumption. God can do everything, so gloom is folly. His presence removes both.