Judges 7:19 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.
Terror can be a very powerful thing. Hitler thought that the British people would surrender during the bombing of London during the Second World War. The Blitz, as it was named, did exactly the opposite thing. The Britain’s became even more resolved to fight. The bombing of the innocent did not work.
But this type of psychological warfare continues in the Ukraine. Russia is bombing civilian targets in order to try to break the will of the Ukrainian people. But so far, the Ukrainians seem to be even more resolved to push off their attackers. Time will tell if they prevail.
These acts of psychological warfare play a much larger role in warfare today than you can imagine. The sound of drones flying overhead sends people scattering, even when the drones don’t carry munitions. The videos of beheadings by Muslim fighters is meant to scare their populations into submission. For many, this psychological threat has worked.
Our text tells us the first stage of a psychological battle. The LORD has whittled down the army of thirty thousand down to three hundred. He is waging a battle in Israel as well. Will they trust Him to win the battle? Will they give Him the credit?
But the LORD is also fighting a battle against the enemies of Israel. And look what he does. The men are told to carry jars with a torch. This seems very strange to us when our flashlights have batteries. But their lamps ran on oil. So the jars carried flammable liquid with a built in source of ignition. Break the jar, start a fire as the oil pours out onto the ground.
Think how that would have looked in the middle of the night as you are suddenly awakened from a sound sleep. You exit your tent rapidly to see a large wall of fire at the edge of our camp, torches held high. You grab your sword and expect the enemy to be charging your direction. The only light coming from the fires at the edge of the camp. Everyone is in silhouette.
It is in this condition that the Midianites find themselves that dark night. No wonder they stab anyone who comes toward them in the dark, blinded by the light behind them. Everyone becomes a potential emissary of death, your death. You fight blindly until you yourself are killed.
And don’t forget about the trumpets for the wakeup call. Sound asleep and then trumpet calls, hundreds of them. I think I might have wet my bed at the point. Scramble for your weapon and start to fight in your PJ’s. And the trumpets continue to blast. They aren’t signaling retreat, they are playing “Go get ‘em, boys!”
This was psychological warfare at its finest. Three hundred men with trumpets and oil lamps win the battle. What is interesting is that this same rare word for the “torch” that is used in this passage was used in Genesis 15:17 when the LORD came and confirmed the covenant with Abraham. A smoking firepot and a blazing torch passed through the middle of the sacrifices, confirming the LORD’s participation in the covenant.
This “torch” also shows up at Mount Sinai when the LORD appears following the giving of the Ten Commandments. The trumpets are sounding there as well, but they are from the LORD not the people. There is also thunder and lightening. Samson ties “torches” to the tails of foxes.
Torches become the writers way of signaling that a critical juncture of trust or doubt is happening. Which way will they go? Who will they trust?
Maybe we need a “torch” moment in our world?
The Arnold Journey 