Judges 7: Chosen at the Water with the Three Hundred

Introduction

That Sunday, at the Chiesa Cristiana Evangelica Pentecostale di Seriate, eight people are about to go down into the waters of baptism. Before immersing them, Pastor Tino Di Domenico dedicates a word to them from Judges 7: a story that also takes place at the water's edge.

"Before the waters, we make decisions," he says, before clarifying right away: "the waters in themselves are not miraculous. What is miraculous is the God before whom we bear witness to our decision in the waters."

At the spring of Harod, God puts Gideon's army through two tests, the test of fear and the test of thirst. Out of 32,000 men, he keeps 300. For the pastor, this story puts a question to each person, whether baptized today or just visiting: do you want to be among the 32,000, the 10,000, or the 300?

Message Outline

1. When Men Lack Courage, God Takes the Initiative

For seven years, Israel has been oppressed by the Midianites. They are cunning: they let the people sow and harvest, then arrive when all the work is done and carry everything away. The people stay hungry.
Nobody dares to say "enough." Everyone complains, "a bit like at the coffee machine in a factory," where people grumble about the boss and their colleagues, but nobody has the courage to change anything.
"When men lack courage, it is God who takes the initiative." He did it in your life too: "You didn't choose me, but I chose you" (John 15:16).
God has seen things in you that your wife, your children, or the people around you don't always see. There are great and extraordinary things that God places in our lives.

2. God Sees You According to What He Has Established for You

Gideon was known for his fear. Yet when God appears to him, he greets him as a mighty man of valor (Judges 6:12). Gideon is baffled: "But does he really know me?"
"God knows you for what he has established you to be, not according to what you feel, nor according to what others say."
There are times when people lift us up: be careful not to think we are gods. There are others when they bury us: be careful there too. "Let us not exalt ourselves, because it is his grace, but let us not become depressed either, otherwise we despise his grace."
Gideon never took a "leadership course." He didn't want to be a leader, but God put him in a position to become a coach for others. A shy character, little experience, a difficult past: all of this seems to condemn us to mediocrity. God, for his part, wants to give us medals and crowns.

3. God Removes to Make You Essential

The 32,000 men camp near the spring of Harod. God says to Gideon: "We have a problem." Gideon thinks: we are too few. God answers: "No, you are too many."
Sometimes God takes things away from us to make us essential. Jesus himself speaks of pruning, which removes what is of no use (John 15:2).
The pastor tells the story of a very rich woman who had to leave the Titanic with a chest full of jewels and three oranges. She was told there was room for only one thing. She chose the three oranges. "There are moments when three oranges are worth more than treasures."
When we were younger and bought a car, we asked how fast it could go. Today we ask how much fuel it uses, and if it runs on LPG, even better. Priorities have changed.
When God removes the leaves, it hurts, because they too are attached to the trunk. But God says: "This leaf was taking the sap from the fruit of your life." He takes nothing from us to make us poorer, but to make us richer and more fruitful.

4. The Test of Fear: 22,000 Go Home

First test: "Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return" (Judges 7:3). God sends a spirit of sincerity, because those who are afraid rarely say so. 22,000 men leave.
Fear is on the inside, even in those who wear a steel mask. We see actors full of life collapse into depression or addiction. We have known fear during the pandemic, during earthquakes, in the face of illness. Some are even "afraid of fear."
"God doesn't reprimand us because we are afraid, but when we want to stay in fear." He has not given us a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear (Romans 8:15).
The pastor tells of his own conversion. A relative spoke to him about Jesus and challenged him: "Are you afraid to come to church? Are you afraid in front of your friends?" So as not to admit his fear, he went to church, "and thank God, I stayed." God uses everything, even our fears.
Like the king who prayed: "we have no power against this great multitude that comes against us; neither do we know what to do, but our eyes are on you" (2 Chronicles 20:12). Whenever something bigger than you comes along, lift your eyes to the one who is greater than that thing. "There is no giant bigger than the Lord."
Fear of what others think paralyzes: what will my family say, what will my friends say? "You do no one a favor by going to hell with them." Peter was already saying: "Save yourselves from this crooked generation!" (Acts 2:40).
Jesus was publicly insulted and crucified. Today we must say publicly that he is Lord. One day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:10-11). Refusing to believe is "a weak way out."
The pastor admits he was a coward back when he refused to give his heart to Jesus, putting on an air of dignity. Cowards have no part in the kingdom (Revelation 21:8). By contrast, he greets the eight baptismal candidates as "eight heroes," who had the courage to bear witness before their family and friends.

5. The Test of Thirst: 300 Out of 10,000

There are still 10,000 men, and God says again: "That's too many." The pastor compares this to a football club president who would buy the weakest players and want to play with three instead of eleven. But "the foolishness of God is wiser than men" (1 Corinthians 1:25).
"With God, you are always the majority." "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31). Even if the whole world is against you, you and God are the majority.
God brings the men down to the water and tells Gideon to watch them. Many throw themselves on the ground, dive in, and play in the water. Only 300 drink quickly, as if to say: we are ready for battle.
For many, even among believers, faith has become a spring to quench our thirst: I'm sick, God heals me; my bank account, God provides; my relationship, God helps me. "Many church services are like that: water splashed in the face." God wants a determined, essential Church that moves toward the goals he has for us.
You won't be able to run alone. Don't look for a crowd: look for your 300, people who care about what you care about. When two or three agree, they can ask and heaven answers (Matthew 18:19). "The greatest miracle is getting to agree."

6. Baptism: A Starting Point, Not a Finish Line

"I have been watching baptisms for 41 years." Some come out of the water like lions and, years later, are nowhere to be seen. Others come out like wet chicks and become pillars of the Church, because God has strengthened them.
The pastor remembers his own baptism, in the unreassuring waters of Mergellina, near a sewage treatment plant. There were 120 people being baptized. Some became servants of God full of fire; of others, he never heard anything again.
The 32,000 had enlisted because a trumpet had sounded. You must not act because you are following a man or an emotion. After youth camps, many young people want to be baptized: there is no reason to doubt them, but there is also a share of imitation.
"The decision is yours to make, but you have to make it." Some say "it's up to me to decide" and never decide.
"The 300 are not the ones from Sparta, they are Gideon's." They are the ones who have understood all the good they have received and who say: "Lord, here is my arm, here is my life, here is my body."
"I will serve you all my life. Whether I am with 32,000, with 10,000, with 300, or even if I am alone, I will follow you."

7. The Waters Speak of Salvation

Where does fear come from? When Adam and Eve sinned, fear appeared because their image of God had changed: "You'll see, he will get angry, he will destroy us." Yet that same God took the skin of an animal to clothe them (Genesis 3:21). Fear involves punishment, but "perfect love casts out fear" (1 John 4:18).
"Religion is frightening because it shows us a God who doesn't exist." The Word of God shows us a Father who takes care of us and who "knit me together in my mother's womb" (Psalm 139:13). From those first waters, we received natural birth. In the waters of baptism, we bear witness to spiritual birth.
Noah came through the waters, and the ark is a picture of baptism (1 Peter 3:20-21). Moses was placed in a basket on the waters of the Nile (Exodus 2:3). "The crocodiles would like to eat you, you greet them and keep moving, because God is steering the basket of your life." "No weapon that is formed against you will prevail" (Isaiah 54:17).
Some take refuge in their own righteousness: "I've never killed anyone, I've never stolen, I work from morning to night." The pastor humorously recounts someone's answer: the neighbor's donkey also works from morning to night. You don't drink? Your liver thanks you. You don't smoke? Your lungs do too. But "all our righteousness is like a polluted garment" (Isaiah 64:6), and "apart from shedding of blood there is no remission" (Hebrews 9:22).
To be agnostic is to say "I don't ask myself the question." "If you don't ask yourself the question, who should?" The pastor asked himself 41 years ago: where am I going? And on the cross he saw someone who wasn't greeting him from afar, but who said: "I died for you."
The Ethiopian eunuch asked Philip: "Behold, here is water. What is preventing me from being baptized?" (Acts 8:36). Nehemiah, under threat, answered: "Should such a man as I flee?" (Nehemiah 6:11). Don't be one of the 9,700 who made it all the way to the water and did not choose: "Be courageous."

Key Takeaways

The waters of baptism are not miraculous in themselves: what matters is the God before whom you bear witness to your decision.
God sees you according to what he has established for you, not according to what you feel or what others say.
When God removes something from your life, it is to make you essential and more fruitful, not to make you poorer.
God doesn't reprimand you for being afraid, but for wanting to stay in fear. With him, you are always the majority.
A decision for God is not an emotion: it is a personal, thoughtful choice, to be honored all your life.

Personal Application

What fear is keeping you from taking a step of faith today: the opinion of your family, your friends, or the fear of going back?
What "leaves" might God be removing from your life to make it more fruitful?
Does your faith look more like a spring where you quench your thirst for your own needs, or like a commitment to the goals God has for you?
Who are your "300," those people who care about what you care about and with whom you can agree in prayer?
If you are baptized, are you living your baptism as a starting point? If you are not, what is keeping you from being baptized?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did God reduce Gideon's army from 32,000 to 300 men?

According to Tino Di Domenico, God sometimes takes things away from us to make us essential. Just as leaves that take the sap from the fruit are pruned, God doesn't strip us to make us poorer but to make us more fruitful. With God, you are always the majority: if God is for us, who can be against us?

What does the way the 300 men drank at the water's edge represent?

At the spring of Harod, most of the men threw themselves on the ground to quench their thirst, as if the war didn't concern them. The 300 drank quickly, ready for battle. The pastor sees two ways of living out faith: bathing in it for your own needs, or being a determined Church that moves toward the goals God gives it.

Does water baptism change your life by itself?

No. For Tino Di Domenico, the waters are not miraculous in themselves: what is miraculous is the God before whom we bear witness to our decision. What changes a life is a personal, thoughtful decision made for a lifetime. Baptism is not a finish line but a starting point.