THE LORD FIGHTING FOR AND WITH HIS PEOPLE

THE LORD FIGHTING FOR AND WITH HIS PEOPLE. God is the author of war, and He causes men to fight, in the same way that law is the author of sin and causes men to become transgressors. Were there no law there would be no transgression, and were there no God there would be no conflict of righteousness with unrighteousness. War is God's whip for sinful nations; it is His rod of iron with which He will dash them in pieces as a potter's vessel. There is a Divine retribution following nations, and sure to overtake them if they are workers of iniquity. And there is a Divine deliverance waiting for nations and for individuals, sure to come when they repent of their evil ways and cry unto God for His salvation.
II. THE ARMY MADE READY. When God has some great work to be done, or some hard battle to be fought, He chooses the men who are best able to fight or work.
1. The fearful were suffered to go back. Moral courage is a Christian virtue. Men are commanded to have it. Only "be strong and of a good courage." "Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee." When God is with a man he has nothing to fear. Even Grecian and Roman heroes, when they showed great courage and wrought brilliant exploits, believed themselves to be acting under the influence of a Divine inspiration. It was the power of some god in their arms, they thought, that enabled them to smite great blows; and it was the courage of some god in their hearts that enabled them to face undaunted the most terrible foes.
2. The next process was to rid the army of the rash and unreliable. Audacity, no less than want of courage, unfits men for the highest service. Among all the qualities needed in a soldier of Jesus Christ, among all traits of character essential to true manliness, none perhaps is more important than a certain command of one's self, a certain keeping of the body under and holding back of adventurous impulse. Those whom God will lead to victory must be "steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord."
III. THE THREE HUNDRED CALLED TO GREAT EXPLOITS (ver. 7). Here is the key to human history. Common, ease-loving men are, by their own wish, excused from glory, from heroic deeds, lasting renown, and high fellowship with God in fighting the great battles of humanity and righteousness. They are permitted to return to their own places. They sink down into obscurity and oblivion. Three hundred heroes are chosen to be their deliverers and to smite for them the host of Midianites. Side by side with Leonidas and his three hundred Spartans, the immortal heroes of Thermopylae, will we place Gideon and his three hundred Hebrews, the immortal heroes of Mount Gilboa, asking for them no greater glory than belongs to the Grecian company, and believing that they are worthy to stand together as the immortal six hundred.

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