300

300, the film adaptation and fictionaliised retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae, fascinates me a lot. I was drawn to the plot of how King Leonidas of Sparta took along his 300 valiant Spartans to take on an army of over one-million soldiers. Although the film is said to be fantasy, it is told to be 90 percent relevant to the historical event. Given that this epic battle had really occurred, I believe one cannot help but admire the courage of these 300 men as they took on the impossible task. Though they all perished, these men were greatly honoured for their glorious sacrifice.

Strangely, I was brought to a somewhat similar event that actually occurred in the bible. I couldn’t help but draw similarities and differences to the epic Battle of Thermopylae.

Just like King Leonidas, Gideon took along 300 men in a battle against the Midianites and the Amalekites.

Some background for this battle:

Judges 6:1b-5 - the Lord gave them into the hands of Midian seven years. And the poewr of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of Midian, the sons of Israel made for themselves the dens which were in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. For it was when Isreal had sown, that the Midianites would come up with the Amalekites and the sons of the east and go against them. So they would camp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel as well as no sheep, ox, or donkey. For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, they would come in like locusts in numbers, both they and their camels were innumerable; and they came into the land to devastate it.

Judges 7: 12 - Now the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the sons of the east were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as numerous as the sand on the seashore.

It seemed that Gideon was in the same situation as King Leonidas. His people oppressed by the Midianites and the Amalekites so badly and his army was tremendously outnumbered, 300 to an army as numerous as locusts and camels as numerous as the sand on the seashore.

But unlike King Leonidas who was brave enough to fight with only 300 men, Gideon would like to fight with more. Initially, he had 33,000. Then, it went down to 10, 000 and finally decreased to 300.

In the Battle of Thermopylae, King Leonidas had no choice but to bring along only 300 men, but Gideon had a choice. He could have brought all 33,000 men to fight and he would have stood a better chance perhaps against the uncountable hordes of the Midianites and Amalekites. But God limited his army to only 300 men.

This was a very irrational decision to make. Every battle commander knows that a larger army would stand a better chance against the enemy. What could 300 men do against an army of innumerable men even with a perfect strategy?

But God had a reason for choosing only 300 men. This was it:

Judges 7:2 - And the Lord said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, lest Israel become boastful, saying ‘My own power has delivered me.’

It was because 33,000 men was too many for the Lord.

Something struck me here: 33,000 was too few for men to win the battle, but 33,000 was too many for the Lord! In fact, 300 was already too many for the Lord. The Lord needed none of mens’ efforts at all, he simply needed his own.r

The result of the battle was even more amazing. King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans managed to destroy more than half of their enemies, but they all perished, losing the battle. Gideon and his 300 won the battle, chasing the enemy away, without even losing a single man.

I’ve been pondering over this and I realised that this has a great deal of application for my life. Many times in my life, when I’m placed into impossible situations, I tried to use my ‘33,000 men’ to try to win the battle, but the odds were always simply too great. I wasn’t able to get out of those situations. No matter how hard I tried, using my own human efforts, I was never be able to overcome these situations by myself.

I realised that what God has been teaching me is similar to Judges 7:2 - The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, lest Israel become boastful, saying ‘My own power has delivered me.’

If I had overcame by my own human efforts, I would become boastful for I got out of it myself. Things were so tough and I got out of it. I deserve to be commended. I deserve to be rewarded. I deserve the praise and the glory.

But if God was the one who fought the battle, he deserve the praise, the honour and the glory.

The striking thing is that God always wins the battle, he always overcome the impossible situation no matter how impossible it might seem to us when we lay down our own desperate attempts and let him take over.