Jdg 7:3 Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand.

Gideon’s army was originally thirty-two thousand strong. Then, the order came: Those who are fearful can go home. An astonishing twenty-two thousand took advantage of the offer and went home. Only ten thousand remained true to the cause. These faced the danger and stood firm.

Who would have thought that so many would walk away from the battle?  Even under such a leader as Gideon, they should be confident of victory. Yet, more than two out of three Israelites took advantage of this proclamation and walked away. Their hearts failed them. Why? Why were they so fearful?

1. They thought of their homes left unprotected. They were worried for their love ones.

2. They thought of the dreadful Midianites and Amalekites and children of the East, so numerous, so fierce, and so irresistible. They were outnumbered. It spelt suicide if they followed Gideon.

3. Their lack of faith. Common sense told them they couldn’t win this war.

Fear is contagious. Who is not afraid of death? No one! It just need to take one man to say, “O no, we are all going to die”, and the whole camp will tremble with fear. In the wilderness, we saw ten spies returned with this report that the enemies were too strong for them and the whole nation of Israel trembled with fear and unbelief (Numbers 13:31-33).

Faint-hearted people are not fit to be employed for God. God knew how fear would discourage a whole army and so gave the command to let them leave.

When we think of God calling out people to service we often think of those chosen as spiritual giants who were fearless. However, we almost always find upon studying the scriptures that these people were not super-human. They were not always so fearless. They had their fear. But they allowed God into their lives and that’s when they conquered their fear.

Was Gideon fearful? Yes he was. He had to see a few signs to be assured that God was with him (Judges 6:17, 36-40). Was Moses fearful? Yes, he was (Read Exodus chapter 3 & 4). Was Peter fearful? He was very fearful that he denied Christ not once but three times (Matthew 26:69-75).

Fear is a tool the devil uses against us to make us miserable and destroy our lives. His purpose is to cause us to lose faith in God. God wants us to walk by faith, but Satan wants us to walk by fear. Our Lord says: “Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?” (Mark 4:40). Jesus spoke these words to His disciples when they became fearful because of a storm that arose while they were with Him in a boat on the sea. Fear arises because of a lack of faith.

When we have faith as a grain of mustard seed, we can remove mountains (Matthew 17:20). But, how can we overcome fear and walk in faith? The answer is in Romans 10:17: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

If we are to grow in faith then we must meditate on the Word of God. It means studying the Bible. We need to feed our faith daily with the word of God (Psalm 1:2). A strong faith will remove all fear and doubt from our lives. People are fearful because they don’t know God. Gideon trusted in the words of God and his fear was removed.

You either surrender to your fear or live a victorious life of faith in God; what is your choice?

Jimmy Lau

Psa 119:97  Oh how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.

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