“Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; your enemies shall fall by the sword before you.” (Lev. 26:8) Wow, what an amazing promise from God to the children of Israel. Think about this promise for a minute. God is saying that in battle:
5 Israelites > 100 enemies (1:20 ratio)
100 Israelites > 10,000 enemies (1:100 ratio)
That’s mind blowing, and obviously not humanly possible without God. That was awfully generous of God to make such a promise to His children back then, and we know that God still gives many similar promises to His children even still today. Amazing!!! However, what we often forget or overlook is the fact that there are often stipulations to God’s promises. If we look back just 5 verses prior to this promise, we will see the stipulation that came with it:
“IF you walk in My statues and keep My commandments, and perform them, THEN…. (Lev. 26:3).
God didn’t just willy-nilly make this promise to all of His children no matter how they were living their lives. No, it was made specifically for those who walk in His statues, keep his commandments and carry them out.
Fast forward to Judges 6 and we read, “Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. So, the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years, and the hand of Midian prevailed against them.” Why didn’t God’s promise to fight for the Children of Israel apply at this time? Because they didn’t keep God’s commandments….the stipulation to that promise. For 7 years, the Israelites suffered at the hand of the Midianites, and finally they cried out to God for help. He reminds them that they were in this position because they chose to disobey Him. Nonetheless, He sees their repentance, and THEN He moves forward with His promise, and approaches Gideon with His plan to overtake the Midianites.
After testing God (unnecessary stipulations we often put on God for our own faith), and much patience from God, Gideon is ready to fight and gathers his army of 32,000 men. That may sound like a lot, but it is believed that there were 135,000 Midian soldiers. That’s more than a 1:4 ratio in favor of the Midianites. Yet God still says to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give into your hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me’.”
God knows our tendency to claim that we have done great things in our own strength, so He removes all doubt.
We know the story of how God dwindled down the number of Israelite soldiers by removing those who are fearful and only keeping the vigilant until there were a mere 300 soldiers left. Now God’s power can be revealed through His promise.
300 Israelites > 135,000 enemies (1: 450 ratio)
Can you imagine going into battle knowing that in order for you to do your part, you must defeat 450 soldiers on your own?!! That’s the point. God wanted to bless those who knew they didn’t have enough strength to win the battle, but they pressed forward because they believed that God would keep His promise to them, AND HE DID.
Just because we are Christians does not mean that we are entitled to all of God’s promises, but if we faithfully walk according to God’s statutes, keep His commandments, and carry them out, we can confidently claim His promises so that He is glorified in the end.