God raises up rulers, and in his own timing, he raises up a deliverer to overthrow the wicked rulers. We see this throughout the book of Judges. In chapters 6-8 we read the story of Gideon. The children of Israel had forsaken the Lord and worshipped Baal and Asherah, the gods of the Canaanites. Because of this, the Lord gave them over to be oppressed by the Midianites. When the people cried out to the Lord for help, the Angel of the Lord came to Gideon and told him that he would be the one to deliver the people from the Midianites.

Gideon was an unlikely leader. The Angel found him cowering in his winepress threshing his grain. Gideon is a nobody in an unimportant family. There is only one thing impressive about Gideon—he obeys the Lord even when the Lord asks for some unusual things. The first order of business is to cut down the local Asherah pole and break up the altar of Baal. Gideon "courageously" does this at night when no one can see him.

The Spirit of God comes on Gideon and he blows the horn to summon the people for battle. As they gather he has doubts. He asks the Lord for a sign that he is indeed the deliverer. He sets out a fleece and asks that it be wet and the ground around dry if God is really with him. This happens. Still unsure, he asks the Lord to reverse the sign and make the fleece dry and the ground wet. God answers with the sign that Gideon is the man to be the deliverer.

Gideon reviews the troops—32,000 were mustered for the fight. They were still going to be outnumbered, but this was not a small force. God tells Gideon, "You have too many men. Someone might think that the people were delivered by their own strength. Tell those who are afraid of the fight to go home." Gideon tells them and most go home, leaving only 10, 000 men

"There are still too many men. I will show you how to separate them out," says the Lord. Gideon takes them down to the water. Those who lapped the water like dogs—only 300 of the 10,000—those were the ones that Gideon was to pick. The rest he sends home, but he asks them to leave some important "tactical military equipment"—horns and trumpets.

So left with an army of men who lap like dogs, armed with trumpets, outnumbered perhaps 1000 to one, the Lord thinks that Gideon might need a confidence booster. He sends him down into the enemy camp at night to overhear some of the enemy talking. Someone has a dream about a flying loaf of bread knocking over a tent. Another man interprets the dream as meaning that Gideon will be given victory over this huge army. It seems that some of the enemy was afraid of Gideon. Perhaps they had not heard that he sent most of his troops away. Perhaps God had struck their hearts with fear. But it was all Gideon needed to hear. He worshipped God and got the men ready to attack that night.

He gathers his small band of 300—and they are literally a band, armed with trumpets and horns. He breaks them into three groups. Again, it is not strong military strategy to divide your force when ridiculously outnumbered, but they do so at God’s command. They each had a torch inside a jar that they could pull out to shine. At the signal, they all yell, "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon." They hold the torch with one hand and they blow on the horn held in the other.

The enemy camp is thrown into panic and confusion. They start to fight each other. Those who survive start to run in all directions. Gideon gives chase. And he sends out word to the rest of the people, "We’ve routed the enemy. If you want, you can chase after them to make sure we get all our land back." Of course any other spoil they might want to take would be theirs to take as well.

The first lesson of the victory is that it came from nothing less than the strong and outstretched arm of the Lord. The Lord had delivered the people so they should start acting like his people again. No more worshiping other gods. No more ignoring his Word and his Law. The Lord rescued the people and they should follow him alone.

God raises up the deliverer in his timing. Anyone who thinks he might be called to overthrow a regime must be careful that he is really being raised up by God and not by his own cleverness. Men will pick themselves and run where God has not sent them. We must be careful not to get ahead of God. When the Lord calls, the power and the delivery comes from the Lord and the glory and honor go to the Lord.