Cinema based on true story and those based on history records or likely facts sometime builds one’s soul but others destroy it. One time I watched the 300 movie based on story of King Leonidas of Sparta and his 300 Spartans, as I was digesting that movie, the story of Gideon and his 300 Israel army in the Holy Bible came up in my mind and I began expounding it more and more in Book of Judges chapters 6 & 7, I realised and it’s truly that Almighty God don’t want us to be trained on some human doctrines of how to became strong and brave so as to be most powerful people in the universe but only to focus on Him and learn His ways, hear His orders and commands, know Him well and do His will, that’s enough measure of making us hero and warrior in this world. The body exercise for years to build up muscles, strength and confident doesn't matter to Almighty God simply because He is strong in our weakness. Note that, knowing Him includes our obedience and humility to Him, those are key factors above all which makes us most powerful and brave as human being over the worldly kingdoms.
You see, this is how success story of Gideon as a mighty man of valour featured in the Holy Bible; originally Gideon name in Hebrew means "Mighty warrior" or "Destroyer" and his calling to be warrior of Israel begin in Judges 6:11-12; “And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour/O valiant warrior." Then in Judges 6:14 says; “The LORD looked at him and said, "Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?". So the appearance of the Lord and His word to him signified he is really valiant warrior. The Lord didn't want to hear anything from him concerning his forefathers’ stories and his family being least in Manasseh and him being youngest in his father’s home (Judges 6:15). But the LORD said to him in Judges 6:16, "Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man."
Gideon then asked for sign if it’s really the Lord speaking to him and the Lord our God showed him sign and he made offerings there and it was consumed by fire (Judges 6:17-23). When Gideon saw that he was the angel of the LORD, he said, "Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face." The LORD said to him, "Peace to you, do not fear; you shall not die." Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD and named it The LORD is Peace. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites (Judges 6:22-24). After that understanding and proof then Gideon knew himself that he is really valiant warrior in that very day as per earlier God’s word to him. The same night, Lord told him to destroy the Altar of Baal of his father and cut down Asherah that is besides it and made the Altar of the Lord (Judges 6:25-29) then, he did so and action of his purpose of defeating Midian began.
Gideon asked again for the sign of fleece from the Lord God (Judges 6:34-40); the Lord did that and guided him in the selection of 300 Israel Army; firstly Gideon gathered more than 32,000 soldiers and the LORD said to Gideon in Judges 7:2; "The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying, 'My own power has delivered me.'” Judges 7:3 says “Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.’” Then 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained”. Then the LORD said to Gideon, "The people are still too many; bring them down to the water and I will test them for you there. Therefore it shall be that he of whom I say to you, 'This one shall go with you,' he shall go with you; but every one of whom I say to you, 'This one shall not go with you,' he shall not go." So he brought the people down to the water. And the LORD said to Gideon, "You shall separate everyone who laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps, as well as everyone who kneels to drink." Now the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was 300 men; but all the rest of the people kneeled to drink water. The LORD said to Gideon, "I will deliver you with the 300 men who lapped and will give the Midianites into your hands; so let all the other people go, each man to his home." (Judges 7:4-7).
That same night Gideon went with Purah his servant as per the Lord advice and the Lord God said to him you will hear what they say; and afterward your hands will be strengthened that you may go down against the camp (Judges 7:9-11). 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 (Judges 7:12). When Gideon came, behold, a man was relating a dream to his friend. And he said, "Behold, I had a dream; a loaf of barley bread was tumbling into the camp of Midian, and it came to the tent and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down so that the tent lay flat." His friend replied, "This is nothing less than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given Midian and all the camp into his hand (Judges 7:13-14)" and Gideon heard it clearly just as the Lord said to him and when he heard the account of the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship. He returned to the camp of Israel and said, "Arise, for the LORD has given the camp of Midian into your hands." (Judges 7:15).
Just like that! then Gideon and his 300 men divided into three companies they just blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers around their camps as per Gideon direction while their torches were on left hands and trumpets in the right hands for blowing and cried “the Sword of the Lord and of Gideon”. Then men in the camps of Midian and Amalekites ran and cried as they fled and when they blew that 300 trumpets, the LORD set the sword of one against another even throughout the whole army; and the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the edge of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath (Judges 7:16-25).
That’s how Gideon became valiant warrior made by the Almighty God, if we turn on to this 300 movie based on the story of King Leonidas of Sparta which retell the Battle of Thermopylae within the Persian Wars.
Before Leonidas crowned as a King, in his young life i.e. his journey from young to man, he was trained per Spartan doctrine (human based wisdom); on how to be powerful and other intelligence in that doctrine. The aim of the system was to produce physically and morally strong males to serve in the Spartan army. The men would become the "walls of Sparta" because Sparta was the only Greek city with no defensive walls after they had been demolished at the order of Lycurgus. Discipline was strict and the males were encouraged to fight amongst themselves to determine the strongest member of the group. Then after Persian messengers arrive at the gates of Sparta demanding its submission to King Xerxes, the crowned king Leonidas visits the Ephors, proposing a strategy to repel the numerically superior Persians by using the terrain of the Hot Gates (Thermopylae) – his plan involved funneling the Persians into a narrow pass between the rocks and the sea. The Ephors consult the Oracle; the one who spoke on behalf of gods. But in all that there was no enough assurance of King Leonidas with his 300 of his best soldiers he selected to defeat god-King Xerxes and his army of more than 300,000 soldiers.
Along the way to Thermopylae, they joined by Arcadians and various other Greeks. They constructed a wall at Thermopylae to contain the approaching Persian advance. Meanwhile, Leonidas encounters Ephialtes, a hunchbacked Spartan whose parents fled Sparta to spare him certain infanticide. Ephialtes asks to redeem his father's name by joining Leonidas, warning him of a secret path the Persians could use to outflank and surround them. Leonidas was sympathetic to the eager warrior but rejected him, as Ephialtes cannot properly hold a shield, which would compromise the Spartans' phalanx formation.
Prior to the battle, the Persians demand that the Spartans lay down their weapons. Leonidas refused, and with their tightly-knit phalanx formation the Spartans use the narrow terrain to repeatedly rebuff the advancing Persian army. Xerxes personally approaches Leonidas to persuade him to surrender, offering Leonidas wealth and power in exchange for his loyalty. Leonidas declined and promised instead to make the "god-King" bleed. Outraged, Xerxes sent in his elite guard, the Immortals, whom the Spartans dispatched. As the Spartans continue to defeat Xerxes' forces, Ephialtes defected to the Persian king and reveals the location of the secret path. When they realized Ephialtes' treachery, the Arcadians retreat. Leonidas ordered a reluctant Dilios to return to Sparta to tell the Council of their sacrifice. At Thermopylae as the Persians surround the Spartans, Xerxes' general demands their surrender, again offering Leonidas titles and prestige. Leonidas seemingly bows in submission, allowing one of his men to leap over him and kill the general. A furious Xerxes orders his troops to attack. As Persian archers shoot at the remaining Spartans, Leonidas rises and hurls his spear at Xerxes, cutting the Persian, thus making good on his promise to make "the god-King bleed." Visibly disturbed by this reminder of his own mortality, Xerxes watches as all of the Spartans are felled by arrows.
The story of King Leonidas ends just like that no assurance to win, too much betrayal, rely upon fake powers and human strength which is not enough to term yourself powerful and brave. Keep in mind that; full equipped King Leonidas was fighting against more than 300,000 soldiers of god-King Xerxes but failed and died while Gideon with no weapons but just the God's word and trumpets fight the uncountable enemies who were numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as numerous as the sand on the seashore and won. Do you know exactly why Gideon the valiant warrior of the Lord won the battle and King Leonidas of Sparta failed and died, this is simply because there is no sufficient support one can rely on than that of Holy Ghost in Jesus Christ name.
To top it up; always Holy Spirit is the best influence in man's life but those who depend on human based wisdom and strength indeed their falling point is there and proved.
No wonder, for the case of King Leonidas (who reigned for 10 years only from 489 to 480 BC) and his idea of selecting 300 Spartans came from the Holy Bible specifically Gideon's success story ((Judges 6&8) who judged Israelites for 40 years (Judges 8:28) from 1191 to 1144 BC and the land had peace in his period), you never know because it is written in 1 Corinthians 1:22 that Greeks seek after wisdom; it might be he was wise on that adoption but wrong consideration and motive, there's saying that, "when you like pumpkin like even its flowers", so he overlooked on that because it was not just about Gideon success story that mattered to him but the issue behind it, which actually King Leonidas missed it and that is Holy Ghost; King Leonidas failed to master Holy Ghost and Holy Ghost failed him and his story ended like that. Thus as per these words, Man without Holy Ghost it's like Aircraft without Pilot or Ship without Sailor or Robot without Creator the Outcome is what for!, it is useless, nothing or death and this is because Holy Ghost is GOD who is Able to create, to deliver, to rescue, to empower, to defend Man in every situation or any circumstance facing humankind in the world and no other.
There's high assurance to conquer in any man who put trust on the Lord, just like King David; the way he was saved from his rivals where by the Lord let even the forest to fight for him and noted in the Holy Bible that the forest/wood devoured more people than the sword did, 20,000 men from enemy side died on that day (2 Samuel 18:8).
What thing is impossible to God?
God is ABLE; No need to worry about Him or not to believe in Him or even think of negative things about Him simply because He is the ALMIGHTY GOD; who then can try to stand against Him?
Just believe JESUS, He will be really your STRONG TOWER!
Be blessed in Jesus Christ name, Amen
