7 And Yahweh said unto [Gid'on], By the 300 men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place.

THE smallness of the number of those who are known as 'Christadelphians' is often a subject of contemptuous allusion. It is perfectly natural it should be so. The importance of a community, in all ordinary human calculations, is measurable by numbers. It has never been so in Divine directions. The multitude has always been in an unacceptable attitude towards God, and He has always spoken disparagingly of the stress that men put on numbers.

Men incline to glory in numbers, and this is always offensive to God. [Gid'on] had to reduce his 32,000 to 300 before God would deliver Israel by his hand, 'Lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me' (Jud. vi. 2). David sinned grievously in numbering Israel for the glory of the thing (2 Sam. xxiv. 10).

When people have asked a census of the Christadelphians, we have always felt the powerful objections arising out of these considerations. 'How many are we?' Leave that alone. Our position does not depend on that, and might even be destroyed by that.

'He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.'"

Bro Roberts

8 So the people took victuals in their hand, and their trumpets: and he sent all the rest of Israel every man unto his tent, and retained those three hundred men: and the host of Midian was beneath him in the valley.

ARMAGEDDON

"And the sixth angel gathered the kings of the earth and of the whole habitable into the place styled Hebraistically Armageddon."—(Rev. 16:16.)

The revelation of the name of this place in Hebrew, and not in Greek, is to direct the student's attention to the land of the Hebrews, where it will be found according to the testimony of the prophets.

In a manuscript, whose supposed date is the fifth century, and in others also, this word is spelt ἀσμαγερων, harmaged̃n,‮ ‬which‮ ‬is‮ ‬probably‮ ‬the‮ ‬correct‮ ‬orthography.‮ ‬If‮ ‬this‮ ‬be‮ ‬so,‮ ‬then,‮ ‬the‮ ‬word‮ ‬converted‮ ‬into‮ ‬its‮ ‬own‮ ‬Hebrew‮ ‬characters‮ ‬may‮ ‬read‮ (‬leaving‮ ‬out‮ ‬the‮ ‬Masoretic‮ ‬pointing,‮ ‬and‮ ‬giving ‭ ‬ayin,‭ ‬the power contended for by the anti-Masorites,‭ ‬which is equivalent to the English‭ ‬o in‭ ‬tone,‭ ‬and‭ ‬w‮ ‬in‮ ‬the‮ ‬Greek,‭ ‬hɛr-mai-ĝdön,‭ ‬which signifies the Mountain of Gideon.

The topography indicated by this interpretation is defined in Judges; where Yahweh's deliverance of Israel by the hand of Gideon is detailed in the sixth and seventh chapters of that book; on which occasion, "the sword of Yahweh and of Gideon" was the war-cry of the assault.

We are there informed, that

"All the Midianites and Amalekites, and children of the East, were gathered together, and went over (Jordan) and pitched their tents in the Valley of Jezreel (chap. 6:33); by the hill of Moreh, north of Gideon's encampment. (chap. 7:1.) Gideon "pitched beside the fountain of Kharod," on the mountain range of Gilead, so that "the host of Midian was beneath him in the valley."—(chap. 7:1.)

The enemy consisted of 135,000, while Gideon's band before the assault was reduced to 300 men. This disproportion made the fight "the battle of God Almighty." Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Zebulun, and Ephraim, were summoned to the pursuit. The slaughter was immense in the Valley of Jezreel in the canton of Issachar.

One hundred and twenty thousand fell by mutual slaughter, and the sword of Gideon; while fifteen thousand managed to effect a retreat over Jordan towards the east under Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of Midian. Thither Gideon pursued them, passing by Succoth and Penuel by the river Jabbok; and coming upon them unawares, put them to the rout, and captured the kings, whom he put to death because they had slain his own mother's sons in Tabor.

These‮ ‬places‮ ‬and‮ ‬events‮ ‬connected‮ ‬with‮ ‬this‮ ‬celebrated‮ ‬battle‮ ‬of‮ ‬Jezreel,‮ ‬which‮ ‬gave‮ ‬liberty‮ ‬and‮ ‬independence‮ ‬to‮ ‬Israel‮ ‬for‮ ‬forty‮ ‬years,‮ ‬define‮ "‬the‮ ‬place,‮" ‬or‮ ‬country,‮ ‬called‮ ‬in‮ ‬Hebrew,‭ ‬where,‭ ‬as the result of the operation of the Frog Power,‭ "‬the kings of the earth and the whole habitable‭" ‬are to be gathered together for the initiation of‭ "‬the war of the great day of God the Almighty‭;‬" in which the controversy between him and the world's rulers will be decided without further appeal to arms for a thousand years.

Harmagedon, then, may be defined, as being bounded by the Mediterranean and the Sea of Chinnereth, or Tiberias, on the east and west; and extending to the mountain of the glory of the holy, which is Jerusalem; and therefore includes the Valley of Jezreel, and the Valley of Jehoshaphat; "where," saith Yahweh,

"I will judge all the Gentiles round about."

Bro Thomas - Bible dictionary

The Christadelphian, July 1872