Judges 7

Jehovah the only Savior

And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me. Judges 7:2–7

Jehovah deliberately makes the army too small to win on its own, so everyone will know that He is the one who saves. The same truth is at the heart of the gospel: we are saved by Christ's power and grace, not by our own strength.

How we know: the verse itself names Him · a footnote points to Him · a traditional type, cited

The sword of the LORD

When I blow with a trumpet, I and all that are with me, then blow ye the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say, The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon. Judges 7:18–22

The battle cry puts the LORD first, and the LORD Himself turns the enemy against itself. Three hundred men with trumpets and lamps win because Jehovah fights for them. Centuries later Isaiah pointed back to this night as the picture of how the Messiah would break the oppressor's yoke.

How we know: Jehovah is the premortal Christ (Abraham 1:16; D&C 110:3–4) · the verse itself names Him · a footnote points to Him · a traditional type, cited

• alluded to by Isaiah 9:4 — "For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian" - in the prophecy of the child who is called The Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6), Isaiah names Gideon's victory as the pattern of the Messiah's deliverance. The Church footnotes this verse at Judges 7:23.