Judges 7:8
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. 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.
Gideon retained only the three hundred men with victuals in their hand and their trumpets, and sent all the rest of Israel every man unto his tent, while the host of Midian lay beneath him in the valley. The verse stands in the history of Judges 6-8, which repeats the pattern of backsliding and chastisement followed by confession and deliverance, in which God did not utterly forsake His people but left a remnant true to Him and from time to time raised up faithful and valiant men to put down idolatry and deliver Israel from their enemies, though when the deliverer died the people returned to their idols. The Midianite host lying beneath in the valley belonged to a seven-year oppression that came because Israel did evil and the protecting hand of God was withdrawn.
The oppressors were the Midianites from the eastern border and the deserts beyond, together with the Amalekites from the south of Canaan, who had been nearly destroyed in the days of Moses but had since greatly increased and become numerous and powerful, thirsting for revenge. The tribes east of the Jordan were the first sufferers, but the whole land suffered, for the wild, fierce inhabitants of the desert came as locusts for multitude with their flocks and herds, spreading like a devouring plague from the river Jordan to the Philistine plain, arriving as soon as the harvests began to ripen and remaining until the last fruits of the earth had been gathered, stripping the fields of their increase, robbing and maltreating the inhabitants, and then returning to the deserts. The Israelites dwelling in the open country were forced to abandon their homes and congregate in walled towns, seek refuge in fortresses, and find shelter in caves and rocky fastnesses among the mountains. When the people in their distress gave heed to the Lord's reproof and confessed their sins, God raised up a helper for them.
The defeat of Midian by so small a force and by such simple means shows that deliverance came through God's power and wisdom, not through human numbers or military skill, so men are not to trust in their own strength or become objects of praise or claim the glory, but God is to receive the glory. The three hundred prevailed not because of numbers but because in living faith they followed God's special directions, showing that faith and obedience accomplish the work while faithlessness and narrow views and narrow plans accomplish very little. The deliverance shows that God was Israel's mighty King, though the people wanted a human ruler. Success here depended on God's help working together with human effort.