A trumpeting victory

In the book of Judges, chapter 7, Gideon gathered up 32,000 Israelite men and set out to defeat the Midianites.

But the Lord said there were too many Israelites and if He gave them victory, they would say it was they who did it instead of through the Lord.  So Gideon sent those who were afraid back home, which left him with 10,000 men.

Still too many.

The Lord told Gideon to take them all to the river, and watched what the Israelites would do.  Of the remaining 10,000 men, 300 scooped up water with their hands instead of kneeling down into the water.  Those 300 were chosen to attack the Midianites.

Prior to the attack, Gideon and a servant sneaked down into the enemy camp.  There, he heard of how afraid they were of Gideon.  He went back, divided up jars of oil and trumpets, and using psychological warfare, blew the trumpets from three different sides.  This startled the enemy, who ended up attacking each other.

Those that remained were attacked the by 300 . . . and victory was achieved.