Clay Jars

“We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.” 2 Corinthians 4:7

When God called Gideon to become the 5th judge of Israel, Gideon was hiding in a winepress. God saw Gideon as a mighty man of valor, but Gideon felt deeply unqualified for the task. The Lord used Gideon to raise up an army and defeat the Midianites who had been oppressing God’s people for seven years. God doesn’t call the qualified. He qualifies the called.

With an unlikely army of 300 men, Gideon marched into the Midianite camp just after midnight without sword or bow. In one hand, his men held a ram’s horn and in the other a lit torch covered by a clay jar. Following Gideon’s lead, they blew their horns and broke the clay jars. They held the blazing torches in their left hands and the horns in their right hands, and they all shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” The Mideanites fought against one another until 120,000 Mideanites perished. The remainder fled on foot. 

The story of Gideon is foreshadowing of things to come. We too are up against an enemy too great to defeat in our own strength, but when God looks at us he doesn’t see that we are unqualified. He sees our potential. And he has given us spiritual weapons that will cause our enemy to turn on himself or run in defeat. We are like fragile clay jars, but the light of Christ contained within shines like a blazing torch. And as with Gideon’s army, our clay jars have to be “broken” so that His light can send the enemy running. When he does, it will be clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.