Judg 7:2, And the Lord said to Gideon, "The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, lest Israel become boastful, saying, 'My own power has delivered me.' 
    	As we read the Word of God, we need to keep our hearts focused on what the Lord is revealing to us about Himself and His plan and His purpose throughout. We cannot just read it as merely the historical account of the nation of the Lord. That is a part of it, for certain. However, there is so much more that is detailed showing how God has always dealt with mankind. We need to see beyond the historical aspect and delve into the comprehensive matter of The Lord’s work in our lives. Here we have the Spirit of God talking directly to our hearts and souls. That is what we need to hear as we read this passage.
	God is highlighting a focal truth within the thinking and the attitude and the motivation of fallen and lost humanity. Mankind - you, me, our children, our parents, every single one of us, has this issue that needs to be dealt with by the hand of God. We look at life through the eyes of how it is all centered on us and our place in it. We may delude ourselves with the humanistic ideology that we really care more for others and for their benefit than for ourselves. But still, there is that underlying and pervasive consideration of what we will get, what others will think of us, what will be the result for our benefit as everything we do or say unfolds. 
	In the midst of every moment of our day, we will find ourselves looking and concentrating on how well we have performed, or how much credit we deserve, or how this or that conversation or action reflects on us, or why are we the brunt of all these things that are happening to me? We will invariably determine that we have been successful or failing in the manner in which we have gotten the proper consideration from how we conducted ourselves in the eyes of others. Herein is the crux of what is before us in the passage of today, lest we become …boastful, saying, 'My own power has delivered me.'
	This is something that needs to be constantly exposed and dealt with in the heart and the soul of every single person who has been called into a living relationship with Jesus Christ. I dare not say every Christian, because so many are simply satisfied with what they have been given, that fire insurance from an eternity in Hell. They do not want anything more, because to ask the Lord to move us on in Christ Jesus requires what we term, death to self for the life of Christ to be more and more expressed unto others. Death to self is that revelation of the fact, the truth, the reality that our old nature, with its focus on me, myself, and I, needs to be completely and forever eradicated! This is in order that the life of Christ can blossom forth in the fullness of God’s Righteousness and Holiness and Mercy and Grace and Lovingkindness. 
	We find this tendency of self-centered deception being addressed even as the Children of Israel were about to enter into the Promised Land. Please turn back in your Bibles to Deut 8:11-18 and read along with me.
	Deut 8:11-18, "Beware lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today; lest, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then your heart becomes proud, and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. He led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; He brought water for you out of the rock of flint. In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end. Otherwise, you may say in your heart, 'My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.' "But you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. 
    	The warning was plainly set before the whole nation of what would take place within their thoughts if they were to remove their hearts and their minds from honoring and thanking the Lord for His blessing upon them. As they became satisfied with the choicest of the produce of the land, they would begin to think that they had done all the work needed for them to so feast. They would soon forget the Lord and look at themselves as the ones in whom they could find their daily satisfaction. 
What was so true in that day has not changed one iota. It is traced so fully for us throughout the scripture. Just as God plainly and carefully set this before His people then, so through those warnings we are told today what we will so often and surely do because of our deceitful and vile propensity to take the credit from the Lord as the fruits of our efforts.
The Psalmist declared this from the mouth of the Lord in the manner in which mankind’s proclivity to turn away from utter and absolute reliance upon the Lord is viewed by God. Consider Ps 33:13-22. God knows exactly how we will act and behave in the course of our selfish ambitions and concerns. He looks at the heart of those who will turn from their earthly lusts and attitudes to seek Him and desire to know Him and His ways rather than our own.
Ps 33:13-22, The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men; From His dwelling place He looks out On all the inhabitants of the earth, He who fashions the hearts of them all, He who understands all their works. The king is not saved by a mighty army; A warrior is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a false hope for victory; Nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, On those who hope for His lovingkindness, To deliver their soul from death, And to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. For our heart rejoices in Him, Because we trust in His holy name. Let Thy lovingkindness, O Lord, be upon us, According as we have hoped in Thee. 
	The Prophet Isaiah, in speaking forth the word of the Lord, made it very evident that the plans and the pride and the boastfulness of man will be utterly shattered in the Day of the Lord. The haughtiness which so forcefully takes away the place of God and replaces it with a bloated and disgusting self-image of mankind as his own god will be dealt with by the full brunt of God’s Justice and God’s Holiness and God’s Righteousness. 
Consider for example, Isa 2:10-12. Isa 2:10-12, Enter the rock and hide in the dust From the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of His majesty. The proud look of man will be abased, And the loftiness of man will be humbled, And the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. For the Lord of hosts will have a day of reckoning Against everyone who is proud and lofty, And against everyone who is lifted up, That he may be abased. 
     	As well, consider what is so plainly and purposefully stated by the Prophet in Isa 10:12-19. It is the determined and sure plan of the Lord to deal with the haughtiness and the boastful selfishness and self-centeredness of mankind which brought about the fall of humanity in the Garden. There is represented here, in the king of Assyria, that which is inherently in place in all those who are not redeemed from their sinful nature by the Lord. This is the means by which God will deal with any and all who are in opposition to His Holiness and His Righteousness and His Sovereignty. 
	Isa 10:12-19, So it will be that when the Lord has completed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, "I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the pomp of his haughtiness." For he has said, "By the power of my hand and by my wisdom I did this, For I have understanding; And I removed the boundaries of the peoples, And plundered their treasures, And like a mighty man I brought down their inhabitants, And my hand reached to the riches of the peoples like a nest, And as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth; And there was not one that flapped its wing or opened its beak or chirped." 
Is the axe to boast itself over the one who chops with it? Is the saw to exalt itself over the one who wields it? That would be like a club wielding those who lift it, Or like a rod lifting him who is not wood. Therefore the Lord, the God of hosts, will send a wasting disease among his stout warriors; And under his glory a fire will be kindled like a burning flame. And the light of Israel will become a fire and his Holy One a flame, And it will burn and devour his thorns and his briars in a single day. And He will destroy the glory of his forest and of his fruitful garden, both soul and body; And it will be as when a sick man wastes away. And the rest of the trees of his forest will be so small in number That a child could write them down. 
	Then Isaiah continues further in this 10th Chapter, verse 33 through verse 10 of Chapter 11, to explain the course in which God will manifest His plan for the salvation of humanity from the depths of man’s deserved eternal damnation. Much as one may think of oneself as good, the fact is that the old nature of fallen humanity needs to be put to complete death in order for the new nature, that of Christ to flourish and to show forth God’s glory. This was always the intention with the creation of mankind. Notice how the focal point of the redeemed will be centered, not on the way that life serves or affects me, myself, and I, but on the manner in which we will be of complete and absolute service to the Lord. Our entire life will be transformed from that which is self-serving and self-centered, to that which will honor and bless and bring utmost glory to Our Lord and Savior! His heart will become our heart, no matter what it means in terms of our complete death to self! Through Christ, everything will be brought into the perfect place of peace and safety and rest in the totality of His creation!
	Isa 10:33-11:10, Behold, the Lord, the God of hosts, will lop off the boughs with a terrible crash; Those also who are tall in stature will be cut down, And those who are lofty will be abased. And He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an iron axe, And Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One. Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And He will delight in the fear of the Lord, And He will not judge by what His eyes see, Nor make a decision by what His ears hear; But with righteousness He will judge the poor, And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, And faithfulness the belt about His waist. And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the kid, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze; Their young will lie down together; And the lion will eat straw like the ox. And the nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den. They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord As the waters cover the sea. Then it will come about in that day That the nations will resort to the root of Jesse, Who will stand as a signal for the peoples; And His resting place will be glorious. 
 	The Prophet Jeremiah, in Jer 9:23+24 puts forth a most concise reality of how much our lives will be changed from self boasting in our abilities, which will always come to ruination, to the selfless boasting in the knowledge that we know the Lord as our Savior! We need to continually seek to know and learn His ways more and more as each day progresses. 
There can be no full understanding of God by mankind because we are so limited and in no way can we ever completely know God. He is above any means for us to say that Who He is and all that He does is ours to grasp as our own. 
What we can boast in is that He is our power! He is our strength! He is our understanding! He is our Justice! He is our Righteousness! He is Our Redeemer! He is our Lord and He is Our God! 
	Jer 9:23+24, Thus says the Lord, "Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things, "declares the Lord. 
    	One of the great examples of the Old Testament which brings all of this discussion to light is that of King Nebuchadnezzar. This is fully detailed in the 4th Chapter of the Book of Daniel. There is no doubt that he was one of the most powerful kings of all time. His earthly dominion was unparalleled and stretched throughout the Middle East. He ruled a vast and rich kingdom which brought him immense honor and earthly praise and fealty from a manifold population of humanity. 
Yet, even he, with all his earthly power and might and wealth, was not above the humbling work of God. No man will ever be! No matter how powerful and exalted a person may consider oneself, God is far far greater and wiser and much more powerful than all the combined minds and strength and exaltation that our imaginations can ever conjure up. God can humble the greatest of all, causing them to recognize the futility of trying to stand against the Sovereignty of God. It is God Who rules and overrules and sets people into places of power and removes them as He so deems necessary to accomplish His eternal plan for the sake of His glory and His honor and His praise!
	Dan 4:30-32, "The king reflected and said, 'Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?' "While the word was in the king's mouth, a voice came from heaven, saying, 'King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared: sovereignty has been removed from you, and you will be driven away from mankind, and your dwelling place will be with the beasts of the field. You will be given grass to eat like cattle, and seven periods of time will pass over you, until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind, and bestows it on whomever He wishes.' 
	Nebuchadnezzar came to recognize this truth as so detailed in his wonderful proclamation which is recorded so gloriously in the remainder of this 4th Chapter of Daniel. Dan 4:33-37, "Immediately the word concerning Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled; and he was driven away from mankind and began eating grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until his hair had grown like eagles' feathers and his nails like birds' claws. "But at the end of that period I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom endures from generation to generation. "And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, But He does according to His will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of earth; And no one can ward off His hand Or say to Him, 'What hast Thou done?' "At that time my reason returned to me. And my majesty and splendor were restored to me for the glory of my kingdom, and my counselors and my nobles began seeking me out; so I was reestablished in my sovereignty, and surpassing greatness was added to me. "Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise, exalt, and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride." 
	This is what each one of us needs to come to know about God, as so emphasized by the Prophet Jeremiah in the passage that we read earlier …but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness on earth. So be it!
    	And the Lord said to Gideon, "The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, lest Israel become boastful, saying, 'My own power has delivered me.' Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Ps 135:13. Thy name, O Lord, is everlasting, Thy remembrance, O Lord, throughout all generations. Amen.