I Dream of Wonder Bread
“When Gideon came, behold, a man was telling a dream to his comrade. And he said, ‘Behold, I dreamed a dream, and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat.’ And his comrade answered, ‘This is no other than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given into his hand Midian and all the camp.’ As soon as Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped. And he returned to the camp of Israel and said, ‘Arise, for the LORD has given the host of Midian into your hand.’”
—Judges 7:13-15
When I was a kid, we ate a lot of hamburgers and hotdogs either as special treats during the summer or as meals. Sometimes—many times—we would look for the fancy buns only to be handed the loaf of bread and told “Here’s your bun.”
This was not child abuse or negligence on the part of my parents or grandparents—this is what they had and it did do the job. But I will always remember the moment of defeat when I took the slice of sandwich bread and folded it around my hotdog or made my “hamburger sandwich,” then scraping that mound of wet bread from the roof of my mouth after. But I miss those days sometimes and a slice of bread and a hotdog ain’t too bad.
In this very unusual story (which is surrounded by many other unusual stories), a soldier dreams of a loaf of barley crashing down on a tent in the camp of the Midianite army and laying it flat. Then, he says “This is surely the sword of Gideon, and it spells victory!” Not only that, when Gideon heard that this man had basically dreamed that he was a loaf of barley crashing a tent, he didn’t get offended; he worshiped! He showed thanks.
How would you take it if someone came up to you, clapped you on the back, and said, “Hey there Barley Loaf!”? You might think that was some kind of insult. There’s more: barley meal was considered dog food, so it was a synonym for something despised and worthless. So, it was more like, “What’s up, Milkbone?” How could Gideon rejoice in this picture rather than get angry?
He understood that God blesses the despised, the nothing, the foolish to accomplish His purpose and magnify His glory through them. He had dwindled an army of thousands to just three hundred so that no one could claim victory but Him. He is good at taking what everyone has overlooked and confounding the wise with His usefulness of it. As someone said, “God can draw a straight line with a crooked stick!” A barley loaf might have been a despised thing but with God, it upset and crushed the tent of Midian’s power.
If you’re weak, ignorant, young, outcast, broken—good news! You’re the candidate God is looking to use. In fact, your lack of qualifications is often what qualifies you for service to the King. So, like the Apostle Paul, we should boast in our infirmities because in our weakness, we are made strong because His grace is sufficient!
Blessings! SDG