Series: Youth for Jesus
Number: Vol. 8, No. 3
“But the LORD said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will sift them for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.” So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the LORD told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel down to drink.” Three hundred men lapped with their hands to their mouths. All the rest got down on their knees to drink. The LORD said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go, each to his own place.”” (Judg 7:4-7NIV)
Who told Gideon that the men with him were too many? It was God. But how many were these men that God referred to as ‘too many’? They were just ten thousand. And these ten thousand men were supposed to go with Gideon in fighting the armies of the Midianites, the Amalekites and all the other eastern people of the time, armies that the bible describes as ‘impossible to count’. Yet the Lord said of these ten thousand men, “There are still too many men.” (Cf. Judg 6:5)
Now that must have sounded ridiculous to Gideon. That was because, as we see in the account, he had just sent twenty-two thousand men home because God had said that he should do so. But God did not ask him to send those men home for no reason. He asked him to send them home because they were already trembling with fear. In fact, they themselves were willing to go home. So, they really could not have contributed much to the success of Gideon’s army, even if they had stayed. On the contrary, they would have been liabilities to him, making him to feed them for contributing nothing. (Cf. Judg 7:1-3)
But then, when this man was about getting ready to go to battle with the ten thousand men left with him, as ridiculous as doing so seemed, God spoke up again and said that the men with him were still too many. “What? God, are you really serious about this?” he must have said to himself. And God was indeed serious this time too. He was not telling him that the men with him were still too many just for the fun of it. He was telling him so because those men were actually too many for the job to be done. That means there were many among them that would add nothing to the success of his army – they were just numbers.
Well, to prove to Gideon that the ten thousand men with him were too many for the battle ahead of him, God told him to subject them to a test of attitude. Sadly, only three hundred of these men passed that test. Others failed. Why did they fail? They failed because they had no attitude or culture of vigilance.
As we see in our opening bible text, what God used in judging the fitness and readiness of these men of Gideon for battle was the way they drank water. Three hundred of them drank water with vigilance, with the consciousness that they were at the battle front and should be ready all the time for the attack of their enemies. But the remaining nine thousand and seven hundred men settled down at the stream to drink water as though nothing was at stake. So, God rejected them and asked Gideon to send them home. And he obeyed.
Now did this man of God regret sending those people home? No, he did not regret it at all. Instead, he went on to overcome all his enemies with the three hundred vigilant and serious-minded men with him. That, of course, means that he did not need more than those three hundred men for success in that battle. Any additional person to their number, then, would have been nothing but a liability, excess luggage.What is the point of all this, in any case? The first is that our trust must always be in God and not in number or population. Number can fail us. But God can never fail us.
Also, it is not every time that more people will equal more success. So, for every project we are handling, we should be certain that it is only those that will contribute immensely to its success that we bring in. Otherwise, we may find ourselves spending much more than necessary in accomplishing our desired results.
The second lesson from the account is that our attitude towards the things of life means a lot to God. The way we sit, stand, walk, sleep, eat, drink, talk, listen and even look at things matters to Him. And we too should let it matter to us. Otherwise, there are certain truths He may never reveal to us, just as there are certain assignments or positions of greatness that He may never consider us for.
So, when He, directly or through others, is drawing your attention to certain attitudes or habits you need to drop or change, you had better listen and act fast. Or else, you may be disqualified from being a part of the celebration of certain victories in this life and in God’s heavenly kingdom.