Wednesday, February 26, 2014

The Second Sifting

Then the LORD said to Gideon, "The people are still too many; bring them down to the water and I will test them for you there. Therefore it shall be that he of whom I say to you, 'This one shall go with you,' he shall go with you; but everyone of whom I say to you, 'This one shall not go with you,' he shall not go." So he brought the people down to the water. And the LORD said to Gideon, "You shall separate everyone who laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps, as well as everyone who kneels to drink." Now the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was 300 men; but all the rest of the people kneeled to drink water. The LORD said to Gideon, "I will deliver you with the 300 men who lapped and will give the Midianites into your hands; so let all the other people go, each man to his home."  Judges 7:4-7

The Second Sifting
Having reduced the chosen army to fight the Midianites by two-thirds, God put Gideon’s surviving 10,000 men through a second test by asking them all to take a drink down at the river.

We never know when God is testing us in some ordinary experience of life.  More than one prospective employee has ruined his or her chances for a job while having lunch with the boss, not realizing they were being evaluated. 

“Make every occasion a great occasion, for you can never tell when somebody
may be taking your measure for a larger place.”

What significance was there in the two different ways the men drank from the river?  Since the Scriptures don’t tell us, we’d be wise not to read into the text some weighty spiritual lesson that God never put there.  Most expositors say the men who bowed down to drink were making themselves vulnerable to the enemy, while the 300 who lapped water from their hands stayed alert. But the enemy was four miles away (v.1), waiting to see what the Jews would do; and Gideon wouldn’t have led his men into a dangerous situation like that.

One well-known preacher claims that the 300 men drank as they did so they could keep their eyes on Gideon, but the text doesn’t say that either. My assumption is that God chose this method of sifting the army because it was simple, unassuming (no soldier knew he was being tested), and easy to apply.  Since the men undoubtedly came to the water by groups, Gideon was able to watch them and identify the 300. It wasn’t until after the event that the men discovered they had been tested.

Some churches today are mesmerized by statistics and think they’re strong because they’re big and wealthy, but numbers are no guarantee of God’s blessing.  Moses assured the Jews that if they would obey the Lord, one soldier could chase a thousand and two would “put ten thousand to flight” (Deut. 32:30). All Gideon needed was 27 soldiers to defeat the whole Midianite army of 135,000 men (Judges 8:10), but God gave him 300.

God graciously gave Gideon one more promise of victory: "I will deliver you with the 300 men who lapped and will give the Midianites into your hands; (v. 7).  By claiming this promise and obeying the Lord’s directions, Gideon defeated the enemy and brought peace to the land for forty years.
J.G. Stipe said that faith is like a toothbrush: Everybody should have one and use it regularly, but it isn’t safe to use somebody else’s.  We can follow men and women of faith and share in their exploits, but we can’t succeed in our own personal lives by depending on somebody else’s faith.  There is no doubt God has given us enough for every battle we face…for He is enough.

Scripture to Claim:

“There is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few.”  I Samuel 14:6

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