God’s Way Not Mine
“And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me.” Judges 7:1
Sorry for the lack of posts. I had a “technical difficulty” with the blog site. But, we are back for more with Gideon. When we last left Gideon, he was testing God in order to insure that he was doing what God was asking of him. God was patient and fulfilled every request of Gideon. Gideon, finally confident in God’s hand being on him, began carrying out God’s instructions.
At this point in chapter 7 of Judges, Gideon is riding a wave of confidence in what he is to do. At the end of chapter 6 he destroyed the altar built to the false god, Baal, that his own father had erected. His father defends his son when confronted by the other men of the country. This took bravery as the majority of the Israelites haven given in to idol/pagan worship. Gideon knew that, in order for the Israelites defeat their enemies, they must turn back to God. Gideon knew that the Israelites must get right spiritually before they can get back physically.
Back to Judges chapter 7. Gideon finds their enemy, the Midianites, camped out on their border ready to attack. He gathers an army of men to defend their land. I know at this time Gideon must be feeling pretty good. He has put together an army, according to the Bible, of 32,000 men. He had to be thinking they were pretty prepared. However, God was about to change the plan just a bit.
God tells Gideon in verse 2 that there are too many men. God knew the tendency of men is to take all the credit for success. He knew if Gideon went to battle with so many men and won, that the children of Israel would think they had done it all themselves. God tells Gideon that he has too many men. God tells Gideon to announce to the army that if any are “fearful and afraid”, they should return home. At this announcement, 22,000 men returned home. This left 10,000 men to fight. God once again said there were too many men. He then tells Gideon to have all the men go to the river and get a drink of water. God said for Gideon to separate the men into two groups. In one group were the men who lapped the water like a dog, and in the other group were the men who got down on one knee and brought the water to their mouth in their hand. There were only 300 men who drank the water by bringing it up to there mouth in their hand. Of course in true God fashion, this would be the group of men that God told Gideon to keep. He sent 9,700 men home.
I am going to go out on a limb and assume that Gideon was a little troubled by what God has done to his army. God basically cut the size of Gideon’s army by 99%. The important thing to see though is that Gideon continued to go forward. He still said yes. Even though God’s way was not his way. Even though God’s way, on the surface, made no sense. Even though it seemed God’s plan gave the enemy the advantage, Gideon went forward with what God wanted.
Looking out our windows today, it is hard to see that God is still in control. It seems that the enemies’ numbers are overwhelming. It looks as if there is no way that good and right are going to win. It would seem that we, as Christians, are powerless and losing. We need to be like Gideon and fully trust and buy into God with unshakeable faith. Does that mean that we should not have any concerns. I don’t think so. God knows that we are human. He knows that we have fears and doubts. He made us. He should know us better than we know ourselves. Remember, in the Garden of Gethsemane, that Jesus himself had fear. He begged God that if there was any other way for the plan of salvation to be completed then please do it. But He then give us the example of how we should live. He said, “not as I will, but as thou wilt”. When the deck seems stacked against us, we need to keep our faith in God’s overall plan and push forward in what He is asking us to do.