Imagine for a moment that you are a leader of an army. You are about to go in and fight a strong opponent. You have approximately 32,000 people who are there as potential soldiers. However, the Commander in Chief tells you that you have too many soldiers. What? How is that ever a problem? He tells you to tell all the people that if any of them are timid that they can go home. 22,000 of them leave. Now you have about 10,000 left. Not too shabby depending on the opponent. But the Commander in Chief states that you still have too many soldiers and he wants you to narrow it down using an experiment. After the experiment is complete, you are now down to 300 soldiers. The Commander in Chief is satisfied and tells you to proceed with the battle.
“The Lord said to Gideon, ‘You have too many warriors with you. If I let all of you fight the Midianites, the Israelites will boast to me that they saved themselves by their own strength.’ Therefore, tell the people, ‘Whoever is timid or afraid may leave this mountain and go home.’ So 22,000 of them went home, leaving only 10,000 who were willing to fight.” Judges 7:2-4
In Judges 7 we see this exact same scenario play out with Gideon. Gideon was the leader of the Israelite army and they were going to face the Midianites.
If this were to happen in today’s time we would believe that the Commander in Chief had lost his mind. Who would choose to lessen their army from 22,000 to 300? Why would anyone want to remove perfectly good soldiers and put a battlefield victory on the line?
Again the Lord thought there were too many soldiers and had Gideon take the soldiers to the creek. Those that cupped water in their hands and drank it were kept as soldiers and those that leaned down and drank directly from the creek were sent home. This left Gideon with 300 soldiers. When he fought the battle against the Midianites and won, the glory all had to go to the Lord.
God had Gideon lessen the number of soldiers so that there could be no doubt that the battle truly belonged to the Lord. If the Israelites had won with their 32,000 soldiers, then they would have taken the credit for themselves. Sometimes God moves in unique and different ways because He wants there to be no doubt in the minds of those around that He answered the prayer and brought the victory. We may not always understand the timing or circumstances of God’s decisions, but we have to rest in the fact that He is working, and in ways that will bring glory to Him. It is our job as believers to trust in His methods and be sensitive to how He wants to move and then give all the glory and praise to Him!
This devotional was written by Amy Carrico of Making the Moments Matter. Click HERE to follow her on Facebook!
Last Updated on April 8, 2025
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