You have too many men...

I am currently reading in Judges about how the Lord used Gideon to deliver Israel from the Midianites. What a great lesson in faith. They are to go into battle. They have a great army ready. The problem... they have too many men. The Lord wants to show them that the victory will come to them, but it will come because the Lord will give them the victory, not because of their strength. So the Lord tells Gideon to send anyone who trembles with fear home. Twenty-two thousand go home. The Lord says there are still too many so He sends them down to the water. He tells Gideon to observe who laps water with their hands versus those that kneel down to drink. Whoever drank with their hands went into battle, the rest went home. (Thinking about that scenario and how I drink water... I would have been one of the ones going into battle. I think I might have been a little nervous with the twenty-two thousand leaving before I had the drink of water and then seeing everyone else leave except three hundred people after I had a drink of water.) But God in His great mercy knew how weak His people were and even let them go hear what the Midianites were thinking and heard a dream that one of the Midianites was sharing with another Midianite about how Gideon was going to over take them. This gave Gideon and the three hundred confidence in their Lord and they attacked. Amazingly, The Lord threw the Midianites into confusion and they fought each other, the battle had been won.

Can you imagine coming home from that "battle" and telling that story? The soldiers are walking home shaking their heads. They walk in the door... “Honey, I'm home.” Their wife is so glad to see her husband. She is saying, “I never thought I would see you again. I heard about the twenty-two thousand that were too afraid to fight and then the others that came home and I thought for sure I had seen you for the last time.” Then she takes a closer look at her husband. “What happened?” Then the husband shares about how the Lord God Almighty fought the battle. He shares how the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Israel was with them and how they fought the battle and won.

I was thinking of this story and how I so often trust in myself instead of the Lord. I trust in my circumstances, and my abilities instead of the Creator of the universe. The only abilities I have were given to me by the Creator and my circumstances were designed by Him as well. How foolish of me to think I am smarter than Him. It is amazing the amount of patience the Lord has in dealing with me on a daily basis. I am grateful his patience is unlimited. How hopeless I would be if His patience had a limit. I love this story because it is an example of how BIG our God really is. We think that we need to do things in our own strength and get all our ducks in a row and God says; “I will show you how much I can do with so little.”

I pray that I will be able to have faith like Gideon and not waiver in my faith when the twenty two thousand leave and still march into battle because it is then that God will show just how powerful He is.