Gideon's Army

The story of Gideon in the Old Testament is an interesting one and surely has things to teach us.  Gideon was one of the judges of Israel, and he came on the scene when the people of Israel were threatened by the Midianites.  The enemy army was near to Gideon and his army when the Lord said to 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 7:2).  The Lord knew that He was going to deliver the people out of the hands of their enemies, but He was afraid that in so doing the people would become prideful and think that they had done it themselves.  So the Lord told Gideon that his army had to be smaller in order to fight so that they would be less inclined to think that they did it themselves.  In other words, the Lord wanted to make sure that they would rely on Him by making it essentially impossible to win without the Lord’s help. 

               Once the Lord commanded that the size of Gideon’s army had to be smaller, Gideon had to go about to reduce the number of people in his army.  He first said to the troops, “Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand.”  So the first test to remain in the army of Gideon was that one had to have faith and not be fearful.  Even after 22,000 left the army, the Lord still thought it was too big. The second test was to send the soldiers to the water to drink.  Based on how they drank the Lord determined if they could stay in the army.  Those who “lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth” were rejected by the Lord.  So this seems to mean that those who drank by simply putting their face in the water were turned away.  On the other hand, those who “lapped, putting their hand to their mouth” were not rejected and they constituted the 300 men that the Lord kept for the battle.  It seems to me that this water test had to do with seeing which of the soldiers would always be on the alert (Judges 7:3, 6).  Putting your face directly into the water leaves you vulnerable and you lose sight for a moment of what is going on.  But those who use their hands and cup the water are more alert and can still be aware of their surroundings while drinking.  The Lord apparently wanted those who would be in the army to be alert and always ready for whatever might come. Surely there is a spiritual lesson in this story: the Lord wants us to both have great faith and great spiritual awareness.  Those who cupped their hands in drinking the water are those who watch diligently for the Lord and His Second Coming: “Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching” (Luke 12:37).  Perhaps another reason for this test related to the drinking of the water was to see whether the soldiers would indulge themselves or not.  Drinking with the full face in the water certainly allows for faster drinking and is a quicker way to obtain water, but the action itself tends to connote someone who is greedy and focused on themselves.  Those who cupped their hands to drink would get less water than the others, but they would be demonstrating that they had self-control.   The Lord wanted His people to be those of faith, self-control, and ever ready to  serve.