THREE HUNDRED
ALERT SOLDIERS ARE CHOSEN
Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people that
were with him, rose up early, and pitched beside the well of Harod: so that
the host of the Midianites were on the north side of them, by the hill of
Moreh, in the valley.
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 [Jud. 7:1–2].
Now
Gideon goes out and looks at his army. He had thirty-two thousand men, and
the thought in Gideon’s mind is that this is not enough. The Midianites were
like grasshoppers on the hills. They were disorganized, but by sheer numbers
they would have overcome the Israelites. Therefore, his men were too few,
and I think Gideon was ready to blow the trumpet again. But God said to
Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot give you the victory with
thirty-two thousand men because you would boast and say that you did it in
your own strength, power and might.” No flesh is going to glory in God’s
presence. That is the reason God has to use weak instruments today. This is
the method He continues to follow. He is going to cut down the number of the
army.
Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the
people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart
early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two
thousand; and there remained ten thousand [Jud. 7:3].
Gideon had thirty-two thousand men and now he has lost
twenty-two thousand of them! You may recall God’s condition, as put down in
the Mosaic system in the Book of Deuteronomy that if anyone was drafted into
the army and was afraid,
he could go home.
I have often wondered why Gideon did not go home. When he
said, “All of you who are fearful and afraid,” he could have said, “Follow
me, because I am going home, I am more afraid than anyone here.” He had to
stay, however. God had commissioned him.
Now Gideon has only ten thousand men and that is enough
to make anyone afraid. But God says, “Really, you still have too many men.
You have to reduce this number. I cannot give you victory with this number
of men in your army.” So Gideon and his men went through another test.
So he brought down the people unto the water: and the
Lord said unto Gideon, Every
one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt
thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to
drink.
And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand
to their mouth, were three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed
down upon their knees to drink water.
And the Lord
said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and
deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go
every man unto his place [Jud. 7:5–7].
Do you know what we have here? It is one of the finest
lessons concerning divine election and man’s free will. This is the way they
work together. God said to Gideon, “I am going to choose the men that I want
to go with you, but the way I will do it is to let them make the choice.
Bring them down to the water, and the ones who lap water like a dog, just
going through and throwing it into their mouths, are the ones I have chosen.
You can put aside those men who get down on all fours and take their time
drinking. I don’t want them.”
Had we been there (ours is a great day for interviewing
the man on the street), we could have had interviews with the men in
Gideon’s army. For example, let us take the man that is down on all fours.
We would go up to him and say, “Brother, why did you get down on all fours?”
“Well,” he would reply, “I was just wondering why I didn’t go home with the
other crowd. I have been thinking this thing over and I have a wife and
family, and I just do not think I ought to be here. I feel like I should
have gone home. I have no heart for this.” He made his choice, but God also
made His choice. That is divine election and human free will. You see, God
elects, but He lets you
be the one to make the choice. Then we go to the man that lapped water like
a dog, and went to the other side of the stream. “Why did you lap water like
that?” we ask him. He says, “Where are the Midianites?” “Wait just a
minute,” we reply. “Why did you do that?” He replies, “Because I am with
Gideon one hundred percent!” May I say to you that these three hundred men
had a heart for battle. If you had said to any one of these three hundred
men, “Say, did you know that God has elected you?” he would have replied, “I
don’t know what you are talking about. The thing is that I want to go after
these Midianites!”
You can argue about divine election and free will all you
want to, but it works. You cannot make it work out by arguing, but it sure
works out in life, friend. Each one of the ten thousand men in Gideon’s army
exercised his free will. God did not interfere with one of them as far as
their free wills were concerned. Today God, through His Son Jesus Christ,
offers you the free gift of salvation. It is a legitimate offer. It is a
sincere offer from God Himself. He says, “All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out”
(John 6:37). Now don’t tell me that you can argue about election right now.
You cannot. You can come to God if you want to come. If you don’t come, I
have news for you—you were not elected. If you do come, I have good news for
you—you were elected. That is the way God moves.
Now these three hundred men often have been
misunderstood. As a student, I went down to a little church in Georgia. When
I got there, a dear little lady wearing a sunbonnet said to me, “Mr. McGee,
we have here just a little Gideon’s band.” They didn’t have a Gideon’s band!
They had the most discouraged, lazy folk I have ever seen in my life. That
is not Gideon’s band. Gideon’s band was a group of dedicated men, willing to
die to deliver Israel, men who had their hearts and souls in this matter.
May I say to you that these men lapped up water like a dog because they were
after the Midianites and not after water. They will drink after the battle
is over.
I once watched a football game, and then I listened to
the interview of the quarterback of the Arkansas team. Even after the game,
he was so excited and so emotional that he took no credit for himself. He
gave his team the credit for winning. He said, “We were determined to win.”
That is Gideon’s band, friend, and that is the thing that is needed today in
the church, if you please.
McGee, J. Vernon: Thru the Bible
Commentary. electronic ed. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997,
c1981, S. 2:60-62