EXPLORE THE TEXT
Believers need to trust that God’s way of doing things is always best.
4 Then the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many troops.
Take them down to the water, and I will test them for you there.
If I say to you, ‘This one can go with you,’ he can go.
But if I say about anyone, ‘This one cannot go with you,’ he cannot go.”
5 So he brought the troops down to the water, and the Lord said to Gideon,
“Separate everyone who laps water with his tongue like a dog.
Do the same with everyone who kneels to drink.”
6 The number of those who lapped with their hands to their mouths was three hundred men,
and all the rest of the troops knelt to drink water.
7 The Lord said to Gideon,
“I will deliver you with the three hundred men who lapped
and hand the Midianites over to you. But everyone else is to go home.”
8 So Gideon sent all the Israelites to their tents but kept the three hundred troops,
who took the provisions and their rams’ horns.
The camp of Midian was below him in the valley.
Allow adults who have been part of a trust fall to share their experiences.
Compare the feelings of a trust fall to what Gideon may have been feeling as his men drank the water.
Review what happened after God told Gideon that he still had too many troops:
Gideon obeyed the Lord and brought his troops to the water.
God instructed him to separate the men into two groups based on how they drank from the spring.
Everyone who lowered themselves and lapped the water with his tongue like a dog was put in one group.
The ones who knelt, scooped the water up, and drank it from their cupped hands were to be separated into a second group.
Of the ten thousand men who drank at the spring, only three hundred scooped up the water and drank it from cupped hands.
The Lord told Gideon He would save Israel using these three hundred men. (PSG, p. 95)
In a short amount of time, God had reduced Gideon’s army by more than ninety-nine percent.
He had put them in a position where they had no choice but to trust Him and to give Him the glory for the victory He provided.