8/15/2008

With Just the 300: The Battle Belongs to the Lord

Judges 7:2-7

The Lord said to Gideon, The people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, My own hand has saved me.

Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount Gilead.

There returned of the people twenty-two thousand; and there remained ten thousand.
The Lord said to Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down to the water, and I will try them for you there: and it shall be, that of whom I tell you, This shall go with you, the same shall go with you; and of whoever I tell you, This shall not go with you, the same shall not go.

So he brought down the people to the water: and Yahweh said to Gideon, Everyone who laps of the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, him shall you set by himself; likewise everyone who bows down on his knees to drink.

The number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed down on their knees to drink water.

The Lord said to Gideon, By the three hundred men who lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand; and let all the people go every man to his place.

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What are your struggling with? Are you successful in overcoming it? Take refuge in the Lord and delight in His ways. Struggle no more relying upon your own strength.

The battle belongs to the Lord. Unless He plans the battle, the warriors fight in vain.

Are you frustrated and dismayed over your situation? Does your strength and capacity seem to be being diminished instead of being increased in order to match your struggle? If it is so, worry not therefore; for now, your struggle will cause you to realize that it is not your own strength that will make you overcome your trial, but the Lord's.