7The LORD said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go, each to his own place.”
The LORD insists on getting the glory. He has limited the number of soldiers from 32,000 men to 300. He did this so that they could not boast about the victory. Some say that these 300 men were the most aware of their surroundings because they picked the water up with their hands and drank rather than kneeling and drinking face down in the water. I think they were chosen because they didn’t want to get their knees dirty by kneeling. They were the least qualified to fight. And they never did fight. They broke a pot and raised their torch. Not exactly the most courageous acts of heroism! The LORD caused the enemy armies to turn on each other and do the work of killing. The Israelites only had to do “mop up” work, killing the stragglers. When we are obedient, the Lord does the really hard work, the God-sized work. When we try to do His work by ourselves, the work is too big. It is God-sized work, and we are not God. This is a hard lesson to learn. Learn a small part of it today. Let the Lord do the God-sized work. Changing a person in God-sized work.
The Arnold Journey 