The LORD said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying, ‘My own power has delivered me.’
Judges 7:2
Every sign and miracle recorded in the story were responses to Gideon’s plea for affirmation, to ease a heart plagued by fear. With every request, God responded with providence and refinement. Even as God calls us to accomplish a task, He refines us as His vessels for His glory, that we may boast only in Him and not in ourselves. Every trial and calling comes to refine us as vessels for His glory, that we may know the richest of His glory. The refining process reflects the posture of our heart and examines if we are humble before the Lord.
As God performed signs and miracles for Gideon, He demonstrates how His grace and presence alone is sufficient for victory. Even as God provided the soldiers for Gideon, He refined them and sifted for Gideon soldiers that are meek and humble, reducing the numbers from a total of 32,000 to just 300 men. The first call was for those who were afraid. ‘“Whoever is afraid and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount Gilead.” So 22,000 people returned, but 10,000 remained.’ (Judges 7:3). Pay attention to the selection process.
Then the Lord said to Gideon, “The people are still too many; bring them down to the water and I will test them for you there. Therefore it shall be that he of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go with you; but everyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.” So he brought the people down to the water. And the Lord said to Gideon, “You shall separate everyone who laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps, as well as everyone who kneels to drink.” Now the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was 300 men; but all the rest of the people kneeled to drink water. The Lord said to Gideon, “I will deliver you a with the 300 men who lapped and will give the Midianites into your hands; so let all the other people go, each man to his home.”
Judges 7: 4- 7
First, we see the those ‘who laps the water with his tongue as a dog,’ and secondly, and those ‘who kneels to drink.’ In the end, the chosen 300 men came from neither groups but a third category of ‘those who lapped, putting their hand to mouth.’ What was the underlying principle to their election? It appears that the story is meant to testify the salvation of the Lord.
It is interesting that God wants to take Gideon down to the water to test the troops. If it was meant for the troops to wash and rid themselves of their filth, it would be very likely for it to be written as it is: Take the people to the water and I will wash you there. But God said to Gideon, ‘bring them down to the water and I will TEST them for you there.’ In Hebrew the word for ‘refining’ is expressed here in the Scriptures as azraphenu (אֶצְרְפנּוּ), derived from zaraf (צרפ) meaning ‘refine’ in the metallurgical sense. In other words, the water is the living Word of God that washes us, yet a fire that refines us.
Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.
Ezekiel 36:25
The Word of God cleanses us from without like water, and refines us from within like fire. He who devours is oblivious to his surroundings, but he who laps like a dog kept their gaze up. The process of filtering the postures adopted reflects how the Word of God is taken like water, a process of refining. What is the posture of our hearts as we come before the LORD? When we come before the LORD, we need to know who He is. In all that He calls us to do, we need to act according to what is good in His sight, not what seems good to us or to feed our appetites. Just as it is written elsewhere in the Proverbs,
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways a acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6
To acknowledge Him in all that we do, and He will make our paths ‘yeyashir’ (יישיר), that is, straight and leveled.
God chose those who were really humble. All went down to the water to drink; the water that symbolizes the Word of God. But sometimes, in our haste, one bows down to his own sinful desires, to the devil. You don’t need to be a wise man, rather, you need the Word of God. Thus the humble-hearted 300 were set apart from the anxious and gluttonous for God’s use.