"And the Lord said to Gideon, The men are still too many;
bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there.
And he whom I say to you, This man shall go with you, shall
go with you; and he whom I say to you, This man shall not
go with you, shall not go.
So he brought the men down to the water, and the Lord said
to Gideon, Everyone who laps up the water with his tongue as
a dog laps it, you shall set by himself, likewise everyone who
bows down on his knees to drink.
And the number of those who lapped , putting their hand to their
mouth, was 300 men, but all the rest of the people bowed down
upon their knees to drink the water.
And the Lord said to Gideon, With the 300 men who lapped I
will deliver you, and give the Midianites into your hand. Let
all the others return every man to his home."
(Judges 7:4-7)
Too often we give in to our doubts and fears, believing that
Adonai cannot and will not continue to save us. These fears
are not only rooted in our lack of faith in Him, but they also
spring from our own arrogance. True faith requires zero
self-reliance. We need to understand that total deliverance
is birthed from complete dependence on Adonai.
Indeed, our participation in our own salvation is minimal-
all we have to do is accept and submit.
When Gid'on set out to fight Mid'yan he had over 30,000 men...
but then Adonai began to send them home. Of the ten thousand
who were unafraid to face Mid'yan, Adonai chose a mere 300
to complete the task-just 1% of the original fighting force.
Why did God do this? So that Yis'rael would not be able
to boast against Adonai saying, "By my own hand has
salvation been given to me."
Adonai's process of elimination speaks of His sovereign
ability to save: not only did He not need thousands, but the
few hundred that remained were chosen because of their
remarkable dog-like qualities.
Our natural inclination is to enter a difficult situation
decked out for war. We don our strongest armor and take
tens of thousands of our best warriors with us. We bring
tons of artillery and great weapons of destruction to
pulverize the enemy with sheer might.
We strategize and make provision for all contingencies,
and we psych ourselves up for battle. Now imagine standing
before the enemy horde, naked and alone, holding only a
box of rubber bands and some paper clips.
This was Gid'on.
We will not win the battles before us because we possess
the strength to do it. On the contrary, victory in Messiah is
at best 1% us-but in reality, it's all Him.
The Lord will use us as we are, dog-like and all. He will
work in our lives in ways we don't expect or even think are
possible. What we bring to the table in our relationship with
God is of no consequence where our salvation is concerned.
He does not ask us to take control of or manage our
deliverance- He wants us to let Him complete us,
save us...and then deliver our enemies into our hands.
"Adonai, forgive my arrogance. Teach me, God, to rely solely
on You-to put no stock in my ability to provide for or protect myself.
Abba, only You can build a winning army of three hundred
from thirty thousand. Show me how to present myself before
You, the dog that I am, and know that I am clean and worthy
of being used by Your mighty hand.
I bless Your Name, Adonai, for only by Your strength am I saved..."
"1% You"
Devotional and prayer from the
Messianic Mo'adiym Devotional
By Kevin Geoffrey
Copyright 2007
Perfect Word Publishing
A division of Perfect Word Ministries
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