Divine Ministry

Judges 7:2, 5-6, 7-8

Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand.

There is a story told of Luke 18:3 about an unjust judge that neither feared God nor regarded men. We can be thankful that God is unlike this man for he does neither. Here we see how important it is to choose people based on kingdom criteria. There are three types of men discussed here. We see the men who feared before there was anything to fear. There are those who feared men. Then, those who neither feared God nor regarded men remained. I am sure that some of you are saying to yourselves, 'is God joking?' Certainly, some of the men would be shaking with fear considering everything they had been through. Judges 6:3 says the people of Israel were unable to grow anything because of the Midianite invasion. God showed great consideration towards his people in choosing the fighting men for this battle. Isaiah 42:3 says that "a bruised reed" he will not break and a "smoking flax" he will not quench until he brings the righteous to justice. Here God showed his mercy by not allowing those who were traumatized to face their foe ever again. God "knows our frame" in Psalm 103:14; "he remembers" we are but dust. God did not bring the people out to destroy them. He did not want any who shook to stand before the enemy because he knew what had happened. He wanted this victory to be only of God. Whether shaking from trauma or from what you knew when you did evil in the eyes of the Lord, God came to show his mercy to the enemy and the people alike.

So he brought down the people unto the water: and the Lord said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink. And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water.

Here we see the supernatural anointing. God chose three-hundred men who neither feared God nor regarded men. I do not have to tell anyone about their own stuff, God will tell them for me. Notice the spirit within these men. The Spirit of God was within them. They were not afraid because of him even when they were told to drink. However, neither did they argue with the public humiliation or apparent waste of time when they had a battle to fight. The battle was not theirs, but God's. Divine justice goes hand in hand with mercy in Psalm 85:10. God showed mercy to the enemy by not allowing them to face anyone but himself and his messengers to deliver his people. What happened next was nothing short of a miracle. He was getting ready to extend the family. It sounded like a battle and looked like a hack-n-slash by torchlight in Judges 7:20-22; the torches and the trumpets were their only weapons. When you go out in divine ministry, get ready for a move of God in ways you do not expect. Sometimes, with God, you must expect the unexpected. That is why he is God. Could it be the set up was as that of Ezekiel 37:1-3 and his valley of dry bones.

And the Lord said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place. So the people took victuals in their hand, and their trumpets: and he sent all the rest of Israel every man unto his tent, and retained those three hundred men: and the host of Midian was beneath him in the valley.

This is why God had to thin the army to just those whom he could trust to handle the divine assignment. Here, we see his tender delicacy with this assignment. God handled the enemy with kid gloves and his people too. God had to make the people think he was going to do one thing until he could choose those he trusted with the assignment. The Spirit of the Lord was upon the men of his choosing. So particular was this choosing that even the way they moved their tongues had to be of the Lord. These men were under such control of his Spirit. This is not a natural way to drink, to lap like a dog. It defies logical explanation. Everyone who drinks like this knows you cannot get much water this way. Even their thirst and their tongue movements were under the Holy Spirit's control. The first people who returned were traumatized or in fear of what God would do for personal reasons. The second part of the men who did not go were driven by base needs and under their own control. Could it be that the same way God appeared to Gideon was how he would choose to deliver the people.

In all this, God had to make it so only he could get the glory for the salvation of the people according to verse one. This is why he "makes his angels spirits, his ministers" flames of fire at Psalm 104:4. The ministers cannot be driven by revenge or by need. For they had to understand that God was everything they needed. Even as the angels of the Lord in Heaven serve him, so these men had to be. There is a level of spiritual maturity seen here that the rest had not yet attained. God does not judge the people for their failings and weaknesses. Rather, give them time and space to leave in peace and take what they need. While they do that, shine the light of God on the situation. There will be so much peace and harmony in that house, you would feel the glory of God. God's order caused the people who were not his people to become his. By treating them to a divine ministry service, God facilitated this to happen. Those three hundred men had only the victuals they packed, God, their trumpets, and the torches. God used Israel to become a blessing to the Midianites even when they had done evil, even in their mess, and all their disorder.