300

We had a great turn out for the army.  So many men came to fight.  They signed up and we lined them up.  We had a immense army.  It wasn’t as big as the midianite army but I think it was big enough and strong enough to do the job especially with God also fighting for us.  We were all camped at the Spring of Harod and the midian camp was just north of us in the valley near the Hill of Moreh, and God said something to me I didn’t expect.  God said, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me’. Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” I was caught off guard. We have too many men?  The Midianites still had more than we did with all the men that were there.  How could we have too many?  I was not expecting that at all, but I knew that God knows what best so I said the men, “Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.”  So, twenty-two thousand men left while ten thousand remained to fight the Midianites.  I thought to myself surely God won’t think this is too big of an army. But the Lord said to me, “There are still too many men.  Take them to the water and I will sift them for you there.  If I say, ‘This one shall go with you’, he shall go; but if I say ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”  So I took the men down to the water so the Lord could separate them out.  The Lord told me, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel down to drink.”  Three hundred mean lapped with their hands to their mouths.  All the rest got down on their knees to drink.”  Surely I thought the three hundred men would be going home but God said, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midinaites into your hands.  Let all the other men go, each to his own place.”  I thought this was crazy, but I obeyed and sent the rest of the men home but kept the three hundred and they took over the provisions and trumpets of the other.