God had Cut the Army by Pastor Ed Young

Remember how the coach would post that list of people who made the team outside his office?  If your name was on the list, you were ecstatic, but if you name wasn’t on the list, you were despondent. God told Gideon to announce to the troops that if anyone among them was afraid, they were free to go home.  Twenty-two thousand bailed.  God had cut the army from 32,000 to 10,000.  But God wasn’t through.  He told Gideon that the army was still too big.  Then God did something strange here.  He said, “Gideon, bring the remaining troops to the stream and notice how each one drinks water.”

Judges 7:5.  “Separate those who lap water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel down to drink.”  That is kind of interesting, isn’t it?  I am sure those men were hot and thirsty.  Then the Bible says that about 300 of them men picked the water up in their hands and lapped it like a dog.  Have you ever watched a dog lap water?  I have too.

Let me tell you a story.  My wife, three days ago, picked me up at the airport and in the back of my truck she had a five-month-old puppy for me with a big bow around his neck, a bullmastif puppy.  I use the term puppy liberally because the dog weighs 90 pounds at five months.  Since I was preparing this message on Gideon, I wanted to see exactly how a dog laps water.  And this dog can lap some serious water.  When he laps water, he will just look around. Lap and look.  He can do more than one thing.  He can lap and look.  He is always ready. God told Gideon to take the 300 people who lap water likes a dog and place them to one side.

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