In Judges 7 Gideon had an army at the well of Harod. God told him that there were too many with him to deliver the Midianites into their hands. Gideon’s men might think their victory was through their own power. So God said that everyone who was afraid were to go home. Twenty two thousand left with ten thousand remaining. God said that there were still too many men.
God told Gideon to sort the men according to how they drank the water. If they bowed to the water to drink they were set in one group, and if they lapped the water out of their own hand like a dog they would be put in another group. Three hundred men lapped the water out of their hand while the rest of the ten thousand bowed to the water to drink. God said that by the three hundred he would save them, delivering the Midianites into their hand.
The size of the army was greatly reduced with this method of sorting. Did God just wait and see which group would be smaller and then choose that group? He didn’t say which group would be chosen until after they were done drinking. Popular view is that the men who drank the water from their hand, bringing their hand to their mouth, would be more battle-ready. They would be able to see the enemy coming while they were drinking. I think there is a contradiction in reasoning there. God doesn’t want them to feel that their victory was out of their own ability, but chooses those who are more self-capable? No, I think there was another reason.
Why were there to be two groups: one that bowed down to drink, and one that lapped the water like a dog out of their hand (bringing their hand to their mouth)? Wouldn’t there be some who lapped while bowing down? Wouldn’t there be some who would drink from their hand without lapping? Which group would they be put into?
G4352
προσκυνε´ω
proskuneo
pros-koo-neh'-o
From G4314 and probably a derivative of G2965 (meaning to kiss, like a dog licking his master’s hand); to fawn or crouchto, that is, (literally or figuratively) prostrate oneself in homage (doreverence to, adore): - worship.
This is a Greek word that is used for a good type of worship in the New Testament. The meaning of the word carries the idea of the way a dog kisses his master’s hand by licking. The dog seems to be in a state of worship to his master. I think this concept is used for choosing the men.
In Revelation 17 it says that the waters represent the peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. Since both people and tongues are in the definition it seems that water represents people with a message. What makes sense to me is that those who lap the water out of their own hand are taking the message given to them by their teachers into their own hand, and testing it against Scriptures as a form of worship. They are chosen for the army. The majority bowed to the water to drink. I think that means that they bowed to the message as taught to them by their teachers.
Notice that God said that He couldn’t deliver the Midianites into their hand when they were many. Perhaps God was saying that the task couldn’t be done by those who drank by bowing to the message of their teachers. They would be fighting by man’s power. But this army was to do a job that only those who would lap the water out of their own hand could do. Those men would be taught by God rather than by men.
God sent Gideon with his servant to hear what the Midianites had to say. They heard one tell another of a dream where a cake of barley bread tumbled down into the host of Midianites and knocked a tent over. The other interpreted the dream, saying that the barley cake was nothing else than the sword of Gideon. Gideon was glad to hear the dream and interpretation because it reassured him that the Lord was delivering them into his hand.
Gideon then gave each of his men an empty pitcher with a lamp in it, and a trumpet. They surrounded the Midianites and all at the same time broke their pitchers and blew their trumpets. Apparently out of confusion the Midianites turned on each other with their swords and then took off running from Gideon.
The pitcher would have been made by a potter. We are to be clay in the hands of the Potter, willing to be made into anything He wants to make of us. The pitcher is the finished work. As we lap the water out of our own hand, we become formed into the vessel made by the Potter. That vessel is empty of men’s doctrines and has spiritual light within it (the lamp). When Gideon and his army broke their pitchers so their light shined, and blew their trumpets, the enemy turned on each other.
Blowing the trumpets would be proclaiming what had been learned and understood through lapping the water out of their own hand. When the enemy hears those things, they will turn to the Word to determine whether it might be so (or to try to disprove it). They would likely argue among themselves whether it is so, thereby doing Gideon’s job for him, using the sword of the Lord (His Word) on each other.
It seems that Gideon didn’t even use swords. It’s like his army took peace from the Midianites so that they killed each other just by blowing their trumpets and letting their light shine. That sounds like the red horse rider of Rev. 6:4 who was given power to take peace from the earth so they would kill one another. It doesn’t say the rider killed anyone with his sword either.
Those who weren’t slain took off running. Men of Israel gathered out of Naphtali, Asher, and Manasseh to pursue after the Midianites. Gideon now sends messengers throughout Mount Ephraim calling them to come down against the Midianites. It is no longer Gideon with his three hundred men against the Midianites. Those who before wouldn’t lap the water out of their own hand will either learn to do so, or they will learn from those who drink that way; and will become part of Gideon’s army.
When they broke their pitchers and blew trumpets they cried, “the sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.” If Gideon’s sword was a literal sword and the battle was a physical battle, then the Lord’s sword would be the same thing. The phrase “sword of the Lord” is found six times in the King James Version. Two of those occurrences are in Judges 7 where it is also called the sword of Gideon. The others are at 1 Chronicles 21:12, Isaiah 34:6, Jeremiah 12:12, and Jeremiah 47:6. I’ll leave those for personal study, but I feel that the sword of the Lord in those verses is the Word of God.