A Few Good Men“So he brought the people down to the water. And the LORD said to Gideon, ‘Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set apart by himself; likewise everyone who gets down on his knees to drink.’ And the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men.” (Judges 7:5-6) In the 1992 movie A Few Good Men directed by Rob Reiner, Tom Cruise is a Navy lawyer who defends two Marines accused of murder who claimed they were just following orders from their imperious commanding officer. Tom Cruise found out from Jack Nicholson that he couldn’t handle the truth, but the truth is God, not the United States Marines, only needs a few good men to accomplish His purpose. In the Bible God had Gideon take on the Midianites with a superior coalition force of 120,000 (Judges 8:10) with only 300 men, like the Iraqis taking on the Americans. It was bad enough that Gideon began with 32,000, but this was too many for God. God would not allow Gideon to fight with so many men, because the temptation would be to claim that it was his army that won the victory. God told Gideon to downsize his army to a mere 300 so that God would singlehandedly get the glory for the victory. This is a universal law in God’s kingdom, for all glory must go to Him. “‘Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.’ And twenty two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained” (Judges 7:3) There were 10,000 men left but that was still too many. God gave Gideon a method for choosing the 300 as he took the men down to the water when He told him, “Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set apart by himself.” (Judges 7:5) The men who lapped water like a dog were more aware of the enemy than those who kneeled to drink. The lappers were men who were on constant guard to the danger around them, keeping their eyes up and looking about them. The ones who got down on their knees to drink were sitting ducks and therefore easy targets for the enemy. If we are going to be one of God’s chosen, we must be battle ready as we meditate on the Word of God day and night. We must be sensitive to the spiritual dangers and rampant sins around us. We must be trained to go about our business while, at the same time, discern when the enemy of our souls is prowling seeking to destroy us. To be chosen as God's few good men or women, we must be humble, sober, vigilant, and obey God's Word as we cast our cares upon Him, because our adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. (1 Peter 5:6-8)Copyright © 2003 Eddy Ministries. All rights reserved. Subscribe/Unsubscribe: eddyn@earthlink.net
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