Peace in Every StormSampel

Reduced to Strength

God will reduce me to my place of strength.

Gideon had an assignment from the Lord. He was to leave his hiding place and lead Israel’s army into battle with the Midianites. God brought an army of men to Gideon, but almost immediately He began to send people back home. The strength of Gideon would not come from the number of his troops. God often prunes us back to a place of strength and health found in our dependence on Him. It’s not pleasant, but our comfort is not His main concern.

Israel had 32,000 soldiers. With those numbers, they could have taken credit for the victory God had for them. God was going to reduce the army to a mere 300 men. First, He sent home the 22,000 men who were fearful. Fear makes people unstable and more likely to take glory for themselves. God is jealous for His glory, and fear turns the attention away from the greatness of God and back onto our own ability.

With 10,000 people left, God had one more test; He was only going to select the men who drank water in a specific way. It would be so nice if every time God gave us a test we knew what the goal was. If the king who only hit the ground with the arrows three times had known God’s goal in testing him, he probably would’ve hit the ground a million times (see 2 Kings 13:18).

But God doesn’t do that. He puts us in the middle of a test, and He tests for something that we can’t fake—character. When the 10,000 went to the water, 9,700 drank directly from the river and 300 scooped the water into their mouths, staying alert. God chose the latter.

The Lord could’ve won that battle on His own without any army, so He wasn’t demonstrating that He could be victorious with only a few men. He was showing that He would bring victory, no matter how many in number, with those who weren’t fearful and who were alert. Now Gideon’s army was ready. God had reduced them to their place of strength.

Where have you experienced the reduction of God? How has that caused you to depend on His strength even more?