Seeing Another Side Of The Story

Prov 3:5 "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and He shall direct thy paths."

One of my favorite Old Testament stories is when Gideon was able to win the battle over the Midianites while being outnumbered 400 to 1. I am quite sure that when Gideon gathered the army of Israel together that they had no idea that the 32,000 that had come to fight were going against 135,000. Those 4 against 1 odds were bad enough, but then God pared the 32,000 down to a measly 300. As you read the story in Judges 6-8, you see how that God not only hand picked Gideon, but also the 300 that He would use to defeat this massive army that stood before them. He gave them the strategy that would allow them to prevail without loosing so much as a man. That is quite a story, but the other side of the story is more amazing than that. How did Gideon get only 300 men to follow him into battle against unbelievable odds? If you recall, when the Angel of God came to Gideon and began to explain to him what was about to transpire, Gideon quickly excused himself from consideration explaining that he was the least of his family, which was the least of all the families of Israel. Now, if he believed that, don't you know that the soldiers that were to follow him into battle also believed that? Part of the weeding out process that God used to get to the 300 number was that He allowed any to go home that were afraid. We know there were many more than 32,000 soldiers in Israel's army, so these that came must have been courageous men. Yet, 22,000 left when given the opportunity. Could it be that they were afraid to follow Gideon rather than afraid to fight the Midianites? Maybe. But, there was something about these 300, whom God chose to use, that made them stick with Gideon to accomplish this seemingly impossible task. What was it? I think it was that these men knew they weren't just following Gideon, but that they were following Gideon, who was following God. If you look in chapter 6 of Judges, you will see that Gideon asked for more than one sign. He wanted to be sure of the "messenger"(vs 13-22) and the "message". (vs 36-40) When we get the Who part down, the what seems completely doable. Like Gideon, these 300 put their confidence in God not in man and the outcome was such that God was glorified. And that is the other side of the story.