Not To Reason Why

The Lord said to Gideon, “The people are still too many; bring them down to the water and I will test them for you there.  Therefore it shall be that he of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go with you; but every one of whom I say to you ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”

So he brought the people down to the water.  And the Lord said to Gideon, “You shall separate everyone who laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps, as well as everyone who kneels to drink.”

Now the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was 300 men; but all the rest of the people kneeled to drink water.  The Lord said to Gideon, “I will deliver you with the 300 men who lapped and will the Midianites into your hands; so let all the other people go, each man to his home.”

So the 300 men took the people’s provisions and their trumpets into their hands.  And Gideon sent all the other men of Israel, each to his tent, but retained the 300 men….

Judges 7:4-8

When God told Gideon to raise an Army, 22,000 men showed up, and when God was finished whittling the army down to size there were 300 left.

We tend to think bigger is better – especially when it comes to fighting a war, but God sees things differently than we do.  What we as humans regard as the smart thing to do, may be the wrong thing to do. 

That is why when we feel the urging from God to go do something which makes no sense to us; we need to yield our humanness to God’s will.  And, that is why when we think something has turned out entirely wrong, we need to remember that God’s plans are not our plans and that His ultimate purpose will be served. 

It is not ours to reason why God allows things to happen as they do, but to trust God because His plan is the best plan.