Trimming Down

One of the things that I absolutely love to do is put some meat on the smoker, and make some good barbecue. One thing that is so important when it comes to using the smoker is being able to trim some of the meat. On ribs, one of the prep things that you have to do is cut off the membrane on the backside. There are some who leave it on there, but what I have found is that leaving it on makes the meat tough, and it’s more difficult to get some good flavor in the meat. On any type of meat, there is probably some trimming that needs to be done – pork shoulder, brisket, roast… well, shoot, now I’m getting hungry. Anyway!

In today’s reading, God does some trimming as well, and at first glance, it seems like he’s doing something completely crazy. But, often, when it seems like God is doing something crazy, it just means that He is getting ready to do something awesome. In Judges 7, Gideon is rounding up the warriors of Israel to go take on the Midianites. He ends up with a pretty good turn out. 32,000 warriors show up, ready to do what needs to be done, and that’s when God does something crazy. God says, “You have too many warriors with you….”

Now, let’s stop there for a second. How is it even possible? How is it possible to have too many warriors? Isn’t that what you want when you are going into battle? I used to play a computer game based on The Lord of the Rings, and one of the things that you had to do was build up an army. I would always try to have a huge army on hand. Why? Because it’s so much easier to win a battle when you outnumber the enemy. However, God tells Gideon that he has too many. Crazy!

So, God tells Gideon to let anybody who is afraid to just go home… and 22,000 do. WHAT?!?! 22,000 of the men who showed up were scared about the upcoming battle. They all leave, and only 10,000 remain. I imagine Gideon is saying, “Thanks a lot, God! My forces are cut by two-thirds, but I think we can still do this.” God has other plans; 10,000 was still too many.

After putting forth another test, Gideon ends up with just 300 men. 300 to take on an army. Now, this isn’t like the Spartans at Thermoplyae; they don’t have a tactical advantage… but they do have something better – the Holy God of Israel. And that’s why God trimmed down the army in the first place.

The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many warriors with you. If I let all of you fight the Midianites, the Israelites will boast to me that they saved themselves by their own strength” (Judges 7:2).

Sometimes, we develop a nasty habit of becoming self-reliant, of thinking that we don’t need God to get us through whatever it is that we are facing. We want to rely on our own strength. We want to be able to say, “Look at what I accomplished.” In reality, we don’t need to be thinking along those lines. Because when we stop relying on God, we find ourselves falling short. It doesn’t matter how gifted and talented we are, we can never think that we don’t need God’s help to get through whatever it is that we are facing in life. Truth is, we could all use a little trimming because in the end, it’s not what we bring to the table that really matters. It’s what God can do through what we bring Him that gets the job done.