This Daily Devotional is an excerpt from the book "A Day of Feasting" by Pastor Jon.
"A Day of Feasting" is a collection of 365 short devotions from the Old Testament books of Joshua through Malachi.
If you would like your own copy of "A Day of Feasting" you can order one from the SearchLight Store.
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First, they were free from fear. Twenty-two thousand were sent home because fear and faith are mutually exclusive (Judges 7:3). Only ten thousand men were free from fear. Why did they have no fear? I suggest it was because they had an understanding of eternity. So too, as Christians, we know the reality of eternity. Therefore, we must not fear the difficulties or dangers of this life. Those with eternity’s values in view are those who serve the Lord with abandon.
Second, the three hundred were chosen because they were men of humility. You see, in Israeli culture, the dog was despicable. To be called a dog, to look like a dog, to be associated with a dog was to be avoided. Yet here, the men who were chosen scooped up water with their hands and lapped it like dogs.
Third, the three hundred were men of priority. That is, they didn’t spend unnecessary time doing necessary things. Yes, they needed to drink, but they never lost sight of the possibility of attack from the Midianites. So too, there are things in this life to which we must tend. There are chores and responsibilities to which each of us is obligated. But the man or woman used by God will not devote unnecessary time to doing necessary things. They will streamline their life as much as possible because they realize the battle is raging, the time is short, the calling is great.
Eternity, humility, priority - these were all characteristics held by the three hundred chosen men. Yet an equally possible scenario was that these three hundred guys were not necessarily depicting noble qualities at all. It could be that these were broken-down, fat guys who simply couldn’t get into the water. It could be that their knees were bad and their backs were out. It could be that in choosing the men who couldn’t put their faces in the water, God was saying, “I want to use the old fat guys - guys the world would laugh at, ignore, or discard.”
The three hundred may have lacked the ability to lay down and drink from the stream, but the one thing they had was availability - and that’s the one ability that matters most.