What matters most is to be where we bring God the most glory. And only God can know where we need to be to bring him the most glory.

The other day, I was reading the story of Gideon in Judges 7. I’ve read the story many times, and have always been taken by God’s miraculous deliverance of his people—especially using someone once as timid as Gideon was. But this time around, a different element of the story caught my attention.

Too Many for God’s Purposes

When preparing to take on the Midianites, God says to Gideon in Judges 7:2, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’” God therefore instructs Gideon to let anyone who is afraid return home, reducing the army from 32,000 to 10,000. It’s a bold move, but it actually makes strategic sense: morale is fragile and fear is contagious on the battlefield, so it is better to remove anyone who doesn’t actually want to be on the battlefield.

But God doesn’t stop there. He instructs Gideon to bring the remaining 10,000 down to the water to drink and he sidelines the 9,700 who knelt down to drink. The men who remain for the battle on the frontlines are those who lapped the water, and they number just 300. Unlike the previous reduction from 32,000 to 10,000, this reduction from 10,000 to 300 doesn’t seem to make any strategic sense, and the selection criteria seems arbitrary.

How Did the 9,700 Feel?

And here’s what caught my attention: I wondered how the 9,700 felt at being sidelined. They had probably trained very hard. They might have had aspirations of glory on the battlefield. They had certainly sacrificed time away from their loved ones. And they were the loyal ones, even when 22,000 returned home in fear, these had courageously chosen to remain—though their chances of death and defeat had just gone up significantly.

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