Following God’s Lead

⁴ The LORD said to Gideon, “There are still too many people. Take them down to the water, and I will weed them out for you there. Whenever I tell you, ‘This one will go with you,’ he should go with you; but whenever I tell you, ‘This one won’t go with you,’ he should not go.” ⁵ So he took the people down to the water. And the LORD said to Gideon, “Set aside those who lap the water with their tongues, as a dog laps, from those who bend down on their knees to drink.” ⁶ The number of men who lapped was three hundred, and all the rest of the people bent down on their knees to drink water, with their hands to their mouths. ⁷ Then the LORD said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men who lapped I will rescue you and hand over the Midianites to you. Let everyone else go home.” ⁸ So the people gathered their supplies and trumpets, and Gideon sent all the Israelites home, but kept the three hundred. Now Midian’s camp was below Gideon in the valley. ⁹ That night the LORD said to him, “Get up and attack the camp, because I’ve handed it over to you. ¹⁰ But if you’re afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah, ¹¹ and you’ll hear what they are saying. May you then get the courage to attack the camp.” So he went down with his servant Purah to the outpost of the armies that were in the camp. ¹² The Midianites, Amalekites, and other easterners were spread across the valley like a swarm of locusts; their camels were too many to count, like the grains of sand on the seashore. ¹³ Just when Gideon arrived, there was a man telling his friend about a dream. He said, “Get this! I had a dream that a loaf of barley bread was rolling into the Midianite camp. It came to a tent and hit it, and the tent collapsed. In fact, it rolled the tent over upside down, so it fell flat.” ¹⁴ His friend replied, “Can this be anything other than the sword of the Israelite Gideon, Joash’s son? God has handed over Midian and its entire camp to him!” ¹⁵ When Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its meaning, he worshipped. Then he returned to the Israelite camp and said, “Get up! The LORD has handed over the Midianite camp to you.”