Gideon (5)—Sober Restraint - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2026

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 … Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set apart by himself; likewise everyone who gets down on his knees to drink” … Then the LORD said to Gideon, “By the three hundred men who lapped I will save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand.”
Judges 7:4–5, 7

Gideon (5)—Sober Restraint
Thirty-two thousand men from four tribes responded to Gideon’s trumpet call and gathered to him. God patiently bore with Gideon in two more tests, encouraging him. Then when Gideon, obeying the law, proclaimed that whoever was afraid could leave, twenty-two thousand men left him (cf. Dt. 20:8). However, the ten thousand who were left were still too many for God. They would boastfully ascribe the victory to themselves, God said, and then proceeded to tell Gideon to watch how these men would drink of the spring at which they were encamped.

Most of them relaxed and got down on their knees to drink, but three hundred men simply reached down to the water and lapped from their hands as a dog would. By these three hundred men, God said, “I will save you.”

God gives us richly all things to enjoy (1 Tim. 6:17). However, those who use this world should do so “as not misusing it” (1 Cor. 7:31). Other translations render this expression “as though they did not make full use of it” (??s?), “as not disposing of it as their own” (???), and “as if not engrossed in them” (???). Second Timothy 2:3 tells us that we must endure hardship as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Just as the fresh pure water from the spring, there are many things in this world that we can freely use and thoroughly enjoy. May we use them with thankfulness to God, but refrain from indulging or over-indulging in them! Sober restraint will help us to be useful servants in the interests of the Lord.

Eugene P. Vedder, Jr.