Thursday, September 20, 2012

The Lord Uses Gideon to Defeat the Midianites

Today I read Judges 7 which recounts the remarkable tale of the battle Gideon fights against the Midianites.  Gideon had gathered 32,000 men together to defeat the Midianites when the Lord came to him and told him that he had too many men.  God wanted Israel to know beyond a doubt that He was the one who had delivered them from the Midianites.  So God had Gideon send all those who were afraid home.  Gideon did this and when it was done he had 10,000 men left to help him fight.

Heavenly Father told Gideon that he still had too many men and so through a test to see how they drank water from a stream, managed to get them down to just 300 men.  Now no one could accuse Gideon of doing it himself.  There was no way it could happen without God's help.  And so with God's help and some subterfuge, or strategem if you want to use the Book of Mormon word, the Israelites defeated the Midianites without losing a single man in the fighting.

My father and I have a long standing debate on whether or not the United States needs a standing Army.  My father states that if we were righteous enough for the Lord to fight our battles for us, then we don't need a standing army.  I on the other hand maintain that Heavenly Father still expects us to do all we can for ourselves which includes having a standing army.  I have no idea who is right, but I do know that we can never go wrong if we put our trust in Heavenly Father.  When we do as He asks us to do, He will take care of everything, much like in the story of Gideon.  We can always put our trust in Heavenly Father, He will always deliver us if we do as He asks of us.  The wonderful thing is, it is almost always things we should be doing anyway.  Put your trust in the Lord, do as He says and you will never be wrong.  It's a wonderful feeling!  Until tomorrow.

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