“The Lord said to Gideon, “The troops with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand. Israel would only take the credit away from me, saying, ‘My own hand has delivered me.’ Now therefore proclaim this in the hearing of the troops, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home.’” Thus Gideon sifted them out; twenty-two thousand returned, and ten thousand remained. Then the Lord said to Gideon, “The troops are still too many; take them down to the water and I will sift them out for you there. When I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go with you; and when I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.” So he brought the troops down to the water; and the Lord said to Gideon, “All those who lap the water with their tongues, as a dog laps, you shall put to one side; all those who kneel down to drink, putting their hands to their mouths, you shall put to the other side.” The number of those that lapped was three hundred; but all the rest of the troops knelt down to drink water. Then the Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred that lapped I will deliver you, and give the Midianites into your hand. Let all the others go to their homes.” Judges 7:2-7
This story of how the Lord gave victory to Israel with only 300 soldiers is found in the book of Judges chapter 7. God told Gideon to gather an army to fight the Midianites. So God’s servant gathered 32,000 soldiers but the enemy’s army consisted of 135,000 soldiers. Despite these odds, God told Gideon, “You are too many” (v.2) and directed a series of steps to decrease the number of Israel’s army. By decreasing their numbers even more, it would be humanly impossible to win the war and thus prove how miraculous the deliverance would be, ensuring that glory would be given God and not man.
The process of decreasing their numbers went as follows: The Lord said to Gideon: “Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once” (v. 3). When Gideon did that, 22,000 of his fighting men went home. Those that remained were only 10,000 men. Then again the Lord said to Gideon: “The people are still too many’ (v. 4) and instructed Gideon to have the men drink at a stream and then to send home all the people who took their time and put their face down to the water to drink. Only 300 men remained who kept watching while they drank. God said, “I will give you the victory with the 300 men.”
Can we fight and be victorious with a small number of true Catholics standing beside us?