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Q5. Lappers and Kneelers


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What significance, if any, do you see in selecting the "lappers" from the "kneelers"?

Based on the commentaries I have had a chance to read, I believe that the lappers were more alert and probably more fearful. Based on this assumption, I think this fits the Lord's plan . . . He wants there to make sure that any victory is seen as the Lord's victory, not man's victory. By choosing those more fearful, this is possible.

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What significance, if any, do you see in selecting the "lappers" from the "kneelers"?

I don't see any significance other than it was a handy way for God to seperate the men. Perhaps He prompted those He wanted to choose to lap rather than kneel. He ended up with the number of men He wanted so that the glory of the victory would go to Him.

Oh to be one of the few chosen by Him to participate in His victories!

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I have respected and preferred the New Revised Standard Version since I was introduced to it by Urbana 2000, as it is a good authoritative translation but is also readable. As it attributes drinking from the cupped hands to those who knelt (lay down with faces in the water?) rather than to those who remained alert, I am unable to stake an astute commentary on the manner of drinking. I attended a primary school run by an Episcopal church, and we were taught that the 300 remained vigilant while the others were careless, making poor choices as soldiers. The NRSV eliminates that explanation.

I tend to agree with Dr Wilson in saying that the Lord simply divided out 300 men who could witness His miraculous deliverance.

I find it more significant that those who knelt "as in worship" were the ones separated out to be sent home, for their worship (that of the Israelites as a whole) had been toward idols rather than the Living God.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, I really don't have a definite answer for this one other than what has already been said but I what I can do is relate this to our modern day lives.

God wants us to be prepared and to be alert. We shouldn't be too preoccupied with life that we are like the "kneelers" who seem to be so preoccupied with what they are doing. In the same way, we should go and do whatever we are supposed to do in our lives but we should also keep our heads up in case the devil decides to attack us, especially in our most vulnerable state. We should always be prepared for anything because we have no idea when the devil will decide to try and bring us down.

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Q5. What significance, if any, do you see in selecting the "lappers" from the "kneelers"? See Exposition and Footnote 11

The lappers did seem to be more alert than the kneelers. We always need to be on our guard for our adversary is prowling around like a lion. (1 Peter 5:8). They were upward looking even while drinking, while the others in the majority were kneeling and putting their mouths directly to the water. I think it was for the same reason that God paired down the army from 32,000 to 10,000 and now even further to 300. It was to show them that God was still in control and that they needed Faith in Him to deliver the Midianites into their hand.

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  • 1 month later...

Gideon Lesson 3

Question 5

What significance, if any, do you see in selecting the "lappers" from the "kneelers"?

The Lord said, If I say, 'This one shall go with you,' he shall go, but if I say, 'This one shall not go with you', he shall not go.'

I thought about the lappers and the kneelers. And I lean towards 'God delights to work through those too weak to act on their own'. Maybe the lappers are the ones too afraid to kneel down.

God knows the real reason.

Many times God chooses the most unlikely to be His own.

I love Ephesians 1 where God tells us He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved.

Glory

He knows even before we are born those who will love Him. Even before the foundation of the world !

Glory

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  • 3 weeks later...

After I studied the passages and read the exposition, I looked at the questions and found this one tough. As a child, I grew up seeing my father and my grandmother kneel beside the table and offer prayer and thanksgiving before anyone was allowed to sit down and eat. I grew up knowing that seeking God on our knees was important to my family. Yet, God did not choose the kneelers; he chsose the lappers, 300 of them from thousands. This circumstance was quite different. Everyone was thirsty, we assume. However, God showed me that the kneelers were for a moment or two only concerned for their own physical needs. Momentarily, the kneelers were pleasing themselves, caring for themselves alone, truly inattentive to their surroundings and the mission at hand. Meanwhile, what a marvelous God we have to proceed with such a criteria for His selection of Gideon's army. I hope our students at the Naval Academy and West Point know this Bible truth. lmc

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Some think the lappers (from hands) were still watchful and instantaneously ready for action. :H:owever it certainly is not a system man would have devised for selecting soldiers. It demonstrates clearly the superiority of obedience to the commandment over human intelligence! God knows what he has put in each man, and this was His wisdom for segregating them.

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  • 4 weeks later...

It is very interesting to analyze why would God only select the ones that lapped and not the ones that knelt to drink the water.

It was a decision made from God to choose the ones who "licked" the water, I often wonder if there was a matter of "heart" issue in it, something God knew about them that the human eye could not see. I sometimes think God touched these men to drink the water the way they did. I know that 300 did lick the water and fought against the Midianites; Did God really touch them to drink water in this way? Did some who were touched by God disobey?

I am only sure about the number, the Israelites needed to be outnumbered because God wanted to show the Israelites it was not their own strength that saved them but God himself who had mercy on them. :)

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