Alert and Watching
February 27, 2014
Alert and Watching
Judges 7:5-7
So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the LORD told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel down to drink.” 6 Three hundred men lapped with their hands to their mouths. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.
7 The LORD said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go, each to his own place.” 8 So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites to their tents but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others.
As I watched a sparrow feeding out of the bird-feeder this morning I was impressed at how it did not just casually eat with no other thought or worry in the world. It was continually eating and watching, turning its head from side to side and aware of what was going on around it. It didn’t take its safety and well being for granted, but was ready to fly at a moment’s notice. I was reminded of the story of Gideon and how that out of thirty-two thousand whom volunteered to fight for Israel, God brought it down to three hundred. The first thing God did to disqualify the excess numbers was to let all that were fearful or afraid go home. God is raising up a people for His glory and one of the first things they must have is faith and confidence to believe and trust in their God. A lack of faith and trust is the first thing to disqualify us. Out of the thirty-two thousand that started twenty-two thousand went home. Ten thousand were still too many people. A battle won with that many men could be construed as man’s ability, rather than God’s. God must receive the glory for the deliverance and if we think we have any strength or ability then we tend to dismiss God and take the glory for ourselves. The second thing God did was to narrow the field by having them drink water. If they were down on their knees drinking with their head down and unaware of their surroundings they were disqualified. Only three hundred lapped the water from their hands like dogs, because that way they were alert and ready, their physical needs were not turning their attention from their first duty as soldiers in readiness.
Where are most of us as the body of Christ? Where would we fit in among these thirty-two thousand that came to fight in the Lord’s army? Have we become fearful and afraid? Has our faith and confidence in the Lord become weak? Has our attention has been diverted by our blessings, by our affections for life and by all the other distractions that take our eyes off of the Lord. Have we ceased to really watch and be concerned about the things of God and the timing of God? I don’t believe the Lord is looking for us to be fearful or paranoid, but He is looking for those like the three hundred that fought with Gideon, who are alert and watching in their spirit. They are attuned to when the enemy is around, where he is at and what he is doing. They are not allowing themselves to become vulnerable by becoming lethargic and complacent. They are sensitive to the hour and the timing of the Lord, watching to move at His command and His coming.
This aspect of watchfulness is addressed a number of times and especially in the New Testament, but in Psalm 130:6 David says, “My soul [waiteth] for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: [I say, more than] they that watch for the morning.”
Jesus teaches us this throughout the gospels such as in Matthew 24, 4“Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ, and will deceive many…13 but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come…” 42″Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
45″Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. 47I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ 49and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. 50The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. 51He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
In Matthew 25 Jesus gives us the parable of the ten virgins, the five wise and the five foolish. When the Lord did come the foolish missed out, because they were unprepared and not watching. When they came back it was too late and the door was shut to them. Verse 13 says, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.” Mark 13:37 says, “And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.” 1 Corinthians 16:13 exhorts us, “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.” 1 Thessalonians 5:6 tells us, “Therefore let us not sleep, as [do] others; but let us watch and be sober.” Paul exhorts Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:5, “But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.”
The Lord is speaking to all of us today to rise up off of our haunches of complacency and spiritual dullness. Now is the day to really get our ears in tune with the Spirit of God and our hearts ready to meet Him. He is exhorting us not to neglect the day of His visitation, but as good soldiers, to prepare ourselves and be watching for Him. When the Lord comes will He find most of us at the water hole, drinking our fill and oblivious to the spiritual time, hour and condition of our hearts?
When the Spirit addresses the churches in Revelation 3, the first concern that He addresses is one of watchfulness. Revelations 3:3-6 says, “Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you. 4Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. 5He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. 6He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Isn’t this what He is speaking to our hearts today?
tricklesoftruth 