TO LAP WITH HAND OR TONGUE

When I study scripture now that I am wiser, the first things that I do are to understand the persona of the lead character, the places, and the times. Only then do I examine the action. It is supposed because it is the Bible that the action will be about the dynamics of God.

For those who are not scientists. The field of dynamics is a “branch of physical science and subdivision of mechanics that is concerned with the motion of material objects in relation to the physical factors that affect them: force, mass, momentum, and energy” ( (Encyclopedia Britannica 1787-2024).

In general, the “objects” of the biblical story are people and their movements is the action. The action recorded in that account is the defeat of those in proximity to Israel, to wit: 

The children of Israel remembered not the Lord their God, who had delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies on every side. (Jud 8:34)

 God won the battles, but the people soon forgot that it was not themselves that did so, but the Almighty God.

In the story of Gideon and the Midianites, one interesting part of the history is that Gideon allowed God to select His own soldiers. First off, those who had feared were allowed to stay away from the battles. Apparently, they were not brave enough to fight or were slothful. But then God went strange!

Before I give an account of the strange action, let’s examine Gideon. He had two names: Gideon and Jerubbaal, both the given names of Joash. That must be important because Gideon and Jerubbaal are not two different people but given names of the son of Joash. He was a two-in-one “object” and this story is about the action of this dynamic man.

The name, “Gideon” means “hew down or cut off” (Abarim Publications 2024). The name “Jerubbaal” means “contend to be lord” (ibid). This is very significant; the name “Joash” means “fire of Yahweh” (Campbell 1996-2023).

Gideon’s lineage was the Abiezrite tribe which name means “my father is help,” not in a genetic but social sense. The tribe is mentioned because it may have been the nature of the people with whom Gideon associated. They would have been a God-loving kind, or at least have a communal-type of love. (Names means things in the Bible.)

As for Gideon, disregarding the scientific meaning of his name, “cut off” in theology means “sanctified’” that he was set apart at birth. He may have been a Nazarite by nature whereas Samson was genetically a Nazarite, “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, ‘When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the Lord” (Num 6:2).

God separated Samson, but perhaps Gideon separated himself. God chose Gideon if he had indeed become a Nazarite.

On the other hand, many of the other soldiers were not of that communal family. It is assumed that they communed under the banner of God. So, to separate the soldiers from the soldiers, God used a genetic tool. Just as God would use left-handedness to separate, he would use another less obvious trait to distinguish the most useful soldiers. 

Left-handedness occurs in about 8% of the human population. It runs in families and an adoption study suggests a genetic rather than an environmental origin. (McManus 1991) 

With that said, about 80 out of 1000 would be left handed. That may have narrowed down the number of soldiers that God would need to prove that it was not the army that defeated the Midianites but God Himself: 

The Lord said unto Gideon, “The people that are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against Me, saying, “Mine own hand has saved me’” (Jud 7:2)

 God “divided the waters from the waters” again as was His usual M.O. In this case, rather than figuratively, God did divide the semen from the semen. Semen is the carrier of genetics. In a very scientific manner, God divided the genetics from the genetics. He could have used left-handedness and reduced the army by 92% (leaving 8%), but let’s see how he reduced them by this other technique.

To begin the division there were 32,000 (Jud 7:3). When all was said and done, there were 300. However, only 10,000 of them were tested, so the incidence of that certain characteristic was 300/10,000x100=3%.

Those 300 men, 3% of the population of soldiers carried a certain genetic trait, to wit: 

So, he brought down the people unto the water: and the Lord said unto Gideon, “Every one that laps of the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, him shalt you set by himself; likewise every one that bows down upon his knees to drink.” And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water. (Jud 7:5-6)

Jump ahead a few chapters. We come to the tribe of Benjamin who gathered themselves together to fight Israel. “The children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which were numbered seven hundred chosen men” (Jud 20:15). Remembering that today 8% of the populace is left-handed, for the Jews it was 700/26700X100=2.62%. God was looking for the best of the best. Few of the tribe of Benjamin were left-handed. Since left-handedness is genetic and so is lapping water, picking one over the other would be meaningless, so it had to do with some inherent skill.

For the lefties, it was that “among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; everyone could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss” (Jud 20:16). They were skilled in their actions. They were 100% effective.

It has been shown that the left brain is the “judgment” half of the brain and the right brain the action, or behavioral. In the case of the Benjaminite soldiers, God was not after thoughtful action but inherent skills. They would not think the enemies to death but do so actively.

In the battle against the Midianites, God selected them based on whether they drank water as men or beasts; the former would be the humane and the latter beasts.

God was not looking for men who would utterly destroy the Midianites like lions, but those who would not be the savages. If they acted like savages, then savages would get the credit. If they were more humane and not so instinctive, God would get the credit.

Men who lapped water would seem more brutish and those who used their hands as tools — dippers — would be more civilized. Whether they lapped with left, right, or even both hands was insignificant; it was how they drank.

The ones that drank in the manner of glorious Adam might have would have been chosen because their genetics were less depraved. Those who drank like the “Serpent” would be genetically more like the Serpent and more depraved. God found a way to separate the soldiers into more humane and less humane.

Either way; left and right or lap from hand or lap with the tongue, God was “electing” the most appropriate based on genetics. In one case he preferred the humane and in the next savages.

 

 Picture credit; Pinterest