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The Battle Is Not Ours But God's |
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It would be a great help to you in reading this text if you would go to the Bible and read the account about how God spoke to Jehoshaphat in II Chronicles 20: 1-27. Jehoshaphat was king of Judah. One day he was told that there was a great multitude of soldiers coming to do battle with him. The Moabites and the Ammonites and others were coming to destroy Judah. When he heard this the Bible says that "He feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah, and Judah gathered themselves together and asked help of the Lord". Jehoshaphat stood in the midst of them and prayed to the Lord and asked that He save them. This prayer is several verses long, but at the end of the prayer, Jehoshaphat asks the Lord to please judge the other kings and countries because there was no way they could win the battle against an army that large. Then he says something that was one of the wisest things he could have ever said as king: "Neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee. And all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children". Even the king knew this was very much out of his hands and that the only one that could help them was the Lord himself. They basically just stood there helpless just waiting on the Lord to be their deliverer. As they were waiting on Him to speak, the Spirit of the Lord came to Jahaziel, one of the descendants of Asaph, who was a singer and wrote some of the Psalms. The Word of the Lord said: "Thus saith the Lord unto you, be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's. Tomorrow go ye down against them: Behold they come up by the Cliff of Ziz; and ye shall find them at the end of the brook, before the Wilderness of Jeruel. Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: Set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you; fear not, be not dismayed; tomorrow go out against them for the Lord will be with you". Naturally, they were very excited and fell before the Lord and started praising and worshipping him. Even though you get a real Word from God, you still have to have the faith to follow to the letter what God tells you to do. Sometimes that's not the easiest thing, because God never does things the way we think he should do them. He has a much better way of looking at things, and a lot of times He just wants to show us His Glory and for us to give Him every bit of the credit, down to the smallest detail. He wants to do it in a way that no man could ever get the credit for it. You have to admit that the way God told them to do things would definitely not have been the way we would have chosen to do them. Instead of the soldiers with all their weapons going first, which was the sensible way to us, Jehoshaphat put the singers at the front of the line. They were to say "That should praise the beauty of holiness as they went out before the army, and they were to say, Praise the Lord, for His mercy endureth forever". Then the Bible says that when they began to sing that the Lord sent ambushments against all of the enemies and they were all smitten. They just basically turned on each other and destroyed each other. When Judah came to take away the spoils among the dead bodies, they found an abundance of precious jewels and riches. It took them three days to carry away all the riches they found. Then on the fourth day they came back together to bless and praise the Lord for all he had done for them. Then the fear of God came on all the other countries around when they heard what had happened and how God had delivered his people. This story is sure proof of what can happen when you cry out to God for help in time of trouble. If you are open to what he says and believe Him and act out of faith, you will have wonderful victory over every circumstance in your life. God just wants you to admit that you can't do it but you know that he is a God of the IMPOSSIBLE and you will believe and obey His every Word. OH WHAT WE COULD ACCOMPLISH AS CHRISTIANS IF WE WOULD SET OURSELVES TO BE OBEDIENT TO WHAT GOD TELLS US TO DO NO MATTER WHAT IT IS!!
Text written and authored by Cathy Deaton and is her own work. |