Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses, chariots, and a people more numerous than you, you shall not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, is with you.
Deuteronomy 20:1 (emphasis added)

Can you count to five? Ten? A hundred? More? It’s pretty easy once you get the hang of it. Numbers repeat. They cycle up. They’re easy. Problems are the same way. They repeat. They cycle up. They’re easy to multiply. Start thinking that way and you’ll never be lonely a day in your life because the crushing, suffocating, weight of problems will be on top of you everywhere you go and everything you do. Yay?

In 1 Samuel 14, the Israelites got a victory against the Philistines even though they were outnumbered. In the next chapter (15) they fought against the Amalekites and got a victory, also outnumbered. But in chapter 17, Goliath stood against them. And they couldn’t get it together to defeat him. They didn’t even try. His appearance wiped their courage out. They had already gotten two victories because God was with them and here (1 Samuel 17) there is no record they consulted the Lord. Saul had done that in chapter 14. They’d gone out at the word of a prophet in chapter 15. And then here? Nothing.

Do you let your problems stop you before you have even asked God where you were? What His plan was? We do that. We look at what is facing us and we think there is nothing that can be done. We can’t see a way out. We can’t see a way that we can be helped. Except in silly ways. That’s right. We imagine the most ridiculous ways to get help. Money showing up out of nowhere. I don’t mean being handed money by a stranger. I mean money appearing in your wallet, in your living room, or in your hand. Out of thin air. That has never happened ever. God doesn’t make money out of nothing and give it to us. The closest thing in scripture is Peter fishing and getting a fish that has a coin in its mouth. But that took Peter going and doing some work. It also is something that happens. Fish sometimes eat shiny things. The miracle wasn’t a fish having a coin. It was Peter catching the fish that had the coin. Remember he didn’t use a pole and bait. He did net fishing. That’s hard work. Hard to get a payoff. Hard to get a lot. But if you’re successful, then you have a net full of fish. And he got the fish with the coins. That’s a miracle there.

David didn’t have to fish. He needed confidence. He saw the same problem as the other Israelites. But he didn’t look at the problem. He looked back to what God had done. He had a lion problem in the past, God gave him victory. He had a bear problem in the past, God gave him victory. He had a Goliath problem in the present. He chose to believe that God could give him victory. Not always easy to do. But he did it. And guess what? “Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin; but I come to you in the name of Yahweh of Armies, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. Today, Yahweh will deliver you into my hand. I will strike you and take your head from off you. I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines today to the birds of the sky and to the wild animals of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that Yahweh doesn’t save with sword and spear; for the battle is Yahweh’s, and he will give you into our hand.” When the Philistine arose, and walked and came near to meet David, David hurried and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. David put his hand in his bag, took a stone and slung it, and struck the Philistine in his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him; but there was no sword in David’s hand. Then David ran, stood over the Philistine, took his sword, drew it out of its sheath, killed him, and cut off his head with it” (1 Samuel 17:45-51).

Elisha got surrounded by an army of Syria. His servant saw it and got upset. I can understand that. His problem was full of chariots (the tanks of their day). Full of swords. Full of spears. Maybe full of archers. Real problems. Real issues. Solid. Right there. But Elisha wasn’t concerned because he knew that God had the enemy surrounded. Now with David it was one on one. Unbalanced – a child vs a man. But here we have two people vs hundreds. And Elisha says they had more on their side. Did God have a counting problem? No. “Elisha prayed, and said, “Yahweh, please open his eyes, that he may see.” Yahweh opened the young man’s eyes, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire around Elisha. When they came down to him, Elisha prayed to Yahweh, and said, “Please strike this people with blindness.” He struck them with blindness according to Elisha’s word” (2 Kings 6:17-18).

You don’t hear a lot about that kind of thing today. We don’t have kids charging a battlefield with slings and cutting off heads. We don’t hear stories of people getting visions of chariots and angels of fire ready to destroy our enemies. But we have a promise in the Word. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation nor turning shadow” (James 1:17). “For I, Yahweh, don’t change; therefore you, sons of Jacob, are not consumed” (Malachi 3:6). “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Matthew 24:35). “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End” (Revelation 22:13). The promise then is that the Lord doesn’t change. He was good for it then, He’s good for it now, and He’ll be good for it in the future. But the promise is also this: The WORD doesn’t pass away.

Do we want to see circumstances change? Problem to solutions? Imminent defeat into victory? Blessings not cursings? Pretty simple. The WORD. David stood on the covenant of Abraham. Circumcision was the ritual that was the symbol of the covenant. Genesis 17:5 was a promise of prosperity. Genesis 12:2 promises they will be numerous. Genesis 15:5 promises a great nation with a renown name. Genesis 13:14-17 promises almost an unbelievable number of descendants. Genesis 15:18 gave them a nation with specific borders and the defeat of ten nations. How can you be defeated if you’re going to have an unbelievably numerous nation? How can you be defeated if you’re going to take ten nations and rule over a large portion of land? The implication was that God will protect His children. Because you cannot prosper in that way without someone looking out for you. What did it all hinge on? Abraham followed the Lord. Genesis 17:7-8 was God speaking to Abraham saying He will be Abraham’s God and give him the land. That’s protection. That’s dominion. That is what David stood on. He got victory.

Elisha stood on his office as a prophet. He’d been picked by God to do a job and take down people the Lord wanted taken down. “Yahweh said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. When you arrive, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. Anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi to be king over Israel; and anoint Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah to be prophet in your place. He who escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill; and he who escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill” (1 Kings 19:15-17). When God calls you, He enables you. When God calls you, He covers you. Elisha had been telling the king what the Lord wanted Him to, so he knew he was covered and protected when the enemy came against him. He was confident. He stood on his calling that was spoken by God. He stood on the Word of the Lord.

What are we called to? “When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses, chariots, and a people more numerous than you, you shall not be afraid of them; for Yahweh your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, is with you.” That’s a good promise. It doesn’t promise easy sailing. It doesn’t promise good times. It implies there will be some effort expended. Some work done. Maybe it will get exhausting. But it is all okay. God is with you. Numbers don’t matter. God can count, but sometimes it doesn’t seem like it. Outnumbered people keep getting the victory. People who are technologically low get the upper hand against those with greater weapons, better weapons, better equipment, and better training. In fact, God seems to love picking the underdogs and then making sure that they don’t have any advantage. If OUR God is with us, who can stand against us (Romans 8:31)?

Jesus died for us. Jesus was raised to life. He was placed in a position of authority. He is interceding for us. Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and weapons cannot separate us from the Lord. Death, life, angels, rulers, things coming at you right now, things that will come at you later, powers, height, depth, or anything else that has ever been created can separate us from God. What can take us out? What can defeat us? What can cause us an issue? Just us. Our attitudes. Our beliefs. What WE agree with God that He can do. Why? Because He doesn’t violate our will. We have choices. We get to make them. He says I can do this, I want to do that, and I want to do the other thing. Will we let Him or will we resist Him? That isn’t the power the world thinks it is. The vast majority of human existence is outside our choices. The world, the systems we’ve set up, the societies we have built, none of that is individual human free will.

Humanity is fallen. Sinful. Completely and totally corrupted. Our whole mind and body enslaved to sin. God doesn’t leave us there. God helps us. God assists us. God knows our nature is sin. Our nature determines our will. Before the Fall we had a choice whether or not to sin. Once we fell we were by nature predisposed to sin. When we get saved we are again able not to sin. We have the choice because if we do what Jesus says to do the way He says to do it we won’t sin. Anything else is a sin, but if we repent He’ll be faithful and just to forgive us. This is the sanctification process leading to when we will be glorified and unable to sin. This is the area of free will. This is the only area of free will. Everything else is in God’s arena.

He asks us, He empowers us, He gives us Grace, He gives us Faith, and He also allows us the room to rebel, disobey, and refuse what He is offering. Not everyone is ready for the deep things of God, which is why we renew our minds with the Word (Romans 8:12-13). We renew our minds and we hear the Word to strengthen our faith until we truly believe that God is with us and that He is guiding us and standing for us. Until we get to the point where we choose not to fear. Until we choose to believe God will fight for us. Numbers don’t matter. Circumstances don’t matter. He brings us out of all our negative circumstances, He’s been doing it since we Fell, and He is going to do it forever. God is for us and He does NOT change. Believe it. Walk in His victory according to His will which is the Word of God. Get the Word into your walk and walk in the Word. You’ll never be defeated.

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: 2 Chronicles 20:24

Can you imagine this scene? A massive multitude stronger than your whole army had been coming against you, but now they are all dead. This is not a small group. It took the Judeans three DAYS to plunder the bodies – and I assume their camps. Three. Days. They’d been on a massive raiding party and it ended at Judah’s back door. They were defeated by the Lord. In verse 17 the Lord had told them “There will be no need for you to fight in this battle. Take your stand! Stand and see the deliverance of Yahweh among you, O Judah and Jerusalem!” When a problem arose, they sought the Lord. They placed the action plan directly on God and were totally reliant on what He would say. They trusted in His love, mercy, and might. He rewarded that faithfulness. That humbling of themselves and reliance on Him. We should do the same. Does the Lord love us less? Does He reward us less? No. He loves us all. He is waiting for our obedience and our stands of faith so that He can step in and reward our faithfulness. Small issue or large. Getting nails done or fighting an unjust firing, it takes the same reliance on and faith in Jesus. The Judeans chose to follow their instructions with songs of praise and thanksgiving. As you take your stand in Jesus, don’t forget to lead in praise. We stand in Him in all things, for He does all things in us. We enter His courts with praise, we thank and worship Him for what He is doing, and then we’re obedient to His instruction – keeping up our praise because He is worthy. Stand on the Word. See your victory over all circumstances. Jesus is the overcomer. In Him, by Him, through Him, and for Him we too can overcome because Jesus overcomes for us. Stand firm, don’t stop praising in your heart, be humble and obedient to what He says, and see how many days it takes for you to collect the plunder.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.