FAITH FOR VICTORY – MOSES AND JEHOSHAPHAT SHOW
US HOW
Before I got out of bed in
the morning, I used to pray, “Lord, with You, it’s going to be a great day.”
Then I hit some hard times, and my prayer became “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, help me,
help me, help me.” Not that it’s necessarily a bad prayer, and of course I do
need His help always. But this new prayer was motivated more by dread than
hopeful expectation. So when I realized what I was doing, I stopped and changed
my prayer back to the “It’s going to be a great day” prayer.
The Bible tells us we
should always expect a victory of some sort or other if we are walking in
alignment with God. And if something isn’t going to be good for us, He lets us
know and shows us the way out, around, through or over. And in the end, we
still get the victory with Him.
One of the names for God
in the Old Testament is Jehovah-nissi, “the Lord our Banner.” The victory
banner is what we are to hold up BEFORE going
into any battle. Moses and Jehoshaphat show us how to do this. Exodus 17 gives
us a great example of how Moses claimed God’s triumph before and during the
battle.
The Amalekites came to
attack Moses, and God told Moses to go and take the same staff with him that he
used for parting the Red sea. The staff represented the presence and victory of
God. Moses had faith in God’s presence. Whenever Moses held up this rod, he had
faith that God was there to give him victory. Holding up this rod, Moses
absolutely believed he already had the sure triumph of God, even before
anything happened.
The Amalekites came to
attack Moses and God’s people. “And Moses said unto Joshua, ‘Choose us out men,
and go out, fight with Amalek: tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill
with the rod of God in mine hand” (Exod. 17:9). Moses had faith before the
battle even started that with God on his side, he would win.
“So Joshua did as Moses
had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to
the top of the hill. And it came to pass, when Moses held up his
hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed”
(vv. 10-11). Right here is an amazing lesson for us: Keep lifting the rod
of God; keep saying, “I have the victory.” Even though we may get weary, we
hold fast to the conviction that we are going to be winners. We can’t let dread
get the best of us. God says: “I will even
make a way in the wilderness,
and rivers in the desert” (Isa. 43:19).
“But Moses’
hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him,
and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one
side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the
going down of the sun” (v. 12). Another great lesson: Lots of times we
need help to keep our faith for victory its strongest. We don’t have to always
do it by ourselves.
“And Joshua discomfited
[overthrew and flattened him] Amalek and his people with the edge of the
sword. And the Lord said unto Moses, ‘Write this for a
memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will
utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it
Jehovah-nissi [the Lord our banner]” (vv.13-15).
By faith,
we go into every battle shouting the victory from the beginning, and seeing it
manifest in the end.
We find
another great example with Jehoshaphat in Second Chronicles 20. In this record,
three different armies collaborated to defeat Jehoshaphat and his people, and
take over their city and all its profits. The enemies even brought much wealth
with them in the form of jewelry and other riches, probably intending to
bargain after overthrowing Jehoshaphat. They would split up the spoil and
sweeten the pot with their own riches if they wanted something specific.
But they
weren’t going to win. Jehoshaphat got the people together, and they prayed to
God about what to do. They acted on their faith.
“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” (v.15-16). “And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the
wilderness of Tekoa” (v.20).
Then look
at this amazing act of faith. Before they even started the battle, they began
singing and praising God. They had faith that they would win, and they began to
sing about it and praise God for victory. And look what God did:
“And when
they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against
the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and
they were smitten” (v.22). This is awesome! The people didn’t SEE what God was
doing; they had faith He would do it. They praised Him for the victory BEFORE
they saw any evidence. And it was at the moment of their pre-evidential praise,
that the Lord ambushed the enemy. And look how He did it:
“For the
children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir,
utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an end of
the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another” (v.23). Wild,
huh?!
And when
the people came to see what happened, “behold, dead bodies fallen to the earth,
and none escaped. And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away
the spoil of them, they found among them in abundance both riches with the dead
bodies, and precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves, more than
they could carry away: and they were three days in gathering of the spoil, it
was so much” (vv.24-25).
Many
other Bible records show the blessed results of having faith for our victory
before we experience it. And like in the case with Jehoshaphat, it was AFTER they
had faith for success and praised God for it, that God set up the ambush where
the three armies killed off each other!
So don’t
be like I was. Be more like Moses and Jehoshaphat. We can’t let dread get us
down. Instead, let’s hold up that victory banner. God wants us to be His
champions every day.
Love,
Carolyn
No comments:
Post a Comment