and he said, “Listen carefully, all Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and King Jehoshaphat. This is what the LORD says: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast number, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.
Tomorrow, go down against them. You will see them coming up the Ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the valley facing the Wilderness of Jeruel. You do not have to fight this battle. Position yourselves, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD. He is with you, Judah, and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid or discouraged. Tomorrow, go out to face them, for Yahweh is with you.’ ” 2 Chronicles 20:15-17 HCSB
This comes from one of my favorite historical narratives in the Bible. King Jehoshaphat had a couple of vast armies coming against him and his people. He was afraid. He called all his people together and told them to fast and pray. Our Scripture passage for today is God’s answer to them.
We’ve seen a player get confused and go to the wrong goal to score, right? But could you imagine being a soldier and showing up to fight the wrong battle? That’s one I’ve never heard of.
But it’s what we do when we get all tangled up in fighting these battles we face here on earth with mere mortals. We are told in 2 Timothy 2:4, “No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in the concerns of civilian life, he seeks to please the recruiter.”
Our enemy is the devil himself. We don’t have the power and the strength to fight him. It’s useless to try. But when we rely on God, all things are possible. God tells Jehoshaphat this is not his battle but the Lord’s battle. These armies are coming against God’s chosen people.
When we accept Christ as our Savior, we are adopted into the family of God. When someone messes with us they are messing with our family and our heavenly Father doesn’t like this. We must trust in God to fight our battles against those who come against us. We are told in Romans 12:19 that we are not to seek vengeance, that’s God’s job. He will take care it. We are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44). We are to remove all bitterness, anger, rage, slander, and malice (Ephesians 4:13).
When we fail to do these things, we might as well just tell God we don’t trust Him to do it. Or, we don’t think He will do a good enough job. I can assure you if you love your enemies and pray for them and pray for God to remove the bitterness from your heart, He will change your heart and He will deal mightily with your enemies if they don’t change their ways.
We do have a battle to fight. We must fight against sin and temptation. We fight this battle on our knees. Jesus instructed us to pray not to be led into temptation but to be delivered from evil in Matthew 6:13.
You can be assured that if you wage war against the sin and temptation in your life, God will take care of the evil around you. God will protect you. When you must go through times of trial and tribulation, He will walk with you to bring you safely through.
When we struggle against our enemies and take matters into our own hands, we are only hurting ourselves. God will not tolerate us stepping into His territory and doing His job. He will, however, take good care of us when we come to Him in humility and ask for His help just as Jehoshaphat did.
Our battle is against the sins of the flesh and the temptation we face each day. These are the things we must fight with God’s help. God will take care of all the rest. If you are fighting a battle right now, ensure you are fighting the right one. Be sure you are doing your part by giving God honor and praise, He will take care of the rest.
Let God fight your battles. You only need to suit up and stand still and watch Him deliver you.
Have a great day!