But if you are careful to obey him, following all my instructions, then I will be an enemy to your enemies, and I will oppose those who oppose you.  Exodus 23:22  NIV

This scripture passage is an awesome promise that God is making to the Israelites after they have left Egypt and are journeying on towards the promised land.  You see God tells them in the verse prior to this one that he will send an angel before them to protect them on their journey and lead them safely to the place that he has prepared for them. He warns them not to rebel or their rebellion will not be forgiven. In Psalm 91, God promises to give his angels guard over us to protect us lest we stub our foot on a stone.

God tells them if they are careful to obey Him and follow all his instructions, he will oppose those who oppose them. If we are careful to obey God’s instructions, then when someone opposes us we can warn them that by messing with us they are messing with our God.  God’s got our back.

Now if you have read through the whole story of the Israelites fleeing Egypt, you know it took them 40 years to make a 14 day trip.  This was due to their repeated bouts of disobedience.  God did protect them throughout their journey and He did honor those who were faithful to Him. But even Moses did not make it into the promised land due to his own disobedience.  I remember reading through this and thinking “Wow! What is wrong with those Israelites? How can they turn a 14 day trip into 40 years?”  Then I was reminded of my own journey.  I was raised in church, I knew right from wrong.  I knew what God expected of me, but I became disobedient.  I grumbled and complained about my life and thought that God would cut poor little pitiful me some slack because I had been through some rough times.  Boy, what was I thinking?  My journey was so long and so difficult because I had gotten into a pattern of disobedience. That was a tough pill to swallow.  What was even tougher was making everything right again.  I had some major things in my life that had to change.

The wonderful thing about that change, though, is that once I committed to it, God made it easy.  God made it happen and he protected me along the way.  God had my back.  He never let me stumble.  Oh yes, there were times when the journey was scary, but the more I trusted in God and walked in obedience, the easier it became.  God promises us if we are obedient, he will send  his angel before us to protect us as we go through this crazy thing called life.   Now we can make it an easy, enjoyable journey or we can make it a miserable journey.  We can walk in obedience and let God handle our enemies and oppose those who oppose us or we can be rebellious and suffer the consequences.  It’s not rocket science people.  It’s really a lot simpler than we make it out to be.  The Bible is our instruction manual for living in a way that pleases God.  Let me tell you something my friend, if you make God happy, God makes you happy.  It’s super simple.   Each and every day the devil will try to get us off track.  He will try to deceive us into believing that right is wrong and wrong is right.  He will try to turn us against people that walk in obedience.  He will try to turn us against those that can mentor us in walking in obedience. We must make a choice each day to follow God and be obedient to Him.  Once you make that choice, pray to God to help you to do just that.  God wants you to succeed.  He knows that your obedience brings success and He will be glad to help you, but you have to ask.

Let me say this, I consider myself a generally likable person.  I have a lot of friends. But I also have enemies.  I have faced enemies within my family.  I have faced enemies within my church.  The devil will set people up to come against us.  The devil does not want us to be happy.  The best way to be prepared is to walk in obedience to God.  Let God deal with your enemies.  I promise you He deals with them much more harshly than you would ever dream of doing.

So as you go through this day, commit to be obedient to God.  Pray to Him and ask for his help in being obedient and staying on track.  Pray for him to give you discernment so that you will not be deceived. Then strive to walk in obedience.  He will send his angel before you to protect you.  He will be an enemy to your enemies and He will oppose those that oppose you. I am glad to know this.  It makes my life much easier.  I hope that it helps you as well.

Have a great day!