Depending on God ALONE for our spiritual battles
March 14 Bible
Reading: Judges Chapters 7-9
Depending on God ALONE for our spiritual battles
When
Gideon prepared himself to make war with the Midianites, God told him bluntly
that he had too many people in his army. And
the Lord said to Gideon, "The people who are with you are too many for Me
to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself
against Me, saying, 'My own hand has saved me' (Judges 7:2). However, in
fact the enemy strength was formidable on the natural. “Now the Midianites and Amalekites, all the people of the East, were
lying in the valley as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without
number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude” (Judges 7:12). Although Gideon
could muster only thirty-two thousand
(or one-sixth of the Midianite army), this number was too great by God’s
standards, for it was God's purpose to teach Israel a memorable lesson of
dependence on Him. God wanted that the praise of Israel’s victory may be totally
directed to Him alone, and no one should claim the glory that He alone
deserves. This way the Israelites will be more strongly obliged to serve God.
With three hundred committed soldiers, a great attack strategy and God’s help,
Israel won a decisive victory through Gideon’s leadership.
This incident teaches us a valuable lesson: we need to depend on God ALONE for our spiritual battles. "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Eph 6:12). We have an unseen enemy – an enemy that we cannot see with our natural vision. God is Spirit (John 4:24a), and He alone can help us win our spiritual battles. We need to "take up the whole armor of God that we may be able to withstand in the evil day" (Eph 6:13) using the "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Eph 6:17) and "praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit" (Eph 6:18). We have an enemy who has already been defeated on the cross by our Lord Jesus Christ, so we may boldly declare: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Phil 4:13)
