The Lord is With us

 DEVOTION

JUDGES

THE LORD IS WITH US

Judges 1:19-21

19 The LORD was with the men of Judah. They took possession of the hill country, but they were unable to drive the people from the plains, because they had iron chariots. 20 As Moses had promised, Hebron was given to Caleb, who drove from it the three sons of Anak. 21 The Benjamites, however, failed to dislodge the Jebusites, who were living in Jerusalem; to this day the Jebusites live there with the Benjamites.

NIV

Sometimes we forget of the advancements of warfare during that time.  We remember that Pharaoh had hundreds of chariots when he chased after the Israelites. We remember the ruins of a racetrack, so to speak, in Caesarea by the sea, for chariot racing. It must have been challenging for infantry fighters to battle against horse-drawn chariots. Judah took the hill country perhaps because the chariot teams could not get into the hill country, but on the plains, they were hard to battle. However, the key in this narrative is the LORD was with the men of Judah. What we wonder is if the LORD was with them, why could they not overcome those iron chariots. Had the men of Judah looked to the LORD for the battle or had they looked to their own strength? We believe that would have made all the difference between complete success and partial success. Of course, we are not at war with people who occupy our inheritance, but at times we do face challenges in life, that we have to either overcome completely or partially, depending on who we look to for strength. We believe that if we are looking to the LORD all the time, that is every day, all day, then it would be very easy to look toward him for the power to overcome any challenge we face. However, if we spend most of our days looking at our abilities, skills, education, power, and influence based on our financial portfolio, then we may well not be able to take possession of the land, or drive out that challenge we face. However, even if we have all those advantages in life, when do not put our trust in them, but in the Lord each day, every day, we will win the battle because of the mighty hand of God. We should always know the Lord is with us, for we have the indwelling of the Spirit who bears witness to the Lord’s presence with us. Let us always keep our hearts and minds bent toward the Lord with confidence he will overcome those challenges. He may do it through us, giving us special powers beyond our natural ones, or he could just make it disappear without us lifting a hand. Then, we also know that God's will be done either way if we win the battle or lose it. However, the point is that we must live each and every moment knowing the Lord is with us.